While some have put Louisiana as the third largest filmmaking marketing in America, the risk of filming there is making film production extremely risky and expensive.
Not only is this happening in Louisiana, but also on the Gulf Coast and parts of the Eastern Seaboard.
With the 2006 storm season coming quick, the movie industry which has been struggling itself has to make some hard decisions about all of this.
The high-risk areas is making movie insurance, which protects agains any damage or interruption of production schedules, is being difficult to even find. The insurance covers things like damage to equipment, actor and crew safety, delays and evacuatios. If it can be found it is cost prohibitive.
The bottom line in all of this, is the bottom line. Filmmaking is a business and investors demand that production costs be kept under control. Some markets will find themselves struggling, as Louisiana is to come up with answers to their costs of insurance and unpredictable weather. Katrina and last years hurrican season does nothing to help.
For Louisiana this is especially hard as they were starting to grow into a solid market for the industry. It will be difficult to overcome the inherent weaknesses that have now been exposed.
Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. said “This is probably going to put them out of competition for a while.”
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