Below the Line: From King Kong on the Empire State Building to Marilyn Monroe on the subway grate, New York will always attract filmmakers. From the green Pontiac Steve McQueen chased off the 19th floor of Marina Towers in The Hunter, to the baby carriage Brian DePalma pushed down the steps of Union Station in The Untouchables, filmmakers will always gravitate to Chicago.
But Louisiana?
When Louisiana became the first state to pass entertainment industry tax incentives in 2002, no one could have known that in less than a decade the state would be the third most popular film and television location in the U.S. Indeed, Louisiana has a chance to log a record 150 filming applications this year and to see local film and TV in-state spending for the first time top $1 billion.
5 comments:
I never would have thought that Louisiana would be so popular to film in. New York and Chicago are very Obvious. It must be great for their economy. After going to Louisiana, and New Orleans especially, I found that it does possess an old world charm with all the old architecture and culture. While I'm not sure if i would ever move there permanently, it is defiantly someplace i could go and just lose myself in.
We have certainly benefited from film tax incentives here in Pittsburgh, but as more places create these in more industries (this article makes it seem that Louisiana is pretty much just cutting commercial taxes at this point), it becomes less effective because once it becomes ubiquitous it will no longer be as big of a factor when productions decide where to shoot, and cities will be at a disadvantage if there is additional money they could be making with less steep tax incentives.
I think it's great that Louisiana has managed to benefit so much from the tax incentives they instituted (just like Pittsburgh has), but I am a little bit worried with the recent trend of most states and a lot of cities giving tax breaks to the entertainment business, soon they might not have as large of a positive effect. If everyone's doing it, there is not as much incentive for a production company to choose one location over another based on tax incentives. However, I do think that it is great that Louisiana has extended those tax breaks to other areas of the entertainment business, including theatre. While theatre is obviously not as big of money-maker or money-spender, it is still a valuable part of the entertainment business and I'm happy that Louisiana recognized that.
State tax incentives for filming are no longer the gimmick that would get a company's attention that they once were, so many states have them now that they're almost a basic requirement if a state wants major films to consider them at all. Any time there's a need for the legislature to reauthorize or extend the tax incentives here in Pennsylvania the film unions come out in force to support them, to the point that it seems like half the email I receive from them is about trying to convince my local congresscritters to vote in favor of the incentives.
I wonder if people just go to Louisiana if it works because they feel bad for this state. The tax incentives plus pity make it a popular place. Groups probably feel like they're helping out a misfortunate state recover from tragedy. It would be nice to see the economy in LA (funny- LA, Louisiana, & LA Los Angeles) get stronger. I like that more things are being filmed there because I think CA and NYC are over exposed for film. Tons of things are set there. I'd like to see more film that can make Louisiana look as exciting as New York. I haven't heard much about Louisiana, other than True Blood.
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