Keep on truckin’

Whether they have to do with budgets, contracts, or locations, a film producer’s job is to take a keen interest in the details. One thing Andre Champagne noticed was license plates. As a co-producer and production consultant on a handful of locally filmed features, Champagne saw that most of the equipment trucks and talent trailers on in-state film projects were tagged with plates from Florida and Texas.

Seeing a gaping hole where a Louisiana-based, film-centric trucking company could operate, the Baton Rouge native and two partners launched Hollywood Trucks in October 2007 with seven vans. Those vans soon grew to 20 trucks, 50 trucks, then 70. Now with help from new partner Mike Hollingsworth and the Hollingsworth Richards Auto Group, the full-service fleet is the largest for film industry transportation in the state, with more than 220 vehicles spread across offices in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Shreveport.

“Before, I’ve had to scramble 400, 500 miles away to find the right vehicles for Louisiana productions, or had issues with actors whose contracts stipulated pop-out trailers,” says film producer Joel Hatch. “Hollywood Trucks being on the ground and running is huge. It’s one of the reasons I would bring another film to Louisiana.”

While Hollingsworth has diversified his group’s interests as an investor, Hollywood Trucks has done the same thing as the recently opened Prop Depot in Gonzales. It has made making films in Louisiana easier on Hollywood by cutting down on detail-oriented Hollywood producers’ transportation costs and providing more state tax incentives by employing more Louisianans. Every truck rented in-state results in another job for a local crewmember rather than a teamster from California.

“Louisiana is so close to being able to deliver an entire product in-state, and that is massive,” says Champagne, who employs a full-time staff of 10 plus hundreds of part-time teamsters as drivers. “When we can do that, those incentives become extremely important.”

So, after a certain amount of time concentrating on Hollywood Trucks, will the 32-year-old try his hand again at producing?

“Definitely,” he says. “I’m now able to utilize one of my largest line items as part of my company. That vertical integration will pay off big time down the line.”