It hasn’t taken long for the poop to hit the fan over the new entertainment tax incentive program recently passed by the Texas legislature. As you may have read or heard, a film production company named Entertainment 7 has been at the Cannes Film Festival touting their upcoming production about the Branch Davidian debacle. That production, WACO was supposedly going to headquarter in Austin and shoot here on a reported $30 million budget. That would have been the biggest film production to darken our doors in several years and would have provided a much needed boost to local film industry professionals and to those businesses who service film productions – hotels, restaurants, caterers, taxi drivers, florists, hardware and lumber businesses, etc. Woulda, coulda shoulda.

The news that the Texas Film Commission has turned down the WACO production for the incentive program has been brewing for several days and has now made its way from the American Statesman’s film blogs to the front page of the paper. The jist of the story is that Bob Hudgins, the director of the Texas Film Commission, and the party charged with the ability to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a production company seeking film incentive participation, has decided that the WACO production does not comply with the ‘content provision’ in the incentive legislation. What? Exactly what is a ‘content provision’ and why is it in this legislation?

The content provision was apparently added to the legislation by Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Steve Ogden and, per the Statesman article states that ‘filmmakers taking incentives cannot show Texas or Texans in a negative fashion.” Well that’s just dandy isn’t it because we all know that everything it perfect in Texas and nothing bad ever happens here. If this sounds like the legislation has set Bob Hudgins up to be a film censor, well, unfortunatley that just may be the unintended (to be generous) consequence.

During the TXMPA legislative action this year I asked a collegue if that provision couldn’t be removed as it smacked of censorship and was sure to keep away many worthy and possibly lucrative productions. I got a quick NO. I was told that this legislation would never pass without the ‘content provision’ because Ogden was too powerful and he insisted that the provision stay in the legislation.

It hasn’t taken long for this thorn in the incentive package to prick Bob Hudgins in the backside. Now instead of doing what he needs to be doing in promiting Texas as a friendly place to come shoot movies and television shows, he’s having to spend time defending his decision not to give incentives to WACO. Hudgins has been quoted as saying this is not censorship….just compliance with the law. Well…yes and no.

Hudgins is a good guy and I’m certain he would rather not be fighting this battle, particularly in the press. He’s stuck by Senator Ogden’s apparent need to protect Texas from being seen as imperfect in some unknown manner. He insists this is not censorship because the company is free to come and shoot in Texas…just not with the incentive package they would otherwise receive. So, technically he is right. But effectively, the result is the same.

This incident sends a message to all filmmakers that they must structure their screenplays, self-censoring if you will, so that the state of Texas will not take offense or they will not be eligible to receive tax incentives…the very incentives that are designed to bring film produciton BACK TO TEXAS.

We just can’t seem to keep from shoot ourselves in the foot can we? Just as soon as we get a program that is very competitive with Louisiana and New Mexico, we find that we have provided them with a big load of ammunition to use against us: “come to Louisiana where we don’t tell filmmakers what they can and cannot say”…

The whole mess has blown up into something of a publicity bonanza for the makers of WACO who, let’s face it, don’t care where they shoot their movie as long as they go where they can get the best deal for their money. Can’t blame them for that.

Maybe this mess will blow over and not be as big a deal as it seems right now. But the question is: What exactly is it that shows Texas or Texans in a bad light? Can we have no crime dramas? Movies with a bad guy who is a Texan? Historical films that one person or another could decide portrays Texas in a ‘bad light’? What exactly are the criteria for those determinations?

Let’s see…FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, shot in Austin and just nenewed for 26 more episodes contains many scenes of teenage drinking, teenage sexual situations and other content that could fall outside the acceptable parameters of this law. Is Hudgins now going to deny FNL incentive money to remain in Austin? Say it ain’t so. If he gives money to FNL will Senator Ogden be calling for his job? Say it ain’t so.

And how many film companies are going to say…”screw it, let’s just shoot in New Mexico” and we won’t have to sweat this stuff in the first place?

Time will tell…In the meantime, give some love to Bob Hudgins. He’s going to need it.