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Louisiana puts movie production trucks into gear
While big ticket movie productions have been drawn to Louisiana in increasing numbers since the state began offering tax incentives in 2002, the infrastructure to support those productions hasn’t been available locally.
A major motion picture can require dozens of specialized movie trucks to move equipment, crew members, set pieces and lighting, New Orleans Office of Film and Video deputy director Micah Haley said.
Transportation costs alone make up 10 percent of a movie’s budget, Haley said, and that money has traditionally gone to out of state companies well established in the movie transportation business.
“It has been the case so far that the trucks have simply been brought in from out of state,” Haley said. “It’s an enormous cost to have to drive those trucks in, and when they do that it requires a driver and that is typically a union driver from out of state. This ends up being a bad situation for the state and for productions filming in the state.”
Developing a strong local transportation infrastructure for movie crews shooting in Louisiana has always been a priority, Haley said, but one that has proven elusive until recently.
Hollywood Trucks owner Andre Champagne said he started his New Orleans-based company 20 months ago with seven trucks and five small vans. Since then, Champagne has expanded his fledgling company exponentially, opening satellite offices in Baton Rouge and Shreveport to support a fleet of 230 vehicles, all of which are currently rented out to support productions across the state.
“The growth is completely attributed to high demand but also the state doing such a wonderful job with the tax incentives and stepping up and keeping them in place,” Champagne said. “That allows companies like us to put significant capital at risk and feel comfortable with that because those incentives aren’t just going to whisk away.”
Each vehicle requires a union driver, which Champagne said translates into hundreds of jobs for Louisiana workers at any given time, with production companies cashing in on each local job they create.
“When we see productions from out of state, we know they are definitely not fully capitalizing on the financial windfall that can come from just hiring from within the state,” he said.
Haley said a well established film infrastructure such as Champagne's will keep productions coming to Louisiana for years to come, even without tax incentives.
“When the incentives do eventually scale down or go away, the thing that will keep films coming back here and keep costs down to make the state attractive is infrastructure,” he said. “It’s having a company like Hollywood Trucks based in Louisiana to handle all of the production’s needs that will be the attraction.”
Link: http://www.neworleanscitybusiness.com/UpToTheMinute.cfm?recID=26932
by Stephen Maloney Staff Writer
