Houston Was Once a Major Draw for Film Production

Sean "Crash" Maxwell sits down with Bird House Productions Lynn Birdwell and retells the rise of film in Houston and gives a possible explanation to why production left.

Why Bird Nest Development is Important in Houston Now

Bird Nest, begun this year, is the brainchild of myself with the assistance of writer/director Kalli Carter, to hatch major projects we fell in love with or wanted to create. It is the development division of Bird House Productions founded in 2012 by myself and my husband, Director of Photography Raul Casares. 

Bird Nest is the place where we can develop TV and film projects of all sorts. Some of the initial project concepts, developed with industry friends, partners, and collaborators, will be presented at the Work-In-Production: Production Slate in Development on Wednesday, December 4, 2019, at MATCH. RSVP required at bit.ly/BirdNestDec4.

The presentation event fulfills the requirement of a Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) Independent Artist Grant awarded to me last year in a grant application written by myself and the University of Houston’s Fleurette Fernando, director of the Arts In Leadership master’s program. The original concept of the grant application was to develop one project, working with a group of locally renown artists and filmmakers. I reached out to the HAA and asked if I could develop more than one project. The answer? Yes!

I’ve been working as a producer since 1993, and in Houston, we do wear a lot of hats. So any week I may be working on a movie, a TV show, a global-brand commercial, a music video, a documentary. Or, writing a bid to win the opportunity to bring one of these lovely projects to be produced in Houston. It has been my full-time job to run a production company specializing in filming in and around Houston, Texas, all these years.

It is in large part because of a report from a comprehensive study in 2012 of the creative-sector industries and their impact on the Houston economy that I applied for the grant initially, and am presenting these works in development, on December 4. The report was commissioned by Houston Arts Alliance and the University of Houston, in partnership with the Greater Houston Partnership. The report states:

“We need to shift the perception from the arts as a quality of life attraction for a well-qualified workforce, to the creative sectors as a tremendously powerful component of the economy unto itself.”

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) produce a report called the Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account (ACPSA). It shows film and video production to be the third largest of all creative industries included in the analysis, and it places fourth in the arts and cultural sector employment.

And according to Artsy, BEA and NEA released data reporting the arts and cultural sector contributions of over $763.6 billion to the US economy in 2015. This is more than agriculture, transportation, or warehousing sectors. Collectively, those employed in the arts sector earned over $370 billion. 

This data confirms that the arts are not only part of the quality of our lives but are also a livelihood and an industry to invest in, in any city. 

The HAA 2012 study determines that “on the world economic stage, Houston is a major player, as the fourth largest city in the US … and is now the most culturally diverse city in the country. Among its assets are a global population, a talented and productive workforce, a comparatively reasonable cost of living and a good quality of life.” The report shows that Seattle, Austin, Atlanta, and greater Los Angeles have adopted the “creative economy” as a vital and even critical component to a diversified regional economy, and that in comparison, Houston proves to be underserved by local creative businesses.

Because of this, over the years I have experienced losing large production bids to other countries and states (Canada, then Louisiana, then Florida, then Spain, and currently Uruguay). We would need to build crew numbers here or work for much lower salaries to compete with markets like Uruguay. There are even many projects we lose from Houston to other cities in the state due to studio facilities or equipment specialties or city film incentives we do not currently have in our city. By purposefully growing the local creative sector, Houston can meet more of the outside demand and its own demand and keep more revenue at home, the HAA report notes.

In general, all across the nation, creative economy workers are educated, highly compensated workers. Without much effort, Houston has created one of the country’s larger and more robust creative economies. With targeted resources, Houston could evolve this sector at an even greater rate than is already predicted. This just means building a stronger foundation and infrastructure for creative industries, like film production for example, to thrive.

The HAA report shows the creative sector is a highly desirable and sought-after piece of today’s urban economies. It offers greater diversity—and thus greater stability—of a local economy; greater ability to attract new employers (quality of life); greater ability to attract professionals and families (diverse job opportunities); higher profile in national and international media (“creative” is cool); proven record as a growth industry with great potential for further expansion; and an elevated tourism appeal. 

One of the biggest hurdles Houston faces is it is just developing its reputation as a creative city. Long considered a working town with oil and gas, medical, and more recently tech as major industries, it’s now known globally for exciting chefs, world-class sculpture, beautiful parks, and destinations, like the newly renovated NASA facilities.

But making a very good point, the HAA report notes there is a great difference between being a creative city and being perceived as a creative city. In the 21st century, Houston has an opportunity to redefine itself as a modern, forward-thinking, creative-industry center in the eyes of the world community. And that means being known for many more creative arts, and that can begin with film. Film is the only art form that supports all the other art forms.

By evolving into that image and developing the creative industries, Houston as the energy capital can also become the global hub for creative energy, according to the HAA study. To me, it seems entirely possible and likely.

In 2012, Houston’s creative economy employed more people than the Texas Medical Center. (Currently, the medical center is second only to the oil and gas industry in Houston for employment.)

The HAA 2012 report notes that although we can change this balance, Houston’s demand for creative goods and services is greater than its supply of creative goods and services. The demand for creative goods and services in Houston in 2012 was $20.53 billion. The amount of creative goods and services produced locally was $10.77 billion. Consumers and businesses got the additional products they needed by imports. City residents imported $9.76 billion in creative goods, sending the money to other communities. Houston’s creative businesses exported only about $1.4 billion in creative goods. The amount of money coming into the city was considerably less than leaving it in the creative sector. This is still true today, in 2019. 

In Houston, employment in film has declined significantly since the 1990’s, and production of big-budget features is nearly zero. This is not due to the lack of financial incentives at the state level. These we share equally with Dallas and Austin. The difference in part is that Houston does not currently offer the city-level incentives that other Texas cities do at this time, and those other towns get the lion’s share of the film and TV projects that come to the state. 

Houston is currently home to global brand commercials that are filmed in Houston often because star professional athletes like Houston Texans JJ Watt and Houston Rockets James Hardin are here. We have been the location for many seasons of the Little Couple because Jen and Bill made their home here for a time. Music videos like Travis Scott’s are shot here because the artist was born and raised here and wanted to film a particular video with Houston as the backdrop. Because Houston is the home to massive industry, many corporate communications films and industrials are shot and edited here. 

To build a true film and TV content production hub in Houston, we absolutely have the capacity and the desire, but the infrastructure will need to be created. That requires not only vision, but also the support of artists of all types of art forms, that have left Houston to follow their fame in other cities. And, the city’s tourism will grow as the film industry does by creating the inevitable film and TV tourism which follows successful productions.  

A final point. Houston is a wonderful and inclusive city. As the 2018 Nostradamus Report: Do or Die (published by the Göteborg Film Festival) says, “All over the world, women in the film industry are organizing themselves to put pressure on decision makers. Audience groups are advocating online against sexism and racism in hiring decisions, casting and representation. It would be a shame if traditional film industry decision-makers — those who do not trust women to produce, write or direct — decided to gamble the box office on maintaining the status quo.”

We have an opportunity right now to take advantage of open doors, open new doors for others, and simultaneously build our own house -- the Houston Creative Industry Economy.

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.