NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) –

Louisiana Film Tax Credit

The Louisiana Film and Entertainment Association or LFEA, met with film industry leaders and workers this week alongside with Louisiana Senator JP Morrell. Although Senator Morrell says the cap won’t be raised because of the budget crisis in the state, there are ways to make the industry stable. Morrell who’s a big supporter of the film industry in Louisiana

Morrell who’s a big supporter of the film industry in Louisiana said one of the major fixes is to have productions receive their credit on the front end, instead of the back end.

The film tax incentive is set at $180 million and productions are getting paid on the back end. Basically, this means when the cap amount is reached, it will roll over to the next year which means productions aren’t guaranteed their credit the same year they film in Louisiana. It could take a couple of years before they can get paid.

If productions are paid in the front in, then studios will have a guaranteed tax credit that they’ll receive that year.

The next session in Baton Rouge to tackle the issue will be this Summer.

The President of LFEA Robert Vosbein told us that he’s received numerous of calls from local business and hotels wondering where the film traffic went because they see a drop in revenue.

Vosbein and Senator Morrell tells people who are for keeping the film industry strong in Louisiana to reach out to their state representatives and legislators. Morrell says phone calls or letters or better than email.

NCIS: New Orleans

The hit TV show tied up the 5000 block of River Road to shoot a scene for the upcoming Mardi Gras episode. The episode which airs on February 14th is Mardi Gras themed and is a crossover episode with the original NCIS show.

We got an exclusive interview with the cast to give us a sneak peek behind the scenes of the episode which is set to air on News with a Twist on Mardi Gras day.

WGN America Outsiders

To see the interview we had with the cast and creators of Outsiders CLICK HERE.