The movie industry is a very mobile industry, so when Georgia in Early 2008 came up with a better incentive than Louisiana, productions and crew left Louisiana in droves. Where Louisiana excelled in 2008, Georgia ran with it in 2009. Louisiana, with the typical politics, wasted valuable time trying to come up with a better incentives to match or out do other states loosing millions in productions in the process. Finally in July, the Governor signed a better incentive putting Louisiana back in the game. Wasting no time, productions instantly were back in force, with 3 in Shreveport, 4 or so in New Orleans 3 in Baton Rouge and a couple in other parts of the state. Now we can see if the productions will pay off and the crew that has waited it out will get back to work.
One major production, Battle Los Angeles, will film most of their exterior shots in Shreveport while most studio work will be done in Baton Rouge which is a major boost to both markets who have lacked in productions this year. Louisiana had over 80 productions last year will be lucky to break 40 this year which is a huge decrease in movies and money.
Louisiana may have a few other films coming in before the end of the year but of course some are rumors and others may run into money problems, you never know until they are set up and have opened an office. Nicolas Cage is supposed to film one more film before the end of the year under contract with Millennium studios. Secretariat is rumored to film in the fall in Lafayette. First Wedding, Then Marriage is in pre-production in New Orleans and a few other productions are still looking at shooting in Louisiana to take advantage of our new Tax Incentives.
This year may not be record breaking though it has been bank breaking and 2010 is looking better and better. Thank you to all who have stuck it out in Louisiana and did not make the move to better and greener pastures and let's hope 2010 is a steller year.
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