The University has been helpful in providing people for the high tech growth of Austin, the capital city located in the heart of Central
Texas.Michael Dell, former student and current Chairman of the Board of Dell
Inc., kept his successful company, that he started out of his dorm room, in Austin, keeping the city and the university at the
forefront of technology.The University also includes the highly recognized Radio, Television, and Film (RTF) department and, partly because of this,
Austin has been the location of a number of movies, including Secondhand Lions, Waking Life,
Spy Kids, Dazed and Confused, Office Space, The Life of David Gale, and Slacker. Austin has spawned several well-known directors, including Robert Rodriguez (an RTF alumnus), Richard
Linklater, and Wes Anderson. Austin hosts the annual Austin Film
Festival and the South by Southwest Festival, both of which
draw diverse films from all over the world.Lately Austin's film industry has been rapidly growing, and in 2004 was named #1 in
Moviemaker Magazine's Annual Top 10 Cities to live and make movies. The RTF department has also begun a private production
company called Burnt Orange Productions, seeking to use the talents of upper division and graduate RTF students
in shooting independent feature films for distribution.