Friday, December 5, 2008
New action in local film sector
No. 1 ranking in movie magazine lures producers

Brady Anderton and Ben Hurst of Fueld Films based the relocation of their company on two things: a spreadsheet and a gut feeling.

Fueld Films, a commercial and film production company, moved from Denver to Austin four months ago. But before the company moved here, the duo put together a spreadsheet that looked at factors like livability and infrastructure. Then, they compared the city to other top film production markets from Los Angeles to Chicago.

“Austin outscored everybody,” Anderton says. “And it looks like additional infrastructure is coming as far as studios, additional crew and additional talent.”

“We also got a feeling,” Anderton adds with a chuckle.

Fueld Films is among a handful of film or video companies that have gotten a good feeling about Austin in the last year. Independent film and video production company Publik Pictures LLC also relocated to Austin a few months ago from the East Coast.

Many of these filmmakers are pointing to Austin’s first-place ranking in MovieMaker magazine’s list of best places to live, work and make movies. Austin outranked New York and Seattle, along with up-and-coming locations like Albuquerque, N.M., and Shreveport, La., according to this year’s survey.

And it’s not only small production companies making the move.

This week, four Hollywood veterans debuted Wildfire Films Co., an Austin-based film production company that has received the green light for close to $86 million in film projects.

Wildfire Films’ first project is a $25 million feature film, “16 Minutes,” about Hispanic civil rights leader Gustavo “Gus” Garcia. It is co-producing the film with Fred Roos of Overture Films.

Wildfire Films Producer Mark Hacker says the company selected Austin because of the availability of production talent and the concentration of “new media” companies.

“We came here because of the people and the artistic community for filmmakers,” Hacker says. “Now there is also a resurgence with new media that’s flourishing in Austin.”