NEW ORLEANS (Sept. 24, 2024) — It’s 91 degrees out on a Friday in September and I am listening to Elton John’s “Rocket Man” alongside local pop singer Delores Galore, Elation Entertainment’s owner David Lee Adams and cameraman Keith Hoffman (of Comfy Stone Films, Elation’s in-house photo and video team) who is editing the chanteuse’s latest high-res video clips.
We’re seated in leather swivel chairs and the sound is so outstanding on the Dolby Atmos 9.6.2 certified surround sound speakers that you can hear the slight mute of when John’s fingers slightly stick to the keys and notes you’ve probably never noticed before.
I close my eyes and feel like I’m in Los Angeles or Miami but no…I am in Metairie in a top-notch, multimedia studio sequestered away off Veterans Boulevard.
It’s not that surprising that this Jefferson Parish enclave has the vibe of cities that are generally more known for their stamps on the entertainment business. Owner and CEO David Lee Adams has spent a career in the entertainment industry working from Hollywood but always returning to his hometown of New Orleans.
“I was born and raised here, and I spent nine years in L.A. going back and forth to visit family. I realized that New Orleans has a huge gap in what’s happening in the industry compared to big cities like L.A. and Miami. We’re far behind in content creation, artist development and even in having an entertainment business culture for music,” he explains. Seeing how the film industry was more “organized” and established in the area inspired Adams to take a note from what he was experiencing in Southern California and bring it to Louisiana.
Adams’ studio is available to content creators, artists, musicians, filmmakers, podcasters and businesses in the area who are looking for place to generate digital media. The studios boast versatile film sets (including a Miami Vice-esque speed boat with green screen), hair and make-up rooms, conference areas, vocal booths, podcasting suites, event space and more. Adams and his crew on this particular Friday showed us just how easy it is to produce high quality content in a short amount of time.
“In L.A., it’s typical for content creators and artists to post 30-35 pieces of content per day,” he said, as his crew effortlessly positioned Galore along their all-white curved cyclorama wall and drenches it in neon lavender light while her latest single “Calls For You” thumps in the background. It’s not even 45 minutes before Hoffman and Adams have furnished her Dropbox with a mp4 file that’s Instagram and TikTok ready.
“My background is building and owning studios in L.A. and Florida,” he said. “In L.A., your artists are content creators, so you learn that they have to do the song and shoot content in the exit room for it. You walk in, you do your song, and then you walk into the white wall so you leave ready to go for promotion,” he added, explaining the reasoning for the symbiotic design of recording studio flowing into backdrops.
Adams is adamant, however, that Elation is not just for artists and creatives. In fact, he welcomes the business community of New Orleans to take advantage of what his production hub has to offer.
“We have been working with restaurants and rental car companies and hotels…it’s a broad range of things,” he said. “I’m working on a employee team building experience through social media where a corporation can send us 15 employees and we spend 6-7 hours per day setting up sets for whatever product they offer. We would create a content game around the sets, train staff how to shoot and light and how to identify social media trends. When they leave, not only do they have fun as a group, they leave with content, they leave shooting on their own pages when they get home.”
But whether you take a workshop or not, Elation’s award-winning team members are ready to help take content creation from start to finish. And although the rates are a lot cheaper than a voyage to L.A., the quality is Hollywood level.
For more information on Elation Entertainment or to book studio time, visit https://www.elationent.com/.
For ideas on how to up your social media and/or content creation game, click here.