Screen Magazine: Vol. 28, Issue 20

Screen Magazine - Index

Screen Magazine - Screen Magazine: Vol. 28, Issue 20 - Index

By Bob Hudgins
Director, Texas Film Commission
We’ve just wrapped up our participation in this
year’s Austin Game Developers Conference,
where Texas shows off its game development
community to the world. This showcase, now
run by San Francisco’s CMP Group, maintains its
mix of worldwide appeal and local relevance.
This year, approximately 2,000 attendees had
a comprehensive look at the current state of
the industry and heard from such industry
giants as Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard
Entertainment, the creators of the massively
popular “World of Warcraft.”
With a focus on three main tracks – game
audio, writing for games and online games – the
programming was particularly relevant to our instate
industry. Over 50 percent of Texas game
companies are creating online games.
From its beginnings five years ago, the Austin
GDC has been a great way for Texas to show
off its own game development community, and
this year was no exception. Representatives
from companies such as Austin-based Spacetime
Studios and Dallas Audio Post were on hand to
showcase their upcoming projects and current
support services
Educators from Texas State Technical College
(Harlingen and Waco), The Guildhall at Southern
Methodist University and DeVry University
marketed their game degree programs and
their graduates. At the Texas Film Commission’s
booth, we saw quite of bit of interest in Texas’
new financial incentives, which offer production
grants of up to $250,000 per game.
The ever-merging worlds of film and games
were also apparent at this year’s conference.
The Screen Actors Guild is now an Austin GDC
sponsor, with an eye on voice-over work within
the industry. There were multiple presentations
on the convergence of media industries, the
blockbuster-films-as-games concept and more
than I could ever hope to cover. Better plan now
for next September.
Beyond games, fall is a lively time in Texas, with a
statewide assortment of events coming up. We’ll
have Texas Film Commission representatives
on the ground at most of these. You can find us
there – or anywhere you need us.
• Vistas Latino Film Festival, Dallas, Sept. 19-23
(www.vistasfilmfestival.com)
• Fantastic Fest, Austin, Sept. 20-27
(www.fantasticfest.com)
• Flatland Film Festival, Lubbock, Sept. 28-29
(www.flatlandfilmfestival.com)
• Austin Film Festival, Oct. 11-18
(www.austinfilmfestival.com)
• National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
(NAMAC) Conference, Austin, Oct. 17-20
(www.namac.org)
• Film Expo Texas, Houston, Oct. 19-20
(www.filmexpotexas.com)
• Lone Star Film Festival, Ft. Worth, Nov. 7-11
(www.lsiff.com)
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��
��