Kimberly Owczarski is an associate professor of film, television and digital media at TCU. She researches the relationships between media companies and has written about the recent growth of the film industry in Fort Worth. Owczarski helps students prepare to enter the field through classes such as Business of Media, Digital Distribution and TV Programming.

You earned degrees from both the University of Michigan and the University of Texas. How did your education shape your career in media studies?  

I always loved movies. I did not expect to do anything related to that because I didn’t know anyone in the industry. I took my first film class my sophomore year, and right after my very first class, I became a film major. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but I knew I loved it. Then I went to UT Austin for my master’s and my PhD. My second semester as a master’s student, I started teaching and ended up liking it. I really loved being in the classroom.

You have been a professor at TCU since 2010; what makes it different?  

I had always been at public institutions before this — the University of Arizona, Michigan and the University of Texas — so TCU was a lot smaller than anywhere I’d ever been. One of the great things is you see the same students multiple times. You often get them as freshmen and then you usually get them in their senior year. So I really feel like I get to know students.

One of the things I never really thought about was just how many relationships we have after they graduate. We talk to alumni all the time. They help us, they’ll ask us if we have people that might want internships, jobs. The relationship never ends. Our alums are very passionate, so when they’ve graduated they still feel like a part of our community. 

“Our field is not one where you can sit back and hope good things are going to come to you.”
Kimberly Owczarski

What are some of your favorite teaching moments you’ve had at TCU?

I teach a class about franchises; students have to do presentations, and they get to pick their individual topics. I had a student once — he was presenting at the beginning of class — he asked, “Can I go to the bathroom before you start class and start my presentation?” He came back five minutes later dressed as Mario because he was doing his presentation on Nintendo and Super Mario. It was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

I also had a student in a different class dress up as a banana as part of his presentation and a student who once did a rap — he rapped the entire five-minute pitch. When you get students that can do creative things they’re passionate about, you always get a little bit surprised by what they’re capable of. Even if they’re the quietest person in the class, sometimes they have these amazing presentations because they finally get to do something that’s in their wheelhouse.

I tend to teach my classes a little bit more lighthearted than others do because it’s hard to take media too seriously.

How do you incorporate industry changes into your teaching?

I’m always updating — the students are always working with new examples, getting them ready for the industry that they’re going to be in. It’s keeping aware of the trends and changing assignments to make sure you’re reflecting what’s going on. For example, I used to have them do business perspectives in my TV Programming class, where they had to pitch a show and then they also had to make a business plan for it. But that’s not how the business works anymore; they do things called pitch decks, so I’m having them do that.

This is where alums in the industry are helpful; they tell you about what’s going on.  

If you could teach a brand-new course at TCU, what would it be and why?  

I’ve always wanted to teach a class on media failures. There are so many reasons why movies, TV shows, Broadway musicals, video games fail. It’s not always because they’re bad. I think it would be a fun class — just talk about, “Why did this not work?” I write a lot about things that are successful, so I’ve always wanted to teach a class about the things that don’t work because most content fails. 

How do you measure success in your role as a professor?  

I think there’s two sides of that. One side that is we have to publish a certain amount as a research institution, so making sure you meet those goals. And we have service requirements, so making sure you’re doing all that, too. That’s the labor side.

As a professor, someone in education, it’s making sure that your students are learning what you think they should be learning — and not just for a test, but you can come back in two years and see if they still know stuff.

It’s a harder thing to measure, but I love when I have a student their freshman year, and maybe they didn’t have the best grades, and then they come back in their senior year and do these stellar presentations. You see how they’ve grown. To me, I’m a small part of that. And if they’re going into the career path that you thought they would go into, seeing them flourish there. That, to me, from the educational side, is the success.

I can tell you how many articles I get in a year — that’s pretty clear — but that impact thing takes a little bit longer. But it’s the more rewarding thing.

Among the students who have found success as film, television and digital media professionals, which qualities stand out?  

Our field is not one where you can sit back and hope good things are going to come to you. You have to network, you have to talk to people, you have to seem interested. So when students are very participatory, I think that signals some degree of success. Obviously, if they’re good writers and they’re creative, that’s all really important. I can’t make someone creative — I can help foster that, but to some degree you are or you aren’t. But I don’t necessarily think you have to be the most creative person to be successful in this industry.

Kimberly Owczarski holds a figurine of an All Terrain Armored Transport, otherwise known as an AT-AT walker, a four-legged combat vehicle first featured in the 1980 “Star Wars” film, “The Empire Strikes Back.”

You need to be able to listen to feedback and figure out how to do things better. That’s part of what college is. So those students that get that, I’m really amazed by and happy for.

What advice would you give to students who are interested in pursuing a career in the field? 

The industry is shifting, so make sure you’re reading and being aware of where the industry is going. Doing whatever you can to intern, learn from people that are working in the field and be adaptable. Having skills that can work not just in film, but in TV and social media. Being flexible enough to understand that not everything that’s entertainment is movies or Hollywood; there’s opportunities elsewhere. And finding those opportunities — work with your professors to find them. We know our alums; we know our field.

No one’s path is going to be the same. It’s hard to be a media student right now because it’s not a stable industry but that’s also what makes it cool. It’s always changing and always new. There are always new opportunities so keeping ahead of that would be my advice.

How has the study of the entertainment industry changed?

When I started many years ago, things like how many viewers were watching an episode or how many people were going to the theater opening weekend mattered. But, because of social media and streaming, those things don’t matter as much as they used to. You might be compensated differently depending on where it’s watched but from the side of the companies, they just want you to watch their content. There are many ways to consume things now but it’s hard to measure because content is so spread. Understanding what is popular and finding content that everyone knows is a lot more difficult now than it used to be. Understanding impact becomes that much harder when you just don’t have those signposts that you used to have.  

One of your research focuses is the relationships between media companies; what interests you about those? 

I’m an industry person; I spend a lot of time writing, thinking about and learning about how media companies operate. So how do things like the Marvel movies interact with theme parks?

I did a paper years ago about when Paramount and DreamWorks worked on the Transformers movies, and it was a very problematic relationship for lots of reasons. The way they interacted and why they interacted the way they did and what ended up happening is really fascinating to me because ultimately you get a movie out of it that reflects some of those conflicts. I think the text is a reflection of what’s happening behind the scenes and, for me, that’s the interesting part — more than the actual text itself. 

Which collaborations and research projects are you currently working on?

I’m working with my colleague down the hall, Tricia Jenkins, professor of film, television and digital media. We just submitted an essay on the Fort Worth Film Commission and how we’re becoming a site of production — what the drawbacks to that are and the advantages.  

I am doing a project on Hasbro, a toy company; they very briefly tried to become a film company. They got a production studio and then sold it because it’s not easy to make movies, as they found out. That should be out next year.

The Roku channel acquired the Quibi library, which was this short-form video app that literally launched in Covid and died in Covid — they had really high-profile content from a bunch of people like Steven Spielberg and Kevin Hart. I’m presenting on that this summer.

I’ve been working on an article about a television show from 2010ish from Steven Spielberg about going back in time because the world is not habitable anymore, so they’re trying to sustain themselves with dinosaurs and it’s a time travel family drama. On paper it should have succeeded, and it didn’t — it only got one season. I’m writing about the production process and what happened with that show.

How is the film industry in Fort Worth growing?

In 2015 we got our own film commission. Then Taylor Sheridan, who’s from here, starts to come back and film stuff and doesn’t want to leave Fort Worth. He wants to make as much stuff here as he can, which is great for us. He brings a lot of press, attention and money into the industry, which also brings other people. 

When I started here, there were not very many films or TV shows that had been shot here, and now we consistently have multiple shows. The Chosen shot in Mansfield — we’ve had a lot of students work on that show. Fort Worth has become a place where we can actually get students connected to real productions. We’re not LA, we’re not Austin, we’re not New York, but we’re starting to get that more consistently and it’s great for our program. It’s going to benefit everyone having a filmmaker from this area that is really passionate, and hopefully the industry will really grow.