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Elizabeth Avellan on Austin’s ravaged film industry, Part 1
If you doubt that incentives from other states have diminished Texas movie production, share a late morning coffee with set decorator Jeanette Scott and producer Elizabeth Avellan.
That’s why Scott, who has never put together a benefit event, agreed to organize the Texas Motional Picture Alliance’s “Spaghetti Western” fundraiser at Star Hill Ranch in Bee Cave on Nov. 7. She’s drafted big guns such as Avellan, Mike Judge, Robert Rodriguez, Richard Linklater, Alexandra and Terrence Malick as well as Warren Spector to lead the charge.
But it was Avellan, who produced Rodriguez’s and others’ films from “El Mariachi” to “Spy Kids,” “Sin City” and “Grindhouse,” who rattled the Mueller Austin Starbucks with reports of the industry’s astonishing demise.
“We are facing a brain drain,” she says. “We’re training these film talents, and they move away because other states are stealing our films. Too much money is left on the table. Studios are not even scouting Texas.”
Texas Motional Picture Alliance is the lobbying arm of the regional industry. It’s hoping to increase the state’s cash-back grant on instate spending from 5 percent to something like 15 to 20 percent, not even close to Michigan’s 42 percent.
More to come …
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