Actress Jency Hogan, who has worked in film for a decade, said her most memorable moment in the business transpired not in the Hollywood hills but in the swamps of southern Louisiana.
In 2008 Hogan was convinced to return to Baton Rouge, La. following her parents’ frequent reports of the growing film industry in her home state—an industry that now hosts the most productions annually behind only Hollywood and New York City.
The striking and edgy Hogan soon reaped the benefits of the move and started getting auditions for big-budget-films in a way she had only dreamed of during her seven-year-stint in Los Angeles.
She landed her first major role in a mater of months, playing a knife-fighting villain opposite Paul “Triple H” Levesque and this year’s Academy Award Nominee Bruce Derns.
It was during her final scenes on this action-packed film “Inside Out” shot in New Orleans, La., that Derns emboldened Hogan, solidifying her decision to stay in Louisiana.
“He took me by the shoulders at the end [of shooting] and said ‘You have it. Just hang on,’” Hogan recounted.
From then Hogan continued to develop her craft and was cast in Louisiana-based films, most notably this year’s the Oscar favorite “Dallas Buyers Club,” in which she played an AIDS patent who buys into Golden Globe Winner Matthew McConaughey’s illegal treatment scheme.
But Hogan is just one of the many cinematic stars in Louisiana today; as movie-making success continues to flow out of the bayou, producers, actors and students alike are pouring in and sticking around.
According to the Louisiana Film and Entertainment Association, there are 15,000 Louisianan’s working in the booming industry, which is in large part thanks to the state’s entertainment tax incentive.
Since 2009 the Louisiana Entertainment Tax Credit provides producers with the best deal in the nation at a 30 percent tax reduction on any film, television program, recording, live performance or digital media project created in the state. An additional 5 percent reduction is added for Louisiana hires.
In recent years the program has helped bring in multimillion dollar blockbusters such as “Breaking Dawn,” “Oblivion,” and “Pitch Perfect. “
Elizabeth Hutchinson is a fellow Baton Rouge native who, like Hogan, moved to Los Angeles and recently returned home to profit from what she called the “infinite possibilities” in the Louisiana market.
Hutchinson made the move during the inception of the incentive program. She said she has seen the industry grown tenfold since then, and is proud of her home state.
“It’s nice to see Louisiana do something right,” she said. “It’s nice to see that we can thrive and be competitive.”
Hutchinson said that when she graduated from LSU in 1996 with a broadcast journalism degree, which according to her was the closest thing to filmmaking the university offered, the job market left her no other choice but to move to LA.
Her first job was fanning rap mogul Sean “P. Diddy’” Comb’s torso on the set of a music video, which she said made her “question [her] college degree.”
But today LSU alumnae like Elizabeth Shaw and Ezra Winters are learning within a different environment, within their home state, only months after their May 2013 graduation
Shaw who graduated with a film degree, runs her own studio in Baton Rouge called Bluecity Productions, making creative projects with whom she called her “film nerd friends.” She also traveled to the Sundance Film Festival in January to represent the Louisiana industry and capture footage.
Winters, a former English major who concentrated in screenwriting, is working on his own short film script and served as a production assistant on ABC Family’s teen-soap “Ravenswood” last year.
Both Winters and Shaw said they plan to stay in Louisiana if opportunities remain.
“Why would I move away when it’s just so easy here?” Shaw said.
Executive Director of Celtic Studios in Baton Rouge Patrick Mulhearn predicted that the industry will continue to prosper as long as the incentive program is in place.
The 150,000-square-foot studio on Airline Highway, equip with seven stages, green rooms and editing space will welcome the second installment of “The Fantastic Four” series this April and “Pitch Perfect 2” in May.
“Jurassic Park 4” is set to begin filming in New Orleans this summer, while Baton Rouge currently hosts the indie film “Zipper,” which includes “Game of Thrones” star Lena Heady.
“As long as we can stay competitive, and we are competitive right now, we will keep getting the business,” Mulhearn said.
Celtic tenant Gerry Gilbert, a post-production sound editor and LA expat, agreed but with a more jaded view.
“There’s a lot of hopeful thinking in Louisiana,” Gilbert said. “People are bargain hunting and they will shoot wherever they can get a discount. People are pretty fickle and this is a nomadic industry.”
But despite this fact, others like Hogan are settling in for the long run.
She and her husband Aaron are in the post-production on a self-made short film “Painting Parakeets,” which she plans to submit to various film festivals.
She still studies acting and attends every clinic that comes through the state, meeting new producers, directors and coaches.
She also is working to pass on her knowledge to aspiring actors in the Baton Rouge area, teaching acting and screenwriting classes out of her backyard studio to adult acting friends and teens who hope to make it in the industry like she did.
“It’s like a dream for me.” Hogan said. “It’s unreal.”
Laura Furr Mericas 