Creatives Grab Coffee - The Rise and Fall of the Film Industry in Louisiana | Creatives Grab Coffee 62

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

Edward Holub, founder of New Orleans Video Productions, discusses his experience in the video production industry and the unique challenges of running a business in New Orleans. He shares insights on the freelance nature of the industry, the variety of projects he works on, and the importance of building a network of reliable freelancers. Edward also delves into the history of the Louisiana tax credit system for film and the corruption that surrounded it. The conversation with Edward Holub delves into the impact of the film industry in Louisiana, particularly in New Orleans. The discussion covers the rise and fall of the industry, including the influence of tax credits, the criminal activities surrounding the film projects, and the political dynamics in the state. Edward shares his personal experiences as a filmmaker and his plans for the future, including targeting specific projects and expanding internationally.SPONSORS: Canada Film Equipment: www.CanadaFilmEquipment.com Audio Process: www.Audioprocess.ca 🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2vHd8BdbkMQITFZmDJ0bo9 🍏 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/creatives-grab-coffee/id1530864140 🎞️ Produced by LAPSE PRODUCTIONS – https://www.lapseproductions.com To learn more about the show, visit: https://www.creativesgrabcoffee.com/ #videographer #videoproduction #podcast

Welcome to Creative Scrap Coffee, the podcast on the business of video production. Creative Scrap Coffee is hosted by Dario Nuri and Kirill Lazerov from Labs Productions. Our goal is to share knowledge and experiences from video production professionals around the world. Whether you're a freelancer looking to start your own business or a seasoned business owner aiming to scale your company, this is the show for you. Join us as we develop a community of like-minded creatives looking to learn and help each other grow. Welcome to the business of video production. Welcome to Creatives Grab Coffee. Before we get started with the show, let's go over today's sponsors. Do you have a shoot in Toronto?

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Anyways, just to kinda get the episode rolling, today we have Edward Holup from New Orleans Video Productions, and as you can guess it he's based out of New Orleans welcome to the show Edward We need to get a shirt as well Kierl we don't have any laps shirts. Yeah, I know I know Especially ones like that just so we can do that, right? Swag is a good thing, you know Clients, you know, whenever you can.

We have hats and mugs, that's all we have at the moment. And we've been like very slowly. And we haven't given them out to anyone. Mugs, mugs we have, but not the hats. The hats... We still have a case of those mugs somewhere. Actually, I don't even know where they are. Are they in the storage locker? They're probably in the storage locker. We've given away half of them, but... Anyways.

I try to shirt people, you know, at least they'd say crew on it, especially if you go into crowds, you know, so they know who's on our crew. You know, because sometimes you can't just get labels, but you've got the big shirt, the video camera on it, and you're in a venue. They're like, oh, OK, I know who you are. It's like, I don't have this stinking badge, man. Just big word that says crew. who you are. It's like, I don't have this stinking badge, man. Just big word that says crew. You know, I've heard funny things where people have said that you could walk into any venue with a tripod and people will think that you're,

that you meant to be there even if you have nothing. Not even tripod, just dress in all black. That's usually like the uniform for like crew is all black. It's true. And then, you know, the shirts help. They get you in and you know, sometimes, you know, when you got people come in at weird hours, they wear a shirt.

You know, once upon a time, I think it was about 11 years ago, Dario and I, we weren't even doing a video production company at this point, but we were working on some internet show. And it was at Veld Music Festival. We were just interviewing people outside the venue. And then at one point, close to the end of the event, with our cameras, we just walked through the front gates,

nobody said anything, and we got to see Deadmau5 live. Do you remember that time? I was like, I remember going like, Carol, Deadmau5 was playing. I was really into Deadmau5 at the time. I was like, we gotta go, we gotta try it. Just wanna see it try it just and we did we just walked through nobody cared. It was all good So I mean that theory does I mean, I don't know how much now but 11 years ago it worked Okay, how does this exactly work? We're recording now. This is our this is our bit. This is our show. Yeah

Well Already begun well, then let's make it a show. Let's actually have an agenda, go through things really poignantly, because I hate going through these kind of things where people just jabber mindlessly. Let's try to stay on an agenda that people might be interested in hearing. For sure. So one thing we usually start with is a little bit of a background typically of our guests. So Edward, tell us a little bit about yourself and New Orleans video productions.

Yeah, I've been an ad at my whole life. My dad was a photographer. I was a still photographer in New York before I moved to film and video. I shot an independent movie in New York and then I started. Ever since then I've been doing video mostly. And I live in New Orleans now, so I do New Orleans productions mostly. We do added productions from other companies around the world, a lot from London, New York and LA.

And we do their bidding when they come here locally. From London, huh? Yeah, we get a lot from London for some reason. What kind of projects do you get from them usually a whole range of stuff, you know Anything from just some commercial stuff interview b-roll, you know cover some plants or a Star comes by and they want to do a junket, you know depends there's a range a

a junket, you know, depends. There's a range. A junket? Well, what's that? That's just when like the actors come and they gotta market the movie. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, so it's all virtual. We set up a couple of cameras all virtually.

So when a journalist from Germany, say, comes into the chat, they get a real picture. So when they record their chat they can use it as media so that then the actors do their bit you know and they just go from journalists to journalists in the same location because you know they got good sound good audio good sound good picture sometimes a teleprompter so they can do all the hits they have to do. Nice so what are like some of the more, some of the, like some of your favorite projects

that have kind of come through from internationally? Oh, well, I've been doing a lot of music. For some reason, New Orleans, or me, I don't know, I've just been doing a lot of music. I'll either multi-camera record, we usually multi-camera recording. So I hooked up with this one company that we go to London a lot. We're going to London next week On a shoot and that's it's gonna be a five-ary camera inside a tiny studio. So that's gonna be a challenge

But yeah, they have a decent budget But it's the same thing. We're just recording a band as they budget but it's the same thing we're just recording a band as they write music and record it and then shoot their interviews that kind of thing you but it's you either do that or just live production you know with actual shows and shoot those multi-camera how long you been running your business oh since 2002 yeah that's a long time. Yeah, I mean I do well I mean I even before that when I was doing still But a lot of what we get here is is really just interview b-roll

You know you have to go somewhere film somebody talking about something or themselves or whatever and then a little b-roll to either Describe that person or we go out into you know shooting the world. It's b-roll to either describe that person or we go out into You know shooting the world. It's b-rolls a big big Wide gambit of things you could it could be could either be just the interview room or we could actually go to you know The Gulf of Mexico and a helicopter you know it depends You know but obviously we I'd love to a helicopter, you know, it depends. You know, but... Let me see, we were in a helicopter for some shoots? Yeah, a couple times. Yeah, because we're in the Gulf of Mexico, so we work for the oil companies once in a

while, and they've got all the oil rigs for the, you know, the deep wells. So sometimes we have to go out there, or we go to their offices where they've got these It's like command centers, you know where they're on the phone and virtually talking to all the well wells around, you know golf So sounds like a cool shoot. Yeah. Yeah, that was pretty intense Who needs drones when you have? helicopters, right You know if you're gonna go out to a deep well it's about you know a mile off the shore

maybe more you know it's hard to get there it would take a boat like half a day to get out there and if the seas are kind of rough you know it's easier to fly in How long would it take to fly in? Just well it's only a mile so not that long Yeah it take to fly in just well, it's only a mile so There is like two seconds He said that he said the boat would take like half a day So yeah, I didn't know how long yeah, it takes a boat a half a day because it's got to come out of port It's got to go, you know through channels and get all the way out there

And then you know getting on and off boats isn't easy Especially when you're out that far in the Gulf. It's hard to get off the boat and if you want to get onto a platform, that's a challenge. But you can just fly in and land right on the platform. So it's a lot faster. Interesting. So is that like most of like a lot of like the clients that you have locally in New Orleans,

a lot of, you said oil companies have locally in New Orleans a lot of you said oil companies is that like Predominantly the industry there. That's a big chunk of the industry that and shipping They would do a lot for shipping and that anything to deal with the Gulf. I mean we just did a conference We did a series of interviews for wind TV Wind because now yes because I don't know if you know there was a huge new appropriation for windmills across the world and Louisiana has a huge amount of oil platforms that are empty. So it's a perfect spot to put a wind generator. So there's a huge amount of business and wind. So

we shot some interviews at a convention for that just a couple weeks ago. Well, yeah, a couple weeks ago. Tell us a bit about your company. Like how big? How big is it? Like how many employees do you have? Oh, it's like it's like a mission impossible. You know, here's your job. Here's your mission, Mr. Ed, if you choose to accept it. There's like three of you then. Simon Pegg and the other guy.

Yeah, right. Who do I call in for my gaffer? Wait, how big of a show is it? Okay, you know, so you write up the crew and the equipment based on the job. You know, it could be anything from me and an assistant to 15, 20 people or 100 people even. The one at the end of the month is probably over 100. Oh wow. So it sounds like you're pretty skeletal. Is it just you and then you just crew up based on the project or do you have any people that

are in-house? No, I've got people, regular freelancers, but if we're not working, they can get other gigs. There's not so much work in New Orleans that it's every day. It's a strange market that way. So you've been running your business since 2002 and it's still just you and then you grew up based on the project. Carol and I have come back and forth many times

in terms of how we would like to scale our business in terms of employees and everything. And our approach would be maybe very skeletal or maybe even like you. So I'm just wondering, you've been running your business for 20 years. Was there ever a point where you're like, I need to bring people on?

And then it seems like you didn't. So what happened along with the way that made you go down this way You've got your regulars But you know you you want regulars that are working a lot and they're really good at what they do So and you don't want to tie tie them up bushing you don't want to tie them up if you're not working I mean right you get a really good, you know second that over a producer that really knows his shit Why hire him full time and he's just gonna sit around do nothing

He's not gonna like that and like you're gonna have to pay him for that I'd rather pay him his day rate for for a job. He comes in does my job. He goes off and does another job but you know I've got a regular kind of um of people that I use on a regular basis but we're all freelancers, we're all in the film business you know. I mean I'm a DP, I get hired as a DP, sometimes DP producer or a cameraman sometimes on the right assignment I'll just come in and run a camera. So we're in the film business you know we have our LLC so we can expand you know I mean even if you come in as a DP on a smaller job you've got you've got your

you've got at least one other camera operator maybe you've got a steady cam or a crane and a couple of assistants that that all comes under your production company because you know when you're we're charging a Production you're charging for all that together all of your people aren't are billing the production company. They're billing you So that you have to you have to scale depending on what the job is it you know it depends on like what kind of work you get and I'll just I'm generalist, I'll do anything. You got the dime, I got the time.

You know? I like that. Yeah, that's pretty much how it's been with us as well for the last few years. Like the reason we're asking, because we know a lot of companies, we've interviewed a lot of people on this show who have had such ranging sizes of businesses,

most of them pretty much in the same boat as you and us, but there are some that have small teams of like three to five core members that are focusing on a lot of specific things, like for example, having an editor full time is one of the most common first hires that a lot of people in our industry get because one of the biggest needs that we do have

as a business is needing constant editing, right? But did you ever feel like you had maybe at least enough work coming through for like a year or two where you felt like, okay, it might actually be more efficient to bring on someone full-time or did you feel like you always knew that you just wanted to keep it as skeletal as possible? Well, I mean, part of it is where we live in Louisiana.

There are seasons, you know, when the summer comes, it's pretty much dead. So there's no point even being here, you know, because it gets so hot. It's hard to even work. So really conventions go away. It's hard to even work. So. Oh really? Yeah, the conventions go away. It becomes really dry for a couple of months. Wow.

And then. Sorry, is that common with a lot of other companies in your industry there? Like it's like everyone's pretty small scale and then like just dead season in summer all around? Yeah, when we have dead dead since we have dead seasons and since the state really screwed up our tax credits it's hard to stay consistent. Everything is very freelance for the entire

industry really. So some people just join together you know it's like if you have a friend that's also in the business that maybe does audio or edits or you know Likes to talk to people on the phone and you can hang out and stay together I mean you're not going to charge each other, you know when there's dead time so Maybe you can work together to get some gigs But it doesn't even really work that way because the amount of work, the kind of work that comes in is just so varied.

You know, you don't know if you partner with a guy that's doing say motion graphics, you might get five jobs in a row that don't even have motion graphics. Then, you know, if you partner with somebody, I mean, it's not really a good relationship, you know. It's better to make sure that people that you partner with, you bring in for the job and it's serious when you're working. But we're all freelance. If you get picked up on a movie, then you're gone for a couple of months or a couple of weeks or whatever it is. But that's kind of the lay of the land here. It's kind of odd.

You mentioned that the tax credit system there kind of screwed you guys up in your industry. Can you just say something elaborate about that? Elaborate a bit more, because we're not sure how that works. Write that on the screen somewhere. Can you add some graphics? Put up a graph.

Louisiana tax credits for film. You know, it's a big thing. Louisiana was one of the first states that started it. They called it runaway production back then, 2004, 2005. Runaway production from LA. It was a horrible thing for LA. But what it boiled down to is there were a couple of thieves in New Orleans that figured out they could get a bank to bank some of their movies if they could get the state of Louisiana to pay for part of it. So they did. So they developed a sort of scheme for themselves so that they could get 40% of their films

paid for by the state. So they started out as the Louisiana Institute of Film Technology. It was supposed to be a school. So they got the state to pay a percentage. And that turned into a tax incentive for productions to come to Louisiana to shoot, so they could get a percentage of their budget paid by the state.

So it was all started by this big scam for a couple of guys. And everybody who started it is either in jail or dead. When was this? Early 2000s. This is wow. Now when you say, what's the tax credit situation? Oh yeah, of course there's a tax credit situation credit situation You know they're all over the country, but it was started by a couple of criminals who had a a guy in LA who was

Also a mobster like a Russian mobster Who wanted to launder some of his money and also get a tax credit back? That's how it all started This is a movie idea right here. This is a movie idea because you know before casino to launder some of his money and also get a tax credit back. That's how it all started. This is a movie idea right here. This is a movie idea. The casino before casino. Yeah, I was thinking it kind of is. I mean the stories are crazy.

Like this one guy stole a million dollars from his partner because his wife was sleeping with his partner and he got screwed out of his producer fee. When you get a tax credit, you have to sell the tax credit, so there's a commission involved. And if it's a $10 million movie, and that's 40%, that's $4 million, and if you want 5% of that, that's what... That's like $300,000, $400,000 maybe?

$300,000 or $400,000, yeah, you kinda want your $300 maybe three or four hundred thousand dollars yeah you kind of want your three or four hundred thousand dollars because you brought another movie in and and that tax credit you sold the tax credit you want your share so his his wife is sleeping with his partner his partner screwed him out of the three hundred thousand so the guy went to the bank account and stole a million oh my this is literally like the video production version of Casino. Yeah I think it should be called dirty money or something like that. That name's too common. Dirty video? No dirty video

sounds like a dirty movie though. That's kind of it. It's just dirty money. Just dirty money. Oh my god. This would only work well as a movie. As a documentary, no one's gonna watch it. No, no, it can't work as a documentary. It's just a bunch of people talking about it. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And you're like, wow, really? Really, really? But if you see them doing these things, like the guy who took the million dollars blew it all on hookers and cocaine. Bro, this is Jonah. I can see Jonah Hill being that guy Jonah. Jonah. Jonah Hill is that role?

Yeah, oh my god, then you're always got to be there somewhere He's like the guy that started it the good yeah definitely De Niro could kind of be Malcolm Peddle but Malcolm had a lazy eye and he's the guy who screwed over John and Malcolm Malcolm had a lazy eye and he's the guy who screwed over John and Malcolm How do you say this had a child with one of his prostitutes oh My it just gets better and better like this story is just like and you were around at the time because you were in the industry too, so yeah, I've been like seeing a lot of time because you were in the industry too so you must have been like seeing a lot of this. I was watching all this and like what the fuck?

How common is like does everyone in Louisiana and the industry know about this or is it just like? Oh yes common knowledge yeah it's just you know the politicians want to dumb it down you know Mark Smith was this really tall black dude and he for a while you couldn't get a movie made unless you paid him. Wow, he really is like the mafia like it was the mafia back then. Geez. But I mean yeah it was Imperial Bank out of LA which is was based was really a a front for the Russian mobsters that had some nightclubs in LA. That's where they were getting the sources of money to make their movies. It was basically money laundering in general. And when the Russians were like, no, no, you've got to give us something, you know, we can't just blow it up. They came up with

a scheme of like, well, we'll get 50% from the state, you know? It's like, well that's something, I'll take it. Okay. Wow. And some of the movies made some money, but most of them were just shite. Well yeah, they weren't being made for the art. It wasn't meant to be making good movies. It wasn't about making the movies, it was about moving the money. It's like that movie The Producers.

They just had to make a movie and it needed to bomb for them to make their money back. Yeah, it's kind of like that. Except they didn't want anything to bomb. But in the meantime, there was another film called Bullet Films opened up in Lafayette. And they were sort of a legit movie and they came up with Sharknado. Okay. So Sharknado was filmed in Louisiana. It's a big hit out from Louisiana. It was one of those movies that had such a weird concept

that it got like a cult following it. Dario, do you know about Sharknado? Yeah, I never watched it myself, but I saw the trailer and I remember my reaction at the time. I know. A tornado with sharks in it. It's incredible. What the fuck is this? They made like three sequels after that, but now I'm wondering, was that all money laundering?

People love shark movies, man. Well, they were making movies for Sci-Fi channel. Ah, okay. So they were all these low-budget, you know Quick quickies and those turn of the 2000s or 2000 to 2020 before you know everything really went It was still cable world back then so they were making sort of made-for-tv cable movies that were sort of horror ish But then they had to transit when things started moving towards streaming. So they had to come up with better movies or try.

They got lucky with that one. So after that entire ordeal, how did that affect the industry? I want to know, how did it stop? they how did it stop like it clearly said? That's kind of what I'm getting to yeah people went to jail and they died And we already got that Daria, but what happened like how did they I wanted to hear that how they got caught bit Yeah, oh gosh. Well, you know mayor Negan the mayor of New Orleans did time and When he went my god, they all went down And when he went down. Oh my God. They all went down.

Right, when he went down, he took some people with him. It's like Sammy the Bull. Yeah, pretty much. This is like Wolf of Wall Street and the disaster artists combined. That's what this movie story is, essentially. And Casino. It's all set.

And the beauty of it is it's all set post-Katrina. So the city's wiped out, and these criminals are running around doing tax credits and negotiating 85% of these tax credits so they can get a 5% profit. And these guys are running around, well, the city's a mess. They're trying to get movies made when

we still didn't have streets. You know, like there was hurricane Sandy in New York, the subways were filled. The next day, the subways were running. In Louisiana, there was a hurricane, we lost the major bridge for two years. So the city of New Orleans was separated from the state for two years And during those two years nothing happened couldn't get big trucks through

So the city was just still destroyed and there was a wreck and we still had the tax credits So people would fly in and make some movies here and there We still had the tax credits. So people would fly in and make some movies here and there. So how did that whole ordeal kind of affect the industry and also you personally with your business? Because obviously after that, everyone was probably very hesitant about what projects were being made within New Orleans and Louisiana.

Yeah, the other part about it is Louisiana's a bunch of yahoos, you know, it's very provincial, especially before the tax credits. There wasn't very much production. I came from New York and I was used to production. I did a lot of commercials and still commercials, but I knew the industry and I knew how things work, but it just didn't work down here. People were just very, you know, thick Louisiana draw, like not really being professional in a production environment, not being able to like, you know, follow the chain of command properly. And that kind of haunted the city for years. And eventually more film workers started moving to Louisiana or New Orleans and now

they're kind of here. So there are about three layers of good crew that live here. But a lot of them came here. They weren't here back in 2004, describing 2004, what the environment was like. So the tax credits created an industry But it really only created an industry for technicians You know if you were a budding first AC it would be fucking beautiful for you You know in 2005 you're like I'm a budding first AC. I can load everybody's camera. You know You know I can clap all day You know I can hold focus all

day when if you want to come in and if you want to enter the industry well I'll just clap all day so if you're a clapper if you're a loader if you're you know first AC if you're a grip rigor you know an assistant anybody like all the departments needed assistance all those people were getting jobs but if you're really in the industry and you're a DP it didn't matter for shit because you know you're not going to get the DP gig from a Hollywood movie rolling it rolling into town by the time it rolls into town it's got all the above the line set and most of the keys are set. So you're not gonna get anything plumb.

So what made you move down there? Because you're mentioning a lot of things that made it sound like it was very difficult to make it there. And you were already in New York, sounding like you were doing pretty well there. What moved you to New Orleans? It was just my personal life. I lived in New Orleans.

I'm sorry, I lived in New York. Then I moved to Vienna. I lived in Vienna, Austria for a couple of years. I had a baby and we moved. Then I got a film to shoot in New Orleans. So I came down to do that. And then when that was done I was still down here and my wife at the time wanted to stay in America I didn't

want to go back to Vienna we were still in New Orleans we didn't go well we were only here for a year so then Katrina hit and she went to Florida with my kid so I got into a custody battle with her for five years so I had to kind of stay that kind of that's why I was here just you know just to try to have some relationship with my daughter when my ex-wife was being an ex-wife amazing and politically correct answer you could give about describe the situation my ex-wife was being an ex-wife. It was the pause before he said that.

Just trying to do. Yeah, that's a writer in me trying to figure out the way to freeze that. We all understood. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. It's exactly what you have to say on a podcast show like this so nothing gets used against you. So on one side, on one side it was exciting, you know, that the industry's moving here,

the film industry. So, oh, well, you know, I can move out of commercial, move into feature. It's like, no, you're not going to move into shit. You know, because forget it. These jobs are set. You know, people have been, you know, working for generations to get some of these jobs. You're not going to just walk in because they happen to be filming something down the block. So that's the frustration side of it. And unless you're, I mean, I was never, you know, I was beyond 18 when this all started. If I had been 18 at the time, it might have been different. I could have worked my way in as a PA. I could have worked my way up.

But after having been in the industry that long, I wasn't ready to just start, I wasn't gonna clap for somebody, I wasn't gonna just carry shit around. It's like, that's not what I do. So I still did some good jobs. And there was a time when I realized I could market myself better.

So that's how you guys found me, probably through my website. And that was about five, six years ago. I really put some energy into trying to figure out how to build a website that would be effective And it's been pretty effective so but it's also it's a niche thing You know and I only get I get the work that I get because of the marketing and the way the website works so that that's that describes why you know you know, I'm a generalist because, you know, people looking for video production that could be anything. So I have to be prepared to do

anything. Especially in a tough industry like that in New Orleans, like if you're able to find work that's coming in, whatever it might be, you want to try to serve it, right? You know, like whenever leads are coming through the front door, you're trying to find work that's coming in, whatever it might be, you wanna try to serve it, right? Whenever leads are coming through the front door, you're trying your best to sign them because work is work, right? You never know when it can be dry. And especially when you know that summer is dry

in New Orleans, you've gotta try to fill up as much as you can just before that dry season starts, right? Yeah, that's it. You know your prime seasons, you wanna get the most You know your prime seasons, you want to get the most out of your prime seasons but then you need to adjust or go somewhere else. But I haven't been able to, I had my kid that was battling KEEP and then I got remarried and my current wife, she had a couple of kids too. So we were raising children and we're kind of stuck in this New Orleans area before the

custody reasons so we stayed here through all that and Yeah, I got to witness the film industry sort of implode around me Sorry go yeah, okay I mean, sorry, go. Yeah, okay. So we already covered like the criminal aspect of it. We hadn't even discussed the political aspect of it. Okay. I want to hear this.

Because beyond the criminal side of it, there was a whole other layer of politics involved. Because as everybody should know, Louisiana is one of the reddest states in the Union. Most everybody in the outskirts of Louisiana will listen to any kind of conspiracy story, anti-government story you have. And they're all kind of way older white men that have their own sense of delusions about the successes they've had in their life and that they talk a lot and they they bullshit everybody talk down to people all the time drag them into the corner won't admit to anything carry guns and are willing to use it well and are

willing to use them as opposed to some of the other politicians that are very similar in um to some of the other politicians that are very similar in personality types. So the average personality type of the average Louisiana is a white male with delusions of grandeur, heavy failure in his life, and filled with conspiracy theories because they're all narcissists who of course believe it was none of their fault. It was somebody else's fault and they needed somebody to go get them. So that's the average Louisiana citizen. And then you get to New Orleans, which is not Louisiana.

It's the most northern city in the Caribbean. In the Caribbean? It's a Caribbean city. Over half the population is black. So the entire culture is, it's like a black culture really. It's got strata. So you've got the colonialists on top,

the rich white people that have been here for centuries. They still kind of rule things, the white elite. But then the culture itself is really very African-American. And it's got its roots from Haiti and from throughout the Caribbean and the free people of color that came there. So that's sort of the history. But politically, New Orleans is a very different entity than the state of Louisiana. So it's like an enclave that's surrounded by a wall and when you go outside the wall they're all a certain

politician. You know, they all they look exactly like the politician they sound like him they So it's a red state, but it's got this blue core in New Orleans So that's just a that's the political makeup of the state unfortunately for the rest of the state 80% of their tax income comes from New Orleans So everybody in the state of Louisiana has a hate relationship with New Orleans. They think they're all, you know, you know, the first are racist, so they hate New Orleans. Second, they're extremely Republican, so they hate New Orleans.

They are, have, hate the arts, hate anything to do with, with any kind of creativity, so they hate New Orleans. They hate the arts, hate anything to do with any kind of creativity, so they hate New Orleans. So the rest of the state has this hate relationship with New Orleans, but they love the money they get. So that's the politics involved with the state. So got some drama down there Jesus yeah yeah so that goes so understanding that that backdrop of the history and the politics when you get into the film industry politics it gets very specific when you go to northern Louisiana and the county called Bunky the the senators from Bunky feel like they're getting jipped because all this tax credit money is going to the movie industry and nobody wants to go up to East Buttfuck to film, I mean Bunky to film.

Now we know what you really think of that area. So the Bunkites on the fringes of the state have found a coalition with all the other Yahoo people of that sort of political ilk who joined together for the political purpose of attacking New Orleans. So they were able to castrate the tax credit for a couple of years. They put a cap on the tax credit, which is the worst possible thing you could do. It's like a cap means, okay, we're only going to spend $250 million on films this year. We don't know when it's going to stop.

We don't know whose film is going to be the one that we can't fund. But once we hit 250 million, we're done. So the entire industry said, I don't wanna be that one, fuck you. They all went to Atlanta. It was like a first come first serve type industry there, or at least it is like that now, right? And the way the tax credits are handed out,

you have to spend the money before you get the tax credit. Oh, that's, yeah, yeah. That's very risky, yeah. So it's like, how do you know you're gonna be the one that gets lucky enough to get some of the tax credits? And then, yeah, at that point, like, you have to spend it, like, these companies have to spend the money in a way that they can cover it

if the tax credits don't come through. So it's almost like it's just there to help a little bit, but it's not really helping elevate past the resources that you have. So yeah, that really does put a hamper on like producers and production companies in terms of what they can really produce down there. Wow.

And it came at the worst possible time because at that year, in that year, New Orleans or in Louisiana in general was getting the lion's share of runaway production. Most, I mean, there was a movie, two movies a month being shot here for a long time, for a year and a half. And it was right at the point where people had to start building studios. But to build a studio infrastructure is millions of dollars.

And when the primary industry here is shipping, and the shipping industry really didn't want to have anything to do with it. And for these huge complexes that you need to build for a studio, they would prefer to have that space for cargo. So it was hard to find Louisiana investment because there was no motivation. But that was starting to change because of the amount of work that was coming in. And when they changed the tax credit situation, suddenly within a year, 80% of the work went to Atlanta.

And Tyler Perry bought big. He bought three studios in Atlanta, and Atlanta took off. And that's because these idiots up in Bunky destroyed the industry in Louisiana. And they did for years. It took about two or three years to repeal those laws. But by that time, we were lower on the list of states where people wanted to produce movies, because we didn't have the studio structure. Right at the point that that investment needed to happen. The industry went away and that investment still hasn't happened.

Still in New Orleans is there's about three or four studios period. You know, there's not much real studio space at all. Man, that, that Indus, that Indus, uh, honestly, like what that happened there has really kind of really put a hamper on Louisiana and New Orleans. And honestly, definitely one of the more interesting stories you've shared on this show in terms of what has happened on the industry. Most of the time we've just gotten, yeah, these are the companies we work with and the

industries that we work with, yada yada. But you're like, oh, I got a story for you guys. I know we could probably, I know we can probably go a little bit more, but like we do have a hard cut. No, no, I asked him if we could do a little later. Oh, okay. So we're good. Let's end on a positive note. Yeah. Because we have another 15 minutes. Let's end on a positive note. So now you've been

running your business for all these years and you've seen your stake go up and down and whatnot. I'm just wondering for you, what are some next steps? Because I mean, you've been in this for decades basically. So. Yeah, I guess I've got three areas that I'm concentrating on now. First, since my kids are no longer dependent and I probably won't sell my house, but I can move.

I can leave the area, which is huge. I haven't been able to do that before. So it's a change in philosophy. So with that comes marketing. It was about five, six years ago, I came up with this brilliant marketing plan that's carried me through so far. So now my next stage is to develop a new marketing campaign using AI.

Because five years ago I thought, well, what if I did this? What if I did that? And then I ran into these things like, well, you have to hire a marketing person for $150,000 a year. It's like, no, I don't think so. So now you can create a marketing scheme, whatever your mind can come up with, and use AI to implement it.

And you don't have to hire all these marketers. So I can take some of the same techniques I used to create the first business and expand to reach the kind of work that I prefer doing so I don't have to be a generalist. So looking forward I want to get out of the generalism I want to get out of the area and you know move up internationally so I'm writing scripts and I'm yeah trying to figure out how to get my marketing together so I can get more

of the kind of work that I prefer doing is what it boils down to. What type of work are you aiming to go for? DP, DP director. Either I'll help make the picture or I'll make the whole movie. Specifically in the movie industry itself rather than like corporate videos or things like that.

Is that kind of what you're? Yeah, I'm so tired of corporate video and the whole corporate world. I mean, it's just, it's not gratifying, you know? It's like, it's just another job. You know, I don't, as far as putting, for me to put the energy into marketing, I think using AI, I can turn around my whole business plan

instead of saying, well, I'm just gonna get whatever work I can, I can target my pushes so that I can really look for the projects that I want. And you know, you can't, the whole thing about, well, all this work came to Louisiana, why didn't you pick it up? It's like, it's not here. The work might be in, you know in Japan or it might be in Canada.

You don't know where you're gonna get the work. You have to target your marketing so that wherever they are, you can find them or that you can hook up with them and you can use the internet for that, to find the right people that will work that you're a good fit with, where you're headed creatively and professionally. So.

Yeah, a lot of states and even some provinces in Canada are just destination places where if there's a movie or TV series being shot there, it's not based there. So if you wanna get involved in that, you have to go to other states and other cities that are very popular. Like in Canada, Vancouver and Toronto are the two most popular destinations

for a lot of these TV shows and movies, but a lot of them are also based in the US because it's a lot cheaper to shoot in Canada than in the US. So if you wanna get involved in those productions, you gotta figure out a way to work with them in the states first to come back to Canada really. Yeah and internationally there's a lot of work in Europe, you know, and I love Europe, like I lived in Vienna,

so I'd go back to all kinds of parts of Europe to work, so like this one Indian producer that we're working on this series concept. We're also gonna shoot that in Germany. So I'll be happy to go back to Germany. And if I hook up with another producer when I'm there, I'm great, I'll stay in Germany. Now that I don't have to raise kids and be there for that, I can go back to having my career as my children. When I was in New York, my career was definitely my first kid.

So now I can reboot for that. That's exciting. Oh, a hundred percent. And one benefit that a lot of people, that we haven't really kind of highlighted so much in past episodes about the benefit of being in such a skeletal team of like one or two people is that flexibility of being able to take your career

where you need to, right? If you were to say have a team of like five, seven people have a business or even 10 people have a business in a certain location, you're kind of anchored down at that point there. It's gonna be a lot harder to pick up and move or do something completely different unless you fully, you know, kind of exit that.

But like you said, you just said like, who knows you have this one project that will take you to Germany. You might make a connection there that makes it viable for you to stay there. And yeah, like the possibilities are really open at that point. It's just a matter of how you hustle and where you hustle, right?

Yeah. You have to think of yourself as a media professional, not as a business owner. You're one of many. Even, you know, when you bring in other people, you're still one of many. Even if you're the boss, quote unquote, you're just one of other crew and all of your crew have to be top-notch. They all have to be doing their job at the right time. It's production protocol. So if you're doing a high-end convention, you've got a certain crew protocol or if you're doing interviews at a university,

you still have the same kind of production protocol and you're part of that. And you have to realize that that's your job. Your production protocol cog in whatever work you're doing. So yeah, and you wanna build yourself up for what you wanna do in the industry, you know, not your little business. Because business changes, it goes from gig to gig. You want to make as much as you can on the gigs,

but you want to produce. Because the more you produce, the more you make money. Because every element you produce, you should get a cut or a fee or something. So the more you produce, the more money you make. Or you can just get paid more for higher levels. So if you get paid as a director or as DP or a writer, you'll get extra money that way.

So you have to think about your identity. And remember that even if you have a small business, beyond your small business, you're a media professional. And you need to be able to walk onto any set, anywhere, doing anything, and be part of the team. So you need to run your team the same way that you would act on somebody else's set. And you've gotta be that way.

And like I said before, the whole thing is like Mission Impossible. Dump, dump, dump, dump, dump, dump. Every time I open up the email and I get that one note, hello Edward, we've seen your website, we like your work, we have a job coming in on whatever date. Music starts going in my head. That's a good way to

think about it. You gotta basically be Tom Cruise in your life. Well you know 60 years old and still jump out of planes. Exactly you know I was just thinking like in that team who's gonna who's what role you know Simon Pegg is maybe like the producer you're like on the computer in the background and then who's like he's the DP you know getting right in there with the trenches getting the shot and who's being grains I don't know director First of all if you're dealing with an agency, it's the agency producer You got to look out for number one because they're the one paying the bills

They're the one hiring everybody then you've got the director who has their own idea about what's going on. And then you've got the director. That eye roll. I love that eye roll because we all, whenever we say that, when they have their own idea, we all have like that one memory of a director that just just had his own idea. That's all we're going to say. Yeah. And then you've got the director of photography

who has their own ego. That's right, Carol. And then you've got some of the technicians you really, really need. Like, you need a production designer to bring in some of the crap they need to have there. You need to have a location manager that can actually get you into a place without dying or losing some What some of your limit? You know, there's certain technicians you need to have, you know

You need to make sure your gaffer can turn on a light, you know and not drop it on you know a PA You know the things like that. So when you're building your crew, yeah, that's that's kind of what it's like You've got to be able to know who's above the line. Above the line really means people you can't pick on. That's it. Can't give them too much of a hard time, basically, right? That's good. I like that.

Yeah, you've got to listen to them like make their dreams come true It's like the royalty you can't make fun of the royalty but the peasants yeah, you can push them push them around Yeah, you gotta push everybody else around to make it work for the guys up there that's why the number one person you need to stand and good graces with is the General producer of the project the EP. Yeah, because they're the ones that are approving the budget. And you're going over the numbers with them, this is what we have for each department, that's what you got. But then you've got department heads that you gotta pick.

It's not just the producer behind the computer typing in numbers, that's like the low end. It's more like who's on your trucks? Do you have somebody that can actually do media management? Do you have somebody that knows how to load a truck? Can they carry wires? Are they gonna cause... All those issues you've got to work out when you're choosing your crew. Yeah.

No. Okay. On that note, we need to end it because we have a hard out in two minutes. All right. That's cool. Yeah. Good episode. Hey, what do we need to search up for that Louisiana movie Seattle stuff?

What's like? Look up Malcolm Peddle jail and look up Malcolm Petal Malcolm Petal death. Oh my oh my god Yeah after our next call yeah, no, honestly I'd read thank you for jumping on the show and and thank you for sharing such a Interesting insight into and history there and history. Yeah, exactly. You really gave a good backstory to everything as well. Dude, I'm telling you, you wanna get into movies, that's a movie idea right there. That's a movie right there.

Write up a script for that and just go for it. Yeah, except I don't wanna wind up in this swamp with ham attached to my dead body. The trick to that is you get those people to fund the movie and then they get their kickback. Yeah, watch the offer about how they made the Godfather and that was literally one aspect where they had to They had to like meet with Joe Colombo to make sure that you know, it's like, okay, don't worry. This is the script We're not gonna make fun of Italians. Okay, like get rid of the word mafia from the script, you know, it's all good

It was the Russian mafia so he just has to go to the Italian mafia and then it'll be all good. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The Italians will protect you, but I don't know. No, you don't want to mess with the Russian mafia. All right. Okay. Okay.

Thanks again. Good. Thanks a lot. Okay. Catch you later. All right. Hold on to. Thanks for listening to this episode of Creatives Grab Coffee.

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