BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) –
A movie industry study headquartered in California says Louisiana is no longer No. 1 in the world for film production.
In fact, the Film L.A. Inc study says Louisiana is in 6th place behind No. 1 California, New York, the U.K., Canada, Georgia, Puerto Rico and others.
Patrick Mulhearn with Celtic Media in Baton Rouge says that particular survey studies major studio production.
“They are trying to figure out feature films that received theatrical distribution or distribution from major studios, and so if you look at that count then, yes, it’s definitely down for Louisiana,” said Mulhearn. “But what we’re seeing now is a trend. We’re getting a lot more scripted television, and scripted TV has become huge for us here in Baton Rouge, we have as many as four series shooting in Baton Rouge right now.”
Celtic Media told 9News that Louisiana is fourth in the U.S. and needs to keep its tax incentives.
“On the legislative session that’s going on right now, if they can keep us strong and competitive then we can continue to compete,” said Mulhearn. “If they were to cap the program with a number that just makes us uncompetitive we could certainly fall from No. 4 in the nation. We certainly hope that Louisiana will stay the course and continue to keep us rolling.”
Lawmakers are discussing bills to limit the tax refunds movie companies can get. Legislators say with a very large scale movie that refund can be in the tens of millions. They may want to limit how high that refund can go.
http://www.kplctv.com/story/29194691/study-ranks-louisiana-sixth-in-film-production
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