Working to Make an Impact on Houston’s Film Industry
Q&A with the TXMPA PAC Treasurer Susan Fowler
4th Annual TXMPA Impact Awards, GRB Convention Center, Houston, Texas, October 19, 2019
LYNN: Susan, how long have we known each other? Do we even know?
SUSAN: I don't know. Do we want to say?
LYNN: Okay, so maybe the 90s. Somewhere in there. Okay, it's safe. So, tell me about the history of the TXMPA, briefly, and what your role has been?
SUSAN: The TXMPA was started to fight for jobs and to fight for incentives in Texas so that we could be competitive with other countries and other States that have incentives and try to attract film and television there. We've had a successful run of it. We've been going for about 15 years. There are a lot of people here tonight. I'm glad to see that our founding members are here, and we're excited to be in Houston for the first time for the Impact Awards. This is our fourth year of having the Impact Awards. The reason that we wanted to do that was to highlight the cities that we're going to and give them an opportunity to shine and have the crews and the producers and everyone that's here to network. And, we actually have a lot of people who come in from all around the state.
It gives us a chance to really shine and show Houston and you know, show what our downtown looks like. And, it's fun. It's a fun event. The reason that we call it the Impact Awards is because that's our focus. That's our job. It's like how our film and television productions are making an impact in Texas. And so, we invite legislators as well as shows that have been produced in Texas by Texas people with Texas crews because that is the impact. And, so we try to highlight that and have some fun doing it.
LYNN: You are a Houstonian, and you and I have been doing production in Houston for a really long time. We know what's possible here in our city, and I feel like most people, when they think of production in Texas, they think of Austin and Dallas because they don't know what we know. What do they not know about Houston
SUSAN: Well, I think they don't really know how easy it is to work in Houston, how vibrant it is here. I mean, the culture and the people and the locations are friendly and accessible, and we have a really hard-working crew. We've had a successful run. A lot of people aren't as familiar with the successful run that we've had in professional productions and studio productions because the focus in more recent years has been on, you know, commercial and independent film, but a lot of people don't know that we have produced Emmy-award winning television here. Fox was here for almost 10 years and produced for Emmy-award winning productions out of that facility.
LYNN: What do you think that will take to bring that back to Houston, and how can we work in Houston to educate and bring production here?
SUSAN: I think that events like this are important. It highlights the city. I think we don't talk about ourselves enough. I don't think that we share enough of our successes. Let people know what you're doing, try to get interviews with the papers, hold networking events, attend them, put your name out there. It's important even if you've been doing it a long time.
LYNN: It also shines a spotlight on Houston, which doesn't always get the film spotlight right. Let's talk about development and education at the university level. Growing from within is always a great opportunity. Do you think that would be something that would allow Houston to elevate a film industry Here?
SUSAN: I can actually tell you something that's even more exciting that’s happening. We have high schools here that have taken a step even further back into the educational levels. We have students who are graduating from high school that the city has invested in, along with partnerships with Sony, with Apple, with Dell, with Comcast. Believe it or not, some of our high schools have some of the best production facilities in the state and they are actually graduating students with associate's degree ready to move on to some of our great colleges, like the University of Houston, University of Texas, really well-known programs, and they're also graduating students to some lesser-known programs that have had a recent investment in them, as well. So, these corporate sponsorships have started coming in and really trying to help train the next generation of people coming out.
SUSAN: I am not positive that that's happening in any of the other cities. I can't speak to that, but I can speak to what's happening here. When you have Sony come in and build an entire stage with all of the grid and the equipment, you know, state of the art cameras, state-of-the-art sound, state of the art training for distribution, and all of that, those kids are already a step ahead of where a lot of us were when we started getting that more technical training when we went to college. So, I just think it's a great time to be in Houston in terms of education because that path starts at a much younger age.