Car commercial shoot takes over downtown Elgin

Elgin’s Main Street was transformed into a set for a car commercial June 14, drawing the attention of residents and local business owners.

ELGIN, Texas - The film crew takeover of downtown Elgin started early Wednesday morning, an unexpected surprise for people walking in town like Tabitha Tabares and her son.

"For him is the most movie people who've ever…he's ever seen before in one spot. So it's like, well, we'll walk through, and we're going to go check out the shops, and we'll get a two for one. Maybe we'll see what they’re making down there," said Tabares.

Elgin’s Main Street was transformed into a set for a car commercial. Ally Mattila and her kids came down to see the show.

"I think it's amazing. I mean, the town is so small and cute and just to bring more awareness to it with all especially all the local businesses, it's so fun," said Mattila.

Business owners had to work around the excitement.

"Oh, yeah. This doesn't happen every day. It's awesome. It's awesome," said Dianne Dighman.

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From her storefront window, Dighman spent the day watching the production crew work. She also was able to keep working on her sewing projects.

"I have to inform my customers what's going on. Yeah, and that. And they do reimburse us. So it's not like we're high and dry. They do think about us small businesses," said Dighman.

That reimbursement was for the loss of parking spaces on Main Street, as they were blocked off for the commercial shoot. Some locations like the Lo-Fi Coffee shop adjusted the business day around the shoot.

"So we normally open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays. We just moved our hours up to accommodate for the road closures, so we opened up a couple of hours earlier. We're going to close a couple of hours earlier to avoid the complete road closures," said Ashley Dahlke.

Matthew Rudge, the commercial's line producer, says Central Texas is a top movie hub which he ranks just behind New York, L.A., Atlanta and New Orleans.

"It's it feels more real. L.A. has been shot a million times. You've seen the same thing over and over and over again. It just, give us something different, something that really makes you look at the spot and see what it's about," said Rudge.

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The state has programs to lure film productions to Texas. An effort to provide additional tax breaks failed to gain traction during the regular session. Rudge offered advice on how to keep the spotlight on Texas movie making.

"Make it easy. Keep making it easy. Having less red tape with filming, pulling film permits in the area makes it a lot more, I guess, efficient for us to be able to do in a short amount of time. I was able to pull this shoot together in less than a week if I was in L.A. this take me 2 to 3 weeks. So keep the red tape away, and it's going to draw us more and more business," said Rudge.

Elgin may be known by most people for the local BBW, but the outside attention is extra PR according to Christina Martin. She works in a Main Street office.

"I think it's awesome. I really think that it kind of spreads the community and makes it known that this little place like Elgin is out here," said Martin.

The commercial shoot was scheduled to end Wednesday, June 14 around 8 p.m.