New Orleans-- A long way from Hollywood, Trent Cooper and Heather Persons piece together a motion picture.
After shooting wrapped on "Father of Invention," it takes Persons, the film editor, about a one week to put together the first rough cut.
"Then, the clock starts ticking," explained Cooper, the film's director.
Working in Horizon Entertainment's Mid-City offices, Cooper has ten weeks to turn that raw work into the very best movie he can make, known in the film business as "the director's cut."
"I'm sort of on an island. I'm in a room with no feedback."
This longtime hollywood practice is aimed at avoiding too many cooks.
"Somebody has to have a vision and see what the story is and get it from point A to point B," said Cooper.
Prior to Katrina, New Orleans had made giant strides in its quest to become "Hollywood South."
"The spirit of the people here is pretty tremendous," said cast member Johnny Knoxille. "It's just like everyone's in it together."
Sentimentality about the city's recovery goes only so far, especially when tens of millions of dollars ride on decisions about where to film a movie.
"You have a movie, it's green lit, You have to figure out where to shoot it, You are running numbers on everything," said Cooper.
In this case, the raw numbers meant the project almost never happened in New Orleans.
Michigan now offers even more lucrative incentives, a 40 percent tax credit, and producers saw other appeal in Detroit.
"Because this movie's about inventing ideas and there was a lot of inventing there and they have their incentives."
However, the "inventors" of this movie explain New Orleans offered something Michigan could not: more experience film crews.
"To me, your incentive will get people to come here," said Cooper. "Your crew will get them to come back."
In the past, the knock on New Orleans was its lack of post-production facilities. A great place to shoot a movie, the city had virtually no state-of-the-art facilities for the editing done after shooting stops.
Horizon and other facilities make it possible to produce a motion picture from start to finish and never leave town.
In fact, Cooper said they started editing "Father of Invention" the day after the first scene was shot.
"The real scary thing is you better get what you need for that scene that day because you're never coming back."
Post production facilities provide movie makers the luxury of fixing mistakes along the way.
"If you have to re-shoot, you want to be able to re-shoot right then and there," said Krane.
It's also a potential money-saver and Krane gushes over his experience with New Orleans film crews and even property owners.
"Invention" was produced almost entirely on location, with no man-made sets, thanks in part to the reception film makers received in New Orleans.
"In Los Angeles, they would try to price gouge you," said Krane. "That's another reason people don't like to shoot in L.A."
Krane estimates it can be 5 times more expensive to film in California than Louisiana and believes New Orleans already has the ingredients to become a film center.
"The only way a thing like this can be screwed up is if people's egos get out of control."
