Louisiana Film Tax Credits extended to 2010

The Louisiana Film tax credits were set to expire as of January 1st 2008. As of the passing of House Bill 139 (PDF) the credits now extend to 2010. Also, the credits do not completely go away as of 2010, but rather they reduce to 20% until July 2012, and then become 15% after that.

More reasons to film in Louisiana

If Film Tax Credits weren’t enough reason to film in Louisiana, I’ll give you a few more great money saving reasons.

• Locations - For most indie productions, finding a good location is both difficult and expensive. Louisiana, however, has one great benefit - no permits. That’s right no permits are required for public any public property. In fact, the only issues that will require any special permission are the following:
  

  * Filming in cemeteries
  * Explosions/Pyrotechnics
  * Filming in the Historic French Quarter
  * Parking/Street Closures
  * Police Details and Film Guidelines
  * Regional Transit Authority Use
  * Sanitation
  * Removal of Streetlights and/or fixtures
  - Source: Louisiana Film and Television

  Similarly, private property usually owners are very receptive to using of their property for filming as long as their is an assurance that no damage will be incurred.

• Right to work Louisiana is what is called a right to work state. That means by law someone can’t be forced to join a union. In a round about way, this means the unions have much less power here, and alot of productions go non-union. While I’m never an advocate of all voluneteer crews (I think you should pay everyone at least close to union rates), the paperwork and rules that unions put you through is a big hassle I’d rather not deal with.
• Cost of Living The cost of living here is generally much lower that of New York and California. A typical two bedroom apartment might cost you $600/mo in Lafayette, LA - A progressive city with population about 200,000. So when you look at it like that…SAG scale of $759 is a pretty good wage.
• Insurance The only required insurance in Louisiana is workman’s comp. Workman’s comp is costly, but if you are willing to take the risk (I don’t recommend it), you aren’t required by law to have any general liability insurance.

To be compeletely fair, I do have to give one downside. If you are coming from New York or Cali filming with a Louisiana crew…you won’t be able to pronounce the name of anyone on your call sheet…especially your Director of Photeauxs.

Filed Under: Filmmaking, Louisiana, Producing
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New Louisiana Resources Added

by Matt · Leave a Comment 

As a follow-up to my post about Film Tax Credits, I’d like to present some great resources that an indie filmmaker can use to plan a production in Louisiana.

Louisiana Resources

• Louisiana Production IndexThe best source for contacts in Louisiana Film production. Everything you need from equipment to film crew.
• Louisiana Film and Television Another Great resource for contacts, as well as information regarding tax incentives, location scouting, and studios.
• BigFoot Productions A video production company which I work with regularly. Its run by my good friend Donny Broussard. Bigfoot does behind the scenes, documentaries, short films, and features.
• H.U.R.D Film Meetup Group A message board run by great people dedicated to the advancement of film in Louisiana. Also, a place where alot of good actors hang out.
• LIFT Productions A very large independent film and television studio. This is the company that most of the big studios work through in order to take advantage of Louisiana film tax incentives. However, it does offer some good facilities for us smaller guys out there.

I’ve also added these links to the Resources page.

Why Louisiana is the place to produce your next film.

Louisiana has a ton of incentives that are great for filmmakers. Even if you are located elsewhere, you may be able get great benefit out of producing your next film in Louisiana, through a Louisiana company. In fact, the current laws in Louisiana make it much much easier to raise investment capital than any other state.

The primary reason that production in Louisiana is a great option is the LA film tax credits incentives. If you are shooting a movie with a budget of $300,000 dollars or more, you earn 25% of the budget in tax credits. That’s $75,000. Plus you get an additional 10% worth of credits on the amount you pay to Louisiana residents. Lets assume that 50% of your budget is spent on cast and crew of Louisiana, so that’s $150,000. Ten percent of that (the amount you get of extra payroll tax credits) is $15,000.

So now you have a sum total of $90,000 in tax credits. So….what the hell are tax credits. Well, put simple if you owed $90,000 in Louisiana income tax, you wouldn’t have to pay it. But what if you don’t owe that sort of taxes? This is the part where it gets crazy…you can sell the credits to someone who does.

That’s right, you can take that $90,000 of credits…which you generated simply from finishing the film, and sell them immediately. You have to sell them at a discount (because why would someone spend $90,000 to save $90,000 in taxes). However, some firms who broker such transactions can get you as much as 80 cents on the dollar. That means that your finished film instantly nets you $72,000 cash..

But wait it gets better. These brokerage firms are often able to sell your tax credits ahead of time….that’s right…before your film production even begins, you have already made $72,000..

But what if you don’t have $300,000? Well, the beauty of this whole system is that it helps gaining access to that $300,000 so much easier. If you can guarantee your investors an initial return off the bat, they will see it as much less of a risk. After all, they are receiving around 24% return from day 1.

In addition to all this is the Federal Jobs Creation Act of 2004…a piece of US federal legislation that makes it even more lucrative for investors who invest in films of budgets under $15 million. But I’ll save that discussion for another article.

Because I want to raise awareness of Louisiana’s film production nationally, as well as internationally, I’m adding a Louisiana category for posts, as well as adding a section of Louisiana Resources to my ‘Resources’ page. Expect more articles focusing on Louisiana production in the future, in addition to my usual advice on filmmaking.