Jason Toledo, Karenth Guzmán and Josh Cornelius graduated from the Fort Worth Film Collaborative certificate program not only with practical skills, but with new team members for a production company they created called The Operators.
They make up most of a five-person crew, and they have already used their new skills to work on projects, including a feature film that will be sold to a streaming service.
“After we went through the program, we were prepared to let the director know if there’s anything that he needed, we actually had a crew that we all met at the film collaborative that could help, and then he took us up on that and we ended up shooting a feature,” Toledo said.
The collaborative held its inaugural graduation earlier this month. The film collaborative is the product of a partnership between Tarrant County College, the Fort Worth Film Commission and 101 Studios, the entertainment company that produced Taylor Sheridan’s hit shows “Yellowstone” and “Landman.”
The program is tailored specifically to industry needs to help students get jobs, said Kirsten Jakowitsch, interim TCC Northeast Campus president.
“We want them to be employable because, ultimately, to make an impact in the community, to help them be more prosperous, we need to make sure that they’re not just getting those certificates, that they’re getting jobs,” she said.
The Fort Worth film industry is booming, supported in large part by Sheridan’s shows. The industry has generated over 30,000 local jobs, according to the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership.
Local production companies as well as operations from out of town have shown interest in hiring graduates of the program, Fort Worth Film Commissioner Taylor Hardy said. One graduate was hired to work on the second season of “Landman.”
“We’re really fortunate to have partners that want to give back and make sure that they’re building the industry here rather than coming in, bringing people and leaving,” she said.
Sheridan’s production company SGS Studios, in partnership with Hillwood and Paramount Television, is building a campus that will be home to the largest production studio in Texas.
For the next 10 years, the state will offer $300 million in film incentives every two years as part of a new law the Texas Legislature approved earlier in the year. Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, Sheridan and Texas actors such as Matthew McConaughey advocated for incentives.
The local film industry is seeing immense growth and is not going anywhere, said TCC instructor Darryl Hoelting, who previously taught classes to film collaborative students.
“The opportunity is absolutely incredible,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of work within the next couple of years.”
TCC is adding four new certificates to its program this spring: costume, sound, camera and art.
Hardy anticipates the state’s recently boosted incentive program will drive more local production.
“We want to make sure that we’re prepared for that and training the next generation,” she said.
McKinnon Rice is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org.
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