TEXAS DOESN'T GET BIG PICTURE REPORT

April 30, 2019

Texas Doesn’t Get “Big Picture”

Executive director of the Houston Film Commission Rick Ferguson says, Texas doesn’t have a large enough budget for the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, and it’s given Houston a handicap in efforts to attract Hollywood interest.

Rick Ferguson, 68, has worked with the Houston Film Commission since 1988, a year after it’s establishment in 1987, and says the purpose of the commission was always to bring outside revenue and new jobs to the city of Houston. When it comes to attracting big budget films though, he says the major issue with bringing large films to Houston is the budget for the TMIIIP that state legislators slashed by 70 percent down to $22.5 million.

Under the TMIIIP, Texas issues cash grants to companies that spend a minimum of 5 percent on in-state goods and have a casting crew made up of 70 percent Texas residents. The highest funding the program received was in 2015 when it received $95 million. For 2016 and 2017 funding was cut down to $32 million.

The current funding for the program was decided with the conclusion of last biennium’s legislative session, but the budget decided upon was much lower than what was hoped for. Gov. Greg Abbott has requested that $50 million be allocated to the fund for the next biennium, and at the start of the current legislative session what was originally asked for was a minimum of $30 million for the TMIIIP.       

Just between January 9th and April 9th, that amount has vacillated from $22.8 million, and then they knocked it down to $8 million, and then they knocked it down to $0, and then it went back up to $22.8 million, Ferguson said. “And now there is at least hope that it could go up to $50 million.”

Conservative lawmakers who see the program as a subsidy for Jobs that simply come, film, and leave  introduced bills in previous legislative sessions, and one in the current session filed by State Rep. Matt Shaheen, that proposed ending the program. All bills in favor of the ending TMIIIP have failed to pass.

Now, workers in the Texas film and television production industry are pointing to the 2019 film by Texas filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, “Alita Battle Angel”, to convince lawmakers that budget cuts are the opposite of what the state needs to grow the industry. The special-effects packed feature film that reportedly cost more than $200 million to make was shot in Dallas and troublemaker studios in Austin. As the most recent big-budget film project to benefit from the TMIIIP, “Alita” is projected to receive a grant of less than $10 million according to San Antonio express.

Houston, however, hasn’t had a big-budget feature film since “The Martian” filmed at the Johnson Space Station/NASA in 2015, when the TMIIIP had a $95 million budget. In 2015 the Houston Film Commission actively began an effort to garner the attention of Hollywood with the groundwork of their Los Angeles representative, Sharon Adams.

On May 14 2018, KHOU-2 began investigative coverage on the Houston Film Commission’s Los Angeles representative, Sharon Adams, who despite her $172K salary, office in Beverly Hills, and a $4,400 monthly subsidized-rent by the Houston Hotel Tax had not delivered a big-budget film project to the Bayou City since the start of her position in 2015.

The reporter who broke the story, Mario Diaz of KPRC-2 investigates, gave his eighth report on developments in the situation January 21st 2019. In which, he continued to ask why the city of Houston had not seen Hollywood sized productions.

“In the midst of cutbacks and layoffs at the downtown headquarters, the agency is letting it ride with the costly West Coast pilot program and doubling-down on an initiative with nothing to show for in three years,” Diaz said.

But, Ferguson says the reason why no films have come to Houston from Hollywood is because financially Houston isn’t competitively-viable with current state incentives. As film commissions in the state of Texas and special interest groups lobby for adequate funding, Sharon Adams, the woman who helped bring the Super Bowl to Houston in 2017, has been placed in California to do the same with the film industry.

“At the end of this legislative session if there is enough money to make us competitive and viable, those relationships will already be made and will be called upon as soon as we know what is in store for the next two years,” Ferguson said.

Some entrepreneurs in the industry like Centrell Reed, think that more large efforts need to take place on a local level as well. Reed is the founder and co-CEO of CReed Global Media, a media company based in the Galleria area of Houston that provides production services for international and local media projects with it’s own platform.

“I’m by no means going to say that having the thought that having someone strategically placed in a place where they can have a conversation about bringing films to Houston is not a good idea, it’s a great idea,” Reed said. “I just think it shouldn’t be the only egg in the basket.”

Still, the necessary amount of money to incentivize the industry, is something that Ferguson said, he couldn’t see coming from any where else. 

“If you’re comparing the state of Texas to Georgia, it really is a little bit like apples to oranges,” Ferguson said.

So, with May around the corner the industry in Houston waits for the next shoe to drop.