What a sight! Hundreds of film industry professionals and business people who benefit from a thriving film industry, many dressed in red, answered the call of the TXMPA and showed up for lobby day.

According to the Bob Hudgins of the Texas Film Commission,7000 film jobs and $500 million in film industry revenue have been lost in the state since 2003. That’s when states like Louisiana and New Mexico began their programs that aggressively court film producers with tax incentive programs. Louisiana and New Mexico have been offering incentive and/or rebate programs that amount to roughly 25% of a film’s expenditures if shot in their respective states. Michigan is now drawing productions with its 40% incentive.

In 2006 in a ‘better late than never’ reaction to the well documented downturn in Texas location filming, the Texas Motion Picture Alliance (TXMPA) was born. After securing lobby firm Hillco Parters, TXMPA led the way and Texas produced its own film incentive package in 2007.

Unfortunately that legislation, with a 5% incentive and a cap of $20 Million spread over two years, just wasn’t competitive with the other states’ programs. The 2007 bill did produce some dividends in commercial and video game production but the feature film work that was a primary target of the legislation did not materialize.

The classic example of the failure of the 2007 legislation to stem the tide of lost feature film production is Drew Barrymore’s film, WHIP IT!. That film story is set in Austin, Texas and was scheduled to shoot in Austin. But that was before the state of Michigan implemented their whopping 40% film incentive program. Suddenly Ann Arbor, Michigan started looking a lot like an acceptable substitute for Austin, Texas. Goodbye Texas, hello Michigan. Goodbye jobs, etc. etc.

During today’s Lobby Day I was on a team that visited with four different legislators. All were open to the new legislation and passage of the bill looks like a good possibility. However, passage of the bill is only the first step. The program goes through a separate process to receive funding. If the bill passes but is not funded, it would be a completely hollow ‘victory’.

Late in the day I sat in on a committee meeting for House Bill 873 and listened to testimony by people like director/writer Richard Linklater and producer/director Garry Brown (Prison Break).

Linklater told the committee that he has a $17Million film that is set in Texas and is ready to go. He wants to shoot in Texas but he may end up shooting in Shreveport, LA if Texas doesn’t get an improved film incentive package passed this session.

Similarly, Garry Brown, who was responsible for bringing PRISON BREAK to Dallas for its second and third seasons, offered the committee the insight of a producer who has shot many projects in Texas and wants to shoot more. In fact, Brown announced that he has a TV Pilot for Twentieth Century Fox that he wants to shoot in Dallas. Once again, the selection of a shooting location will be heavily influenced by tax incentives.

The new proposed legislation (HP 873 / SB 605) seeks an increase in funding from $20Million to $62Million and gives the Texas Film Commission office much greater flexibility in negotiating the incentive rate on a project by project basis.

The tact that supporters were urged to take with legislators was to underscore that this is not a giveaway bill but a job creation bill and a bill designed to let Texas once again compete with other states on a more level playing field. No rebate money is distributed until after production money has already been spent on in-state moving picture projects.

The progress of these bills (HB 873 / SB 605 ) through the legislative process over the next couple of months will tell the story of the future of the Texas film industry.

My agent, Heather Collier sent out the following email to her clients today to urge participation in the upcoming TXMPA legislative days. It’s a little long, but I think you’ll get a sense of the urgency of the situation. The email also contains instructions on how all of us who value Texas film business can get involved.

================

Hello everyone!

So I really need your help. Actually, the Texas Film Industry needs your
help. Here is your call to action!!!!!

I know, you all are tired of the emails. But let me tell you, you may not
have anything to audition for anytime soon if these incentives do not pass
with funding! I’m serious. There are very few projects on the horizon.

You would start to miss my crazy emails…no really, you would!

Please read this entire email. You do not have to email me back.

I need to you to show up at the Capitol for the Alliance Rally on 7:30am
SHARP on the TXMPA Lobby Day on Wednesday, March 4, 2009 and I need you to wear red.

If you can’t show up in the morning before work or school, you can
show up anytime during the course of the day wearing red.

We NEED to show the governor and the legislators how many people in Texas support the film industry. Things are so slow here right now…that should be a HUGE motivating factor.

There will be coming in from all over the state to descend on the Capitol. Most of you live in Austin so you don’t have to
travel far!

The Alliance told TXMPA we would have at least 1000 people at the Rally at
7:30am on the 4th. Please don’t make liars out of us : )

You don’t need to talk to any legislators…you just need to come dressed in
red!!!

So here is what you need to do…

1) Go to this website…
 http://www1.mysignup.com/lobbydayrally

Sign up for the Rally. You can add “Collier Talent” to your name too.

2) Show up for the Rally between 7:15am-7:30am. Get there early to find
parking.

3) Bring friends, family, ANYONE that you know who supports the film/media
industry here in TX. Tell them to wear red!

4) If you are not in town, please, please, please contact friends, family to
come in your place.

5) If you can’t come in the morning, come sometime during the day. Lunchtime
would be great. TXMPA is buying lunch for all of the legislators, so it
would be great to have lots of bodies outside the Capitol wearing red
showing support for the industry as the legislators make their way to lunch.

6) Visit http://www.txmpa.org/. If you haven’t joined already, please join.
If you can’t afford to join, sign up for the newsletter so you can receive
updates on what is going on! If you want to participate in Lobby Day on
behalf of TXMPA and go in to the Capitol to talk to legislators YOU MUST
SIGN UP THROUGH THE TXMPA WEBSITE. You will also have to attend a mandatory
training the night of March 3rd before Lobby Day on March 4th.

7) Spread the word to your fellow actors and people in AND outside of the
industry!!!!! Seriously, now is the time to act!!!!

Thanks for taking the time to read this : )

Heather

Not much to report right now but WHIP IT!, the Drew Barrymore directed film about roller derby, starring Ellen Page has apparently wrapped in Michigan and is shooting some exteriors here in our fair city. Exteriors and second unit work…that’s what you get for a 5% film inventive package vs the 40% offered by Michigan. Just a little reminder that Texas legislators have a lot of work to do to help bring film production back to the state.

Screenings:

John Bryant’s currently untitled feature based on his highly regarded short film BROTHERLY LOVE screened last week to an enthusiastic crowd. Sponsored by the Austin Film Society, the film delivered with solid performances across the board resulting in a lot of laughter in the room…always a good thing for a comedy. Looking forward to seeing the final cut on this film which shot on location in Colorado this summer.

Writer/Director Tim McCanlies’ comedy THE TWO BOBS screened this week as well….no reports yet on how this indie comedy fared in this early test.

McCanlies is moving back to more family friendly territory with his next project, directing ALABAMA MOON, based on the fine teen novel of the same name by Watt Key.

From PRODUCTION WEEKLY:

STATUS – October 27 LOCATION – Covington, Louisiana
PRODUCER: Lee Faulkner WRITER: Watt Key – James Whittaker DIRECTOR: Tim McCanlies PM: Rob Ortiz

For as long as ten-year-old Moon can remember, he has lived out in the forest in a shelter with his father. They keep to themselves, their only contact with other human beings an occasional trip to the nearest general store. When Moon’s father dies, Moon follows his father’s last instructions: to travel to Alaska to find others like themselves. But Moon is soon caught and entangled in a world he doesn’t know or understand, apparent property of the government he has been avoiding all his life. As the spirited and resourceful Moon encounters constables, jails, institutions, lawyers, true friends, and true enemies, he adapts his wilderness survival skills and learns to survive in the outside world, and even, perhaps, make his home there.

by Craig Berlin
Founding Board Member (Retired)
Texas Motion Picture Alliance
 http://www.txmpa.org

Acting is something close to my heart. Talent does not guarantee
success and even though I did a lot of acting in high school and
college, I opted to go behind the camera as a career because it felt
safer (hah!) So, the plight of the production industry in Texas
touches me both from a business and personal standpoint on more than
one front.

Recently I was asked to address the Alliance, a network of Austin
casting directors, agents and acting coaches in order to keep them
up-to-date on the state of the industry but most importantly to help
them reach out to their clients, the myriad of actors we have in
locally. I’d like to pass along the information I shared with them
statewide and specifically address what I understand to be some of
the specific concerns actors have about TxMPA.

You may have heard that the Texas production business is hurting,
making it harder for actors and crew to find work and generally
impacting the state’s econcomy in a negative way. The alarm bells
being sounded regarding production business in Texas are from real
numbers, not just protectionist fear. Texas used to be considered
the “Third Coast” but that has changed. Producers who want to come
here no longer can because the money people won’t allow it. To be
frank, who can blame them? After all, as an industry of “artists” we
spend much of our time trying to convince the traditional business
community that film, music and the arts are “business” too, so we
can hardly expect the business decision-makers of production to
behave substantially differently in regard to “the bottom line” than
other bean counters would.

The truth is, production incentives work and a lack of them hurts.
In 2002, pre-incentive Louisiana had about $20 million/year in
production business. Since the advent of incentives, their business
had grown to over $640 million by 2005. Similar figures exist for
New Mexico. Michigan is currently building the second largest
production studio in the state as a direct result of new business
brought in by incentives, according to the mayor of Lansing. The
list of migration and infrastructure growing elsewhere goes on.

By contrast, Texas is DEAD LAST on the list of states with
incentives. As a result, our business has correspondingly shrunk. We
are now into the billions of dollars in lost revenue. Prison Break
left Dallas and even Robert Rodriguez is likely producing his next
feature in Michigan. We were barely able to hang on to Friday Night
Lights and that had a lot to do with help from the local support and
there are MANY more examples.

As the Third Coast, Texas offered talented and plentiful crew and
actors as well as varied locations, good facilities and of course,
Texas charm. While the charm and locations may remain, the rest of
our infrastructure is eroding due to lack of business. Some studios
are not being built because we lack incentives; others are not
getting badly needed upgrades. Our crew and actors are working
out-of-state more than they are working locally and that makes it
difficult to keep your roots here. As of now, the local crew labor
union IATSE reports they have more crew working out of state than in
Texas. While talent agents typically do not report specific numbers,
a SAG survey included alarming information as well. One talent agent
reported nearly 100 performers, or 75% of the agency roster, had
found work in Louisiana or New Mexico in the past year. Another
agent cited 36 film and television projects in Louisiana employing
75 of the agency’s Texas performers and five projects in New Mexico
employing 9 Texas performers in the past year. A third agent
reported total gross earnings from out of state in 2007 comprised
27% of the agency’s film/tv gross and increased to 28% in 2008,
whereas five years ago there were not measurable out of state
earnings. With the possible exception of commercial business in
Dallas, we simply cannot be satisfied with the status quo and expect
to have any kind of industry left in this state.

It is widely believed by those in the trenches that we have about 9
months to get our act together (no pun intended) and make something
happen or our a signficiant portion of our industry will be dealt
such a severe blow that it will literally wither and any opportunity
for regrowth will be years down the road. It is imperative that
actors join the cause individually and both JOIN the TxMPA and
participate in the grass roots effort by writing their legislators –
ESPECIALLY the naysayers such as Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden
in Williamson County.

While Bob Hudgins, Texas Film Commisioner, is an amazing advocate
for our industry, he is not in a position legally to take an
official stand and furthermore, his office is underfunded and
understaffed to do all the marketing we need to bring more business
to the state. Once we have successfully achieved better incentives,
the TxMPA needs to have a long-term mission of helping to solicit
business for our state and help improve our infrastructure, as well
as making sure that the “total package” we offer stays attractive
and competitive with other states.

It is often difficult for even the most talented actors to get jobs
when business is plentiful. Just imagine how it will be when
business is virutally nonexistent. Personally, I hope to do some
acting again in the future and my daughter is interested as well.
Beyond that, my job depends on a healthy production community.
Production business is not only good for the entire state but is
also significant part of what makes Texas “cool,” much as is live
music is for Austin. More importantly, we and our friends and
colleagues may have a mass exodus if we aren’t able to turn things
around.

As a local vendor, it has been difficult enough to compete with
internet companies to supply a local clientele made largely of
transplants from California and elsewhere who do not share the “Buy
Local” mentality of old in regard to their current home. With the
local business migrating elsewhere, it is likely that what remains
of local producers and potential location shoots may very well be
left with few options when the number of local suppliers left to
serve them shrinks even further. Just last week I learned that the
mobile HD editing facility Confidence Bay is moving to L.A. so they
can sustain their business until the industry climate is better
here, at least they have the ability to come back, if and when we
fix things. They are not alone.

A fair number of actors seem to have a particularly difficult time
believing in the issues or supporting TxMPA. There has been
concerned expressed by some regarding where the TxMPA money ends up.
As the first treasurer for TXMPA I can vouch for the fact that at
least 90% of the money raised goes to lobbying expenses. It case it
hasn’t been made clear, with over 5000 bills in front of a
legislature which only meets every other year, NOTHING gets passed
in Texas without a lobbyist. Most of the remainder of the money goes
to fundraising and promotional expenses. There are no paid board
members, employees or other gravy trains and most expenses such as
travel are absorbed by individual board members. As Chairman of the
Membership and Fundraising Committee our first year, if I went to
other cities to promote the organization I paid my own way.

Any way you slice it, our first priority must be to pass better
incentives to put Texas back on the list of viable choices and that
is the TxMPA’s prime directive. We can’t do it without the financial
and grass-roots support of the entire community, including actors.
Please let me know if you need help with specifics about how to get
involved beyond joining the organization; otherwise please visit
 http://www.txmpa.org and sign up. It’s an investment in your future
and we need you.

The TXMPA, the Texas Motion Picture Alliance is a lobbying organization formed to try to rescue the Texas film business from heart failure. During the last legislative session, the TXMPA and its lobbying firm Hillco Partners were able to get the legislature to pass and fund a $20 million film incentive program that is just now starting to write checks to producers. Is it too little, too late?

Follow the money. Nobody needs ‘Deep Throat’ to set them on the path to discovering where all the Texas film jobs have gone. There’s no Watergate-like conspiracy afoot. Though one could certainly make a case that there is a conspiracy. A conspiracy of dunces. What else would explain the Texas legislature passing a bill to establish a film production fund…and then NOT funding it as they did in the previous session? Can you send a louder message to the industry that Texas doesn’t wish to continue as a player in the location film business? Genius. Sheer genius.

But that was yesterday. This past session, through the efforts of the TXMPA, our heroes in Austin stepped up to the plate and, in the face of losing untold jobs and millions of dollars to Louisiana’s and New Mexico’s 25% film incentive programs, they passed AND funded our incentive package.

Here’s the summary of the program:

1. Eligible projects, upon completion of an audit of their Texas expenditures, may receive a payment equal to 5% of their total Texas spending not to exceed $2 million for feature films, $2.5 million for television programs, $200,000 for commercials and $250,000 for video games.

2. Projects that complete at least 25% of their total productions days in an Underused Area may receive an additional payment of 1.25% of their total in-state spending.

3. Payment may be denied because of inappropriate content or content that portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion.

The total payout for the program is capped at $20 million.

Those attending the recent TXMPA confab were told that production executives in Hollywood are not even considering Texas as a potential shooting location right now because our 5% incentive just isn’t competitive. 5% vs 25% or 40% is not competitive? Who knew?

Look at the films slated to shoot in Texas. Almost all are low budget, ultra low budget or no-budget films, but…well they are films. Where on the list of films that have applied for the Texas incentive payouts are the big budget films? And how do they compare to our closest geographic competitor, Louisiana? A look at our state’s film production slate will verify that the words of that unknown film exec were true: “Texas is not in the mix.”

Follow the money. It was recently reported that Drew Barrymore’s production, WHIP IT! starring Ellen Page was moving its production from Texas (Austin), where the story is set, to a location in Michigan. It seems that Michigan’s new 40% film incentive was just too much for the producers to turn down. For a 40% rebate, Michigan apparently starts to look a lot like Texas. Let’s face it, a roller rink in Ypsilanti can probably look like one in Austin.

According to Bob Hudgins, director of the Texas Film Commission, if Texas had even a 15% incentive available, WHIP IT! would have remained in Texas. Why? Our excellent local film artists and technicians. By filming in Austin, the producers could have hired a majority of their crew on location. That would save them thousands of dollars in travel, housing and other expenses. By relocating to Michigan they will be hiring a majority of the crew in L.A. and picking up those expenses that a Texas shoot would have saved.

But Texas doesn’t currently have a 15% incentive. Looking at the 40% Michigan incentive vs the current Texas incentive of 5% one can see just one more example of why the Texas film business is in a serious recession. At a time when the Texas economy is feeling the fallout of the sub prime lending debacle and new job growth is stalling out, running jobs out of state is not a good move.

All those crew people and actors who live locally, who pay property and school taxes locally, who buy their cars and bicycles and home improvement supplies and groceries locally will not have those production dollars to distribute into the Texas economy.

If the Texas legislature doesn’t think Texas film production requires a more robust incentive program, maybe someone can convince the powers that be to read the recent series of Daily Variety articles about the success of the New Mexico film incentive program.

Maybe they’ll finally get the picture that a significant portion of the millions of dollars now flowing through the economies of New Mexico ($632 Million in the most recent fiscal year per Variety) and Louisiana once would have been flowing into the state coffers in Austin.

How long will it be before one of Texas’ main production assets, a large and experienced base of professional film crews, will be so seriously depleted that even a larger film incentive will not be enough to win back the bigger budgeted films that bring large numbers of jobs? How many have to relocate to Shreveport or Albuquerque or worse, flee the industry altogether before we reach that tipping point?

“We have a 25% rebate, but it’s direct cash to the crew,” explains Eric Witt, head of Richardson’s media arts development initiative. “Productions prefer that, because we literally write you a check.”

One can’t blame the producers for this one. Making a profit on a film is not a ‘done deal’. If a producer is offered the chance to recoup 25% or 40% of his/her shooting budget, then who among us could argue with them for doing so? Eventually the AMPTP and SAG will settle on a contract and work will once again begin to flow. But how much will flow to Texas? And how much production coin that WOULD have been spent in Texas will instead be spent in Michigan, Louisiana or New Mexico?

From a recent Daily Variety article about New Mexico film production:

When it comes to justifying to taxpayers why their money is helping to subsidize local film production, it helps to have an Oscar winner you can point to.

In New Mexico’s case, 2007 was an especially good year. The state can claim partial responsibility for 14 Oscar nominations, including best picture honoree “No Country for Old Men” (with “3:10 to Yuma,” “In the Valley of Elah” and “Transformers” rounding out the ballot).

For Gov. Bill Richardson, that kind of performance is a point of pride, not because he likes winning (he does), but for the simple fact that it indicates progress.

“New Mexico used to be very prominent when it came to filmmaking, and then for the last 20 years, we fell asleep,” Richardson says, sitting comfortably in his Albuquerque office (his real base of operations is 45 minutes north in Santa Fe). “We started out slow, but now it’s reached the point where we’ve made about $1.8 billion in state revenues.”

Richardson’s office just announced the 100th film to collect on its 25% rebate (“Run for Her Life”). Twenty-two of those pics further benefited from the state’s no-interest production loan. And though other states have stepped in with more aggressive programs (most recently Connecticut, New York and Michigan, whose tax credits range from 30% to 42%), Richardson isn’t fazed by the competition.

New Mexico was first, and the state’s plan was engineered to create a long-term, sustainable industry, with extra incentives for productions that advance local talent. As a direct result, an entire infrastructure has sprung up where only a loosely organized wisp of film professionals existed before, many of them refugees from Hollywood who’d taken to the more relaxed New Mexico way of life. Today, the state boasts more than 1,800 professionals and the largest crew base outside Los Angeles and New York, a community deep enough to support at least six productions.

“Legion” co-producer Steve Beswick, shooting at the College of Santa Fe’s Garson Studios, estimates 95% of his 160-person crew are locals, most of them already quite polished: “A lot of the crew has worked on big movies with big heads of department — big production designers, big d.p.s — and they’ve learned a lot from them. The construction crews here are as good as I’ve seen around the world.”

Read the full story HERE

It’s not too early to start to talk to your legislator about the necessity of significantly increasing the Texas film incentive program. Otherwise we can all start talking about the Texas Film Business in the past tense.

Speaking of which…

So much for WHIP IT being filmed where the story takes place…Austin, Texas. Michigan’s 40% film incentive program was too much to resist for the producers of the the $15 Million production starring the red-hot and fabulous Ellen Page.

BY JOE O’CONNELL

‘Whip It’ snaps up wolverine cash

The Drew Barrymore-directed Whip It soon would be filming entirely in
Austin, if Texas offered 15% incentives instead of its current 5%.
That’s the word from Bob Hudgins, head of the Texas Film Commission, who
has been courting the Austin-set film written by Shauna Cross, who grew
up in Austin, and dealing with the Roller Derby revival that began in
Austin. Instead, it’s going to Michigan, where Barrymore was spotted
last week scouting locations in Ypsilanti and where they’ll offer up a
whopping 42% financial incentive for the film said to have a budget in
the $15 million range. “Drew really, really wanted to do it here, but
financially there’s such a difference to what they’re getting in
Michigan,” Hudgins says. How could a 15% incentive (a figure Texas film
insiders are hoping to convince the Legislature is viable) potentially
beat out 42%? Barrymore’s film will have to import a Los Angeles crew to
Michigan. The Texas plan was to bring in only three people from Los
Angeles, Hudgins says, with the rest of the hires entirely local. Most
states offering incentives hook them to the hiring of local crew, but
Michigan is using its gaudy incentives to start a film industry from
nothing, so they’ll offer payments, as Hudgins puts it, for anyone who
breathes.

Central Texas film production has declined from 33 productions in 2004, to 27 in 2006 and, per the Statesman article, just 15 television and film projects in 2007. That, of course includes the locally shot FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, recently renewed for another season and still scheduled to shoot in Austin.

If anyone at the state level is watching, that ‘sucking sound’ as Ross Perot was fond of saying is the sound of filmmaking dollars flowing to New Mexico and Louisiana that could have been spent right here in Texas IF we had a competitive film incentive program. Our $20million incentive fund is attractive for lower budget film fare, commercials and video games, but misses the mark in enticing larger budgeted projects that hire more crew, actors and ancillary services and put more dollars into the local economy.

Check out the Statesman article for a rundown on current and possible future productions, here.

Included in the film update piece is this information on the indie KICK THE CAN:

‘Kick the Can’ — A drama directed by Sol Tryon, whose comedy ‘The Living Wake’ made a small splash at last year’s Austin Film Festival. Jesse Eisenberg, star of ‘Living Wake,’ and Mark Webber, who starred in the Ethan Hawke-directed films ‘The Hottest State’ and ‘Chelsea Walls,’ lead the cast. After opening an office in Austin and scouting for locations, the production is now in hiatus, says Hudgins, who adds, ‘We hope they’re able to come back.’

An intriguing upcoming production is WHIP IT! the Drew Barrymore directed roller-derby film based on ‘Derby Girl’ by Shauna Cross. Set to star is the spunky Ellen Page, best known for her breakout performance as the pregnant teenager with the sardonic wit in the title role in JUNO.

Plot Line per IMDB: In Bodeen, Texas, an indie-rock loving misfit finds a way of dealing with her small-town misery after she discovers a roller derby league in nearby Austin.