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Filming in New Orleans
State and private agencies conspire to make cartain The Big Easy remains a favorite location for moviemakers
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| The Old Man (1996) |
NEW ORLEANS DOESN'T need to shout to be heard; it attracts enough attention just being itself, thank you. Even so, portraying it as merely a backdrop seems somewhat of an injustice, a misallocation of talent. Perhaps more than any place, save for New York, L.A., Paris, London, and a few oddities like Vegas, this city exerts its influence on a movie's storyline without even trying.
Ask a true local, though, if any movie has ever gotten "N'ahwlins" (199 sq. mi., pop. 500,000) "right," and chances are your query will be met with a resounding "Nope." Features shot here seem mostly to have been directed by outsiders who don't know the difference between "Cajun" (Acadian French/Louisianan) and "Creole" (French, Spanish or Portuguese /Louisianan), and so just don't have the "lagniappe" (that little something extra) that might transcend the Gumpian clichés so often present in New Orleans film productions.
"It's ironic," notes John Desplas of The New Orleans Film and Video Society, "because on one level you have the problem that films don't come here to shoot unless they feel the city is going to be a character in their film, but when they do come here and want the city to be a character, location they play it as cliché and for caricature—Mardis Gras, Cajun accents, and so forth. A great opportunity exists for someone to portray New Orleans in a non-stereotypical way." One director who has the potential to "do" New Orleans right is Francis James, who grew up here, went to school in Philadelphia, came back on an NEA/AFI grant to make the award-winning film Moon Blue Traces, and wound up starting his own company, Perception Films. His latest is the feature Tony Bravo, filmed entirely in New Orleans, which he hopes to screen at next year's Sundance Film Festival.
James, who started out as a fine artist, calls this city his "perfect palette." "There's a feel here that's a balance between Mardis Gras and Lent," says James. "It's the only place where the streets of piety and desire intersect. You can't stop life here because life rules this city. Some people get in trouble with all the distractions here, but I can work my butt off 'til four in the morning and afterward still meet friends and have fun," enthuses James, comparing the late night scene to New York’s.
Francis James may represent the future, but there's also plenty of celluloid history in New Orleans. Seminal features that have filmed here include Five Easy Pieces; Easy Rider; The Big Easy; Live and Let Die; Angel Heart; Forest Gump; JFK; Dead Man Walking, and Elia Kazan's version of Streetcar Named Desire, to name but a very few. But those major productions were by no means the city's first forays into cinema. This is where William "Pop" Rock opened Vitascope Hall, the first movie house in the U.S., in 1896, which only slightly preceded the city's first silent film studios.
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| Sweet Justice(1994) |
"New Orleans offers one of the most diverse and attractive landscapes in the world," said Kimberly Carbo, Director of the New Orleans Film and Video Commission. "It's a place where creative people seem to flourish. And we have an approach that addresses a filmmakers' needs in-house. The Film Office here is part of the Mayor's Office, so we can cut out a lot of the red tape that filmmakers have to go through in other communities.
"We also work with a lot of young filmmakers to make their projects cost effective," Carbo said. "Our New Orleans Film and Video Resource Guide lists fees for certain services, but we tell them they don't always need to spend money. We've gotten the Mayor to agree to a rate release on fees for city services. We structure the city's involvement to suit the budget. We want to embrace the industry."
The Commission is a great place to get started if you want to shoot here. Their guide provides most of the requirements for filming here, as well lists of potential crew. The Commission also provides photos and/or video footage to guide you in choosing locations. On the state level, Louisiana is a "right to work" state, so producers can expect reasonable per diem rates for crew. Louisiana also provides a four percent rebate on sales and use taxes if your company's production spending tops. $1 million for the year. (Canada, by comparison, offers an up to 35 percent rebate, in addition to its favorable currency exchange rates).
"Structurally, we need something done on a Federal level, then we can do something on the state level so we're competing with other states instead of with Canada," says Louisiana Film Commissioner, Peter Loop, who last year introduced a payroll tax rebate for Louisiana residents and other production incentives, but these were voted down by the legislature.
"We're in that wake-up call mode," says former A. D. Loop, who says it wouldn't hurt if crew members would take the time to write to their representatives. "Here in Louisiana we've been especially hurt by runaway production," he laments. Several productions set in New Orleans shot in Canada last year, so even though those films didn't actually look like New Orleans, it apparently didn't matter to those companies. Location is becoming less and less important. It's the bottom line that's the determining factor, so we're trying to get to the point where we can help people with their bottom line." Loop, qualifies his argument by adding," I don't think it's right for us to criticize Canada for doing something well. It would be a shame if we didn't look at how they do it and try to compete so we can pull the industry back to the U.S."
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| MTV Global Grooves (1999) |
SOMETHING NEW ORLEANS Mayor Mark H. Morial has done to make pre-production less painful is to establish the Mayor's Office of Tourism, Arts and Entertainment (MOTAI) which provides a "Production Opportunity Hotline," and acts as a liaison between municipal organizations and production companies. And Mayor Morial has also shown his support for the industry by establishing the Mayor's Film and Video Award, presented annually in recognition of an industry professional deemed most supportive of the growth and development of the New Orleans production community.
Local industry insiders are the first to admit to the area's lack of local crew depth when it comes to recruiting for large scale productions. "We need to expand our pool of people by expanding our school's film programs," explains Walter Wolf, of the New Orleans Film & Video Society. "We also need to build more real and proper soundstages so interiors can be shot and bigger budget features will come here, which will in turn grow our crew base."
For now, New Orleans offers the ability to recruit from neighboring film communities such as Texas, Mississippi and Florida to fill in the gaps, but most locals say they prefer the smaller crew base, noting it makes for a familial bond that creates a more patient attitude on the set. "My crew operates as a family," says Francis James. "We even bring our dogs to the set and all break for lunch together. And we all have a personal interest in how the film does."
Locals also point out the added advantage of the low cost of living, which drives down per diem expenses significantly. Although activity this year is slightly down from '96-'98, when total direct production expenditures were $176 million and total economic impact was $528 million, direct production expenditures in New Orleans over the last eight-and-three-quarter years is an impressive $355.2 million, which translates to an average estimated economic impact of $114.4 million per year.
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| The Old Man |
"This year's been a strange one, just like everywhere, I think, because we've seen less feature production," admits Kimberly Carbo. "A lot of our production dollars have come from commercials, television, music videos and that kind of thing." Even with these woes, the local industry has shown a certain resiliency, hosting five "We're documentaries and three features thus far in '99. Documentaries have included Music of the World for Japan television, and Swingin' with the Duke: Duke Ellington Centennial, for Storyville Films, as well as Green Street Films' Sympathy for the Devil, and Perception Films' Tony Bravo.
Tony Bravo producer Michael Arata is a former actor turned producer. He, along with fellow actor, Mark Krasnoff and local restaurateur, Glen Armantrout founded Circle in the Sky and Wide-Eyed Films, financiers of locally written independent films. Arata has been promoting New Orleans to foreign filmmakers and is also working with several documentary filmmakers.
"It's funny," says Arata of his original intentions, "we thought we'd just produce films we could act in. What we've done is create a ton of employment for local people and obtained financing from local investors who would never have thought about film as an investment opportunity. They can see the excitement that the film industry brings, but more importantly, they get to see film as an economic engine; they see the instant economic impact that the industry has and they recognize the vitality that it can bring to any economy."
Arata works with Baton Rouge-based producer Pat Ballard, who has been instrumental in plugging him into the big industry players." He's been a valuable commodity to the area," says Arata who, like so many other indie producers, has looked to Austin, Texas as an example of a community to emulate. Arata and company recently took their case to the state capitol to show Governor M J. "Mike" Foster, Jr. legislation passed in Texas to create incentive for filmmakers there.
"We got him behind the idea of passing legislation next year to create incentives for people to invest in Louisiana productions. It's a pun," says Arata, "but if they get the picture, we can get the pictures.” Walter Wolf agrees. "We're beyond taxiing, we're hurtling down the runway and we're just looking for enough lift and momentum to really take off," he says in frustration of the potentially huge film scene in New Orleans.
No one’s enthusiasm seems dampened by the struggle to find answers. “New Orleans is terrific,” exalts Arata. “There’s a great blend of cultures— white, black, Hispanic, Central American, North American, Canadian, Italian, whatever, and the neighborhoods (dubbed "Parishes" in native lingo) aren't just `one side of the tracks' and ,the other side,' but literally house-by-house-by-house," he says, explaining that this creates a sense of community not present in many other cities.
Louisiana, as a whole, also has a lot of other unique offerings. Jazz, of course, is king here, but sometimes tips its brown derby to the blues. This is where Buddy Bolden invented the genre, and Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong both spent time expounding upon it down in the city's old Storyville District. Today, the Marsalis family passes the New Orleans musical tradition on to a new generation by teaching and performing at Louisiana State University.
A lot of performing is also done at venues all over town. Places like Preservation Hall certainly need no introduction ... nor do some of the industry people who have connections here, including Ellen DeGeneres, John Larroquette and Francis Ford Coppola, who recently purchased a home in the French Quarter.
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| Madame le Consul (French, 1998) |
THE FACT THAT filmmakers are so comfortable here has been a boon to the Annual New Orleans Film & Video Festival, sponsored in part by MovieMaker, which takes place for 10 days each October. More than 7,000 showed up for last year's festival, which describes itself as being "Closer than Cannes, too fun for Toronto," and "not knowing the meaning of taboo,"' and features regional premiers of new works by some of the most provocative filmmakers in the world. The festival is about as filmmaker-friendly as is possible, and pretension just isn't in style here.
"We're here in part to nurture the local industry by showcasing our talent and providing opportunities for national and international industry professionals to meet our local people," says Carole Gnaidy, Festival Director. "We present very comfortable settings for film screenings. There's not a lot of the `I've gotta make a sale and find a distributor' pressure here. We encourage informal networking in a relaxed, fun atmosphere, and our exotic location makes people love to come here. Our staff and volunteers work around the clock to show visiting filmmakers beyond the typical French Quarter/Bourbon Street locations and introduce them to other filmmakers. We make sure they have a wonderful time-and the nightly after hours bar tours are worth the price of admission alone, Gnaidy adds with a wink in her voice."
Festival co-founder and artistic director John Desplas reports that with the growing number of festivals, New Orleans has had to distinguish itself as being different in order to continue to attract top films. One example is the festival's effort to position itself as a top venue for foreign filmmakers. "Other festivals aren't as receptive to them, so we've been encouraging entries from abroad, and we've gotten a lot." Foreign filmmakers aren't so caught up in the "let's wait until we see if Sundance accepts us first" syndrome, Desplas said.
Some substantial prizes were awarded at the 1998 Festival. Ruth's Chris Steak House $5,000 award went to the top film, My Country, Milos Radovic's comedic portrayal of tragic events in Serbia, while the MovieMaker Magazine Breakthrough Award, a prize package worth $15,000 in goods and services, went to Jodie Markell for Why I Live at the P.O., based on Eudora Welty's classic story. The opening Gala honored Francis Ford Coppola, who was in attendance.
THE FILM FEST isn't the only indie scene in town, though. New Orleans has a slew of organizations set up specifically to assist moviemakers. One is The New Orleans Video Access Center (NOVAC) which functions like most public access cable studios do, except NOVAC is unique in that it also serves as a workshop and networking center. Another bearing indie fruit is "Short Story Theater," which airs locally written and produced half-hour dramatizations on New Orleans Access Television.
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| Madame le Consul (French, 1998) |
"Our Access people, including some of our best independent filmmakers, are producing quality pilots on Digital Beta that might eventually get picked up by major production companies," says Kimberly Carbo. "It's become a fountain for the local independent community. I know of nowhere else in the country where free TV is being promoted and handled through commercial means."
Potential pilots and jazz improv is great, but if structure is what you need, there are a multitude of architectural gems to choose from here, including wrought iron balconies, cornstalk fences and shuttered French doors. There are also several period railway stations to choose from, streetcar lines which still run, and stern-wheeling steamboats that continue to paddle down the Mississippi River. There're also beaches, pine forests, lush vegetation and four major lakes nearby. Geographically and architecturally, Louisiana offers far more than one might think. The tendency is to only consider the French Quarter, or the shrimp boats, or the sprawling, Spanish moss-covered plantations, or the bayous and cypress swamps. But there's a much wider mix of locations, which include grain elevators, brick sugar mills, crawfish ponds, flooded rice fields, working docks and wharves, and a warehouse district with restaurants, and galleries that spent their former lives as factories.
The state lists some 450 structures in the National Register of Historic Places, and more than a fair share of them are located in New Orleans and the surrounding environs. Add French Colonial antebellum-style mansions, Greek Revival buildings with neoclassical town squares, Creole cottages, and you've got an impressively diverse lot. Moreover, the city's geographic versatility is astounding. Moviemakers have had it double for New York, Boston, Paris, Havana, Southeast Asia, and French Colonial America, among other places.
| "We're hurtling down the runway, just looking for enough lift and momentum to really take off..." |
And while Paris has the stately statues of Pere le Chaise, the Big Easy's aboveground graveyards offer a rustic alabaster look or, if you prefer, run-down Roman temples in miniature. The psychedelic love-in scenes in Fonda/Hopper's Easy Rider used St. Louis Cemetery to great effect, showcasing the irreverent-yet-pious mix this city is famous for. That's why people flock here to visit or to make films. As W. Kenneth Holditch put it, New Orleans is "a uniquely diverse city more Mediterranean than American, more Latin than Southern." This is a place that has never had to fret about loyalty. Writers, for instance, love New Orleans passionately, even while satirizing it. The city is well documented in literature, having been the muse of such writers as Mark Twain, Sherwood Anderson, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Walker Percy, and Anne Rice.
If you get here, perhaps you'll wind up at St. Louis
Cathedral, singing gospel with the parishioners, or at some French
Quarter watering hole where hard drinkin' wiseguy attorneys suggest
you check out Madame Tinkertoys House of Blue Lights on Toulouse
Street. Just don't call whining if you wake up the next morning
in a state of confusion with someone's stereo blarin' "Voodoo
Chile" an' tha hair an' tha dawg pippin' at ya brain an' tha
Ol' Testyment unda' ya' pillah...you'll only be proving you're
human like everyone else here. That's what makes this place such
a piece of work-it's driven neither by industry nor idea-but by
its very humanity. And though New Orleans may never shirk the bonds
of tension between the order and decency of its proper folk and
the raunchy revelry of its more loose-cut denizens-perhaps it has
no desire to. Sometimes underlying tension is the best thing, for
it begets an undeniable spark of energy-a flame that ignites the
creative passions of the heart. MM
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
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This story was published in the September/October 1999 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
New Orleans: The Pious and the Profane / State and private agencies conspire to make cartain The Big Easy remains a favorite location for moviemakers
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