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This is a paragraph block. Professionally productize highly efficient results with world-class core competencies. Objectively matrix leveraged architectures vis-a-vis error-free applications. Completely maximize customized portals via fully researched metrics. Enthusiastically generate premier action items through web-enabled e-markets.
This is a paragraph block. Professionally productize highly efficient results with world-class core competencies. Objectively matrix leveraged architectures vis-a-vis error-free applications. Completely maximize customized portals via fully researched metrics. Enthusiastically generate premier action items through web-enabled e-markets. Efficiently parallel task holistic intellectual capital and client-centric markets.
This is a paragraph block. Professionally productize highly efficient results with world-class core competencies. Objectively matrix leveraged architectures vis-a-vis error-free applications. Completely maximize customized portals via fully researched metrics. Enthusiastically generate premier action items.
This is a paragraph block. Professionally productize highly efficient results with world-class core competencies. Objectively matrix leveraged architectures vis-a-vis error-free applications. Completely maximize customized portals via fully researched metrics. Enthusiastically generate premier action items through web-enabled e-markets. Efficiently parallel task holistic intellectual capital and client-centric markets.
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- Updates and Inspiration (3)
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- Film Day at The Capitol
On May 18th, film professionals from all over Louisiana got together at the state Capitol in Baton Rouge for LFEA Film Day.
The purpose of the event was to inform lawmakers about the benefits our film industry brings to the state, and to show the many different professions, trades, and businesses that our industry supports. Booths were set up in and around the Capitol building where attendees and lawmakers could interact with props, visual and practical effects, stunt workers, engineers, makeup artists, and more.
Among the attendees was Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser, an established supporter of the film industry and specifically its impact on tourism. According to Nungesser, nearly 10% of tourists come to Louisiana due to something they saw in a film or television show, leading to $1.9 Billion in economic benefits to the tourism industry.
The Louisiana film industry has also added 10,000 jobs since the pandemic, leading to nearly $340 Million being spent on payroll. LFEA director Trey Burvant says that every production brings in new people to the area, and some end up making Louisiana their permanent home.
With digital media growing in the state from an academic and professional standpoint, the goal is to grow and keep as much talent in the state as possible. The event as a whole was a major success, and only proved further why our industry is thriving so much.
Take a look at the image gallery below for some behind the scenes candid shots.
- Michele’s Updates and Inspirations | Episode 63
New Orleans Film Festival
This past Saturday at the Orpheum Theater was the red-carpet gala opening of the New Orleans Film Festival, which was followed by a screening of C’mon C’mon. The film, which was one of the festival’s most highly anticipated, stars Joaqin Phoenix as a traveler who interviews children around the country about the future. While C’mon C’mon is a fictional film, many of the children interviewed were not actors, making it a fiction-documentary hybrid. The third act of the film takes place largely in New Orleans, which was inspired by the director’s love for the city.
Three films that were shot in Uptown New Orleans will premiere at the New Orleans Film Festival, two of which will be the subject of a documentary shorts program called There’s No Place Like New Orleans. The three films, Absolution, Death is our Business, and We Stay in the House, will screen at the AMC Elmwood Palace on November 13th at noon.
Another film to check out at the festival is the documentary Mary Queen of Vietnam. The hour-long documentary follows the Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church in New Orleans as it gets ready for the annual Tet Festival. The community surrounding the church is made up of three generations of Vietnamese immigrants, who originally escaped their war-torn country and settled in Louisiana. Their lunar year Tet festival featuring exotic food, acrobat dancers, fireworks, and more is the major subject of the film. It will be screening at AMC Elmwood Palace November 11 at 6pm.
You can see the schedule for the remainder of the Film Festival at neworleansfilmsociety.com.
New Orleans Opera Association
The New Orleans Opera Association is opening its 2021-22 season with a collaboration with the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra. The production, which also includes a film component from director Samantha Aldana, will be a performance of Act I of Richard Wagner’s The Valkyrie featuring singers Felicia Moore, Kevin Ray, and Wei Wu. The production will be entirely done in German, but English will be projected above the stage. The performance will be happening at the Mahalia Jackson Theater on November 12 at 7:30pm, and again on the 14th at 2:30pm. You can learn more at neworleansopera.org.
Michele’s Top 5
We’re going to take a trip back to August 12th, 2014 and talk about the top movies in theaters. The date is significant because it’s the day The Ranch Studios was founded.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles starring Megan Fox and Will Arnett. This movie is about a kingpin who threatens New York City and a group of mutated turtle warriors must emerge from the shadows to protect their home. Kowabunga dude!
- Guardians of the Galaxy starring Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana. Follows a group of intergalactic criminals that must pull together to stop a fanatical warrior with plans to purge the universe.
- Into the Storm starring Richard Armitage and Sarah Wayne Callies. This movie brings us storm trackers, thrill seekers, and every-day townspeople documenting an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes touching down in the town of Silverton.
- The Hundred Foot Journey starring the wonderful Helen Mirren and Om Puri. The Kadam family leaves India for France where they open a restaurant directly across the road from Madame Mallory’s Michelin Star eatery.
- Lucy starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman. A woman, accidentally caught in a dark deal, turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior, evolved beyond human logic. It’s great to see that seven years later, Scarlett Johansson is still kicking butt in the Marvel Studios’ movie Black Widow.
- Jason’s Updates and Inspirations | Episode 62
Hindsight: Louisiana
It was announced on Monday that Louisiana Public Broadcast, known as LPB, will premiere the locally produced limited series Hindsight: Louisiana. The series will focus on two young filmmakers, Zac Manuel and Kiyoko McCrae, both of whom are Louisiana residents. In association with Reel South, and specifically The Hindsight Project, Hindsight: Louisiana seeks to promote stories and films told by black and indigenous filmmakers in the Southern US. Zac Manuel is a director, cinematographer, and documentarian from New Orleans who focuses on the topics of race, identity, and legacy. You can see his film The Body on LPB Friday, Nov 5 at 8:00pm. Kiyoko McCrae, who we’ve discussed on U&I before, is a Japanese-American filmmaker and theater director. Her film We Stay in the House, will premiere on LBP Friday, Nov 12 at 8:00pm.
New Orleans Film Festival
The New Orleans Film Festival is back beginning this Friday November 5th, and will run through the 14th for in-person events, and through the 21st for virtual events. After last year’s festival being exclusively online and outdoors, NOFF 2021 will have screenings in venues all across the city, and you can buy passes for both in-person and online screenings. This year’s lineup includes films of all styles, genres, and formats, which include features and shorts of the live action, animated, and documentary variety, as well as experimental short films, family friendly films, comedies, southern films, and quite a bit more. Some major films that are being screened include C’mon, C’mon which stars Joaquin Phoenix, as well as the documentary Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away. Neutral Ground Films also has an entry this year with Jordan Johnson’s Blue Country, a narrative short that will screen online and at Elmwood Palace on November 6th and the 14th. Many of us at The Ranch were involved in the production of this film, so I highly recommend watching it. To see the entire lineup, schedule, ticket details, and safety information, go to their website.
Heart of Champions
Heart of Champions, a film starring Michael Shannon that was produced in Baton Rouge, was released in theaters last Friday and will be available to stream November 19. The film follows a college rowing team that has to battle the drama and infighting of teammates, and according to the mayor of New Roads “brings everybody together [and] talks about unity, leadership, and teamwork.” The movie was filmed in late 2019, and has already made an impact on Baton Rouge’s economy and tourism during production alone. We hope that Baton Rouge will continue to be a spot for production, as that will help shape the future
of filmmaking in Louisiana.Sundance Film Festival
With the turn of the New Year coming sooner than we even realize, it means that one of the biggest events in film is coming up as well! The Sundance Film Festival will be taking place January 20-30 of 2022. The lineup hasn’t been announced yet, but their team of programmers are working hard to make sure that the best of the Indie Film world is represented at the festival. You can go to their website to learn about applications, tickets, awards, artist programs, and more.
Top 5 of the Week
This week, we’re going to the weekly box office for our top 5.
- Number 1 is Dune, which pulled in over $15 Million in its second weekend. A sequel for the film has also been confirmed for 2023, and fans seem to be rallying around the adaptation due to its visuals and accuracy to the source material.
- Number 2 is Halloween Kills, which opened on October 15th and made $8.7 Million in its third week. The film got mixed reviews but is comprised of both familiar and new faces to the Halloween franchise.
- Number 3 is No Time To Die in its fourth week in theaters. The latest Bond film has made over $130 Million domestically and over $600 Million internationally.
- Number 4 is My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission based on the popular anime. That made over $6 Million in its opening week.
- Number 5 is Venom 2, which has been out for over a month and has brought in nearly $200 Million domestically.
- The Ranch volunteers and donates supplies to Hurricane Ida victims
The wake of Hurricane Ida left many areas of Louisiana in complete devastation. The Ranch was part of a group effort led by St Bernard Parish Government to hand out food, supplies and hot meals to the town of Galliano, Louisiana. Supporting the local communities is one of the foundations of The Ranch, so we jumped at the opportunity to help. Take a look at the video below of our crew:
With the leadership of The Ranch, the film industry came together to bring relief the southern Louisiana. Major studios like Disney, Apple, Sony and Fox helped by donating generators used of film sets along with catering crews feeding linemen and donating hundreds of gallons of fuel, water and non-perishable foods to the areas of Galliano, Livingston, Grand Isle, Springfield, Thibodaux, French Settlement, Albany, and Hammond, Louisiana.
- Jason Waggenspack talks with WGNO Fox 8 about Hurricane Ida relief efforts from the film industry
Jason Waggenspack, Head of Possibilities at The Ranch, talks with WGNO Fox 8 about the film industry’s efforts to help communities most affected by Hurricane Ida. The Ranch Film Studios sent generators across Louisiana to help communities power emergency services and restore communication towers. We also setup feeding station at the University of New Orleans to feed the lineman working around the clock to restore power to the residents of the Greater New Orleans area.
Watch the video below:
Transcript:
Reporter: When Hurricane Ida plunged a lot of the region into darkness the Louisiana film industry stepped up to bring the light. Because of the storm, movie sets broke down and 10 large generators that would have been powering productions instead were loaned out to power some key needs in small communities. It was one of the many acts of generosity that might have gone unnoticed after the storm. We are joined this morning by Jason Waggenspack from the Louisiana Film Entertainment Association and also The Ranch Studios in Chalmette to tell us this wonderful bit of generosity. Jason, good morning to you. How big are these generators by the way?
Jason: Good morning thank you for having me. The generators are anywhere between 70 and 120 kilowatt generators, so big generators. They power almost our entire sets our entire base camps and can power large buildings if needed.
R: Because that’s the thing you know when people see remote productions you know you’re used to being off the grid. And we see a picture of one of the generators now. Movie productions are used to being off the grid. You don’t have an ac to plug into.
J: That’s correct. We’re like the military. We run into a location, we set up tents, we set up crew base camps feeding areas, we go into a house a residence or a commercial building. We film for several hours, sometimes two and three times a day, packing up moving to the next location, putting things back the way we found them before we got there and able to supply all the power and all of the necessities necessary to run a full crew.
R: So these were powering hospitals in some cases or parts of hospitals and and what were you using them for?
J: So well, let me tell you what happened. So what ended up happening is, me being a local from baton rouge and living in New Orleans almost 20 years now, I was able to basically organize all of our efforts from LFEA and say “you know what, we are a community asset here not only in St Bernard with my facility but all over the state. How can we be a better service to the community?” We were gonna be down two or three weeks and so all the generators that sat in my lot and other lots on other studios basically were going to be lay dormant. We said how can we get these out to these affected areas as soon as possible. We called Lafourche Parish, Albany, Hyman, Lutcher Thibodeaux. And we’re able to actually get in touch with a lot of folks in need to actually start servicing a lot of these things like sewage and water boards, hospitals, town halls.
R: Because as you point out, you’re a Baton Rouge native, you have been through these storms, you know how they impact communities for such a long period of time. What’s the response you got? Well first of all were people surprised to hear from the film industry? Like hey, we can help you.
J: Well of course, anybody’s surprised when, you know, when you’re in need, anything you can take is going to be obviously appreciated. And so yes we had a lot of surprise calls like absolutely it’s really fantastic you’re calling me I actually have a sewer that’s about to back up into my entire community: Albany, Louisiana. And we were literally there within an hour to be able to service them get their sewage and water back online again so they didn’t have that issue. We had hospitals down in Lutcher, Louisiana that had no power that we’re trying to obviously service all the needs of the people in that area and feed people out of the hospital. We were able to take our catering crews that, again laid dormant, take all their catering trucks move them out to UNO and start servicing all of the linemen that were out there that were ready to deploy. There were places like all the way down in Galliano who had no communications. They could not communicate with each other. We got their cell phone towers back up and running and their internet backup for running so that they could communicate with each other so far down south. So it was really a wonderful group effort. I applaud all of the studios that were willing to come on board. You had big big names like the Disney’s of the world, the Apples of the world, the Paramounts and the Warner Brothers of the world, all wanting to be able to be a community asset and to be able to help in an area that they’ve been able to be able to do a lot of filming activity.
R: Well it’s a wonderful story. I know we were talking before we went on and you thought that you might be of service sometime in the future again. Hopefully not too soon, but we we appreciate you sharing the story with us and I know those communities certainly appreciate the film industry and The Ranch Studios among them sharing your generosity.
J: Thank you very much. Like I said we are here trying to build a bigger community in Louisiana, filmmakers, and we want to obviously put our footprint here and in whatever way we can help we’re here to do it.
R: Alright Jason Waggenspack, we appreciate your time telling the story this morning. Thank you, Jason.
J: Thank you, great to see you all.
Lastest Posts in Grid
- Film Day at The Capitol
- Michele’s Updates and Inspirations | Episode 63
- Jason’s Updates and Inspirations | Episode 62
- The Ranch volunteers and donates supplies to Hurricane Ida victims
- Jason Waggenspack talks with WGNO Fox 8 about Hurricane Ida relief efforts from the film industry
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