Duncanville Arts Foundation
Film & Digital Media Certification Committee
Advancing Duncanville’s pursuit of Texas Film Commission recognition through the Film Friendly Texas and Digital Media Friendly Texas programs, with a clear plan and a clear ask of your time.
Charge of the committee
Purpose
To lend professional experience and community credibility to the Foundation’s efforts to pursue Texas Film Commission recognition through the Film Friendly Texas and Digital Media Friendly Texas programs. The committee helps identify community needs, provide industry insight, and support recommendations that expand opportunities for local filmmakers, digital creators, and creative entrepreneurs.
What we are pursuing
The Programs
The Texas Film Commission runs two certifications for communities that want to host creative production. Duncanville is pursuing both, on parallel tracks. Each card describes the program and lists everything it asks for, drawn from the Commission’s own certification pages.
Film Friendly Texas
For on-location production
Established in 2007 and administered by the Texas Film Commission, it certifies communities ready to host on-location filming, with ongoing training and a place in a statewide network of more than two hundred communities.
- Designate a community liaison affiliated with local government to handle on-location filming requests such as use of city property, roads, and sidewalks.
- Attend a Texas Film Commission “How to Become a Film Friendly Texas Certified Community” workshop.
- Adopt administratively enforceable filming guidelines and a permit application.The state provides an editable template; the City customizes and adopts it.
- Submit photos of at least five filming locations for the state location database.
Digital Media Friendly Texas
For digital creative industries
It extends the same welcome to animation, visual effects, video games, and extended reality, connecting a certified community with digital media companies and professionals and helping it cultivate local talent.
- Designate a digital media liaison, who may work for a municipality or a nonprofit economic-development or tourism organization, and who files an initial report and quarterly reports.
- Attend a Texas Film Commission digital media workshop.
- Register digital media resources in the Texas Production Directory.For a community of Duncanville’s size, the minimum is one listing, and an existing listing counts once it is verified.
- Form a digital media committee of three or more local stakeholders in animation, visual effects, video games, or extended reality that meets with some regularity and reports its progress.
The setting
A community built for creative work
Duncanville offers a distinctive North Texas setting for film and digital media projects, combining small-city character with convenient access to the Dallas-Fort Worth creative economy. The community includes historic Main Street character, established neighborhoods, parks, civic spaces, commercial corridors, and emerging arts infrastructure that can support location-based production, digital storytelling, video, podcasting, gaming, animation, immersive media, and creative workforce development.
Duncanville welcomes film and digital media projects that bring creative work, visitor activity, and economic opportunity into the community.
Invited to serve
Invitees
These members bring the working knowledge of people who make things, from the editing bay to the radio booth to the city offices, and they lend that experience to the Foundation’s certification work. This initial committee represents the organizing structure, and additional experts will be recruited as the process moves forward.
Karen Cherry-Brown
Podcast Producer
Alex Hamby
City of Duncanville
Stern McGee
Video Game Developer
Daniel Nanasi
Filmmaker
Angie Romero
Digital Media Producer
Samuel Thomas
Filmmaker
Ron Thompson
Duncanville Arts Foundation
IP Attorney
SFX
Educator
Esports
Animation
Where we stand
Progress to date
This committee is the working body for both certifications, Film Friendly Texas and Digital Media Friendly Texas. Its seven members carry the mix each track calls for: two filmmakers, a digital media producer, a podcast producer, a video game developer, a City representative, and a nonprofit representative. Because one committee serves both tracks, it also stands as the digital media committee that Digital Media Friendly Texas requires.
The board below follows the same milestones the Texas Film Commission Community Liaison Portal records for each program. The Film Friendly Texas workshop is attended; the rest is the work ahead.
The destination
What “ready to submit” means
Neither program has a single application form. Each track is a short checklist plus one Texas Film Commission workshop, finalized by the liaison through the state portal. The two tracks now sit at different stages: the Film Friendly Texas workshop is attended, while Digital Media Friendly Texas has its own workshop still ahead.
On the Film Friendly side, the pace turns on the City’s adoption of the filming guidelines, the step that runs through municipal review. On the Digital Media side, it turns on the next available workshop, offered about twice a year, so registering for that session is the useful first move. The Film Friendly takeaway sheets are posted in the Download Center below.
Projected activity
The monthly calendar
Before the calendar begins
The Film Friendly Texas workshop is attended. Two setup steps remain: request Community Liaison Portal accounts for the designated liaisons, and register for the next Digital Media Friendly Texas workshop. The months assume a June 2026 start; the digital media side shifts to match that workshop date.
Foundation team
- Confirm liaison assignments for both tracks.
- Request portal accounts and register for the next workshop.
- Finalize the committee charge and confirm Invitees.
Invitees
Zoom kickoff- Meet, walk through both programs and this timeline, and choose your level of involvement.
Foundation team
- Draft the City’s filming guidelines and permit application from the state template; route to City administration and legal for review.
- Scout and photograph candidate filming locations.
- Identify a local animation, VFX, video game, or XR resource for the Texas Production Directory and begin outreach.
Invitees
- Optional review window: comment on the draft guidelines, and suggest or vouch for filming locations and digital media contacts.
Foundation team
- Liaison attends the Digital Media Friendly Texas workshop when the next session is offered.
- Keep the filming guidelines moving through City review.
- Help the digital media resource complete its directory listing.
Invitees
- First digital media committee meeting, virtual or in person: set ongoing objectives and pick a first action item. This meets the requirement and feeds the initial report.
- Optional: review the draft initial report before it is filed.
Foundation team
- Secure City adoption of the filming guidelines and upload them to the portal.
- Submit the location photos to the state database.
- Confirm the directory listing is live and verified.
- Record committee membership for the portal and draft the initial digital media report.
Invitees
- Optional final look at the location set and the committee roster, and confirmation of continued participation.
Foundation team
- Final check against both checklists.
- Film Friendly Texas: submit the adopted guidelines and locations, and request designation.
- Digital Media Friendly Texas: confirm the workshop, listing, and committee, file the initial report, and request designation.
Invitees
- Optional brief sign-off on the finished package.
For the Invitees
Your time, at a glance
Two live touchpoints carry the certification: the kickoff Zoom and one digital media committee meeting. Everything else is optional and most of it can be done on your own schedule.
Minimum involvement
3 to 4 hours
Across the whole timeline. Attend the kickoff, glance at documents when asked, and join one digital media committee meeting.
Fuller involvement
6 to 9 hours
Across the whole timeline. Take on a committee action item, help shape the documents, and join the optional monthly check-ins.
Worth knowing
Three planning notes
- Two clocks set the pace. On Film Friendly Texas, with the workshop attended, the City’s adoption of the filming guidelines is the gating step. On Digital Media Friendly Texas, it is the next available workshop, offered about twice a year. Register for that session early, and the rest moves alongside both.
- The two liaison roles sit in different places. Film Friendly Texas asks for a liaison affiliated with local government, so that role belongs to City of Duncanville staff. Digital Media Friendly Texas accepts a nonprofit economic-development or tourism organization, so the Foundation can hold that one.
- The digital media committee has a specific shape. The state asks for three or more stakeholders in animation, visual effects, video games, or extended reality, and reads that broadly to include educators, esports organizers, podcasters, and other creators. It is worth confirming that at least three Invitees can speak to those fields, or adding a local gaming, animation, or XR voice or two.
How we work
Meetings & Minutes
The committee meets on a regular schedule, sets ongoing objectives, and keeps a record of its work. Minutes are posted here after each meeting.
- Date forthcoming Inaugural meeting Minutes forthcoming
A regular meeting cadence with documented objectives and progress reporting is part of the Digital Media Friendly Texas certification, so this record serves both transparency and the program requirement.
Resources
Download Center
Program overviews, committee materials, and reference documents, gathered in one place.