AUSTIN, Texas — Blake Messick is taking his passion for being a creative to new heights, literally.
“I am afraid of heights. But when you’re up there, it’s definitely not that bad. It’s not as steep as it looks from here,” said Messick.
Messick and a group of friends set their sights on the popular Pennybacker 360-bridge as a blank canvas to show appreciation to their new home. The group aimed to give locals their own taste of Hollywood, with a 6-letter sign that reads Austin in the distance.
“Getting the sign up there took about three days of production to get the sign manufactured and then the actually hanging of the time where we guess would take 30-min ended up taking about 4 hours,” said Messick.
The stunt happened over the Fourth of July weekend in the wee hours of the morning. He and his friends each carried a letter alongside the popular bridge.
"Eventually we landed on the idea of taking the most iconic landmarks in Los Angeles and adding it to the most iconic landmark in Austin,” he said.
With counties in Bastrop and San Marcos giving the green light to multi-million dollar movie production studios, Messick believes Austin could be the next “Hollywood” for content creators.
Messick says he and his friends moved to Austin from Houston with a goal of creating content. A move that would traditionally be to California was just a few hours away.
“We saw a lot of potential in Austin and the creative scene could just explode and that how we came up with the saying Austin is the new LA and once we had that idea we just wanted to do a big stunt to kind of show that to the public,” said Messick.
Messick says the sign was a temporary gesture. While he removed the sign and dismantled it, he hopes officials in Capital City will aim just as high for supporting creatives.
“I think it’d be awesome if in the future the city can recognize this creative boom that’s going on and somehow find ways to encourage artists in the city. Maybe not an Austin Hollywood sign, but something similar. Just something to show public support for this creative culture that’s sweeping through,” said Messick.