The film industry is on the verge of getting its act back together in Louisiana after last year's months of strikes by the unions representing actors and writers over numerous issues.
Trey Burvant, executive board member with the Louisiana Film Entertainment Association, says several productions will begin in Hollywood South before the end of the month.
He says, "Once the actors sort out all their conflicts with the scheduling issues, we're anticipating seeing a lot of activity post Mardi Gras and having a real robust spring."
Burvant says the delay up to now in getting film production rolling again says is, "Primarily due to the scheduling of the actors."
He says the downtime on film production has been economically pretty "rough" for vendors and crew members who saw their incomes drop to zero due to the strikes.
Burvant says that the usual 700-million dollar economic impact the film industry brought to Louisiana before the work stoppages was believed cut in half for a loss of approximately 300-million-dollars, and probably tens of millions of dollars taken out of the pockets of workers in the state.
He says the good news now is, "The crews are here. We're ready to work. Studios; We have our lights on. We're ready to host projects."
Burvant says that after Mardi Gras wraps, "By March/April we should seen a significant return of our business and a significant return for people to get back to work."
He believes that in the weeks and months ahead, Hollywood South will return to normal film production.
