For a long time, Austin has been considered the “Third Coast” in the film industry, with more filmmakers on the rise in Austin, and more Hollywood types coming to Austin to shoot their movies. One of the biggest proponents of the up and coming filmmakers is UT’s Radio-Television-Film department. Though the film courses are a challenge to get into, with many vying for a slot and low numbers of students per class, many consider the red tape worth it, as UT has become a highly regarded film school, comparable to UCLA or NYU. Though UT’s film school is on the rise, Austin is still not the heart of the movie industry, but some graduate students have taken it upon themselves to get UT’s student films in from of Hollywood big shots, and created their own film festival called CinemaTexas. The award winners of the UT student film festival, with help from prominent UT alumni, get their movies screened before the Director’s Guild in Los Angeles, solidifying CinemaTexas as a true festival. In 2003, the University of Texas Film Institute (UTFI) was set up. Not only does it help students keep up with the newest film technologies, but it is also partnered with Burnt Orange Productions, allowing students to participate directly on feature length big budget independent films. Some local budding filmmakers looking to gain some skills, but not deal with UT’s bureaucracy find themselves enrolling at Austin FilmWorks. Their 14 week-long course is taught by former UT professor, Steve Mims. When Robert Rodriguez couldn’t get into UT’s film school due to a low GPA, he turned to Mims’ classes for insight, and considers him a crucial influence on his filmmaking skills. In the mid 1980s, local filmmaker and creator of cult hit Slacker Richard Linklater, helped create the Austin Film Society as a non-profit educational organization. Though the organization began strictly as a film appreciation group, today the Austin Film Society holds their own filmmaking camps for Austin’s youth, has discussion panels with experts in different aspects of moviemaking, and offers an internship program. In 1999, Richard Linklater, Robert Rodriguez, and other movie making heavy hitters approached the Austin City council explaining that Austin was becoming a moviemaking hotbed which could lead to several million dollars for the city. Linklater and Rodriguez went on to point out that office and studio space was hard to come by, due to Austin’s constant popularity and the tech boom of the time. In November of 2000, the Austin Film Society leased the old Robert Mueller airport from the city for a mere 100 dollars a year, and has turned the old hangars into official sound stages called Austin Studios. Sandra Bullock was the first to bring Hollywood to town with her Warner Brothers movie “Miss Congeniality” which used two stages for 5 months. Since then, several feature length movies have been shot at the studios, as well as documentaries, television commercials, music videos, and photo shoots. With over 100,000 square feet of production space, and a tolerance for productions at any budget level, the Austin Studios have become popular among multimillion dollar blockbusters and local low budget creations alike. With the variety of filmmaking options to local Austinites, and the amount of high end productions coming into town, the possibility of becoming a filmmaker, or running into a Hollywood movie star, are ever increasing. Ki is a real estate agent in Austin. His site has a free search of the Austin MLS along with background information on Austin real estate and downtown Austin condos

The South by Southwest Music Festival has been running strong, and getting stronger, since it originated in 1987. Austin considers itself the live music capital of the world, and though cities would like to battle that claim, musicians and music industry types clamor to the capital of Texas every March from around the globe. Austin has had an entertainment district for several decades. As the home of the state government and the University of Texas, Austin has always had lively nightspots, some of which date back to the 1800s, when many of General Custer’s troops poured into clubs after the Civil War. The majority of these clubs were located along 6th street and 4th street, where the entertainment district is still located today, and the musical styles varied widely due to the mix of Mexican, colonial and German settlers. The area today hosts the highest concentration of original music nightclubs of any other city worldwide. In 1986, the New Music Seminar in New York invited many of Austin’s local bands to their popular music convention, and discussed having another one in Austin the next year, and it would be called the New Music Seminar Southwest. Though the New Music Seminar group pulled out shortly after their announcement, Louis Black and his cohorts ran with the idea, and started up their own festival and conference, calling it South by Southwest. In 1986, those working on the festival announced the idea at a BMI seminar at the Hyatt, and the buzz began. A few of those working on the event were also working at The Chronicle at the time, and they began getting the word out to other alternative newspapers around the country. Knowing they didn’t have the serious industry connections on the east or west coast, an ad and story was run in Billboard magazine, which really fueled the fire. Executives from major record and publishing companies from New York, Nashville and Los Angeles began to register for the conference. Though the South by Southwest crew originally shot for 150 registrants their first year, more than 700 turned up. Having the SXSW Music Festival in Austin was beneficial for the music industry as well as the local musicians: the music business was curious about Austin’s live music scene and had a reason to visit the city, and the musicians, who are normally isolated from the rest of the country in the middle of Texas, get a chance to do business with the industry from the comfort of their own backyard. In 1988, SXSW fever had hit the international stage, after the hometown bands found some success in Europe, and the interest from those attending the festival in seeing international acts perform. Now SXSW has offices in Europe, Australia, and Japan to help those international bands with their travel arrangements, get their visas in order, and find housing upon arrival. As Austin changed and grew, hi tech companies moved in and the film industry deemed Austin as “The Third Coast.” In 1994, SXSW added a film festival and an interactive festival that tied into their music festival, stretching SXSW over two weekends during spring break, when many students have left the town. Now the festival, which started with 700 in attendance, has grown to 10,000 participants this past year. Ki works as an Austin realtor in the central Texas real estate market. His website provides a Austin MLS search along with up to date details on the Austin Texas real estate market.