Maybe you’ve always wanted to see if you have what it takes to make it on the silver screen? Maybe becoming a musical recording artist is more your thing? Either way, Louisiana can offer you a ticket to superstardom.
If you’re more film buff than movie or rock star, you’ll find some useful links, so keep reading! After that, you may want to check out this article on following Louisiana’s film trail by Louisiana Travel.
Louisiana adopted a pioneering Motion Picture Production Incentive program in 2002 and has since become one of the top filming destinations in the country, earning it nicknames like “Hollywood South” and “Hollywood on the Bayou.” The already robust film industry brings business investments and employment opportunities to the state, so Louisiana invested heavily into a plan to make the entire entertainment industry here fully self-sustainable. You can now find motion picture production, television, video games, digital interactive and software development projects, live musical performance and sound recording, plus all the businesses who collaborate with these platforms in Louisiana.
Louisiana’s main focus has now turned to creating an equally lucrative music industry. As a complementary platform to the film industry, Louisiana already offers state-of-the-art facilities and production-friendly communities. Plus, New Orleans native Jon Batiste recently brought home five Grammy Awards so they couldn’t have timed the push to boost Louisiana’s music scene any better!
In 2017, Louisiana’s Entertainment Development Fund was created and, in 2021, started awarding grants funding education and workforce opportunities to encourage job placement in Louisiana’s well-paying entertainment industry, programs which are already showing some success. One grant made it possible for the Louisiana State University (LSU) Digital Media Center to offer a specialized curriculum for the Virtual Production and Emerging Media Filmmaking program. Another went to The University of Louisiana at Lafayette for development of a Visual Effects program. They also awarded a grant to the Music Industry Career Development University Partnership (MIC’D UP) project in New Orleans, to both encourage local musical talent and prepare businesses to assist these developing entertainment industry platforms.
If you’d like to get involved, you can create a free profile for yourself or list your business as a filming location through the Louisiana Entertainment website. Louisiana is more than happy to protect such a long-term investment by making it easier for productions to find all the extras, makeup artists, sound, lighting, musicians, animators, visual effects (and tons of other positions I had never even heard of) needed for filming. If you’re also interested in staying updated with all of the latest film industry news, they offer the Louisiana Entertainment newsletter too.
Also, those of us who live in Central Louisiana are covered by Union Local 260 of The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada (IATSE) in Lake Charles, Louisiana. You can reach them by phone (337) 489-4639 or email iatse260@juno.com.
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