Lights! Camera! Dallas!

Dallas steps into the spotlight as a top city for moviemaking

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Lots of movie-making going on in Texas.

Photo by Ruben Garcia

Dallas is reeling in a new creative accolade. On January 26, MovieMaker magazine released its annual list of the best places to live and work as a moviemaker, and Dallas stepped into the spotlight as No. 12 on the "big cities" list.

Like so many Americans impacted by the pandemic, filmmakers are looking outside of the traditional film hubs — Los Angeles and New York — to find other cities conducive to the craft. In ranking the best cities, MovieMaker concedes that the COVID-19 crisis is changing the industry (and its annual list).

"Best Places Hall of Famers Los Angeles and New York City will always be our greatest movie cities, and the strong lockdowns they’ve instituted over the last year will make them stronger in the long run," the magazine says. "But in the short term, they’re losing people to other great film cities, as many who have spent months inside insist on more space, lower housing costs, and more great outdoors."

Like all Texas cities, Dallas reaps the rewards of Texas' tax incentives, but its cost of living is lower than the national average, giving filmmakers the chance to not only survive financially, but thrive.

North Texas also boasts a bevy of film festivals, including The Dallas International Film Festival, Oak Cliff Film Festival, Dallas VideoFest, EarthxFilm, and Asian Film Festival of Dallas, that provide up-and-coming artists a platform to showcase their work and help cultivate the film community. This weekend, in fact, neighboring Denton is hosting a virtual Black Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival is being shown at Texas Theatre.

“It’s common for burgeoning filmmakers to work on each other’s films, which has created a true sense of community. Additionally, many filmmakers will work as crew and even talent on television projects of all types and sizes, as well as commercials, corporate films, music videos, etc., in between their own projects in order to gain valuable experience and make a living,” says Janis Burklund, director of the Dallas Film Commission.

Dallas keeps good company in the list, between No. 13-Cincinnati and No. 11-Toronto.

Not surprisingly, Austin came in higher, earning the No. 3 spot.

MovieMaker notes that many LA- and New York-based filmmakers have decamped to Austin in recent months, a city anchored by Austin Studios and Robert Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios, among others.

Along with statewide tax incentives available in all Texas cities, the magazine notes Austin's proximity to a range of filming locations, including "urban scenes to small towns, ranchland, lakes and just about anything else you can imagine," as well as the creative community's collaborative spirit.

“There is plenty of community spirit to be found among filmmakers in the bigger cities — but then, all your filmmaker pals in New York and LA are devoting their full energies to trying to survive their own daily trials there,” says Austin-based moviemaker Andrew Bujalski, whose films include Support the Girls and Results. “Austin is the only place I’ve known where, when a project gets going, everyone seems to drop what they’re doing to come help.”

Joining Austin and Dallas on the list is San Antonio, at No. 22.

Highlighting the city's variety of filming locations, which range from the historic to the modern, MovieMaker also calls out the city's variety of creative resources, including The Parish, the Brownstone Studios and Alamo City Studios, and the San Antonio Film Commission. It's also worth noting that permits are free for filming if the location is owned by the city.

“The fact that San Antonio earned this recognition from MovieMaker — even with new safety requirements to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — is encouraging news that demonstrates the progress made possible by our City Department of Arts and Culture’s efforts,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg in a press release. “Our work to welcome and encourage filmmakers will continue to provide opportunities for us to become an increasingly desirable location for the film industry.”

Surprisingly, despite a three-month shutdown, crews actually filmed 348 days in San Antonio last year, up from 342 days in 2019.

Joining third-place Austin among the top big cities are Albuquerque (No. 1) and Atlanta (No. 2). Among small cities, New Orleans (No. 1), Santa Fe (No. 2), and Pittsburgh (No. 3) took the top spots.

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Movie Review

Safe cracking is a snap for White Lotus alum Leo Woodall in Tuner

Photo courtesy of Black Bear

Leo Woodall in Tuner.

Of all the ways that movies depict people trying to steal money and other valuables, safe cracking is among the least exciting. By design, it’s a laborious process that only those with a very certain set of skills can do. While clever editing and the right music can enhance scenes of safes being cracked, there’s a reason that the method is among the least used in heist films.

In the new film Tuner, Niki (Leo Woodall) has a job and a condition that just happens to lend itself well to committing that specific crime. He works as an apprentice piano tuner for Harry (Dustin Hoffman), usually doing the hard work while Harry schmoozes the client. Niki is well-suited for the job because he has a rare condition called hyperacusis, which makes him both sensitive to loud noises and able to hear subtle things that others cannot.

When he runs across a trio of criminals trying to break open a safe at a house where he’s tuning a piano, he helps them more out of frustration than avarice. But when Harry goes into the hospital and racks up huge bills, Niki decides to join the group to make some quick money. They soon want more than he’s willing to give, and he must find a way to extricate himself from them without losing himself completely.

Written and directed by documentary filmmaker Daniel Roher (making his narrative feature debut) and co-written by Robert Ramsey, the film has a nice pace to it despite there being relatively little action. Roher and Ramsey spend the first third or so establishing Niki, Harry, and Harry’s wife Marla (Tovah Feldshuh) as characters, letting the audience understand their relationships and how they interact with each other.

The time they devote to the personal storytelling pays dividends when Niki starts to descend into crime, as his divided loyalties - not to mention the danger of the thefts - insert tension into the plot. That stress is heightened even more when Niki starts a relationship with piano student Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), as getting closer to her necessitates a series of lies.

There comes a point, though, where the plot stagnates to a degree. Niki’s end goal, if he has one, is never clear, and it’s obvious that it’s only a matter of time before things start to fall apart. After starting strong in their character development, Roher and Ramsey take shortcuts as the film rushes toward its conclusion. This is most notable in a weird argument scene between Niki and Ruthie that comes out of nowhere and seems to serve no purpose in the story.

Woodall, who had a memorable turn in season 2 of The White Lotus, is on the cusp of breaking out, and this understated-but-compelling lead role should help him become an even bigger name in Hollywood. Hoffman has a small role, but he remains as interesting as ever despite the lack of screentime. Liu (Bottoms) is also an up-and-coming actor who should become a star with more roles like this one.

Tuner is a low-key thriller that succeeds because of the way the filmmakers approach the under-used method of robbery. Even if it doesn’t quite reach its potential, the film maintains a high quality throughout thanks to its storytelling and acting.

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Tuner is now playing in theaters.

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