Episode 62
The Rise and Fall of the Film Industry in Louisiana (ft. New Orleans Video Productions)
Edward Holub has been telling stories on camera his whole life. The son of a photographer, he worked as an advertising and editorial photographer in New York, shot an independent film, and eventually landed in New Orleans, where he has run New Orleans Video Productions since 2002. Much of his work is service production: companies from London, New York, and Los Angeles hire him to shoot locally, whether that is interview and B-roll, a press junket, or multi-camera music recording. The assignments range from an interview room to a helicopter over the Gulf of Mexico for the oil and shipping industries, and lately the growing wind-energy sector.
In this episode, Edward joins Dario and Kyrill for a colorful, twenty-years-deep conversation about the business of film in New Orleans: how Louisiana’s film tax credits set off a boom and then a bust, why most of the work eventually fled to Atlanta, and how a lean, freelance-by-design studio survives a seasonal, unpredictable market on marketing, range, and a media-professional mindset.
Key Takeaways
- Lean can be a 20-year strategy. Edward has run New Orleans Video Productions since 2002 with no full-time staff, scaling a trusted freelance crew per job, from a two-person shoot to a hundred-plus for a big convention.
- Match crew to the job, not to payroll. A great producer or second does not want to sit idle on salary in a slow stretch, so hiring at a day rate per project keeps overhead low and everyone working.
- Tax incentives decide where work lives. Louisiana’s early film tax credits drew runaway production from LA, and when the state capped them, roughly eighty percent of the work moved to Atlanta within about a year.
- A cap is poison for production planning. Once a state hits its annual credit limit, no one knows whose film goes unfunded, so productions stop risking it and go where incentives are reliable.
- Incentives mostly create technician jobs. When a Hollywood production rolls into town, the above-the-line roles and department heads are already set, so the local opportunity is largely for assistants, grips, and ACs, not established DPs.
- In a thin market, marketing is the business. Edward’s inbound comes almost entirely from a website he built to actually work. In a niche market, being findable matters as much as the craft.
- Stay a generalist until you can target. He took whatever work came through the door to survive, and is now using AI-assisted marketing to finally target the director and DP roles he wants.
- Think media professional, not business owner. The business changes gig to gig, but your identity as a craftsperson travels with you, and a small, mobile operation can follow the work anywhere.
- Know above the line from below it. Serve the producer, director, and DP whose vision drives the project, build a reliable technician crew around them, and keep the budget-holding EP happiest of all.
Timestamps
Meet Edward Holub and New Orleans Video Productions
Edward Holub has been telling stories on camera his whole life. The son of a photographer, he shot advertising and editorial in New York before moving into film, and he has run New Orleans Video Productions since 2002. Much of the work is service production for out-of-town clients, companies from London, New York, and Los Angeles who need a trusted crew on the ground in Louisiana. That can mean a press junket, interview and B-roll, or a multi-camera music session, and it can just as easily mean a helicopter ride over the Gulf of Mexico to an oil platform, or a convention covering the region’s fast-growing wind-energy sector.
A Lean, Freelance-by-Design Company
After more than two decades, Edward still runs the company the same way: lean by design. There are no full-time staff, just a trusted stable of regular freelancers he scales up per job, from himself and an assistant to crews of a hundred-plus for a big convention.
“we're all freelancers. We're all in the film business.”
Edward Holub, New Orleans Video ProductionsHis logic is pure economics: a great producer or second does not want to sit idle on payroll during a slow stretch, and you do not want to pay for that idle time. Better to bring them in at their day rate for the job and let them work elsewhere in between. It is the opposite pole from the studios that staff up and try to remove the founders from the work, a tension the show explored in Managing a Growing Business with Bottle Rocket Media, and it ties directly to how you think about videographer day rates and the production company versus videographer question.
The Rise of Louisiana's Film Tax Credits
The episode’s centerpiece is the story of how film production boomed and then busted in Louisiana, and Edward had a front-row seat. In the early 2000s, Louisiana became one of the first states to offer film tax credits, luring what the industry called runaway production away from Los Angeles. Studios could get a large share of their budget offset by the state, and for a stretch there were two movies a month shooting in and around New Orleans. Not all of it was prestige work: the cult hit Sharknado came out of a Louisiana shop cranking out made-for-cable movies during the same era.
The Fall: Fraud, a Cap, and the Move to Atlanta
The boom had a dark underside. The program became notorious for fraud, with schemes that treated some films less as art than as vehicles to move money, and it eventually drew a wave of prosecutions.
“It wasn't about making the movies, it was about moving the money.”
Edward Holub, New Orleans Video ProductionsAll of this played out against the backdrop of a city still rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Then politics finished the job. Legislators from rural parts of the state, feeling the benefits flowed mainly to New Orleans, pushed through a cap on the credit. A cap is poison for planning: once the state hit its annual limit, no one knew whose film would be left unfunded, so productions simply stopped risking it. Within about a year, roughly eighty percent of the work moved to Atlanta, where Georgia’s uncapped incentives and heavy studio investment, including Tyler Perry’s, built a new hub. The cruel timing was that Louisiana had reached the point of needing serious studio infrastructure, and when the work left, that investment never came.
Surviving on Marketing and Range
For a working DP like Edward, the tax-credit era was less golden than it sounds. The incentives mostly created jobs for technicians and assistants, first ACs, grips, and loaders, because a Hollywood production arrives with its above-the-line roles and department heads already set. So he did what a generalist in a thin market has to do: stay ready for anything and market relentlessly. About five or six years ago he built a website that actually worked, and it has been his main source of inbound ever since. In a niche market, being findable is the business, which is exactly the argument for treating video production and marketing as seriously as the production itself.
What Is Next: AI, International Work, and the Media-Professional Mindset
With his kids grown, Edward is free to move for the first time in years, and he is planning around it. His next act is a new, AI-assisted marketing push to target the specific work he wants, director and DP roles on films rather than another corporate job, and to chase it internationally, from Europe to a series concept with an Indian producer. Underpinning all of it is a mindset he has earned over twenty years.
“you have to think of yourself as a media professional, not as a business owner.”
Edward Holub, New Orleans Video ProductionsThe business changes from gig to gig, but your identity as a craftsperson travels with you. Run your own set the way you would want to show up on someone else’s, and a small, mobile operation becomes an advantage rather than a limit, because you can follow the work wherever it goes. It is a useful counterpoint to the freelance-and-agency conversation in The Benefits of Agency Work with Noble Bison Productions.
Building a Crew: Above and Below the Line
Edward closes with a practical primer on crewing up. Know who is above the line, the producer, director, and DP whose vision you serve, and who is below it, the technicians and department heads you build around, from a location manager who can get you in and out safely to a gaffer who can light a scene without dropping a fixture. The single most important relationship, he says, is with the executive producer approving the budget, because everything flows from there. For live and event work, that production-protocol discipline is what separates a smooth multi-camera shoot from a scramble.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Edward Holub?
An award-winning New Orleans director, producer, and cinematographer, and the founder of New Orleans Video Productions. He worked as an advertising and editorial photographer in New York before moving into film and video.
What is New Orleans Video Productions?
A New Orleans video production company led by Edward Holub since 2002, offering commercial, live event, music, multi-camera, and documentary production, often as the local partner for clients from London, New York, and LA. Site: neworleansvideoproductions.com.
Why did the Louisiana film industry decline?
Louisiana pioneered film tax credits and drew heavy production, but fraud scandals and prosecutions, plus a legislative cap on the credit, drove most of the work to Georgia, where uncapped incentives and studio investment created a new hub in Atlanta.
Why does Edward keep his company small?
By design. He scales a trusted freelance crew per job rather than carrying full-time staff, which keeps overhead low in a seasonal market and lets him stay flexible enough to follow the work.
What is Edward focused on next?
Using AI-assisted marketing to target specific director and DP roles on films, and expanding internationally beyond corporate work.
The Hosts
Dario Nouri and Kyrill Lazarov are the co-founders of Lapse Productions, a Toronto video production company, and the hosts of Creatives Grab Coffee, a weekly show about the business of video production.
About
Creatives Grab Coffee is a podcast about the business behind video production: sales, strategy, pricing, team building, and everything that happens off camera. New episodes every week on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Lapse Productions is a Toronto-based video production company serving tech, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing clients with corporate, promotional, event, and testimonial video. New to commissioning video? Start with our guide to the types of corporate video.
New Orleans Video Productions is a New Orleans video production company founded by award-winning director, producer, and cinematographer Edward Holub, who has led it since 2002. The lean, crew-based operation handles commercial, live event, music, multi-camera, and documentary work for local and international clients, and often serves as the on-the-ground production partner for companies based in London, New York, and Los Angeles. Learn more at neworleansvideoproductions.com.
