Marble Falls shoots for economic boost with filmmakers
Contributed
Marble Falls city officials are working to coax more filmmakers to the city for location filming for the economic benefits to the community. Pictured here is a scene from “Shotgun Honey,” a 2016 drama shot, in part, in Marble Falls.
Connie Swinney
Staff Writer
From the 2016 drama “Shotgun Honey” to the biographical disaster flick “Jon,” Marble Falls city officials want to try to coax more filmmakers to the area for the economic benefits and to potentially cultivate a new industry to the community.
To that end, the city recently earned the designation as a Certified Film Friendly Community (CFFC) by the Texas Film Commission (TFC), a division of the Texas Office of the Governor.
To gain certification, city representatives attended a day-long workshop in 2016 to learn about the production process and best practices for working with the film industry and developed TFC-approved film policy which the city has adapted into an ordinance.
“It's general exposure to Marble Falls as a destination,” Assistant City Manager Caleb Kraenzel said. “Marble Falls is now a very browsable community that pre-production can go into.”
The municipal policy outlines guidelines when filmmakers seek community access for shooting locations such as street closure requests, property owner notification, size of crew notification and time frame of the shoot.
“They know the protocols they need to abide by. There's various steps and authorizations they may need to go through to get their permit,” Kraenzel said. “It's for the city to be a good steward for residents to keep them from being negatively impacted by any of these activities that go on.”
A positive impact the city will work to capitalize on involves the potential benefits to the local economy such as purchase of local goods and services, frequenting local eateries and utilization of temporary housing options.
“It's akin to the construction industry, during projects all the crews that come in, consume money they consume local goods and services,” he said. “They may need extras (role casting).
“Not to mention any property owners that may have their property selected. That's compensation.”
As part of the Film Friendly Community guidelines, the city has compiled several private, public and historical property locations into a portfolio to be offered to the film industry scouting for sites.
“We want to make an open call to any property owners, who want to be add to the city's portfolio to contact us,” Kraenzel said.
A TFC representative is scheduled to formally present the CFFC designation at the February Marble Falls City Council Meeting.
For more information or to add a property to the portfolio, contact administrative assistant Lisa Ward at 830-693-7050 or email her at lward@marblefallstx.gov.
