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.

The Past and Future of Film in Houston

Q&A with the Executive Director of the Houston Film Commission

4th Annual TXMPA Impact Awards, GRB Convention Center, Houston, Texas
October 19, 2019

LYNN BIRDWELL: This is Lynn Birdwell with Bird House Productions. I'm with our film commissioner, Rick Ferguson, who's been a film commissioner here as long as I've been in the industry. So Rick, how long have we known each other since I started in 1993.

RICK FERGUSON: At least 30 years. I've been with the film commissions since 1987. So a long, long time.

LYNN: I got into this industry in 1993, and I'm pretty sure I came to your door as soon as I could.

RICK: Well, I also came to your office when it was on Eado, wasn't it?

LYNN: So, we had an office, up Milan and Winbern, which was the Ida Wortham apartment building, and then we had a Wagon Works building. We had another office there with an edit suite. So, tell us about the history of film production here in Houston.

RICK: Well, it's been an interesting evolution, and it sort of follows the pattern of the evolution of the industry, not only domestically, but internationally. Certainly, when I first started, it was before there was ever any concept of incentive programs. And for quite a while in the '90s, we actually had the most production in the state of Texas, and a lot of that was because of Movies of the Week. And then unfortunately, when the Movies of the Week, that whole concept, started to dissipate, and what was left then started gravitating to Canada because of the incentive programs that Canada was offering, then it created a whole new slate. It was a whole different equation. You had to go about cementing business in a completely different way. Before, it was everything that we had, which we're locations, crew base, talent, cooperation, service, all of the above, and then they sort of flipped over and it was how much money will you give me to come to your city? So, that did make a big difference in the whole process.

LYNN: I know a lot of the older A-list guys that you know well, they say that we had the greatest set of teamsters in the entire United States, and they said that we had four, A-list crew deep for movies. Right. And then by the time you were passed forward, then you were going to the B-team and the C-team. So, that's amazing.

RICK: Certainly, we are talking about Ron Kern and Cinema Trucks of Texas, which was a staple and a huge draw for us because Ron and his guys would bend over backwards to accommodate and to do whatever they could to make production work in Houston. And, we certainly appreciated that. And, we miss Ron as a matter of fact.

LYNN: So, we've had a few mayors in the history that have supported film either privately or as a part of their administration. How do we stand now?

RICK: Certainly Mayor Turner has been extremely supportive. He has staff members that we're working more closely than we ever have in the past. He is extremely interested in how the industry is developing. He is interested in film, though he is also interested in the entire spectrum of entertainment, and I think that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing because all of those aspects of the arts can help shore up each other. So, we can't sort of exist exclusively of each other, and I appreciate everything he's done in his interest, especially in film.

LYNN: I think that film is probably the only art form that supports all the other art forms. So, if we're going to have an entertainment or creative industry in Houston, it seems like film is a good starting point.

RICK: I agree 100%. Well, film makes use of all of the other aspects of the arts, but still having the synergy of a healthy creative industry is extremely important

LYNN: And, I think it makes for a better city to live in, too. So, what's next for Houston?

RICK: What's next for Houston? Well, now that we have an incentive program that has been somewhat expanded upon, and we do have $50 million to work with for the next biennium, I'm hoping that that will improve our efforts to be able to bring projects into Houston. I know most people are more interested in feature films, but I think it will affect all of our categories of production, whether it's commercial or a television series or feature films -- all of them will benefit. Hopefully, we're going to be seeing some great things in the future.

LYNN: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think in a lot of states there are all kinds of things like tax credits that you have to deal with. And our state is just literally, I know because I've done it, you mail in your receipts, you fill out the forms, they send you a check.

RICK: And, there's also something that no one seems to really talk about very much because the other states are tax credits. Those tax credits have to be brokered. There are brokerage fees that go along in brokering those credits, and they can be anywhere from 7-10% of what's being brokered. That actually raises our level to where it's a much more evenly spread field. For some reason that's not spoken about as much as it should, though, I talk about it all the time.

LYNN: It's a strong point, and it also means it's a longer process to get your money. Right. In Houston, do you feel like if we had more education for how to fund films, invest in projects, would that help?

RICK: It would certainly help. We have a really good crew base. You had mentioned before, we're not quite as deep as we have been through the majority of my tenure here, but we do need to get more experienced kids, young people into the crew base, into the talent base because that's who we are going to be depending on in the future. I'm not talking about anyone else, but myself, I'm getting pretty old. There are a lot of our people in the industry that are getting older. We need to have new talent coming in at all times to take our place when we're gone and to keep us as competitive and make us even more competitive than we are now.

LYNN: If our crew, that is the A-list crew, that's here now still working at this time -- and your right, they're in their 50s and 60s -- if they're mentoring and working with the universities, then maybe we have some of these people that come out of the university programs like U of H and Rice and TSU, and they'd come out with a vocational outcome and stay in Houston, is that what you're talking about?

RICK: Absolutely, that's what I'm talking about. Absolutely. For some reason, people just don't realize -- I think Houston is really cool. I think there's great opportunities here, but I also think Houston is a great place to live. As these kids are getting out of school, are gravitating to the industry, I hope they realize that not only is Houston affordable, not only does it have great opportunity, but it's also a really great place to establish your life, and we'd like to be able to keep them here.

LYNN: I always tell people if they can't find a job in Houston, I'm not sure what to say to them.

RICK: Good point. Very good point.

LYNN: Rick, I appreciate your time.