St. Charles Parish sees recovery in film industry
Film productions like Queen Sugar, NCIS: New Orleans, Deadlier Than The Male and The Highwaymen are entertainment, but they also represented economic growth for areas like St. Charles Parish where they were filmed.
Film productions making a modest comeback in the parish, as well as state of Louisiana, is news after changes to the state’s tax incentives significantly sent productions to more welcoming states like Georgia.
“From the anecdotal evidence that I’ve seen and am aware of, the impact to the parish has been very positive,” said Corey Faucheux, director of St. Charles Parish Economic Development and Tourism. “I expect much of the same growth that we saw in 2019, not near the peak times that we saw some five to six years ago, but certainly the continuing upward trend.”
Changes to state incentives at that time sent a chill over the industry for the state. It also came at a time when other states upped their incentives to capture this business, but Faucheux said he has seen it improve over the last two years.
“It’s just one more way that we attempt to diversity the local economy and one more industry with employment opportunities to afford to local residents,” he said. “We’re going to do all we can to be as successful as possible.”
Although the productions shoot at locations in the parish, he said the lion’s share of the work is done at Quixote Studios in St. Rose. This also makes it difficult to gauge how much work is done here.
[pullquote]“I expect much of the same growth that we saw in 2019, not near the peak times that we saw some five to six years ago, but certainly the continuing upward trend.”- Corey Faucheux, director of St. Charles Parish Economic Development and Tourism[/pullquote]But those businesses benefitting from this work reported growth, as well as those employed by the industry, Faucheux said.
“Certainly, the impact to St. Charles Parish has been positive, but to what extent is unknown at this point,” he said.
NCIS: New Orleans and Queen Sugar have regularly shot scenes in the parish, as well as movie productions.
Faucheux said he gets notices from scouts looking for locations that included these productions, as well as Animal Planet that shot footage for a documentary in the swamps in Des Allemands and south of Highway 90, and another TV series called Shadows filmed at Quixote Studios.
The parish is attractive to film makers for many of the same reasons as it is to any business.
It is local to the airport and near the entire New Orleans area, which is a major advantage with so many productions shooting there, and has major access to interstate highways, he said.
“With that industry, it’s all about the spaces and locations to shoot, and we’re fortunate that we do have a production facility in St. Rose,” he said. “We were happy and were glad to be able to get that investment in the parish.”
Major projects filmed in St. Charles Parish
Movies
- Interview with the Vampire
- 12 Years a Slave
- The Highwaymen
TV Series
- Queen Sugar
- NCIS: New Orleans
- Scream
- Ravenswood
- Astronaut Wives Club
- Deadlier Than The Male
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