Second Line Stages, one of Louisiana’s largest television and film studio operators, on Thursday showed off its huge new sound stage complex, a sprawling series of airplane hanger-like structures that cover two city blocks in New Orleans’ Lower Garden District.
The opening film, “The Inspection,” was screened for festival goers in one of the four 15,000-square-foot sound stages that make up the Lower Garden District property and that cost the better part of a $100 million investment by Hackman Capital Partners, the Culver City, California-based private equity group that bought Second Line two years ago.
“Before this was built, it was just two beat-up old warehouses,” said Trey Burvant, who co-founded Second Line with Susan Brennan in 2010. Pointing to the new four-stage complex, Burvant said they are the first purpose-built sound stages in Louisiana, with state-of-the-art audio capabilities and other adaptable features that film and television productions require these days.
(F)ilm and television production brought about $1 billion of spending to New Orleans in 2021, and is on track to top that this year, as New Orleans cements its spot as the fourth largest television and film production hub in the United States.
Second Line has been the site of about 70 productions over its first 12 years in operation, including “Green Lantern,” “Django Unchained,” “American Horror Story,” “21 Jump Street” and, most recently, Disney’s “Secrets of Sulphur Springs.” In all, the company has brought an estimated $1.4 billion in spending to New Orleans over that period. See more here.
