As Waco prepares for the third year of the Deep In The Heart Film Festival Thursday, city leaders and some in the arts community talk about what they think builds a film scene from its infancy.
Carla Pendergraft has been the Waco's film commissioner for over three years. She started to see an uptick in Waco’s film scene after the city completed program training through the Texas Film Commission and became film friendly certified two years ago.
She said Waco has always had student film productions from the city’s three colleges - as well as commercial video production.
But Pendergraft said growing a film industry requires demand, planning and partnerships with city and state leaders as well as the arts community.
"I think it's like anything. How do you build a whole industry? Some of that has to be organic, there has to be that need there," Pendergraft said.
Pendergraft expects Waco’s film production to grow – especially alongside the city’s budding art scene. She said organizations like Creative Waco help promote and expand the arts – which includes film.
She also said having festivals like Deep In The Heart Film Festival aids the effort to grow a place in the Heart of Texas that filmmakers want to come to.
“I think it has really just increased the awareness just of the movie scene and that’s what it’s all about – is just getting movies on everybody’s radar,” Pendergraft said.
As for how the city can encourage filmmakers to do projects in Waco, she said having multiple locations that are flexible with filming is beneficial. But she said that can be a challenge in a city of Waco’s size, with the willingness of businesses to offer their spaces for long periods of time.
Some cities have local incentives for filmmakers to come to town, a topic that frequently comes up with those interested in filming in Waco.
“Every single one of these clients pretty much says do you guys have any kind of an incentive program to help support this production," Pendergraft said. "What Waco’s situation is - is we want to have an incentives program – I don’t think we’re quite there yet – but I’ve been asked to take a look at that.”
Texas offers an incentive program for qualified projects through the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program.
The program is handled by the Texas Film Commission and money is appropriated solely through the Texas Legislature every two years. It provides grants to television programs, commercials, films and video games that are produced in Texas.
Taylor Hertsenberg, senior marketing specialist for the TFC, said once cities like Waco get certified, they can start attracting business by providing photos of the area to the commission for their database.
“So when filmmakers reach out to our office then they know what a community has specifically to offer those productions," Hertsenberg said.
He also said the TFC helped Pendergraft create a Film Industry Familiarization Tourof Waco during the Deep In The Heart Festival on March 30. The tour will host filmmakers coming into the city to promote Waco’s filming destinations.
Deep In The Heart isn’t the only festival in Waco. The city has other festivals – including Baylor University's Black Glasses Film Festivalfor students.
Louis Hunter and Samuel Thomas are the co-directors of Deep in The Heart. They created the festival after agreeing there was a community getting underserved in Waco. Hunter says Dallas and Austin already have reputable film festivals – including the recent SXSW, Dallas International Film Festival and the Lone Star Film Festival.
“We made the decision to try and do this thing- try to connect the two cities and have filmmakers come from both of those areas and around the world," Hunter said. "This year we have a filmmaker from Singapore coming – so we are bringing world cinema to Waco.”
Deep in The Heart is hosting its third film festival at the historic Hippodrome Theatre downtown. The festival makes a point to have a block of films that are made by Texans or are filmed in Texas.
One Texas filmmaker I met up with directed a film called The Tenor in Deep in The Heart’s first festival. Damon Crump has been in the film industry for 32 years as a video and film producer.
Growing up in Waco he began filming in the early 80s with a Super 8 film camera. He became interested in film after watching behind the scenes footage for the creation of Star Wars as a kid.
"I was just fascinated that all this stuff that’s meant to look real was so fake, kinda like how magic is presented,” Crump said.
On a trip to London between his junior and senior year at Baylor University, Crump met British film producer Robert Watts, who is known for his work on Star Wars and Indiana Jones films. Crump says Watts invited him to watch production for an hour of Labyrinth, the movie starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly. While watching the filming, it hit him.
"I’ve got to do this somehow," Crump said. "Somehow here I am on a George Lucas set – he was executive producing – and I go, 'I’ve got to do this – this is magical.'”
Crump came back to Waco, graduated with his BBA, but took film courses his last semester of college. He was able to make connections through Baylor’s film department and was able to gain an internship with Waco filmmaker Alan Stewart.
As a filmmaker in Waco, Crump says the city film commission has been accommodating with his projects. But he says one challenge of filming in Waco is having to go to Dallas or Austin to rent high end equipment. He also questions whether production in Waco can be as large as other cities in Texas.
"There's got to be enough demand and enough stuff coming," Crump said. " You know, Austin obviously has done that and [has] grown over the last 20, 30 years. So whether Waco can do that remains to be seen - I think the issue is that Dallas and Austin are so close."
One of the most recent films shot in Waco includes The Old Man and The Gun with Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek.
At Deep in The Heart this year, filmmakers, actors, actresses and producers will be able to meet one another and network. The festival will also offer educational opportunities for the public to learn about filmmaking and television and film production benefits the area.
“We live in Waco, we know what a tv show – a hit tv show – does to the area," Hunter said. "So we just want to encourage that. We can create films, we can create web series, we can create short films, television series – these things can happen here, they can stimulate the economy.”
Deep in The Heart Film Festival will run through March 31st.