[Fmpro] Austin, TX / A Good Place for Film Music?

[Scott Szabo]

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 8:37 PM
To: fmpro at nxport.com
Subject: [Fmpro] Austin, TX / A Good Place for Film Music?

Hi Everyone,

A friend and I were thinking about moving to Austin, TX. Does anyone know if
this is a good city for the film / TV music scene? Thank you for any
information.

Steve


Sorry to be so late in responding but I've been very busy on a gig. I live
in Houston, TX but I can tell you that in Austin you will not find a
tremendous amount of paying work as a film/TV composer. There are many
student film projects. With University of Texas in Austin (60,000+ students)
the market is very supply-sided. There is some video game work and a number
of "Hollywood" film projects come to shoot in Austin with regularity. But
with the exception of Robert Rodriguez projects (Grind House, Sin City, Spy
Kids, etc) most post in LA. Plus, I understand that Rodriguez does all or
most of the music scores for his films himself.

Dallas appears to have the most production and post production in Texas with
Houston being next then followed by Austin. If all the Texas work was in a
single city it would be a very significant production center but being
distributed (primarily) into 3 cities, it is a bit diffused.

Besides commercial and corporate work, this year Houston has had 5 TV series
shoot all or a large portion of the show here. Animal Cops (Animal Planet),
Surgery Saved My Life (TLC), Judge Alex (Fox), Cristina's Court (Fox), and a
currently untitled George Foreman reality series. I score one of them -
Judge Alex.

Recently, a large portion of film projects that normally come to shoot in
Texas have moved to Louisiana and New Mexico. This is because of the
incentive packages that these States offer to out-of-state productions to
shoot in their respective states. Even with their incentives the bulk of the
work is location shooting only. Post is still handled in LA.

There is some hint of a possible change. I received an email from an LA
company asking for my info, saying that they are going to move from LA to
Austin because of the price of living in Southern California. New Mexico is
considering building a studio complex for all the new work coming to the
state.

I hope this answers your question.

Scott Szabo
Szabo Sound & Music
2400 Central Parkway, Suite C
Houston, TX 77092
O: 713.956.7451
F: 713.956.2244
www.szabosoundandmusic.com