By Stephanie Riegel
Monday, April 21, 2008

There’s a frenzied buzz about the place and the energy level extends behind the scenes as well. Down the hall, a team of young writers sits huddled around a conference table, jotting ideas for sketches and one-liners on laptops and a whiteboard. Jeans-clad executives move about the building at lighting speed, their casual dress belying a level of professionalism and business acumen honed over decades in the industry.

It’s a scene you’d expect to see in Hollywood or New York. But it’s happening here just behind Airline Highway and Bluebonnet Boulevard in a newly constructed studio facility that some industry veterans say is better equipped than what they’re accustomed to on the West Coast. It’s significant, too, because if The Mike Epps Comedy Project succeeds it will be the first major TV series for a national television network independently produced in Louisiana.

“People don’t think you can shoot TV outside of New York and L.A.,” says Benny Richburg, a top Hollywood TV writer who is co-producing Epps’ show with a group of local partners who call themselves The Other LA Group. “We’re proving them wrong.”

When the state created its program of tax incentives for the movie industry six years ago, it had no idea things would go this far. Back then, Louisiana was a picturesque location for shooting plantation and bayou scenes in movies noteworthy for their bad Southern accents. Today, feature films, television shows and countless commercials are being shot and produced here—on location and in sound stages like Celtic’s.

Informal calculations by state officials and those in the industry tag Louisiana as the third-busiest state in the U.S. behind California and New York for movie and TV production, both in number of productions and production dollars spent. Trade magazines regularly rank the state as one of the top places in the country to shoot movies and TV shows; Shreveport recently was named the third-best city in the nation to live, work and make movies by a leading industry publication.

“It’s growing in leaps and bounds,” says Jim Thompson, publisher of P3/Production Update magazine. “People are actually leaving California and going to Louisiana to set up shop.”

But other states are catching on and are gunning for a piece of the lucrative entertainment production pie. The challenge, say those in the industry, is for the state to meet the demand not only for facilities but for a trained workforce so that production companies will continue to want to come here.

“The key to making this work is to build a film workforce,” says Chris Stelly, who is executive director of film and television for Louisiana Economic Development’s Office of Entertainment Industry Development. “We’re at capacity, but if we had a bigger workforce we’d be able to do even more.”

How much more the state could do is anyone’s guess. As it stands now, the state is doing well—very well. In the first three months of the year alone, production companies estimated they would spend more than $600 million in Louisiana this year—and that’s only counting films with budgets large enough to qualify for tax credits. When you factor in smaller independent movies, TV shows and commercials and that the year is still young, $1 billion is not an unrealistic estimate.

That’s phenomenal growth. In 2007, direct spending by the industry in the state was in the range of $400 million to $500 million, according to state officials, who don’t have exact totals yet. That’s nearly twice as much as it was in 2005 and four times as much as it was in 2003, the first full year the tax incentive program was in place.

The projects that are the most likely to materialize are those that are already in the movie-making business. Film producer John Sweeney, for instance, is the president of Armada Studios, which is planned for East Feliciana Parish south of Clinton. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year, and Sweeney has committed to make at least five films at the studio a year.

State officials also point to a planned studio for Shreveport as an example of the economic model they like to follow. Nu Image/Millennium is a production company that has made several movies in the state and is building the state-of-the-art facility in north Louisiana to use in dozens more of its own projects.

“If you want to sell a product to TV, you’re going to have to convince them that everything you’re doing is as close to the way they do it in Hollywood as possible,” he says. “What we’re doing here is actually better than what they’re doing in Hollywood.”

It’s also the first of more to come. Already, The Other LA Group is planning other major television projects that they intend to produce here from start to finish. Now that they’ve shown they can do it, the sky is the limit.

“If we do a good job on this there’s no telling where we can go,” Richburg says.

All of this is not going unnoticed by the industry nationwide. Last year, P3/Production Update ranked Louisiana as the third-best place to make movies, citing the state’s attractive incentive program, relatively low cost of living, and warm climate. Californians and the transient young people who make up much of the industry workforce also seem to feel at home in the laid-back Deep South.

“It’s easier down here; it’s fun,” Richburg says. “It’s like being away at camp. I’m getting double the work done in half the time.”

Another journal, MovieMaker magazine, ranked Shreveport earlier this year as the third-best city to live, work and make movies. Among the reasons the city ranked so high—ousting New York from the spot it held for years—were the quality and quantity of local talent pool, production facilities, enthusiasm on the part of the local filmmaking community and economic incentives.

“Louisiana is really on the top of the map,” says Arlena Acree, director of the Shreveport Film Commission. “We have a lot going for us.”

Another advantage the state has is the variety of locations with different looks. New Orleans, Shreveport and Baton Rouge are all popular—in that order—and are relatively close to one another.

“Our diverse locations have allowed us to double for New York City, Anytown USA, Florida, San Diego and even the northeast,” Stelly says. “You get a wide variety of looks here—not just plantation homes and swamps.”

Stelly and other state officials touted those many advantages last month at an expo in California hosted by the Association of Film Commissioners International. It’s the largest trade show of its kind, attracting thousands of producers and location scouts from around the world.

Unlike previous years, where the state’s various cities each had their own individual booths, 16 Louisiana cities teamed up this year and put on a display that got rave reviews. By pooling their resources, they were able to afford a much larger exhibition space that included a reception area with laptops where visitors could cruise the state’s online location library and view live photos. A plasma screen, meanwhile, showed cycling images of the state’s various locations.

That’s more important now than ever. More than 40 states now have tax incentive programs designed to attract movie and TV producers. Most of those have been modeled after Louisiana’s. Some are even more generous.

“Massachusetts is hot right now because it’s close to New York, it’s got good infrastructure and an attractive tax credit program,” P3/Production Update magazine publisher Thompson says. “Pennsylvania is, too. Word is, they’re building new studios there.”

All of which means Louisiana has to work harder than ever to maintain its strong position as an attractive location. Given the number of sound stages in operation as well as those that are likely to be constructed later this year, the state has ample infrastructure to meet current demand, according to those in the industry.

Where it continues to fall short is in the number of trained and qualified workers. There are as few as 600-700 statewide, according to estimates from IATSE, the union that covers stage and theatrical employees. Of those, almost two-thirds are in New Orleans, with less than one-third in Shreveport. As few as 100 are estimated to live in Baton Rouge, according to Stelly.

“You need crew base here from top to bottom,” says Brendan O’Connor, CEO of Celtic Media Centre. “We’ve been slow in that respect.”

Part of the problem is that it has been difficult for the Office of Entertainment Industry Development to secure funding for workforce training because money for such programs traditionally goes to permanent jobs. Most of those in the film industry, however—the lighting technicians, grips, makeup artists and countless others—are contract laborers.

Attitudes within the state are starting to change, however. Late last year, a state economic development committee approved $2 million in development grant funding for worker training in the film industry. It’s an indication that the new administration is recognizing the growing entertainment industry for the powerhouse that it is becoming.

LED Secretary Stephen Moret is showing much more interest in the industry than did his predecessor. Considerably younger and more in touch with the opportunities that exist in industries that don’t necessarily build smokestacks and factories, Moret professes a commitment to develop not only more film production but digital media as well.

“We’re going to get more aggressive about cultivating digital media, which we think represents an even bigger opportunity for us,” Moret says. “Video game development, animation, special effects, things like that.”

But the state budget is limited, and economic development needs are great across many fronts. Those at the forefront of the film industry locally know better than to wait on government to fund worker training. That’s why they’re moving forward with their own plans to get the qualified labor they need.

O’Connor is in the process of acquiring more property adjacent to his complex that he plans to use for an educational facility. He plans to have it open for business as soon as next year, and hopes to partner with local universities and the community college system on developing courses in a variety of technical and artistic subjects.

“There are a lot of young people here with talent that we can utilize,” he says. “We just have to direct it.”

With a trained workforce and adequate infrastructure, how far the entertainment industry can go in Louisiana is anyone’s guess. Those at the forefront of the business say even with competition from other states, there’s so much growth in entertainment production overall that Louisiana can keep its share of the pie, provided it doesn’t drop the ball.