Maura Allen Gast’s celebrated destination marketing career is a case study in creative vision. Many industry peers have relied on her “Building Blocks” model of tourism and economic development that starts and ends with creating a place that people want to visit.
Now in her 32nd year as executive director of Visit Irving, the industry star producer shared with Senior Contributor Jeff Heilman her perspective on the cinema of it all in this “highlight reel.”
“I started my journey with the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau as part of the Irving Texas Film Commission (ITFC) back in 1991,” she said. “The ITFC came as a result of late developer Trammell Crow seeing an opportunity in the late ’70s and early ’80s to establish Texas, and particularly Dallas/Fort Worth and thus Irving, as a ‘Third Coast’ of filmmaking.”
Much like the Metroplex itself, film production has undergone massive change since early ’90s.
“It was a different world back then. Long before the ubiquitous use of CGI, and now, ever-present and accessible artificial intelligence, movies, films and commercials all depended on locations to build and sell the stories,” Gast said. “A cinematic landscape required a literal cinematic landscape.
Or, at a minimum, a set or studio lot large enough to mimic nature, to build the surface of another planet, or whatever movie magic was required.
“Accordingly, Crow built the Dallas Communications Complex just minutes from where the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas stands today,” she continued. “You could walk on to this ‘lot’ with an idea for a film and leave with the finished product. Every type of company you’d need would be right there, right in the center of the country. With DFW International Airport moments away, you could fly your finished large tin movie reels out for distribution.”
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The Magic of Cinema Revealed
This Film Commission work opened her eyes to the magic of cinema, and through it the appeal of the destination.
“That job showed me a completely new world,” Gast said. “Oliver Stone was filming JFK in downtown Dallas, which was ‘dressed’ as it looked that dark day in 1963. My crush Scott Bakula was in nearby Denton filming Unnecessary Roughness. Dallas-born Marvin Lee Aday, better known as Meat Loaf, and Steve Martin filmed Leap of Faith. Ann Richards was the governor of Texas. The movie world opened its doors to her, sweeping us happily along on her coattails when pitching Irving as a location for studio consideration.”
Gast soon got involved with location scouting, which gave her a wide-ranging perspective on the Metroplex and its many appealing facets.
“My job normally involved scouting locations for films, TV series, commercials and even karaoke videos, typically responding to an inquiry searching for a certain look or feel to fit the storyline,” she said. “Sometimes, though, I proactively looked for distinct or unique features that might help Irving stand out.
“Old-school camera in hand—and with no internet to narrow the list of possibilities—I drove around the Irving area looking for the storyline,” she continued. “These ran the gamut, from Pittsburgh in the 1930s to a field for filming the ‘slow burn’ of a body. It could be an abandoned hospital, jail cell or high-rise traffic intersection. Or a resort pool, spa, golf course or hotel room. The key was that the destination had to be a well-crewed chameleon with plenty of behind-the-camera talent in place that could ‘play’ anywhere a storyline required.”
Her film industry work eventually led Gast to understand the economic impact a shoot could have on a destination, even if the context was not the most glamorous.
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“We envied the cities with shows titled and filmed on location—Providence, Streets of San Francisco, Miami Vice—they had it made!” she said. “We were just happy to land the economic boom that projects brought. Even if it was just a snarky reference to our Las Colinas Urban Center in Office Space, we were elated! We also provided shot-sheets and B-roll to Monday Night Football and the PGA network for cutaway shots that might show our Mustangs at Las Colinas by day or by night.”
Now occupied by different businesses, the Dallas Communications Complex is no longer. Opened in 1981, the Studios at Las Colinas, or the ‘soundstages,’ produced movies and TV shows including JFK, Robocop, Silkwood and Walker Texas Ranger. The facility is now named Blaze Studios.
How Film Work Informs Her DMO Leadership
But Gast is still involved in creating cinematic magic from Irving shoots, in a way, in her capacity as executive director of Visit Irving.
“Today, we still share footage of the Mustangs, which remain the perfect embodiment of Texas spirit and drama,” she offered. “And we have added to that B-roll, particularly with the dramatic and architecturally distinct Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas, which has made a ‘guest appearance’ in a number of TV shows, videos and commercials.”
The destination’s major resorts have also had a supporting role.
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“Significant reinvestments have produced exceptional resort settings for groups at Irving’s Omni Las Colinas and The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas,” Gast said. “The riparian corridor that is the Elm Fork of the Trinity River and its Campion Trails provide unexpected recreational beauty in the heart of an otherwise very urban-suburban setting. Gondolas, water trikes, stand-up paddleboards and other watercraft glide over Lake Carolyn and through its canals. Other cinematic surprises include waterfalls next door to an office building, hidden by highways and best seen from above, as an automated people mover rolls by. The boutique Texican Court is Irving’s most Instagrammed property and stands as a true one-of-a-kind property.”
Perhaps surprising to some given the massive development in the Metroplex, Irving’s natural spaces have also made a cameo.
“Outdoor venues such as Levy Event Plaza, the Plaza at Williams Square, Heritage Park and Delaware Creek Parks bring nature right up to you,” she said. “The singular H. Ferrell Hogbottoms Wildlife Refuge and Outdoor Learning Center brings one man’s passion for the world around him to life, transforming a former illegal dumping site into something very special… and now that I think about it, there might be an Irving-based and named reality show here just waiting to get out.”
