With 2026 now roughly halfway over, what’s the state of Hollywood South? Jason Waggenspack, President of Film Louisiana, says there’s a bit of a holding pattern in effect not just for Louisiana, but for the film industry at large right now. “We’re really trying to figure out what the heck is going on with all this technology. We’re seeing pauses in major productions at the moment and an upswing in independent pictures that are rolling through Louisiana right now,” Waggenspack explained.
The main reason for much of that anxiety is the increasing use of artificial intelligence. Waggenspack says there is a good bit of uncertainty within the film industry at large about what the model will be moving forward as artificial intelligence increasingly drives differing elements of film production. “You’ve got some really interesting things happening with how they’re going to use the tools of AI to reduce the costs and the timing of how we produce films these days,” he went on to note.
Waggenspack says that most of the AI use happening is behind the scenes when it comes to storyboarding for films or enhancing post-production shots rather than creating entire worlds and replacing human actors. "They're taking out items in the background of certain scenes or adding items here and there. The explosions are looking more real and they're very vivid. They're using AI to do that very quickly now," he added.
While much of the public seems concerned with actors being replaced by AI approximations, that doesn’t seem to be the model moving forward according to Waggenspack. "There's a feeling you get when you look at a real person versus an AI actor. You can tell very vividly, and I don't know if we're ever going to get to the point where humans aren't discernible from AI humans, and I don't think we ever will," the longtime film pro says.
In the end, Waggenspack believes the classic model of how movies are made will be forever changed, but the human elements that audiences connect to will remain crucial. "You're not going to have as many people working in production, but we can put out those stories quicker now. Now, you can have a greater quantity of storytelling ... therefor there is more opportunity. It's just going to happen in different variations," he emphasized.
