The Best Places to Live and Work as a MovieMaker in 2025, Including Austin<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nShe also attended lots of music festivals, and wanted to capture their harmonious atmosphere. They also turned to Kickstarter to raise money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe got feedback from people who wanted to, you know \u2014 watch Friday Night Lights<\/em> in a parking lot together. And creators didn\u2019t have that audience experience. The people who made TV and watched TV never got to watch it together,\u201d says McFarland. <\/p>\n\n\n\nATX started simply: About 700 people attended the first edition. HBO was among the companies that understood the vision early. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe very first year when we pitched this, they gave us like $2,000 and a rerun of True Blood. <\/em>But it came with the message of, \u2018We want to be here when you turn 10. We want to be a part of this. We want to help you grow it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nATX has surpassed that milestone, and this year\u2019s edition \u2014 dubbed Season 14 \u2014 is packed with stars like Seth Meyers, Christine Baranski, Jon Hamm, Steve Zahn, and Brett Goldstein, as well as Scrubs<\/em> and Bad Monkey<\/em> creator Bill Lawrence. A Leftovers<\/em> retrospective will include co-creator Damon Lindelof and star Carrie Coon. Andor<\/em> creator\/executive producer Tony Gilroy and writer Beau Willimon will talk about constructing the world of the critically-acclaimed Disney+ Star Wars<\/em> series. And Mike Judge and Greg Daniels will reminisce about King of the Hill<\/em> and preview the new Hulu revival.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe festival makes sure everyone is there for the love of TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe like to make sure everybody has a margarita and a taco and feels very taken care of,\u201d says McFarland. \u201cBut it is not a red velvet ropes, red carpet, per diem, we-paid-you-to-be-on-this stage kind of space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou want to be a part of this community. You want to market your show. You want to find your audience. You want to network with your peers. But you\u2019re here for the experience, not the payday. We don\u2019t pay appearance fees,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everyone, celebrities and fans included, are asked to abide by a simple motto: Be cool. That means no big attitudes, and no harassing or crowding stars, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe heartbeat of the festival, both on the panelist side and the attendee side, is that from the beginning they\u2019ve established this energy, this vibe at the festival,\u201d says Gipson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd so people that come in through the doors, they pick up on it, and they follow along, and the other attendees will be the first ones to tell someone, like, \u2018You need to calm down.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ATX Brings Fans and Industry Together<\/h2>\n\n\n\n(L-R) Sam Levinson, Zendaya and Hunter Schaefer at ATX\u2019s 2019 <\/em>Euphoria panel.\u00a0 Photo by Jack Plunket, courtesy of ATX<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe goes-both-ways approach also applies to the numbers: The thousands of people at the festival are split almost exactly between fans and industry professionals. And the festival allows a rare opportunity for professionals to be<\/em> fans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cPeople who make TV love<\/em> TV, and they don\u2019t get to celebrate it that often,\u201d says McFarland. \u201cSo one of our greatest joys was watching showrunners run to an Aaron Sorkin panel or the \u2018Presidents on TV\u2019 panel, and they want to sit in the audience and listen to their peers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s really beautiful to have them not just do their panel and leave town. They\u2019re able to stick around and network in the best way, and learn from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are some opportunities for career enhancement, including a pitch competition overseen by Gipson, in which finalists run their ideas past showrunners and executives. They develop both a four-minute elevator pitch and 12-to-15-minute pitch for studio and network representatives, including visuals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But most of the focus is on fun, not acquisitions or money. And ATX places a premium on keeping things familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur goal is not to be SXSW or Austin City Limits. We want to be smaller and intimate and accessible, because we believe that\u2019s what TV has that other mediums don\u2019t: You often watch it in your living room, alone or with a small group of people, or your family,\u201d says McFarland. \u201cWe are bringing the community together, and we want them to be able to see each other. We\u2019ve done 2,000- or 3,000-seat venues for very big things, but a lot of our stuff is 50 to 500 people in a room, and we\u2019re really trying to be as intimate as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She summarizes: \u201cThis is TV camp for grown-ups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nATX\u2019s 2023 <\/em>Righteous Gemstones panel. Photo by Jack Cohen, courtesy of ATX<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn the early years of ATX, broadcast networks still ruled and Netflix was launching one of the first original streaming hits, House of Cards<\/em>. Gipson and McFarland have seen TV trends come and go, heard numerous declarations of a new golden age, and been repeatedly informed that things will never be so good again. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSo they\u2019ve learned to expect pendulum swings. They\u2019ve also had to find a modern definition for the word \u201cTV.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur current definition is that it\u2019s episodic,\u201d says McFarland. \u201cFeature-length films are not things we do. But whether scripted or unscripted: Is the story told in some version of chapters? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhere you watch it, how you watch it, and who\u2019s making it, have all changed in 14 years. But we hold on to that episodic piece.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One trend they see changing is the practice of a streamer dropping an entire season at once. They think the traditional broadcast practice of releasing a new episode a week \u2014 a longstanding practice of HBO\/Max, and the approach of new hits like Apple TV+\u2019s Severance \u2014 <\/em>is regaining popularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIf it\u2019s coming out week to week, then people are really deep-diving into it, week to week, and they\u2019re really immersing themselves in it. And it is now a 10-week conversation, as opposed to a weekend conversation,\u201d says Gipson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople that make TV really love and value that \u2014 because they don\u2019t want this thing that they worked on for years to just be consumed in a weekend and then forgotten about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Main image: ATX founders Emily Gipson, left, and Caitlin McFarland.\u00a0Photo by Jack Plunket, courtesy of ATX.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caitlin McFarland and Emily Gipson were Hollywood assistants who decided, around 2010, that they wanted to work for a TV","protected":false},"author":1641,"featured_media":1179397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_comments":false,"cm_data":"","cpt_newsletter_id":0,"tpd_coauthor":[],"tpd_feed_delay":[],"is_tpd_lists_single_post":false,"tpd_featured_posts_arr":"","tpd_franchise_content":"","hide_featured_img_single_post":false,"msn_featured_video":[],"_msn_custom_title":"","tpd_featured_video":[],"tpd_sponsored_post_logo":"","tpd_sponsored_post_logo_link":"","tpd_sponsored_post_logo_width":0,"tpd_sponsored_enable_nofollow":true,"tpd_disable_incontent_ads":false,"tpd_disable_right_rail_ads":false,"tpd_disable_after_content_ads":false,"tpd_disable_header_ads":false,"tpd_disable_sticky_footer_ads":false,"tpd_disable_video_ads":false,"tpd_disable_outbrain":false,"tpd_affiliate_disclaimer":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,41495],"tags":[41986,6395,8568],"coauthor":[],"feeds":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1179394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-festivals","8":"category-film-festivals","9":"tag-atx","10":"tag-festivals","11":"tag-television"},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ATX-Founders--428x241.jpg","fimg_url_thumb":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ATX-Founders--428x241.jpg","fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ATX-Founders--788x444.jpg","author_name":"Tim Molloy","author_avatar":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/IMG_1078-100x100.jpg","author_link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/author\/tim-molloy\/","coauthors":[],"primary_category":{"term_id":34,"name":"Festivals","slug":"festivals","taxonomy":"category","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/category\/archives\/festivals\/"},"featured_img_medium":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ATX-Founders--788x444.jpg","post_categories":["Festivals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1179394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1179397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1179394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1179394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1179394"},{"taxonomy":"coauthor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthor?post=1179394"},{"taxonomy":"feeds","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feeds?post=1179394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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