Battle Los Angeles; Maybe Battle Louisiana?

The citizens of Los Angeles, Calif. are about to go to war against the aliens that have invaded their great city in the new film 'Battle: Los Angeles,' and ET's with the actors of the film's Marine platoon as they spill some set secrets.

Aaron Eckhart revealed to ET at the 2010 Comic Con event that though the movie is set in L.A., it was actually filmed in Louisiana. "We filmed it in Louisiana in the middle of summer. It was quite a physical and mental experience. ... L.A., Louisiana," he says of filming the movie in the South.

Aaron described the film: "It's an alien invasion movie meets a war movie. Aliens, for some reason, have come out of the Santa Monica bay to come take over Los Angeles. It's a global invasion and the first strike is in Los Angeles. ... We're a platoon of Marines that goes in and takes care of business."

Michelle Rodriguez refers to her costar Eckhart as "one awesome cat." However, Michelle didn't seem too confident that he'd be able to battle aliens in real life. "He's so sweet!"

Eckhart plays the leader of the platoon but told ET that he doesn't think that he'd be able to fend off aliens in real life. "I'm not sure if we could take on aliens. We could take on Canadians," he said jokingly.

'Battle: Los Angeles' hits theaters March, 2011.
http://www.etonline.com/news/2010/07/89406/

True Money by By Stephanie Riegel

Greater Baton Rouge Business Report


Straw Weisman was looking for a place to film The Big Valley, a big-budget film version of the 1960s TV Western, he chose Baton Rouge, not exactly a dead ringer for 19th-century Stockton, Calif.

While Louisiana’s capital city might lack mountains and tumbleweed-swept desertscapes, it has several things that were more important to the West Coast-based movie producer: namely, tax incentives, a state-of-the-art studio and a local industry that’s willing to bend over backwards to make his job as easy as possible.

“Baton Rouge is on the verge of becoming the next major film town in America,” Weisman says. “The facilities are here, the infrastructure is here and there is a we-can-help-you-get-it-done attitude that is extremely conducive.”

Weisman isn’t the only person to notice.

No less than four major films are being shot here this summer, and the sight of film crews setting up lights and cameras on street corners has become almost as common as sightings of Patrick Dempsey, the handsome Grey’s Anatomy star who has dined at local restaurants and regularly exercised at University and City Park lakes for the past two months while on location for the filming of Flypaper.

All this movie business is adding up to big business for the local economy, though exact numbers are hard to come by. Dozens of service-related companies have sprung up in the past couple of years to provide everything from transportation to lighting and gripping. Other companies—stunt agencies, caterers and sound-effects specialists—have relocated from big-movie markets such as Los Angeles and south Florida.

Even local companies with no previous connection to the entertainment industry suddenly are finding a new market for their products and services.

ON THE SET: True Blood, the HBO series starring Anna Paquin as a telepathic waitress and Stephen Moyer as the vampire with whom she falls in love, filmed on location last summer in the Capital Region. Director Michael Cuesta (above, right) talks on the phone as grips set up the room for filming in Baton Rouge.

“It’s not a large portion of our business yet,” says John Holmes, whose Holmes Building Materials is supplying lumber and hardware for the construction of sets at Celtic Media Centre. “But it’s a special niche where we can do very well.”

The trends are positive, but those in the industry say Baton Rouge has not quite arrived as a full-service, movie-making destination. The city still lacks a critical mass of post-production facilities, particularly in the visual-effects arena. For a number of reasons, producers still do the bulk of their editing, mixing and special effects closer to their homes in Los Angeles or New York.

“A lot of the people who come here don’t have all the connections or the confidence that this is a good place to do post-work,” says Jerry Gilbert, whose firm Post Digital does audio effects for movies. “It’s starting to get there, but it’s not there yet.”

Hooray for Hollywood South

When the state first created the tax incentive program that would come to be known as “Hollywood South” in 2002, Baton Rouge was barely on the map as a movie-making destination. New Orleans was thought to be the star attraction among the state’s major cities, not only because it was the biggest city with the deepest talent pool, but because of its rich architectural offerings.

But Shreveport and Baton Rouge quickly caught up, especially after Hurricane Katrina forced production crews doing business in the Crescent City to move elsewhere in the state.

Of the 15 movies currently in production in Louisiana, six are being shot in New Orleans, four in Baton Rouge, three in Shreveport and two in Lafayette. The studios have played a huge role in attracting the talent that has helped the industry to grow.

This is particularly true at Celtic, which now is the state’s largest movie studio, with five soundstages totaling 140,000 square feet and more than 65,000 square feet of office space that it leases to dozens of small service companies.



RANCH HANDS: Construction crews at Celtic Media Centre begin work on the set of The Big Valley, the big-screen adaptation of the 1960s TV series about a wealthy ranching family and its conflicts.

The Big Valley and Battleship, Universal Studios’ big-screen adaptation of the Milton Bradley board game, are being filmed at Celtic. What’s more, an even bigger motion picture is said to be closely eyeing the facility for a shoot this fall.

Producers like Weisman say that while the Baton Rouge movie industry is impressive for a market this size, Celtic is the jewel in the crown because it offers so much to productions like his.

Not only does Celtic have soundstages, but it has a backlot, where The Big Valley is constructing an entire western town. That’s the reason Weisman ultimately chose the city over New Orleans or Shreveport when deciding where to film.

“Celtic has really posed a unique opportunity for us,” he says. “They were willing to support us more than any place we’ve ever seen.”

Trucks, sounds and stunts

Perhaps the most encouraging detail about the activity at Celtic and other studios is the effect it’s having on the local economy at the ground level. For one thing, it’s creating new businesses. Dozens of startups have been formed to respond to the needs of the growing industry.

Take Hollywood Trucks. Barely 3 years old, the company is an entertainment transportation fleet that provides everything a movie production might need, from a 15-passenger van that can take a crew to scout locations to star trailers and generators. In its brief history, the company has grown from seven vehicles to 250, and revenues are expected to top $5 million this year, up from $1.3 million last year.

“It’s exceeding everyone’s expectations,” Hollywood Trucks owner Andre Champagne says.

Building Studios is another startup that’s performing ahead of expectations.



HEARING FOOTSTEPS: Building Studios specializes in Foley sound effects, which are incidental, real-world sounds that are specific to the on-screen action, such as the click-clack of footsteps or the squeak of an opening door.

The firm does audio effects like dialogue replacement, taking dialogue that was recorded in a noisy environment, re-recording it in a studio, and then dubbing it into the film. The company also specializes in Foley sound effects, which are incidental, real-world sounds that are specific to the on-screen action, such as the squeak of an opening door or the click-clack of footsteps.

“The growth has been absolutely astounding,” says Mike Russo, who worked on his first movie just two years ago and has done dozens since.

Entertainment-industry service companies also are relocating here from other cities.

Post Digital is a case in point. The firm was based in Culver City, Calif., for 15 years and still has a studio there. But Gilbert moved to Baton Rouge in 2006, and he doesn’t regret the decision.

“I was worried at first there wouldn’t be enough work for me to make a living, and it was rocky at first,” he says. “But now it’s gotten to the point where I’m constantly busy.”

There’s enough movie work in the market to attract even super-specialized niche companies like stunt agencies. Two have announced in the past few months they’re relocating here, including Stunts 305, which was previously based in south Florida.

Owner Jay Amor is a 20-year industry veteran who has appeared in commercials, episodes of Miami Vice and movies like Bad Boys II and True Lies. Like Weisman, he was attracted to Louisiana by the tax incentives, but settled on Baton Rouge because of the people he’s met in the local industry.

“There’s really a great group down there,” says Amor, who hopes to complete the move this fall. “It’s a nice area, and there are great facilities.”

The magic of movies

Just as significant as the film industry’s impact on startups and newly relocated companies is the effect it’s having on existing business. Companies that never thought they’d benefit from the movie industry suddenly are finding a new niche.

Holmes Building Materials, for example, has been in existence for more than 50 years, supplying lumber and materials to commercial construction sites. The company developed a relationship with Celtic when the studio was under construction, and it has been involved in building sets there ever since.

The Celtic account is particularly lucrative, not so much because of the materials that Holmes sells to the set crews, but because of the service the firm provides. Construction crews on movie sets work under tight deadlines and typically don’t have time to run to a home-improvement store every time they need a nail gun or a gallon of primer. That’s where Holmes provides a value-added service.



ALIEN SHOOTOUT IN PRODUCE: Cliff Boulden, co-owner of Bet-R-Store near the Perkins Road overpass, shut his neighborhood grocery store for five days last winter for the filming of an alien shootout in Battle: Los Angeles.

“We visit them literally on a daily basis to see what they need,” Holmes says. “When they’ve got to have something, they’ve got to have it right now.”

Other local businesses are benefiting in unexpected ways.

Bet-R-Store, a locally owned neighborhood fixture that sits in the shadow of the Perkins Road overpass, was the scene last winter for an alien shootout in Sony Pictures’ Battle: Los Angeles. For nearly five days, the store was shut down while crews transformed it into the scene of a bombed-out battleground, complete with charred vehicles in the parking lot, black tarp on the windows and packaged food strewn about the aisle floors.

Manager and co-owner Cliff Boulden says the experience was exciting and worth the hassle from a financial standpoint. Sony Pictures paid the store more than what it would have made in five typical days of business, in addition to what it earned selling groceries to the crew each night after shooting was finished.

The production team also was extremely professional, and it restored the grocery store to its former condition inside and out after the shoot. Still, if Boulden was asked again to close the store for a movie production, he doesn’t know that he would, primarily because of the disruption it posed to his regular customers.

“It was a lot more inconvenience to our customers than I realized,” he says. “I didn’t realize how much people really needed and valued our store.”

The Baton Rouge Film Commission is trying to help other local businesses get a piece of the action with its preferred vendor list. Vendors on the list agree to give a discount to customers associated with the movie industry in return for a hoped-for increase in business. So far, it’s making at least a small impact on some businesses.

Lee Porche, owner of Angel Paws Pet Sitter, recently got her first client from the list. She’s keeping the puppy of a man who’s working on one of the movies currently in production. She picks up the pet every morning, and she keeps it until he’s done with work for the day. The gig is great for Porche, not in the least because it’s expected to last several months.



SOUND GUY: Mike Russo of Building Studios worked on his first movie in Baton Rouge just two years ago and has done dozens since then.

But not every firm on the list has benefited. Kay Wilbert is disappointed her Denham Springs-based Professional Limousine Service hasn’t gotten any extra business from the local movie industry. But she’s not giving up.

“We really want to market to them more and participate with them,” she says. “We did actually get a call from one of the studios, but they needed a black hearse, and ours is white.”

To infinity and beyond

While the movie industry can come to Baton Rouge and find top-of-the-line soundstages, experienced stunt men and pet sitters for their stars, there’s still one thing in short supply: post-production facilities that specialize in visual effects.

Even the industry’s biggest cheerleaders concede Louisiana is sending too many of its productions back to the East and West coasts for the lengthy and lucrative post-processing, which includes editing, mixing, dubbing and a host of special effects.

“That’s really where the state needs to focus,” says Patrick Mulhearn, director of studio operations at Celtic. “That’s the big chunk of the budget we’re not getting enough of.”

It’s not that there aren’t experienced firms doing high-end effects. There are several on the audio side, according to those in the industry. And there are a few on the visual side as well. Digital FX, for instance, does work for clients all over the world, and it recently announced that its new Digital Intermediate post-production suite, the only such facility in the Gulf South, helped the firm land a job doing post-work on a feature entitled I Spit on Your Mother’s Grave.

EAT MORE CHICKEN: A sign at the Raising Cane’s location on Corporate Boulevard encourages Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey to stop by for for a Cane’s accessory while in Baton Rouge for the filming of Flypaper.

Why there aren’t more examples like that is largely attributable to the drawn-out nature of post-production work. Pre-production typically takes two or three months, and filming can be done in as little as four to six weeks. But the post-production process can stretch on for months and even up to a year, during which producers and editors typically like to go home.

“Production people are nomadic and will go anywhere to shoot,” says Gilbert. “But post-production people are working for 10-20 weeks in a little room, and they want to be at home, which is L.A. or New York.”

As the industry matures, more executives and creative types are expected to follow. But those in the industry say it will take time to build up a real, full-service, post-production industry here.

“There has to be a good reason for a director and editor and assistant editor and producer to camp out hundreds of miles from home for several months,” Weisman says. “The industry is looking at whether it makes sense to do that here.”

Weisman and others believe the post-segment of the market will continue to grow. The question is by how much, and whether it will be enough to propel Baton Rouge to the next level in the movie industry.

“I don’t think it’s going to be long because there’s so much work to be had here you’re going to see relocations,” Mulhearn says. “It’s only a matter of time, but it’s a chicken-and-egg kind of thing.”

Twilight movie to be filmed in Baton Rouge

Twilight movie to be filmed in Baton Rouge
Posted: Jul 09, 2010 8:48 PM CDT
Updated: Jul 10, 2010 5:43 PM CDT
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Part of the next two "Twilight" movies about supernatural teen romance will be filmed in Baton Rouge.

Summit Entertainment LLC has confirmed that it will produce the two parts of "Breaking Dawn" in Baton Rouge and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Spokesman Hans-Dieter Kopal told The Advocate that the studio hasn't made any other decisions - including the starting date, how much will be shot in each city, and whether interior or exterior shots will predominate in either.

Summit hasn't indicated what the production budget will be, but the company has said it expects to use more complex effects.

Filming of the "Breaking Dawn" movies will take one year and the release date for the first of the two films will be Nov. 18, 2011.

'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn' casting and auditions underway in Los Angeles

The much anticipated casting process for "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn" is now getting underway in Los Angeles, on the heels of the world premiere of “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”, which will take place in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 24th.

PRLog (Press Release) – Jun 19, 2010 – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn will be released as two separate movies, Breaking Dawn Part I has a release date of November 18, 2011, and a summer 2012 release for Breaking Dawn Part II is being targeted. Director Bill Condon will shoot the two films back to back.

Breaking Dawn II will be released in 3-D, however no decision has been announced about Part I. A 3-D film can be created in two ways. One is to process the film in post-production editing using CGI for 3-D effects. The other method is to shoot the film with special 3D cameras, such as the film Avatar was done using Sony HDC-F950 3-D cameras. It is not known which method Condon will use, but it is highly likely he will shoot using the special 3-D cameras since the effects are far superior.

Filming begins November 2010, and it now appears likely that shooting will take place in the state of Louisiana. There is a very large amount of filming that takes place in Louisiana due to the large tax credits that the state offers the studios. Louisiana offers a 30% transferable incentive for total in-state expenditures related to the production of a motion picture. The budget on both parts of Breaking Dawn will be substantially greater than the previous installments in the series, therefore Summit Entertainment would benefit greatly by filming in Louisiana, and low key negotiations with the state film commission are taking place.

Information about auditions and submitting a photo and resume to casting directors can be found on the following blog post:

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Auditions

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-42949-LA-Acting-Audit ...

The film's extras will be hired near the shooting locations throughout filming.




AB Media Publishing was founded by entrepreneur Alan Baltes in 2004 and has since become a major force in the Internet Publishing arena. With websites ranging from acting and entertainment, to finance and cooking, AB Media continues to offer rich content

Filming Louisiana June 16, 2010

The Gates, Shreveport thegatesproductions@gmail.com
Cold to the Touch, more soon.
Catch 44, Shreveport, catch.44movie@gmail.com
The Power of Few, New Orleans more soon.
Selma, New Orleans selmafilms1965@gmail.com
Imagination Movers Season 3, New Orleans, imaginationmovers1@earthlink.net
The Chaperone, New Orleans, wwenolallc@gmail.com
Mighty Fine, New Orleans mightyfineneworleans@gmail.com
Billy the Exterminator, Season 3, Shreveport, bpecasting@gmail.com
The Black Ghost, New Orleans thefirsthurd@yahoo.com
Ghostbreakers Tv Shreveport, Baton Rouge, New Orleans production@slowchildrenonline.net
Fury, Baton Rouge furyresume@gmail.com fax 225-906-0466
The Fields New Orleans, gideonproductions2010@gmail.com
Brawler New Orleans, office@brawlerthemovie.com
Lockjaw Baton Rouge, lockjawprod@gmail.com
The Big Valley, Baton Rouge, sanford2hampton@aol.com
LouisianaShark Night 3D, Louisiana info@afterdarkfilms.com
Dead Mans Gold, Louisiana
The Boys Club, Folsum Louisiana info@gravityfilms.com
Battleship, Baton Rouge hopperbr@gmail.com
The Courier, Baton Rouge info@filmsinmotion.com
The Leaving, New Orleans
The Americans, Shreveport, Attention James Gerrick cygnetfilm@yahoo.com
Frightland, Baton Rouge brandon@saintsinnerent.com
Flypaper, Baton Rouge flypaperfilm@gmail.com
Memphis Beat, New Orleans deltabluesresumes@gmail.com
Substance, New OrleansFishies TV New Orleans, Baton Rouge, for sound, animators, and storyboardartist only k2.miket@gmail.com
Pray for Light, info@firesatmidnightfilms.com
Living with Leroy TV Baton Rouge Sound only k2.miket@gmail.com
Criminal Empire for Dummies, New Orleans jess.luebe@live.com
Big Red, New Orleans wwenolallc@gmail.com
Jeff, Who lives at Home, New Orleans jeffbrothersproductions@gmail.com
Court 13, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Houma LA Murder through the eyes of a child, New Orleanscresent.city.film@gmail.com
The Coffin, info@glassasylumprods.com
Scratching the Surface, New Orleans sts.nola.crew@gmail.com
Death House, Baton Rouge k2.miket@gmail.com
Unraveled, Baton Rouge
Red, New Orleans, redneworleans@gmail.com
Silver Cord, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, silvercordcv@aol.com
Seconds Apart, HammondMoma's Little Baby, Louisiana
Swamp Shark, Lafayette, jobs.bulletfilms@gmail.com
Jaws of the Mississippi, Lafayette, jobs.bulletfilms@gmail.com
The 13th Gate, Louisiana
Change of Heart, Shreveport more to come
Victim 34, Baton Rouge
Verdigris, New Orleans
Blood Out, Baton Rouge, Talent talent@filmsinmotion.com Crew info@filmsinmotion.com
The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, New Orleans
I wanna dance, New Orleans floyd@imi-world.com
Two Wolves, Baton Rouge info@rememberdreaming.com
The Gatekeeper, New Orleans, info@lightwaveent.com
Kane and Lynch, Louisiana
The Night Can be Measured
Remnants New Orleans
10,000 doors, October in New Orleans
Troll, Baton Rouge
A War Within
Hallow Point, Baton Rouge
Playing with the Enemy, Shreveport
The Work, in Meterie
Leslie, New Orleans
Samuel Bleak, Houma
Without Fear, New Orleans
Difficult Death, New Orleans
Peril, Shreveport
The Ledge, Baton Rouge

Made in Louisiana by By Todd Longwell

The Hollywood Reporter
www.hollywoodreporter.com
By Todd Longwell
May 27, 2010, 06:14 PM ET

It was the movie everybody wanted.

From Canada to Mexico, from Shreveport to Sydney, governments and film commissions were angling for Warner Bros. to shoot its new superhero movie "The Green Lantern" on their land -- and spend some of the film's roughly $150 million budget there, too.

For a time, "Lantern" was scheduled to shoot at Fox Studios in Australia, then it was rumored to go north of the border, then south. Finally, the film landed in Louisiana, where it's lensing at Second Line Stages, a new state-of-the-art, LEED-certified studio facility in New Orleans' Garden District.

It's as if Second Line slipped on the glowing emerald ring that gives the film's protagonist his super-human powers.

"(Second Line) is the center of the industry in New Orleans right now," says Sergio Lopez, owner of the New Orleans post facility Storyville, which has a satellite office at Second Line. "There's so much robust activity that it just kind of vibrates from that area. The places around it are being bought up by the film and video industry, from rental space to warehouses; even Sandra Bullock bought a warehouse next door to it."


New Orleans' Second Line Stages

It doesn't hurt that Second Line boasts three soundstages, 73,000 square feet of warehouse space and a five-floor office tower. Nor does it hurt that Louisiana's film and TV production tax credit was bumped from 25% to 30% in July.

Since launching its production incentive program in 2002, Louisiana has become the third-largest film and TV production center in the U.S., behind California and New York, and it shows no sign of relinquishing that title any time soon.

"They were initial leaders with the tax incentives and they have the program down pat," says Ed Spiegel, president of the payroll company Cast & Crew services, which provides tax-incentive consulting services. "They have soundstages and a lot of support facilities. It's easy to do business there, and people like helping out Louisiana. Even right after Hurricane Katrina, people still wanted to go straight back there and film."

In the first quarter, Louisiana hosted 25 productions across the state, including the HBO series "Treme," which last month was picked up for a second season. Current productions include the films "Jeff Who Lives at Home," starring Jason Segel and Ed Helms, in New Orleans; and "Butter," starring Jennifer Garner, in Shreveport.

Things were not so rosy this time last year.

"It was extremely slow in the first half of 2009," says Diego Martinez, president of Studio Operations for Nu Image/ Millennium Films, which has shot 14 films in Louisiana in recent years, including the upcoming Sylvester Stallone actioner "The Expendables" and the recently completed "Drive Angry," starring Nicolas Cage. "You had the WGA strike, a threatened SAG strike and the economic downturn. Then Georgia passed a better incentive (featuring a 30% tax credit) so a lot of people went there."

To make matters worse, the Louisiana credit was scheduled to be scaled back from 25% to 20% in 2010, and then to 15% in 2012.

Because of that, "There was some hesitancy in budgeting things for Louisiana early in '09," says Christopher Stelly, director of film and television for the Louisiana Entertainment Office. Before the change in the law, which upped the credit and eliminated its sunset date, "We had 20 (tax credit) applications for the first six or seven months of '09. After that, we saw 89 applications."

The incentive boost saved the year -- especially for Baton Rouge.

"Shortly after the tax credit was upped, we had HBO's 'True Blood' come through to shoot exteriors for its Main Street-type square in a town just north of Baton Rouge called Clinton, La.," says Amy Mitchell-Smith, executive director of the Baton Rouge Film Commission. "We ended having 26 film and television projects that filmed in our market with a direct spend that was estimated at $72 million, with an economic impact of well over $130 million. It was a big year."

A substantial portion of that came from Sony's apocalyptic sci-fi/action film "Battle: Los Angeles." Budgeted at about $70 million, it shot from September-December at Raleigh Studios' Celtic Media Center in Baton Rouge and on location in Shreveport, where it shut down a freeway overpass for five weeks.

"That would be pretty difficult to do in the Los Angeles area," says "Battle" art director Chris Spellman

"Here people aren't jaded about having to go five minutes out of their way because a film is shooting."

That Southern hospitality is also apparent in other neighborhoods. When executive producer Grant Scharbo approached the developers of upscale gated community Southern Trace, outside Shreveport, about using it as the setting for the ABC supernatural drama "The Gates," he received approval from the club's board before the day was out. And the goodwill continued once production was rolling.

"They all come out to watch us shoot. We shoot there at night and they don't care," Scharbo says. "It's one of the most film-friendly places I've been in my life."

The welcome mat was also put out by David and Margo Myatt, owners of StageWorks of Louisiana in downtown Shreveport, where the production offices and interior sets of "The Gates" are housed. The couple let the show shoot several days of exteriors on their 26-acre estate free of charge, and let them board a cast of wolves on their farm.


A computer rendering of Shreveport's long-awaited Millennium Studios

If there has been one downside for "The Gates," it's the lack of available local crew.

"They're about one or two crews deep in Shreveport, and by the time we arrived two other movies had crewed up," Scharbo says. "You can pull from nearby cities, but both New Orleans and Shreveport were extremely busy, so we had to import a lot of crew from North Carolina, Atlanta and Los Angeles."

That meant a double whammy for Louisiana, with extra money spent on per diems and lodging and fewer tax credits earned for local hires.

Spellman had better luck with "Battle," which was able to hire its entire art department locally, and he was impressed with what he found.

"Every time films come here, the more experienced the local crews become," says Spellman, a New Orleans native who moved to Los Angeles after graduating from LSU.

Of course, the crew members can pick up and follow productions anywhere. Proper soundstages are harder to come by, and they're something most incentive states lack.

"It's not like you can just snap your fingers and warehouses across the city are appropriate for filming," says Jennifer Day, director of the New Orleans Office of Film & Video. "You need sound proofing, air conditioning, etc."

During the past eight years, Louisiana has built an impressive collection of studio facilities which, in addition to Second Line, StageWorks and the Celtic Media Center, include the Nims Center and Beven Street Film Studio, both in Harahan (a suburb of New Orleans), as well as the Louisiana Wave Studio in Shreveport, with an automated 750,000-gallon tank programmed to generate 13 kinds of waves up to 8 feet high.

Millennium Studios will soon be added to that list. Delayed 18 months because of financing difficulties, it finally began construction in Shreveport's Ledbetter Heights in December, and it is scheduled to be completed this year. It will boast two soundstages with two floors of offices and a separate building with a special effects mill, as well as a 10,000-square-foot facility housing Millennium's visual effects company, Worldwide FX.

Stelly is proud to point out the trickle-down effect of all this production, which has impacted not only local hotels and restaurants but also smaller vendors having their first encounters with the entertainment industry.

"A man from a local glass company called me just buzzing," says Stelly, "saying he serviced a motion picture for three or four weeks and made more money than he had servicing some of his higher-end clients for 10 years."

Filming Louisiana for May/ June 2010

The Gates, Shreveport thegatesproductions@gmail.com
Mighty Fine, New Orleans mightyfineneworleans@gmail.com
Billy the Exterminator, Season 3, Shreveport
The Black Ghost, New Orleans thefirsthurd@yahoo.com
Ghostbreakers Tv Shreveport, Baton Rouge, New Orleans production@slowchildrenonline.net
Fury, Baton Rouge furyresume@gmail.com fax 225-906-0466
The Fields New Orleans, gideonproductions2010@gmail.com
Brawler New Orleans, office@brawlerthemovie.com
Lockjaw Baton Rouge, lockjawprod@gmail.com
The Big Valley, Baton Rouge, sanford2hampton@aol.com
LouisianaShark Night 3D, Louisiana info@afterdarkfilms.com
Dead Mans Gold, Louisiana
Green Lantern, New Orleans, greenlanternfilm@gmail.com
The Boys Club, Folsum Louisiana info@gravityfilms.com
Battleship, Baton Rouge hopperbr@gmail.com
The Courier, Baton Rouge info@filmsinmotion.com
The Leaving, New Orleans
Shotgun Wedding, New Orleans, shotgunweddingcrew@gmail.com
The Americans, Shreveport, Attention James Gerrick cygnetfilm@yahoo.com
Frightland, Baton Rouge brandon@saintsinnerent.com
Flypaper, Baton Rouge flypaperfilm@gmail.com
Memphis Beat, New Orleans deltabluesresumes@gmail.com
First Date Season 4 TV New Orleans k2.miket@gmail.com
Substance, New OrleansFishies TV New Orleans, Baton Rouge, for sound, animators, and storyboardartist only k2.miket@gmail.com
Pray for Light, info@firesatmidnightfilms.com
Living with Leroy TV Baton Rouge Sound only k2.miket@gmail.com
Criminal Empire for Dummies, New Orleans jess.luebe@live.com
Big Red, New Orleans wwenolallc@gmail.com
Revenge of the Bridesmades TV New Orleans rotbridesmaids@gmail.com
Jeff, Who lives at Home, New Orleans jeffbrothersproductions@gmail.com
Court 13, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Houma LA Murder through the eyes of a child, New Orleanscresent.city.film@gmail.com
The Coffin, info@glassasylumprods.com
Scratching the Surface, New Orleans sts.nola.crew@gmail.com
Death House, Baton Rouge k2.miket@gmail.com
Love Wedding Marriage, New Orleans, (504) 525-2946
Unraveled, Baton Rouge
Red, New Orleans, redneworleans@gmail.com
Silver Cord, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, silvercordcv@aol.com
Seconds Apart, HammondMoma's Little Baby, Louisiana
The Sean Peyton Show, New Orleans info@horizonent.tv
Treme, New Orleans, blowndeadlineprod@gmail.com
Swamp Shark, Lafayette, jobs.bulletfilms@gmail.com
Jaws of the Mississippi, Lafayette, jobs.bulletfilms@gmail.com
The 13th Gate, Louisiana
Change of Heart, Shreveport more to come
Victim 34, Baton Rouge
Verdigris, New Orleans
Blood Out, Baton Rouge, Talent talent@filmsinmotion.com Crew info@filmsinmotion.com
The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, New Orleans
I wanna dance, New Orleans floyd@imi-world.com
Two Wolves, Baton Rouge info@rememberdreaming.com
The Gatekeeper, New Orleans, info@lightwaveent.com
Hatchet 2, Louisiana
Kane and Lynch, Louisiana
The Night Can be Measured
Remnants New Orleans
10,000 doors, October in New Orleans
Troll, Baton Rouge
A War Within
Hallow Point, Baton Rouge
Playing with the Enemy, Shreveport
The Work, in Meterie
Leslie, New Orleans
Samuel Bleak, Houma
Without Fear, New Orleans
Difficult Death, New Orleans
Peril, Shreveport
The Ledge, Baton Rouge