Legacy

Now that big movie productions are common in the Bayou State, it’s no longer necessary for LSU students to relocate to Los Angeles or New York to find work. Some students have already begun their careers and others want to get involved in Louisiana’s booming film industry. Will the University keep up with the times?

Over the past few years, movie stars have flocked to Louisiana. It is not unusual to spot Ewan McGregor in an Angola Prison cell, Patricia Clarkson at the Capitol or Brad Pitt on the streets of the Vieux Carré.

New Orleans has long been the Emerald City for Hollywood filmmakers, but Shreveport and Baton Rouge have seen their fair share of film and television productions. LSU is no stranger to cinema either.

Films like Everybody’s All-American (1988), The Whole Wide World (1996) and Glory Road (2006), include LSU characters or were shot on location at the University. A new football movie is in preparation stage and will soon be filmed on campus.

All Eyes on Me features a fictional LSU quarterback who risks losing everything if he continues to live a reckless, partying lifestyle. Richard Guiton, the film’s screenwriter and director, told me the number one reason he chose to set All Eyes on Me in Louisiana is because the people here are “so real and welcoming.”

In addition to Southern hospitality, Guiton was also attracted to Louisiana’s tax incentives, which currently offer 25 percent tax credit to productions for money spent in Louisiana. An extra 10 percent is added for hiring Louisiana workers. For motion picture developments like All Eyes on Me, there is a 40 percent credit. $300,000 is the minimum amount productions must spend to qualify for these incentives.

“What Louisiana has over anybody else is a good infrastructure,” Guiton said. He noted that the state has resources for all stages of film production, as well as a multitude of unique shooting locations.

I met location manager Matthew Dolney at the “haunted” Ardoyne Plantation in Houma, the main shooting location for Deadline, which stars Brittany Murphy and Thora Birch. On a tour of the grounds, I noticed two freshly dug graves outside the plantation, which Dolney said would be used for a scene they were shooting that night.

The inside of the post-Civil War plantation home was crammed with both elegant and odd antiques, including a large, framed portrait of General Robert E. Lee. Against a wall in the wide downstairs corridor, black folding chairs rested. One of the chairs was printed with Murphy’s name.

I wanted to see Thora Birch, but the American Beauty actress was in her trailer, hiding from man-eating mosquitoes. However, I did get to watch Brittany Murphy act in a night scene. Armed with only a flashlight and boots, Murphy tiptoed toward the abandoned house for several takes. Eventually, the mosquitoes drove me away from this unglamorous world of production, but Matthew Dolney seemed impervious to the mutant insects.

Since he graduated in 2006, Dolney has worked on 12 films. He currently works for producer Jason Hewitt, a Louisiana native who founded the production company Films In Motion. They worked together on Warbirds (1989) and their current project is Deadline.

Dolney hopes to run his own production company someday. He also believes that LSU should expand its film program. “We’re the flagship university and we don’t have a film school,” said Dolney. “The debate has always been that UNO has one. So what if UNO has one? It doesn’t matter. If you want to keep the film business in this state, you have to have more than one film school.”

While attending LSU, Dolney was active in the Cinema Club and helped acquire equipment for a digital film class. He was also involved in developing 117 Allen into a screening room. He thinks LSU should make film-related studies a priority, because education is vital in strengthening the state’s infrastructure. Dolney said there are plenty of students who want to learn about film at LSU and the University should keep up with the times. He added, “Field of Dreams is right. If you build it, they will come.”

Christopher Stelly agreed, “LSU should pick up on trends in the industry.” Stelly is the director of film and television for the Office of Entertainment Industry Development for the Department of Economic Development.

I met Stelly at the LSU Student Union on a rainy summer day, which happened to be the morning of commencement. Stelly, an LSU alum from 1996, wore a red, white and blue polo shirt and a warm, Southern smile. He exuded all-American charm as he spoke about entertainment in Louisiana.

“Louisiana is the number one state behind New York and California in film production,” Stelly beamed. In 2007, Louisiana had 53 productions in the works. This year, as of early August, 60 films have already been shot.

Stelly explained that the film industry is here in Louisiana to make the most of their dollar. He said that maintaining the state’s competitive tax incentives was one way of keeping filmmakers in the state.

But another is to strengthen the FMA program at LSU. In the ’90s, Stelly took a screenwriting class at LSU and was “keenly interested in film school.” During that time, Dr. Gregory Schufreider was the founding director of the Audio-Visual Arts program.

“[Steven] Soderbergh was in town here and we conferred with both him and John Hardy about the structure they thought such a program should have,” Schufreider said. Soderbergh and Hardy recommended a theory-oriented program for LSU, since learning how to make a film was not as difficult as figuring out what film to make.

“The difficult features were actually the theoretical features,” Schufreider explained. “Unless you had some of your own views about film or about narratives … there was nothing to make.”

About two dozen film-related classes are spread around LSU’s campus. English courses like “Screenwriting” and “Film as Literature” are regularly offered during fall and spring semesters. This fall, Associate Professor Tracy Shaffer is teaching a horror film class in the communication studies department.

In spring 2009, Dr. Patricia Suchy, the director of the Film and Media Arts program, will teach FMA 4001, “Advanced Digital Video,” and Dr. Kevin Bongiorni will teach FMA 3001, “Fellini and Film.” During spring break, students who take either of these two linked classes will be eligible to travel to Italy to shoot Fellini-style short films, which they will edit in Baton Rouge and screen at the end of the semester.

In addition to film classes, LSU has a lab called Studio 151. Located in 151 Coates, the lab is equipped with 28 one-chip Canon Mini-DV camcorders, 24 Apple laptops and editing software like Final Cut Pro.

Kevin DiBenedetto is the coordinator for Studio 151 and he helps LSU students learn to edit video projects. Though he sees the film studies program as “lacking,” DiBenedetto is hopeful for its future. “[Film studies] will continue to grow as the industry grows around here,” he said.

Students who are not satisfied with the University’s current resources have two options: They can figure out how to make LSU work for them or they can simply transfer to another school.

Michelle Kowalski, a former LSU student, recently won the Audience Award for her short film Ungreetable, which she made with a team of UNO filmmakers for the 2008 New Orleans 48-Hour Film Project.

Kowalski came to LSU after Hurricane Katrina postponed her plans to study film at UNO. She was enrolled in LSU’s FMA minor, but Kowalski was frustrated with the University, finding its resources inadequate and its film-related courses elusive.

“I felt like I had to go to some secret underground vault for film classes,” Kowalski said. She moved back to New Orleans and currently attends UNO, which has its own problems with limited editing lab hours and restricted equipment-checkout policies. Still, Kowalski said networking is a lot easier in New Orleans. “Everybody knows everybody.”

Students like Michelle Kowalski have left the city, but other students in search of that “secret vault” have remained in Baton Rouge. Matthew Dolney actually transferred from UNO to LSU to study business management and he found what he needed in the Red Stick.

Dolney said education is important for economic development. Louisiana already has successful training in place for film crew workers. A film school in Baton Rouge could bring in more diverse talent, like directors and producers.

“LSU has the draw,” Stelly said. The University’s name could attract both support and students. Developing the FMA program, or even turning the FMA minor into a major, will take time because institutional change is slow.

In the meantime, Stelly thinks LSU students should put together their own curriculums. “Find out what you want to do and where you want to be,” he advised. “Take the pieces and make them whole.”