Writers' strike hits Louisiana's film industry as shooting slows to a trickle

Ashley Segal, 29, has spent the last decade in the film business in New Orleans, working her way up from the lowest-rung production assistant jobs to get her foot on the next rung of the ladder and finally start making decent money.

At the end of last summer, she had accumulated the 600 days working as an all-purpose PA — doing everything from making coffee to delivering scripts and corralling actors — so that she could get onto the "qualification list" of the Directors Guild of America and be able to apply for assistant director jobs on movies or television shows.

"I made it just in time for this slowdown," said Segal, referring to the strike by the 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America, now into its second month, which has halted productions in Louisiana and many of the country's other filming centers.

There are currently just three productions filming in Louisiana, according to Louisiana Economic Development's entertainment unit. Two are filming in New Orleans: an untitled movie about U.S. Marine Corps recruits, and a horror picture called "Imaginary," both of which are scheduled to finish shooting before the end of the summer.

"Re-election," a Tony Danza vehicle, is shooting in Baton Rouge, which is due to wrap up this month.

Filming is unlikely to resume again until after the writers' strike is resolved, because other unions, including the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, whose members do many of the essential on-set jobs, have vowed not to cross picket lines.

Donita Sather, who has been a hair department head on movies like "Unhinged" and television series including "NCIS: New Orleans," says this downturn is one of the sharpest she's experienced in her 30 years in the business.

"When you're used to making over $100,000 a year and all of a sudden it comes to a slam-dunk halt, that's huge," Sather said. "I haven't worked a full movie since November."

She has always done some private clients' hair in her garage studio, and she says that and the fact she now qualifies for Social Security has kept her afloat.

Boom to bust

The slowdown has been particularly jarring for local film industry workers because it was preceded by a boom. Filmmakers in late 2021 and early 2022 were looking to make up ground lost to the coronavirus pandemic. They were also seeing a surge in demand from streaming services like Apple TV+, Amazon Prime and studio offshoots like Peacock.

LED data tracking applications for the state's film subsidy give an indication of what's happened to the filming pipeline. In 2022, 80 productions applied to the program after declines in the previous two years. But in fiscal year 2023, the number of applications tumbled again.

The value of productions — which correlates closely with industry employment — nearly doubled in fiscal 2022 from the previous year, to $1.3 billion. It fell nearly 70% the last fiscal year, to about $439 million, with most productions completed in 2022.

LED said that as production spending tripled over the previous six years, industry jobs nearly doubled, rising from 5,700 in 2017 to more than 10,000 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022.

But the raw data masks the seesaw nature of working in a business where film jobs average one-to-three months, and where even the best televisions jobs can run out after just a couple of years.

Gregory Carr, a New Orleans native, has been in the local film business since he graduated from University of Miami film school in 2006. He worked for years as a production assistant and joined the directors guild in 2012. His latest project was the television series "Twisted Metal" and he's worked on more than 30 movies and TV series over the years. He's currently out of work with nothing on the horizon.

"This is definitely not for the faint of heart," he said. "If you're a planner and you want to plot out where you're going to be over the next five years, this is not the industry for you. I've got plenty of friends who do what I do who are working in coffee shops right now or cutting grass." He reckons he's lucky that his wife works and they have no kids, plus he's learned over the years to put money aside for the barren times.

The incentive for sticking with it is partly about the money. Segal said she can move from making about $11.50 an hour (which includes overtime) as a production assistant, to daily rates of more than $500 for a junior assistant director on a smaller budget project. "The jump is exponential," she said, pointing to senior assistant director rates that can top $20,000 a week for bigger budget productions.

About jobs

The writers' strike slowdown came at the same time that Louisiana's film industry mounted a successful push to renew the state's controversial production tax subsidy, with job-creation as their focus. Lobbyists wore "Film=jobs" buttons as they persuaded legislators this month to extend the subsidy, which costs taxpayers about $180 million a year, for another six years through 2031.

Some of those working on the front lines of the industry feel public policy could direct some of the subsidy to be used to make their lives less uncertain.

Stacy Kelly, 64, a makeup department head, said that despite the seniority she's earned over 40 years in the business, the current slump has meant she must now postpone her retirement.

"The shows are getting subsidized, but we don't have any support," Kelly said. "I've been doing this since I was 20 and it's not like I'm going to change careers at 64 years of age. But I've been out of work now since December and this (downturn) has been a real eye-opener."

Sather, the hair department head, said: "I don't feel the industry offers any support during these times. It's crickets, which is typical of an industry based more on greed than on art."

Ally Vickers, another veteran movie hair stylist, said she feels for the younger people who've recently come into the industry.

"The flood of work brought a lot of new people in, so those who've only been in it for the last few years have known it only to be busy," she said.

Support for strikers

Among local film workers, there is widespread support for the striking writers and a feeling that a good deal for them will be good for the rest of the industry.

"I hope the writers get the best deal they can," said Carr, the director. "It might be uncomfortable now but a good deal for them only benefits the industry."

"I'm 1,000% behind the strike," Kelly echoed.

Segal said that she was "radicalized" when COVID shut the industry completely in New Orleans from March to October, 2020. She realized that she was making more on unemployment than she had been making for 80 hours a week on film sets.

"My therapist keeps trying to convince me to pursue another career, but I can't envision myself doing any other job," she said. "But it doesn't have to be like this. We could all work together to create a better industry."

This article has been updated to correct the first name of one of those quoted.