HOUSTON – When moviegoers flocked to see the film Sinners, which is set in the Mississippi Delta, many were taken aback that it was actually filmed in Louisiana. Likewise, there are dozens of notable films that are set in Texas, but interestingly aren’t shot in the Lone Star State.
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This isn’t to say no films are ever made in Texas, but take into account recent movies like Hit Man starring Glen Powell, an Austin native, or The Iron Claw about the iconic professional wrestling family the Von Erichs, starring Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White. Both films are set in Texas and are critically acclaimed, but ironically, were filmed in Louisiana.
Senate Bill 22 is working to increase funding for the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program and bring more movie and TV show productions to the Lone Star State. According to Senator Joan Huffman, who authored the bill, this would create rebates for eligible Texas residents with the money spent to hire Texas labor and goods.
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Back in April, the Senate approved the plan to infuse $2.5 billion in state dollars over the next decade into a fund to bring more films and TV shows to Texas.
“[It] gives certainty to the industry and the investors who want to bring these great jobs to Texas,” Huffman said in April. “It’s all Texas-based, and it all has to be tied to impact in the state of Texas.”
Groups like Media For Texas have rallied around the bill by working to increase state incentives as well as in-state productions to ensure more projects remain in the state, while also supporting local talent.
The founders, Chase Musselwhite and Grant Wood, who are both Texas natives and met in Film School at UT Austin, tell KPRC 2 most people would try to flock to California, New York, Georgia, Lousiana or New Mexico to find work — but with a plethora of ideal film sites and talented superstars like Matthew McConaughey, Jamie Foxx, and Tommy Lee Jones (to name a few) why do they have to leave?
“The simple reason is because our incentive program is not as competitive as most of the other programs in this country," Musselwhite explained. “Texas does not have a long- term program and we have a less than competitive base rate currently...before Louisiana did this in the early 2000s, Texas was on its way to becoming the third media coast because for obvious reasons, people like doing business here, we have all the landscapes, we got the people, we got talent, we’ve got the crew. When the incentives were introduced, that’s when we lost sort of our crew base."
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There has been an evolutionary change, however, where more people are flocking to Texas and seeing the hidden gems we’ve had to offer, compared to when people like Wood, who currently resides in Austin, were first entering the industry and also left for California initially.
“There’s definitely more people we’re seeing want to stay here in Austin,” he noted. “Of course, you have all a bunch of environmental factors, Austin has become much more of a friendlier place to live and work with younger generations. But I think it really comes down to getting this incentive bill passed and getting across the finish line."
Fortunately, there has been progress made, especially in the last session, where funding has increased. That certainly helped pave the way for popular shows like Mo, which was filmed in Houston by comedian and Alief-native, Mo Amer; as was Landman, starring Billy Bob Thornton, and set in West Texas but shot mostly in Fort Worth. Still, the return on investment seems incomparable to states like Georgia.
“Both Mo and Landman were shot with this new cycle in mind," Musselwhite said. “Prior to that, we had like, I think, $40 million every two years, so that’s $20 million a year. In comparison, Georgia gives out almost a billion dollars a year, $20 million versus a billion."
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Even an upcoming project like Brothers, starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, on Apple TV, is currently being filmed in Texas, but part of that had to do with both actors digging into their own pockets.
“Matthew and Woody both gave up 15% of their salary in order to keep the project in Texas,” Musselwhite explained. “So there is funding, Landman got it, Mo got some — it’s always been there. The reason why it’s not as widespread is because we don’t have enough money, and it’s short-term.
“So every two years, we have to push the legislature to give us the same amount of funding or new funding, or less funding,” she added. “So that’s why you see this yo-yo effect of some years it’s good, other years it really bad.”
One of the things arguably misunderstood about the bill is the risk of what it will do to change Texas’ perception. In other words, will it start looking more like Hollywood, California?
“We come head to head with a lot of sentiment surrounding like, ‘Don’t Hollywood my Texas,’ or ‘We don’t want to give money to Hollywood elites,’ which is so far from what the program would do and what the bill would enable,” Musselwhite said. “The bill only incentivizes Texas residents; it only gives money back for money spent in Texas and on Texas residents. So even if you’ve lived in Texas, unfortunately, for many months, if you’re not a resident, your budget, your salary doesn’t count towards the grant money. And also, what the bill does is it incentivizes productions to shoot outside of cities. So you get an extra 2.5% if you are shooting in like a rural area like Bastrop or Dripping Springs, or you know, even going down to South Texas.”
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In other words, SB 22 sounds more like representation through accuracy; Texans telling Texas stories in Texas.
“It really is pushing to get people to tell their stories all across the state and not just focusing on our cities,” Musselwhite added. “We love our cities, they’ll always have production there, but I think also filmmakers gravitate towards Texas because we have such a vast diversity of landscapes and people and communities, and so this bill will give you an extra uplift if you’re shooting outside of a city."
“We don’t necessarily want to see our state only become a production hub. We’ve seen that happen in Georgia, New York, Jersey, all over the place where they’re servicing a particular industry elsewhere,” Wood added. “We wanna see our State become a fully enclosed industry where projects are financed, distributed, produced, made, everything from start to finish right here within our borders."
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SB 22 has since been referred to the Culture, Recreation and Tourism (CRT) Committee, so it remains in limbo before it can be scheduled for a floor vote in the House and then sent to the Governor’s office.
“It depends on if the bill changes or not, so right now we have the Senate Bill 22, what was passed in the Senate,” Musselwhite said. “If this is what is put to the House floor in its exact same version, if it passes on the House Floor, it goes immediately to the Governor...many times, bills will die along this way. Or, you know, at the end of the day, maybe the conference committee changes too much stuff and that the House wanted in there and then the House doesn’t pass it out. Even though we’ve gotten all the way to this point, if the House doesn’t vote yes again on a hypothetical conference committee report, the bill would die and there’s nothing you can do about it then."
This hasn’t deterred Media For Texas from being outspoken in its optimism and commitment to keep local talents from leaving for “greener” pastures.
"We wanna see our State become a fully enclosed industry where projects are financed, distributed, produced, made, everything from start to finish right here within our borders," Media For Texas Co-Founder explained. “If I could tell students or anyone wanting to move to Hollywood or leave or go to LA or New York wherever, just wait it out for a few more years because all this activity will soon come this way and all it just takes is for the production people to start making their movies, then afterwards the distributors will follow, the creative executive roles will follow and soon enough you’ll have a full industry courses, a long-term goal, but it’s going to happen."
Learn more about Media For Texas by visiting their website. You can also stay up to date with their latest news by following them on Instagram.