Dallas' New Film Commissioner Thinks Big D Is Ready for Its Close-Up

Dallas Film Commissioner Katie Schuck has spent the first two months in her new role integrating herself into the city’s production scene and charting a path forward for her office.

Neither wind nor snow deters her, as Schuck recently attended the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, braving the cold weather to network while extolling the virtues of filming in Dallas.

“A film commissioner’s top priority is to market the destination that they’re representing,” says Schuck of her role. “So my job is to attract as many projects as possible to our area so that our local crews can work, our local vendors can generate film dollars, and our city gets to benefit from film-induced tourism.”

Schuck says the tourism aspect is important. In addition to bringing people to the city to work on productions, her office helps get Dallas featured in projects, which pays dividends when people want to visit shooting locations from their favorite shows or movies.

While the city has a strong film infrastructure, which she can cite when pitching to producers, Schuck’s office is able to leverage everything that makes Dallas unique in her conversations.

“Dallas is an incredible city,” she says. “It has fantastic architecture and is consistently named and awarded for being one of the top architectural destinations in the United States. So all of those things translate to being cinematic and being worthy of being captured on the silver screen.”

Another thing Schuck loves to promote about the city: the food.

“I’m originally a New Yorker,” she says. “I’m a foodie. I love eating out, and Dallas is just top echelon for its food scene.”

While she started out in New York, Schuck has lived all over the Northeast. She spent time in Delaware and Pennsylvania then went back to New York to work in the entertainment industry.

Schuck says that a career in the arts was a natural fit for her. She was a theater kid who did not want to be an actor but fell in love with the technical side of productions. In high school, she began learning about video production, and the rest is history.

“I was just hooked,” she says. “I loved every aspect of worldbuilding and creating images and because it really is theater. It’s all play, it’s playing pretend, but there’s a technical aspect to it that’s challenging and fun.”

When production began picking up in Georgia, thanks to the state’s generous tax incentives, Schuck followed the work. After the 2007-08 Writer’s Guild of America strike, she earned a master’s degree in film and television from Savannah College of Art and Design before returning to New York, where she worked on daytime talk shows.

“I kept getting phone calls from my friends in Georgia who had stayed behind,” recalls Schuck. They told her work was plentiful in the area. She began flying back and forth between New York and Georgia, working on locations, a significant change from the work she was used to.

“I had mostly been doing studio stuff and unscripted, and I just fell in love with locations, and it used both sides of my brain. It was like a little bit of the creative side and then all of the logistical side, and it just kind of mashed them. And I loved doing it.”

Ultimately, Schuck was recruited to work for the Savannah Regional Film Commission, where she developed a passion for policy. She spent over eight years there, acquiring the skills and experience she is now putting to work in Dallas.

While bringing productions to Dallas is a major focus for her office, Schuck says the film commission will also continue to provide educational opportunities and support workforce development initiatives, similar to what her predecessor, Tony Armer, oversaw.

“Think of the film commission as a resource of resources,” Schuck says. Its website provides information on opportunities and guidelines for film workers in the Dallas market.

Beyond serving crewmembers and creatives, the commission also works closely with the city to ensure rules and permits are adhered to by productions, limiting disruptions or inconveniences for residents.

“We want to make sure that people are understanding of how filming in our city benefits us,” Schuck says. There is a reason cities like to see their name in the titles of shows like Chicago Fire, NYPD Blue, etc. “It’s the best unpaid advertisement that we can have as a market.”

Dallas was fortunate in the past to have a hit television series that shared its name, but the market is ripe for something new.

While Schuck is leading the charge, she is assisted by Austin Flores, a location specialist for her office. His focus is primarily on helping her advertise the variety and quality of locations available in the Dallas area. The two want to draw landmark projects to the city to increase its cultural cachet, fill its coffers and show what Dallas has to offer.

Though the entertainment industry has been in a state of flux, Schuck believes Dallas will be a compelling home for future productions. With visually striking scenery, easily accessible rural and urban filming locations, and a vibrant cultural scene, she hopes to see the city grow as a hub for an industry resurgence in the United States.

“There’s no better way to sell Americana than to be in Texas,” says Schuck. “That’s for sure.”