MarketWatch reports on film industry, Shreveport

Check out this article from MarketWatch (Dow Jones), which was filed from its Los Angeles bureau. It offers thorough overview of the state of the state's industry. Shreveport gets a lot of play. The story was also picked up by CNN.com.

Here's an excerpt: "Filmmakers in Shreveport say the state used to be the spot where movies that took place in Louisiana were shot. Now Shreveport serves as a backdrop for any town, including even that other L.A.

"'There's a downtown corridor that you can make look like any major city,' said Michael Flannigan, executive producer for Millennium Films. The company's headquarters are on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, but it's breaking ground in coming months on a new film center in Shreveport, complete with sound stages, he said."

That plays into a conversation I had recently with a local producer, who said Shreveport's downtown, which is full of old and many vacant buildings, is like a studio backlot.