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Treme studio helps keep post-production film work in Louisiana
If the walls of the sprawling 150-year-old house at 1240 Esplanade Ave. in the historic Treme neighborhood could talk, they would tell tales of the history of New Orleans.
But they could also provide a sneak peak of big-budget Hollywood movies filmed days earlier at locations spread across the city.
The building houses Maison Post, a post-production facility run by film industry veterans Kyle Curry and T.G. Herrington and designed to fill in the gaps in the booming Louisiana film industry.
Before Maison Post came on line in 2007, Curry said, big-budget productions like the Simon West-directed action picture "The Mechanic," which is lighting up the city with fireballs and explosions, would have had to rely on Hollywood studios for post-production work.
“That project is pretty significant because it’s going to kick-start a lot of things for the company and in a bigger way for Louisiana’s post-production abilities,” Maison Post agent George Hutchinson said. “Now you’re seeing companies who were filming here deciding to do the post work here as well.”
Chris Stelly, head of Louisiana's film office, said the decision to edit "The Mechanic" in New Orleans represents a significant step forward for the local film economy.
“As we’ve steadily grown this industry, you’re able to do everything from pre-production to actual production,” Stelly said. “Now what we’re starting to see is growth of the actual post-production industry.”
Big-budget movies that rely on extensive special effects will still have to turn to Hollywood for detailed and highly technical post-production work, Stelly said, but for mid-sized movies like "The Mechanic," New Orleans has become a perfect fit.
“We’re starting to see smaller feature films being able to do everything in the state,” he said.
While movies filmed locally provide a host of jobs, from catering crews to lighting technicians, Stelly said post-production opportunities create much more stable high-paying jobs that aren’t as dependent on the whims of the movie industry.
“Post-production work lends to a little bit more permanence in the industry,” Stelly said. “Whereas a production job may last six months or eight months or however long it takes to shoot a feature film, on the post-production side, that’s steady work that’s not necessarily dependent on pictures that are filmed locally.”
Advances in technology have allowed a film’s director to remotely view editing done on a computer anywhere in the world, Stelly said, opening the doors to editing suites in places other than Hollywood.
Curry, a Terrytown native with a long list of producing and editing credits, including the hit television show "The Wonder Years," said producers of "The Mechanic" turned to Maison Post for the bulk of the film’s editing duties to take advantage of the state’s film incentives as much as possible.
“They would be able to take advantage of the 30 percent incentive on production expenditures in the state because that covers both production and post-production,” Stelly said. “If a feature film not shot here wants to post here, the law allows us to issue tax credits on post-production work alone as well.”
Curry said he used the state’s film infrastructure incentive program to help finance a $2 million restoration project at Maison Post’s home office, transforming a formerly rundown building into a series of editing suites designed to make editors feel at home while logging long hours at the computer.
“All of the suites can be transformed into bedrooms if they need to be,” Curry said. “The idea is to make the editors feel as comfortable as possible, so we’ve set it up so they can live here if they want to. They can literally roll out of bed and get to work.”
The next step for the company is to develop a solid local talent base so movies and television projects can be written, shot, directed and edited in New Orleans using a local work force every step of the way, Curry said.
Having companies like Maison Post located in Louisiana helps stop the brain drain of technically skilled locals who have traditionally had to look elsewhere for jobs in the film industry, Stelly said.
“One of our main goals as a state is starting to build up that intellectual infrastructure,” Stelly said. “It’s taking people our universities and our community colleges and our technical schools are training and keeping them in the state, giving them a reason to stay home and keeping them from going to Austin or Hollywood to look for jobs. It’s a step in the right direction.”•
by Stephen Maloney Staff Writer
http://www.neworleanscitybusiness.com/viewFeature.cfm?recid=1540
