Louisiana sees surge in TV and film projects

As cast and crew of the HBO television series Treme filmed in the French Quarter, a warehouse elsewhere bustled with stage hands prepping for production on the Will Ferrell comedy Dog Fight, while a helicopter prepared to take flight for the shooting of the new 3-D IMAX film, Hidden World. The stream of film activity this late in the year is positioning Louisiana to hit, if not exceed, last year’s record of more than 100 film and TV projects, says Chris Stelly, executive director of the Office of Entertainment Industry Development, the state agency that promotes Louisiana’s film, theater, music and digital media industries. Stelly says this is also likely more film activity than in any other U.S. state outside of the entertainment hubs of California and New York. Louisiana accepted more than 130 applications for its tax incentive program in 2011 and hosted more than 100 film and TV projects for the second year in a row. That’s about triple previous years, Stelly says. According to state figures, Louisiana had fewer than 40 projects in both 2004 and 2005, and the state saw fewer than 90 projects each year thereafter until 2009. In 2009, the state decided to make its tax credit permanent and increase the benefits to 30%. Originally, the statute reduced the incentive to 20% with plans to eventually reduce it again to 15%. Stelly credits the state’s move for steadying and growing the industry. Read the full story from The Associated Press on The Times-Picayune website here.