What Producers Should Know About Filming in Fort Worth with Taylor Hardy

Welcome back to On Production brought to you by Wrapbook. I'm your host, Cameron Woodward. Today we're spotlighting a city that's not so quietly become one of the most dynamic filming destinations in America, and that is Fort Worth, Texas. Since launching its film commission less than a decade ago, Fort Worth has hosted major series like 1883 and Lawmen and has attracted heavyweight talent like Tyler Sheridan.which has then delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact to the region. Today, joining me is Taylor Hardy, Film Commissioner for the Fort Worth Film Commission and Director of Video Content for Visit Fort Worth. Taylor was there from the very beginning, helping launch the office in 2015 and has since played a key role in shaping the city's film-friendly identity, scaling the production operations of the city and building sustainable local infrastructure. We're gonna chat about her journey.

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Fort Worth's unique approach to incentives and how producers can plug into the region, now central to the future of film production in Texas. Welcome to the show, Taylor.

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Taylor Hardy (01:08.355)

Thank you so much. It really is an exciting past 10 years and now we're moving into this new era of filming in Fort Worth. So very excited to talk to you today.

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Cameron (01:16.546)

So to that point, you joined at the commission's inception. What did the film landscape in Fort Worth look like back then? And what were your first priorities?

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Taylor Hardy (01:26.743)

Yeah, so in 2015, we were the only major city in Texas that didn't have a film commission. We were losing a lot of business to Dallas as they were kind of representing the region, but they were based on the other side of the Metroplex and they didn't know our locations and the people in Fort Worth the way that we do. So Red Sanders, who was a local producer and owns a production company here, went to the mayor at the time and said, how can we change this and start our own film office to bring more business here? So my predecessor, Jessica Hill, wants to...

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launched the office about 10 years ago, and I actually joined as an intern. I had been working with Red and he said, hey, there's this new thing happening. I really think you should learn more and get involved. I'm sure they could use some help. So my first priority as an intern was scouting the city. I went around downtown with a camera and just started taking pictures of every building I could find and having some of those conversations with location owners to see if they'd be interested in learning more about this new thing, film production coming to the city.

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So it's really all about relationships and building up our community to start. And I think that's why Fort Worth has been so successful over the years, because instead of just marketing outward, we really started with this focus on who's in our community, who's here making films and being creative and how can we connect everyone so we have this infrastructure here at home.

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Cameron (02:40.706)

That's awesome. Taylor, I'm curious, you know, a decade later, what keeps you excited about doing this line of work?

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Taylor Hardy (02:48.739)

Well, so much has changed in such a short amount of time. I think 10 years ago, we never would have imagined having full-scale TV productions based in Fort Worth, and not just one, but several in the same year. It's really exciting to just see the growth of the city. And because I have been around and have been with the community, I get to see my friends succeed and thrive and grow and take on bigger projects. So I think that's really fun for me. And it's a great time now because, you know, who knows what's next? It seems like...

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We get the chance to dream big and really create what we want to have in the city. And we have such a great community that supports to make that happen.

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Cameron (03:23.342)

That's awesome. so, you know, historically, as you were mentioning, Fort Worth was not always the first city people would associate with filmmaking. How would you describe what sets it apart for producers and creatives today?

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Taylor Hardy (03:36.633)

We work a lot with 101 Studios, which is Taylor Sheridan's production company. And John Hermanson is the executive who likes to say that Fort Worth is a yes town. Some other places, there's a lot of red tape and regulations and processes you have to go through for filming or getting a permit. And in Fort Worth, it's the opposite. We always try to say, okay, we haven't done this yet, but let's figure out how we can. And it's not always our office. We really see ourselves as the connectors.

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So maybe we're connecting projects with the mayor's office or city council who have been very supportive of this industry and wanting to help it grow. Connections to location owners and businesses here. So I think again, it's that community that has helped us because people want to understand what this means and people are excited about it. So instead of trying to fight that, everyone's really embraced it.

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Cameron (04:24.45)

That's awesome. So you just mentioned Mr. Sheridan, of course, know, Fort Worth though has hosted some just really marquee projects. you know, of course, 1883, 12 Muddy Orphans, Miss Juneteenth. What's the through line across these productions? Like, why are they choosing Fort Worth? I mean, you just mentioned like the team is creative, the city's open, but is there something else as well?

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Taylor Hardy (04:49.817)

I think it's just a great experience. So we've seen that happen with a lot of our projects. One of the first big opportunities we had was for David Lowry's A Ghost Story. He was filming this project in Dallas, but they were looking for an active construction pit and couldn't find one anywhere. So we worked our connections and found what's now the Frost Tower was under construction at the time. So they were able to get in and film this scene down there in the dirt. And it was really cool because an image from that scene actually became the poster for the film.

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But it was just kind of that fast response, that focus on customer service, and then being able to problem solve with producers and be a partner that's helped and really changed the game for us. So David was able to film that scene for a ghost story, but then came back to Fort Worth for future projects like his wife's film, Never Going Back with Augustine Frazelle, Old Man and the Gun, a ghost story.

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a great night. So it's kind this one experience where they have a great time and then they've been able to come back to us for multiple projects in the future.

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Cameron (05:51.704)

That's awesome. One thing that's always important to touch on and sort of understanding what scale of production will be possible in a given place is capacity. So from like location availability to crew depth to post-production resources, can you give us a picture of what that looks like today?

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Taylor Hardy (06:11.107)

Sure, and it's really changing a lot right now. We have some new legislation that will support film production and we're working on how do we grow our community sustainably. Because we're so close to Dallas, a lot of our crew base jumps back and forth between these two cities, which is really advantageous for us because I think it allows us to do more for a city of our size and just have incredible crew that live and work in the DFW Metroplex.

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but really statewide too. We see a lot of people kind of traveling between the state right now on some of these bigger productions. So a focus for us moving forward is making sure that we have even more crew trained and ready to work. To address that, we launched a new program with 101 Studios in Tarrant County College called the Fort Worth Film Collaborative, which is a fast track certification process to help people take skills they may already have, like a hair and makeup artist, and teach them what they need to know to work on set.

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and apply those skills to film production specifically. So that's been a really fun program we launched just about two years ago and we've already had 200 students enroll in the program and several of those who have graduated have gone on to get jobs in the industry. So I think we have great crew here but really working to make sure we even have even more people as we expect to see such a big surge from the new incentives.

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Cameron (07:27.47)

That's awesome. We've said his name, I think three times now, about to be four times, Taylor Sheridan, like an absolutely incredible artist, some absolutely massive shows with huge fan bases. Can you tell us more about the collaboration with Taylor and the expansion into Alliance Texas?

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Taylor Hardy (07:46.937)

Sure. Yeah, it started with actually Yellowstone. They were looking for a scene and I think it was 2021. They needed to film an equestrian scene and we had an event going on. They were able to capture this when it was a challenging time for film production and there were a lot of restrictions. So finding a way to do that safely and be able to have that happen in our city kind of opened the door to that. Taylor Sheridan is from DFW and he loves being able to work in his home and in his backyard.

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He came to us with 1883 after that scene, scouted some locations and based that production in Fort Worth. And then Sun Sun has brought Lawmen Bass Reeves, Lioness Season Two, Landman, The Madison, several new projects coming up. So it's been a really intentional effort, I think, on his part to build roots in the city and make sure that he can have a sustainable environment to bring all of his projects here and work from home.

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Cameron (08:42.348)

really, really cool. It's really a special thing. It's really cool to see like, you know, how Atlanta supports, you know, their filmmakers, Texas supports theirs. It's sort of an interesting emerging trend I see of these auteurs like making a home base and building out really, really awesome types of projects. Chatting about incentives and working with the commission, Texas just dramatically increased its film incentives. Maybe you can give us an overview of

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what that program is and then how Fort Worth helps productions access it.

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Taylor Hardy (09:14.211)

Sure. So the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, or TMIP for short, is administered by the Texas Film Commission. There is a minimum Texas spend, which applies to things like wages for Texas residents, flights from Texas-based companies like American Airlines and Southwest, any kind of local Texas spend applies. Our minimum spend is $250,000.

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And if you spend one and a half million or more, you can reach this new base rate of 25 % cash rebate based on Texas spend. In addition, there are some uplifts. So things like post-production in the state or hiring veterans, kind of a new program where we're still waiting to figure out exactly what those specifics will be this fall. But with those uplifts, you can reach an incentive of 31%. So it's really exciting. Not only do we have a higher rebate percentage,

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but we have more funding than we ever have for the state. So they will be allotting us 300 million every two years, which is one and a half billion over the next 10 years. So it's really going to change everything for the state. And we're already seeing a lot of interest and calls and people wanting to get in on the action.

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Cameron (10:26.328)

That's really exciting, like genuinely. That's a lot of money. That's gonna be a lot of interesting stories told about Texas, about people. It'll be really, really cool. So let me ask you this. When someone reaches out to the Fort Worth Film Commission directly, what does the process look like from scouting to permits to wrap?

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Taylor Hardy (10:46.125)

It depends on the project and their needs. We'll put together a soft incentive package for them. So it's all of the ways that we can help in Fort Worth. Things like support with hotel rooms. If you're flying in a cast member or some high level crew, we can help with discounted rates. And we also have a rebate program. So let's say you have 75 room nights in the city. We can give you a check at the end of production for $5 back per room night. We'll also help with things like scouts.

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If you're considering Fort Worth, we can fly in a few members of your production team to view the locations in the city and we'll set up an itinerary for you where you can just get a feel for what it would be like to film in Fort Worth and meet our production community.

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So we'll do hosted scouts like that. Help with location scouting as well. Our team has a gallery of about 400 film friendly locations. They're open to learning more about film productions. But if there's something that you don't see on our library that we can help search for, we want to be there to brainstorm with you. Or we can hire a local location manager to do some really deep dive scouting of our community and just get connected with those people. So it's really kind of this whole package of what are your needs?

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We also try to be a partner when it comes to marketing. So maybe you are looking for a thousand extras for a scene. We can help spread the word on our social media channels. Or if you're ready to do a local test screening or a premiere, we can help you get connected with venues and market that event. And we've really just seen that we have this engaged community, especially on our social media. We have one of the largest followings of any US-based film commission. And these people are wanting to know what's happening in the city and wanting to be involved and participate.

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So we're there to help with this kind of ultimate Fort Worth package and then hand it over to the Texas Film Commission for support on the incentive side.

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Cameron (12:33.272)

That's awesome. What kinds of productions are you looking to attract right now? Is there a particular genre, know, scale or format that fits Fort Worth especially well?

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Taylor Hardy (12:42.327)

I think we're just looking for diverse stories and people who are really passionate. It's been amazing to have Taylor Sheridan in here. He creates so many job opportunities and really drives a lot of economic impact for our city. So of course we want to continue to support him in any projects that he wants to bring our way. But I also think it's important to have a diverse set of projects, things like independent films, non-union projects so everyone can get involved and get trained, commercials, music videos, really anything. We've been, you

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fortunate to work with a number of music videos in the past as well. We had Kendrick Lamar's in 95 film downtown in our Fort Worth water gardens, which was really fun. And we do have a Fort Worth music office that's part of Visit Fort Worth, our parent company for the Film Commission as well. So I think it would be really fun to host more musicians and support projects like that as well.

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Cameron (13:31.534)

That's awesome. We've spoken briefly today about workforce development. How is Fort Worth investing in local crew and then below the line infrastructure to sustain the film growth?

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Taylor Hardy (13:43.181)

Yeah, I think beyond our program with TCC and our really intense training, we're always offering free events to our community. We try to do these every other month where we'll focus on a different topic. So just recently we brought in Lisa Freeberg, who was a former executive at DreamWorks, and she talked about how to take your project from script to screen. And it was really a deep dive on how to find financing, how to put together a pitch deck, tools for this business side of producing an independent film. I think that was really

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well-attended event and we do get so many questions on that. So was nice to be able to offer something where it's kind of a training opportunity all for free. And we'll host events like that year round. We've done things for how to get your music into feature films and brought out the music supervisor from Yellowstone, which was a very fun event. so just kind of trying to keep it fresh and making sure that we are giving back to our local community and finding ways to get them involved.

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Cameron (14:36.44)

That's awesome. So another question sort of along these lines, what role do you think local businesses play in making productions feel welcome and how do you help bridge the relationship between, you know, local businesses and productions as they roll through?

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Taylor Hardy (14:52.803)

That's a great question. think on our end, a lot of it is education. We get questions about, you know, this production wants to run out my coffee shop for the day. What kind of location rate should I charge? So we're working with them to make sure that we're advocating on both ends. You know, if we have locations that are charging astronomical fees, it doesn't make us a very film friendly city. So we're educating them on what would be an average location rate or what standard in the industry. What kind of forms do you need to have?

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So it's kind of bridging the gap in that way. But it's also been exciting too, just to educate the community on economic impact and the way that all types of businesses really can be involved in production. It's not just actors and camera rental. It's things like location fees and real estate, transportation. Our hospitality industry is so important for film productions from catering to hotel stays, car rentals. Everyone can get involved. And I think that

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That was kind of a role we took on at the Film Commission is helping people understand how.

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Cameron (15:53.346)

That's awesome. So looking ahead, what's Fort Worth vision for where it fits into the national production landscape over the next, you know, five to 10 years.

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Taylor Hardy (16:04.483)

I think it's so hard to predict what's going to happen in the future. I think we just want to continue being a welcoming place. Whatever we can say yes to, we want to help bring to the city and just continuing to watch it grow and supporting our local community.

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Cameron (16:21.304)

That's awesome. Things change, but some things never do. And being kind and open seems to be always in fashion.

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Taylor Hardy (16:27.691)

Exactly, sticking to our roots.

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Cameron (16:29.762)

That's awesome, Taylor. Thank you so much for joining me on On Production and sharing a bit about what you all are doing in Fort Worth. It's very exciting.

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Taylor Hardy (16:36.269)

Thank you so much. This was great to talk to you.

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