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VOL. 5, ISSUE 2 • March/April 2014 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Micah Haley CREATIVE DIRECTOR Erin Theriot MANAGING EDITOR Catie Ragusa PRODUCTION DESIGNER Kelli Binnings EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Wyatt Gassen, Jesse Brooks GRAPHIC ART DIRECTOR Burton Chatelain, Jr. SALES Brinkley Maginnis, Beth Burvant, Drew Langhart, April Crifasi, Tonny Desselle
EDITOR’S LETTER
A
s I write this, the hum of awards season is growing louder, and so many great Louisiana films are in the hunt for Academy Awards. And deservedly so. Dallas Buyers Club and 12 Years a Slave are easily two of the best films of the decade and both are frontrunners to win Best Picture. Both were generating Oscar buzz in Louisiana before they even began filming. Matthew McConaughey has been a joy to watch this year, as he does the best work of his life on the big screen in Dallas Buyers Club and The Wolf of Wall Street. And on the small screen, he is doing equally great work on True Detective, a show that I am enjoying more than anything since Breaking Bad. He’s considered the frontrunner for Best Actor. He is
8 | March/April 2014
someone who has gone out of his way to support Scene Magazine, and we will return that favor on Oscar night. Other actors up for statues are 12 Years A Slave’s Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong’o and Dallas Buyers Club’s Jared Leto. There are plenty of deserving below the line nominees as well for film editing, makeup and hair, adapted and original screenplay. But don’t worry about the specifics. Just make sure you watch as many movies as possible and be sure to watch the Oscars live on Sunday, March 2. I’ll be breaking down each category and adding my own commentary live on Twitter at @SceneToday.
MICAH HALEY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
editor@scenelouisiana.com
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jojo Whilden, Gemma LaMana, Patti Perret, Melinda Sue Gordon, Randy Holmes, Claudette Barius, Andrew Cooper, Jerrod Harris, Rick Marquez, Nick Wall, Zac Manuel, Roland Guerin, Stacey Revere, Chad M. West, Mark St. James, Frank Ockenfels, Merrick Morton, Laura Magruder, Sonja Fleming, Marc Millman, Michael Wilson, Rick Olivier, Greg Delamn, Jimmy Fontaine, Michael Weintrob, Jerry Moran, Enrique Badulescu, Darren Ankenman, George Salisbury, Luis Ramos, Tony Saccenti, Meeno, Tim Jones, Steffen Kerner Ludvigsen, Dan Monick, Kelli Binnings, Michele K. Short, Caitlin Barry, Jaap Buitendijk, Anne Marie Fox, Francois Duhamel CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AJ Buckley, James Napper, III, Ji Un Choi, Jesse Brooks, Wyatt Gassen, Ben Adams Scene Magazine At Raleigh Studios Baton Rouge 10000 Celtic Drive • Suite 201 • Baton Rouge, LA 70809 225-361-0701 At Second Line Stages 800 Richard St. • Suite 222 • New Orleans, LA 70130 504-224-2221 info@scenelouisiana.com • www.scenelouisiana.com Published By Louisiana Entertainment Publishers LLC & BIC Media Solutions For Louisiana Entertainment Publishers LLC CEO, Andre Champagne President, AJ Buckley Vice President, Micah Haley Display Advertising: Call Scene Magazine for a current rate card or visit www.scenelouisiana.com All submitted materials become the property of Louisiana Entertainment Publishers LLC. For subscriptions or more information visit our website www.scenelouisiana.com Copyright @ 2014 Louisiana Entertainment Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used for solicitation or copied by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher.
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CONTENTS
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SpeCiAlized induSTrieS:
ON THE COVER
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ABOVE THE LINE
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SCENE ON Celebs currently filming in Louisiana
BEFORE THE SCENE A conversation with Richard Speight, Jr.
COMING SOON 18 TODAY’S SCENE
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The Shotgun Waltz at Sundance
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LSU Baseball vs. SEC
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Notable News and Celebrities Preview: Jazz Fest and Buku Project
FASHION / THE RED CARPET 54 American Horror Story’s Emma Roberts
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SCENE ON DANNY GLOVER
Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight is about The Greatest’s refusal to report when he was drafted into the Vietnam War. DANNY GLOVER debates Clay v. United States as Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American appointed to the high court. Now, Glover is in Baton Rouge with Danny Trejo finishing up filming Bad Ass on The Bayou (aka Bad Ass 3) with director Craig Moss.
JACK BLACK Danny Glover as Thurgood Marshall photo by Jojo Whilden
Bernie
Funnyman and musician JACK BLACK took an impressive dramatic turn in 2011’s Bernie. The Richard Linklater film was based on the true story of a well-liked, middle-age guy who kills his elderly female companion. Now Black is in New Orleans filming The D Train with James Marsden.
Jack Black as Bernie courtesy of Millennium Films
SIENNA MILLER Factory Girl
James Marsden as Jack Lime photo by Gemma LaMana
SIENNA MILLER brought Andy Warhol cohort Edie Sedgwick to life in the late George Hickenlooper’s Factory Girl. Although set in New York, that film was actually shot in Shreveport. Now Miller is in New Orleans with Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn filming Mississippi Grind, a film about two professional gamblers trying to make a comeback.
JAMES MARSDEN
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues One of the most dashing guys in the business, JAMES MARSDEN went toe-to-toe this past Christmas with the legend himself, Ron Burgundy. He also embodied John F. Kennedy in Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Now Marsden is in New Orleans filming The D Train with Jack Black.
Sienna Miller as Edie Sedgwick photo by Patti Perret
MORE SCENE ON 12 | March/April 2014
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SCENE ON
BEN MENDELSOHN Killing Them Softly
Aussie BEN MENDELSOHN’s performances as two completely different low-rent criminals in Killing Them Softly and The Place Beyond the Pines were impressive displays of his craft as an actor. Now he’s in New Orleans with Ryan Reynolds to film Mississippi Grind, where he plays a down on his luck gambler who advises a younger gambling addict.
Ben Mendelsohn as Russell photo by Melinda Sue Gordon
SCOTT BAKULA The Informant
Television veteran Scott Bakula, who has two huge fanbases from the classic time-travel show Quantum Leap and sci-fi essential Star Trek: Enterprise, is bringing his talents to New Orleans. He will topline the newest spinoff of the hit CBS procedural NCIS, appropriately named NCIS: New Orleans, where he’ll be handling cases from Texas to Florida. Scott Bakula as Agent Brian Shepard photo by Claudette Barius
KRISTEN STEWART The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
CCH Pounder as Warden Sharon Stiles photo by Randy Holmes/ABC
CCH POUNDER Revenge
One of the greatest actresses of her generation, CCH Pounder has starred on television in The Shield, Sons of Anarchy and E.R., and on the big screen in Avatar, End of Days and most recently in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. She’s now in New Orleans to begin filming NCIS: New Orleans with Scott Bakula.
14 | March/April 2014
Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan photo by Andrew Cooper
Kristen Stewart became an international star as Bella Swan. She finished her Twilight tour of duty in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, which shot in Baton Rouge at the Celtic Media Centre. After filming Welcome to the Rileys and The Yellow Handkerchief in New Orleans, she’s back in the Crescent City to shoot American Ultra with Jesse Eisenberg.
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Baton Rouge • Lafayette • New Orleans • Shreveport • Houston
by AJ Buckley
RICHARD SPEIGHT, JR. Richard Speight, Jr. is a veteran actor from Nashville, Tennessee. He is best known for his roles on the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers, on The CW’s Supernatural and as Deputy Bill Kohler on Jericho. He can next be seen alongside Danny Trejo and Lin Shaye in the film Mucho Dinero.
What made you want to be an actor? I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to become an actor. When I was five, I started doing plays in Nashville, Tennessee, where I grew up. What I really fell for first was theatre. At the time, Nashville was a pretty small theatre community. It was a tight knit group. So, once you’re the nonspeaking five-year-old in a Greek tragedy, you might be the nonspeaking five-year-old in the next play. And I had two older sisters. They had dance class, then they went to acting class and I sat in the waiting room. Eventually I stopped sitting in the waiting room and decided that if I’m gonna be there for an hour, I might as well take the classes. And that really sent me down the road. I was just immersed in the world. I remember specifically deciding when I was fifteen that I wanted to do it for a living. Eventually, the dance class went away because I really wasn’t that good. But the acting stuck. I moved out to Southern California and I went to USC and majored in theatre.
What was your biggest fear? I was afraid of failure. Returning home with nothing to show for my time in Los Angeles. That was my biggest fear. That was my biggest driving force, but that’s not gonna get you hired. I was always very hard on myself. I felt like I wasn’t working and I was a big loser. In a way, that gave me a good work ethic. I was just trying to figure out how to chip away at the giant wall that is the acting industry. I mean, it is the damnedest of professions! There are weirder ones, but there may not be trickier ones. There’s no right way to do it. It’s not like, “Oh, I wanna be a lawyer, so I’ll go to law school.” You can be an actor, and not even go to acting school. There’s no degree requirement. You could be forty or you could be four and make the same amount of money a year. So bizarre, so hard to navigate, so impossible to interpret. I feared everything! I feared failure. I feared using all my time trying to crack the code and never developing a personal life. Being broke. I always thought it was kinda hip to be a starving artist. I didn’t mind starving, I just wanted to be damn sure I was doing the artist part.
What was your lowest point? I wrote a movie and it got made. But it didn’t get made for much money. It was made for next to no money, and no one really made money doing the movie. But because I wrote it and got to play the lead, I felt like it was an accomplishment. And there I was, still in my twenties, and got that under my belt. I’d work on the script forever and I was really proud of it. It was the worst experience of my life. It was a nightmare. Every single facet of it was terrible. Working with the director was awful. I was watching my own script be destroyed and I was fanning the flames. I knew that it wasn’t going to get released. It was just turning into 16 | March/April 2014
garbage! So I thought, even though I won’t make any money, this is at least gonna be an artistic high. It ended up being a complete, personal bomb. The audience will never get to see it. It wasn’t even good enough to get an audience. I remember sitting with my then-roommate out by our pool, drinking martinis. I literally said to him, “I think I’m done, man. If this is what I’m gonna deal with. If this is what would be considered a minor success, then I’m out. I’m too old and too smart to be doing this nonsense and getting treated like s*** in the process.” I thought, “This project is so bad, it’s just gonna suck the life out of the industry.” And I wrote it! It was just such garbage! An awful, awful experience! And I honestly thought it was signaling the end of my run.
What was it that kept you from walking away? You’re kinda damned if you do, damned if you don’t. You get screwed out here. You get beaten up. But if you walk away, you have to go back to your hometown, hat in hand, without anything to show for your efforts. “Hey! I was out there for a long time, and eight years of my life are shot. So, any openings at the insurance department of whatever-the-hell?” I just found it mortifying to come back home. And I wasn’t gonna stay in L.A. if I didn’t do this business. It’s the only reason I’m in Los Angeles. If you’re the best life insurance salesman in the whole office, or if you’re the worst, your friends that you have beers with don’t know! Because it only happens in your office. If you’re trying to be an actor, everybody knows if you’re doing well or not. It’s a very public way to fail. If you go out there to be an actor, they watch and see what happens. And America loves a train wreck, so no one’s gonna be more intrigued by a failed career than your friends, family and the people around you. It’s just such a public profession, even at its lowest level. I thought, “What will I do if I quit? What’s Plan B? I don’t have a plan B!” But luckily, riding the heels of that movie where I thought I was gonna quit, I got the biggest job of my career at that point. It was a miniseries called Band of Brothers.
Who has been your closest ally? I’ve gotta say my parents and my sisters. To say to your parents, who spent all this money on this private education, that you’re then going to spend it on a theatre degree at USC, and then pursue a professional career in acting, is tough. But I’ve never had anything but support from my parents, which is pretty astounding. We’re not an artistic family. I’m not following in the footsteps of successful Uncle Pete, star of stage and screen. We are not in the industry. It’s just me. I remember where I was when I told my dad that I wanted to go to college in California. We were at a four-way stop in Nashville, and I told him that I wanted to go to UCLA to college. That I wanted to major in theatre. He said, “Okay.” I wasn’t sure if that meant, “Okay, you can do it,” or “Okay, we’re not having this conversation right now.” That Christmas, I got a UCLA sweatshirt from my parents. And I thought, “Oh, maybe this is gonna be alright.” But they were very, very supportive during the difficult years and the good years. I don’t mean financially supportive, I always feel like that’s an important distinction to make. My parent’s financial responsibility ended when I was eighteen
and out of the house. If they could help with some bills or with the flight home for Christmas, they would. They were always very generous in that regard when they had the money to do it. But it wasn’t their responsibility to get me an apartment, pay for my acting class and subsidize my life while I pursued an art.
What were some words that kept you going? Every time I got positive feedback from casting directors. Even when I didn’t get the job, but they were like, “Wow! He’s great! We’re going with a brunette, but he was dynamite.” That really mattered to me. I was always someone who responded well to positive feedback. It didn’t matter so much if I didn’t get the job. The job is nice because it pays the bills, but I got a lot of mileage out of casting directors being upfront with their praise and then continuing to call me back in. I remember getting compliments from Tom Hanks in the audition for Band of Brothers. That was one of the greatest moments of my adult life, and I didn’t even think I was getting the job at that point. He was just so complimentary when I was auditioning with him that, when I came home, I told my roommate, “You know what? If I don’t go any further in this process, this was worth it. This is a story for the grandkids.” Meeting Tom Hanks is like meeting Santa Claus. He’s a fantasy figure. And to have him say something nice that was genuine, it meant a lot.
How do you feel like you’ve changed? I shave more. When I started this career, I had very little facial hair. I don’t know if I’ve changed much, to be honest. I think I’m less needy, and less frantic than I was when I was young. But that’s because I have kids. I have little beings that actually need me. The longer I’m in the industry, the less mystifying it is. It’s still tough. But it’s also difficult to perform open heart surgery. We don’t have the hardest jobs in the world. The more I realize that, the more I can enjoy the process.
What words do you have to inspire others? Trust your instincts. Believe in your own ability. Because there will be plenty of people who don’t agree with you. “Trust your instincts” doesn’t mean run off the cliff because you think you can fly. It means know your limitations as well. S
A partner in Scene Magazine and the president of Louisiana Entertainment Publishers, AJ Buckley has starred for the last eight years on the hit CBS show CSI:NY. Originally from Dublin and raised in Vancouver, he has spent the last twelve years in Los Angeles acting, writing and directing. He recently finished producing and starring in North of Hell, and currently stars in Justified’s fifth season on FX. Find out more on Twitter @AJohnBuckley and at www.ajbuckley.net.
photo by Jerrod Harris www.scenelouisiana.com | 17
COMING SOON
by Catie Ragusa
WICKED BLOOD Tuesday, March 4 Rated: Not Yet Rated Director: Mark Young After falling into dangerous conditions under the guidance of her meth-addicted Uncle Donny, a clever young girl named Hannah Lee Baker is looking for a way out of her family’s dark Southern lifestyle. She decides that she’s ready to leave the life of drugs and violence behind when her sister falls in love with Wild Bill, the town’s infamous drug dealer. To save her family, Hannah Lee schemes to pin them against the violent Stinson family in a witty game of chess, her only escape from the cruel world in which she lives. Shot in Baton Rouge and starring Abigail Breslin, Alexa Vega, James Purefoy, Sean Bean, Lew Temple and Jake Busey, Wicked Blood hits theaters March 4.
Lew Temple and Abigail Breslin in Wicked Blood courtesy of Industrial Entertainment
GOD’S NOT DEAD Friday, March 21
Rated: PG Director: Harold Cronk College can be a tough adjustment for any student, but when John Wheaton, a freshman with an unbreakable faith in God, enters his philosophy class on the first day of college, his faith is immediately challenged. Professor Radisson tells each student to either deny God’s existence or immediately fail the class. Shot in Baton Rouge, God’s Not Dead follows John’s tough journey through his first semester, in which he is forced to prove God’s existence or risk failure. Starring Kevin Sorbo, Shane Harper, David A.R. White and Dean Cain, and with special appearances by Christian band Newsboys and Duck Dynasty’s Willie and Korie Robertson, God’s Not Dead hits select theaters on March 21.
Dean Cain in God’s Not Dead photo by Rick Marquez
MORE COMING SOON 18 | March/April 2014
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COMING SOON DOM HEMINGWAY Friday, April 4
Rated: R Director: Richard Shepard When Dom Hemingway kept quiet in order to protect his friend Dickie Black and his boss Mr. Fontaine, he was put in jail for twelve years. But now he’s out, and he’s looking for heavy compensation for protecting his partnersin-crime for all those years. Hemingway is dangerous, funny and on a mission to get what’s his. Through all of his drink and druginduced adventures, he nearly loses his life, which makes him realize that he wants to try to reconnect with his daughter before it’s too late. Starring Jude Law, Emilia Clarke, Richard E. Grant and this issue’s cover man Demián Bichir, Dom Hemingway hits theaters April 4.
Jude Law and Richard E. Grant as Dom Hemingway and Dickie Black photo by Nick Wall
SALEM
Sunday, April 20 Director: Richard Shepard It’s the seventeenth century in Massachusetts, and the infamous Salem Witch Trials are in full effect in WGN America’s new supernatural series Salem. Shot in Shreveport, Salem explores the motives behind the Witch Trials and seeks to uncover the truth between reality and the supernatural mysteries surrounding the trials. The series stars the beautiful Janet Montgomery as the ruthless and confident Mary Sibley, as well as Baton Rouge native Shane West (Nikita, A Walk to Remember) as John Alden, a soldier who returns to Salem after ten years at war to find the town in the midst of a brutal witch-hunt. The brand new series premieres April 20.
20 | March/April 2014
Shane West in Salem courtesy of WGN
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TODAY’S SCENE
The Shotgun Waltz team
THE SHOTGUN WALTZ TO SUNDANCE by Ji Un Choi
photos by Zac Manuel & Roland Guerin Editor’s Note: In January, six filmmakers based in New Orleans were invited by a production company to attend the Sundance Film Festival. While staying at their host’s chalet and attending the fest, they hoped to find financing, attach bankable actors or acquire other pieces essential to making their film The Shotgun Waltz a reality. Scene asked them to document their journey.
January 28, 2014 In an ironic twist of fate, I write this in a motel room on the outskirts of Alexandria, due to hazardous driving conditions caused by ice and snow. It’s our first day back in Louisiana after leaving snowy Park City, Utah. Zac, Milo, Chris and I left Utah yesterday morning at six to catch Monument Valley in light on our seemingly endless road trip back to New Orleans. We had been driving for twenty-eight hours straight when we finally rolled into Louisiana, only to find a zombieapocalypse-like scenario. There were hardly any cars on the roads, and those we saw were often crashed or stranded by the roadside. And no wonder: the roads are sheer ice. The white cover of snow we became accustomed to on the ski slopes of Utah now incongruously covers Louisiana. It has been exactly a week since we embarked upon our Sundance journey, and now, cradled in the warmth of our roadside motel room, a revelation dawns on us all: what a difference a week makes! 22 | March/April 2014
Sundance was a roller coaster of an experience. I can proudly state that we brought some Louisiana spirit (and color) to Park City. But first, we had to acclimate. Like catfish out of water, we tumbled out of the bubble of our bedraggled Louisiana lives into a seemingly more pristine environment. We gaped and gawked at the snow, the majestic mountains and the idyllic vision of a select ski resort town that is Park City, Utah – the home of the Sundance Film Festival. We are still reeling from the exclusivity of our host’s chalet. It was fully staffed with an award-winning chef and staff, boasting a screening room, two hot tubs, formal and informal libraries, three full bars, a spa and fitness center and an elevator for its seven floors. The chalet was set on a mountain ledge in an elite neighborhood called Deer Valley that everyone in the area recognizes and repeats back to you knowingly, “Ohhh, Deer Valley,” as if it serves as code for “elite.” Did I mention there were daily passwords to give to the guards at the gates to enter this mountain neighborhood? I must admit, it was with relieved surprise we found each day that the passwords actually worked. Had the guards rejected our passwords and stated, “You obviously do not belong here,” we would have been the first ones to agree and turn around. As indie filmmakers — AKA starving artists — we were intermittently delighted and discomforted by the
TODAY’S SCENE high luxury of the world we unwittingly stumbled into. Granted, our experience of Sundance was extravagant, but even barring our host’s chalet, Park City is in essence a ski resort town. Take that as you will, but even if you take “resort” out of the equation, “ski” connotes recreational money. Money to buy or rent equipment, money for lifts, money to sit by the fireplace to drink hot cocoa, money for hot cocoa. You get the idea. To watch a film may be recreational. To make one on an indie level is survival. That being noted, a question kept arising again and again amongst us at Sundance: this is the seat of independent filmmaking? After struggling for years and years, come what may, to make your story, does the acceptance of your film by those gathered in a ski resort town mean you’ve made it? Whatever the logic, one must allow for at least a tinge of irony. However, there are lessons to be learned and the old adage still holds true: don’t judge a book by its cover. Title: The Shotgun Waltz Team Goes to Sundance Logline: A ragged group of struggling New Orleans filmmakers gain entrance to the country’s top-ranked ski chalet to pitch their indie feature during Sundance. Realizations are made, love blossoms, hilarities ensue. Genre: (Hopefully) Romantic Comedy Length: A few days in January 2014. (Hopefully) one year before The Shotgun Waltz Team returns to Sundance with their film in hand Cast of Characters: Ji – Writer/Director/Producer, Korean-American, old enough that she will not disclose her age at the threat of torture, female Roland – Director of music, Creole, agelessly youthful, male Jimmy – Director of photography, white, 30s, male Milo –Producer, Indian/German, mid-20s, male Zac – Producer/DP of all behind the scenes materials, Creole, early/mid-20s, male Chris – Producer, New Orleans white, early/mid-20s, male Picture it: a rental car filled with four cash-strapped New Orleans filmmakers. Ji, Milo, Zac and Chris arrived after a straight, thirty-one hour drive into the grandeur of Utah’s snowy mountains at four in the morning. The Shotgun Waltz had just shot a day of principal photography on Dec. 7, 2013 to grandfather the project into federal film tax subsidy Section 181, which ended as of Dec. 31, 2013. The production’s remaining budget was spent on two airline tickets for Jimmy and Roland, along with a rental car to get a total of six members of our team to Sundance. The very last of the production’s funds were cashed into a little envelope for gas, coffee and road snacks. Fueled by desire and passion to get their first feature made, our ragtag crew ventured headlong into a world of ritz and glitz in search of funding and casting. After “resting” in free accommodations that took the form of a dog room/pantry of Chris’s friend who was renovating his house in Salt Lake City, we eagerly picked up our fifth member, Jimmy, at the airport, only to discover that the indomitable, unbreakable Jimmy had indeed been broken. Having arrived back in the States the day before, after trekking around Egypt for a month, Jimmy was racked by a terrible fever. Regardless, he rallied and we arrived at our host’s door - a multi-million dollar chalet in an exclusive, gated resort on a mountain, perched high above in an altitude of privilege. Our team members had yet to meet our host in person. 24 | March/April 2014
To watch a film may be recreational. To make one on an indie level is survival. Having garnered a producer’s attention on the strength of our investor packet, we’d been invited to better acquaint ourselves face-to-face with him and his production company. With several films in competition in both Sundance and Slamdance, our host had generously and graciously invited The Shotgun Waltz team during Sundance to experience the festival as lagniappe. However, we met our first devastating obstacle. Unbekownst to us, shortly before our arrival, our host had been hit with semi-disparaging reviews regarding the marketability of his major feature in competition at Sundance. There were common elements between that film and the story of The Shotgun Waltz. Despite being of different genres, both films heavily feature music, revolve around drugs and are dark stories that lack happy endings. Understandably, our host was wary of The Shotgun Waltz’s similarities to his Sundance feature that continued to receive reviews that commend the film’s artistry but doubt its marketability. Point blank, our host stated in his greeting that he was impressed by our team and our film’s development and looks forward to working on future projects, but having just made a music-and-drugs centered downer of a film, our current story was simply not for him or his company. In fact, the company was making a decisive turn towards the happiest of genres: romantic comedies. Shortly thereafter, our host rushed off to Slamdance’s awards ceremony where yet another of his features was considered for (and won!) the Audience Award. Our team reeled from this discouraging greeting. We had just driven thirty-one hours for what seemed like a miraculous opportunity to promote The Shotgun Waltz. This was the break we needed after developing The Shotgun Waltz for two years. With everything else in place, we needed funding and casting. But, as with all films, it’s a chickenand-egg situation where casting begets funding and funding begets
www.scenelouisiana.com | 25
TODAY’S SCENE THE SHOTGUN WALTZ
casting. Our film needed a breakthrough in one, if not both, of these areas. With three full days of Sundance ahead of us, yet uncertain of our standing, our New Orleans team despondently headed to our accommodations. Milo, Zac and Chris to Salt Lake. Jimmy and I to one of the host company member’s homes in Park City. All of us tried to rest and prepare for a new, if unsettled, day. Day Two began on a brighter note. Jimmy was on the mend, the team more or less resolved to make the best of our opportunity, the chalet began as they do each day with the full catering staff at hand to custom-make each guest’s breakfast to their hearts’ desire, and Roland arrived! Roland is our Director of Music and voice of reason as well as heart. Our team reunited at the chalet. Roland was apprised of the situation, assessed it and was ready to bolster the team back into full New Orleans spirit. He calmly put our situation into perspective. Our host’s wariness was understandable due to his film’s very recent reviews, but the team was there, in number and glorious diversity, to represent New Orleans and our singular New Orleans story. In Roland’s words, “We ain’t got nothin’ but we got something that everybody’s gonna want.” These words did their magic and each team member was re-inspired by our common purpose: get The Shotgun Waltz funded or casted. After all, who doesn’t want to see New Orleans swing and soul on the silver screen? And The Shotgun Waltz had already attached a list of renowned and beloved New Orleans musicians essential to the film’s narrative, and it was crewed with the most promising New Orleans filmmakers. We already had the right story and the right team to deliver New Orleans to the world. As if the record finally got turned on, our team loosened into a groove, happy to be ourselves. On that uplifting note, the days flew by. Our team members, individually and collectively, got into the spirit of Sundance, 26 | March/April 2014
exploring the town, attending exhibits and screenings, meeting filmmakers, actors and those associated with them. Just as The Shotgun Waltz team members did not want to be interpreted at face value as people or story, we in turn learned not to interpret Sundance at face value. The festival, the town, and the chalet, were, after all, teeming with filmmakers. Dreams were coming true. Judge or not, an industry had gathered to support independent films and filmmakers in that small space and time. To witness filmmakers being awarded after each’s struggles to get their films made, much less screened at Sundance or Slamdance is, at the very least, a beautifully proud and heartening moment. As fellow filmmakers, we could not help but to rejoice at the successes of the films and to cheer the filmmakers and their efforts at finally having arrived. In short, the festival honors filmmakers who not only got their films made, they got their films into Sundance! In recognizing and absorbing such inspiration, The Shotgun Waltz team experienced Sundance, with both gratitude for the opportunity and vigor from the experience. With each passing day, we made ourselves more at home at the chalet, giddily playing pool, utilizing the libraries and screening room, sauna-ing, imbibing and gourmet provisions indulging, bonding with the other guests and the lovely staff. In the meantime, our host’s Sundance film deservedly won Best Cinematography, proving that artistry truly does pay. Most importantly, our team met beautiful people, made true new friends and garnered genuine interest in The Shotgun Waltz. There is still much to do, but the connections we made are real and promising. Plans are set forth. There is shining hope in having reached out to far and near corners alike, and in having been heard and seen by those in the film industry
Tagline: A twisted turn through the night streets of New Orleans. Writer/Director: Ji Un Choi Genre: Psychological Thriller Estimated Run Time: 105 minutes Logline: Over the course of one revelatory night, a bicycle delivery boy navigates various degrees of inebriation in search for his missing sister through the mysterious underbelly and music-filled streets of New Orleans.
Cast of Characters Travis – Lead actor. Early 20s. Caucasian. A bicycle delivery boy who possesses an awkward grace on the brink of manhood. Miriam – Lead actress. Mid-20s. Caucasian. Exudes a dark sensuality derived through manipulation and artifice. Royal – Supporting actor. Mid/Late 40s/ Early 50s. Any ethnicity. Possesses the devilmay-care charisma of an aging rock star, he is wizard of this Oz. Penelope – Supporting actress. Mid/Late 40s/ Early 50s. Any ethnicity. A discarded muse from yesteryear. Sadie – Supporting actress. Early 20s. Mixed/ black. The It girl, un-tamable, unpossessed Hattie – Supporting actress. Teens. Caucasian. A pixie of a street urchin. Luna – Supporting actor. Mid/Late 20s. Black. Fabulous, beautiful and she knows it. The Musicians – Roland Guerin, John Boutte, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Donald Harrison, Vockah Redu, Dr. Michael White, Washboard Lissa, Detroit Brooks, Ingrid Lucia, Alex McMurray, Sophie Lee and more to come.
For more info on The Shotgun Waltz, visit www.theshotgunwaltz.com. and the industries that support it. Everyone who hasn’t visited New Orleans not only wants to visit, they want to see and help The Shotgun Waltz crush it. We climbed back into the rental car with a sense of accomplishment, geared to make the interminable, but scenic trek back home. True to form, Louisiana greeted us with an unpredictable turn. She has covered herself with the ice and snow our team was spared in Utah. Ahhhh! Home Laissez-Faire Home, Shotgunners! You can follow us on our journey to make The Shotgun Waltz a reality at www.theshotgunwaltz. com and also at theshotgunwaltz.tumblr.com. S
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LSU VS. SEC BASEBALL: REASONS TO WATCH by Jesse Brooks
A
fter being handed high preseason rankings - #2 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, #3 by Collegiate Baseball, #6 by the NCBWA, and #9 by Baseball America, the LSU Tigers came into the season with high expectations. However, that’s not unusual for a team that went 57-11 and earned a trip to the College World Series the previous season. As LSU attempts to duplicate the same results and more, their road through the SEC will be treacherous, but also a journey that promises to deliver fierce competition.
1 TOUGH COMPETITION AND INTENSE RIVALRIES
The best thing about conference play is this: every team knows each other very well. Although widely known as a football conference, the SEC boasts top caliber competition in any sport. SEC baseball is killer and there was plenty of proof of that last season. Eight out of the fourteen teams in the conference qualified for the national tournament in 2013. And all eight teams are back: LSU, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Florida, Texas A&M, Alabama and Ole Miss. For a majority of last season, Vanderbilt was top ranked, until they fell to LSU in the SEC Championship in a hard fought 5-4 contest. It’s safe to say that anytime the Tigers step on the field with Vandy in 2014, the meetings will be less than friendly.
2 SMILE FOR THE CAMERA
Every college team in every sport hopes to get as much television exposure as possible. LSU is a mainstay on national television, but the Tigers have an exceptionally glamorous game schedule this season, with nine games on their SEC schedule on ESPN and Fox Sports Networks. In total, the SEC will have seventy games displayed nationally and regionally. SEC Baseball is what people want to see! The first rematch of the SEC Championship between LSU and Vandy will be on March 15 at Vanderbilt. It will be aired on Fox Sports Network.
3 PLAYERS TO WATCH
Nola. We can’t talk about the SEC greats without praising LSU’s own Aaron Nola. The solid right-handed pitcher already has numerous pro scouts taking notice and Nola will look to capitalize on that this season. According to Nola’s 2013 stats, as tallied by Clint Longenecker from Baseball America, he had an incredibly low 1.04 average of walks per nine innings for his college career. LSU as a team averaged 3.64. His 8.5 strikeoutwalk ratio was actually three times higher than the team average of 2.5. Bregman. With many upperclassmen gone, many would say shortstop Alex Bregman is now the unquestioned leader of LSU baseball. Bregman, the current reigning National Short Stop of the Year and National Freshman of the Year, will not only look forward to the bigger matchups the SEC promises, but to also be a leader vocally and on the field. 28 | March/April 2014
photo by Stacey Revere
4 OPPONENTS TO WATCH
The runners-up for the College World Series, Mississippi State proved to be the biggest SEC challenge for LSU. The Bulldogs may have lost Adam Frazier, Kendall Graveman and Hunter Renfroe but still have organized an extremely well-rounded team. Ross Mitchell and Brandon Woodruff provide a strong presence from the pitching mound, and Jonathan Holder may be the most deadly closer in the nation. Vanderbilt is like many SEC teams that have lost major upperclassmen, but will lean on ace pitchers Tyler Beede and Brian Miller, who have both been named as preseason All-Americans by NCBWA, to carry them to a second straight appearance in the SEC Championship. Vanderbilt is a young team. Not a single player is a senior so it’s possible the leadership roles are yet to be defined. Florida is a team that consistently finds itself earning trips to regionals or beyond, but much like Vanderbilt, Coach Kevin O’Sullivan is still looking for leaders to emerge from their young core. Florida may even find that leadership from the youth of their team as their top recruiting class comes in. It’s their recruiting class that helped the Gators earn a national #16 preseason ranking from Collegiate Baseball, despite being the first team ever under .500 for Coach O’Sullivan with a 29-30 overall record.
5 DRAMATIC FINISHES
Two out of three teams LSU shares their final series with - Texas A&M and Alabama - are SEC West Teams which could play out to be must-wins for the Tigers if the division gets really tight. Those two series could possibly dramatically determine the fate of LSU’s season. The SEC West will be a dogfight for LSU who will go head-to-head with Mississippi State, and the improving efforts of Alabama and Texas A&M are nothing to dismiss. Remember, the great thing about baseball is that there’s so much of it. For a fully updated schedule, visit www.lsusports.net. S
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NEW YEAR’S EVE 2014 AT SECOND LINE STAGES photos by Chad M. West and Mark St. James
A posh crowd of revelers gathered at Second Line Stages in New Orleans on December 31, 2013 for the best New Year’s Eve party in the South. Scene Magazine and Mercedes-Benz of New Orleans came together to turn a wintry night on the lot of a movie studio into a festive event filled with music, food and top shelf drinks.
Toplining the party was Grammy nominee ANDREW DUHON Best known for his smooth folk-pop sound, Duhon added a saxophone and some swag to warm the night up.
30 | March/April 2014
ON THE SCENE Keeping the crowd dancing and counting down to midnight were DJs DXXXY and TATUM NEILL.
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ON THE SCENE SCENE MAGAZINE & MERCEDES-BENZ PRESENT
NEW YEAR’S EVE 2014 AT SECOND LINE STAGES photos by Chad M. West and Mark St. James
VIP guests were granted exclusive access to the VIP LOUNGE on the fifth floor terrace, which boasts an excellent evening view of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the Crescent City Connection and the Mississippi River, where fireworks filled the sky at midnight.
Gourmet food options were prepared fresh on site by LAKEHOUSE CATERING, with special options offered in the VIP area on the fifth floor terrace.
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ON THE SCENE
Mary-Katherine Duhon, Rose Belara Young, Sarah Reid Vinyard and Gaby Burns walked the party in clothing provided by FINI BOUTIQUE and hair and makeup by SALON TERESKA.
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ON THE SCENE SCENE MAGAZINE & MERCEDES-BENZ PRESENT
NEW YEAR’S EVE 2014 AT SECOND LINE STAGES photos by Chad M. West and Mark St. James
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ABOVE THE LINE
DEMIÁN
BICHIR by Micah Haley
A
veteran actor born in Mexico City, Demián Bichir moved to New York in 1985 at the age of twenty-two to attend the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. After learning English while waiting tables at a Mexican restaurant, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career, but returned to Mexico after he was unable to land any roles. In 1999, he won the prestigious Ariel Award for his performance in Sexo, pudor y lágrimas, the highest grossing film in Mexican history. He soon crossed over into American cinema, starring alongside Salma Hayek in In the Time of the Butterflies and, in 2008, he was cast as Fidel Castro in Steven Soderbergh’s Che, which chronicled the life of the Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara.
38 | March/April 2014
After starring alongside Mary Louise Parker for three seasons on Showtime’s hit show Weeds, a show which introduced him to a large new audience, Bichir was cast in the lead role of director Chris Weitz’s A Better Life. For the role of Carlos Galindo, an undocumented Mexican gardener trying to raise his son in the U.S., Bichir earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Bichir next appeared in Oliver Stone’s Savages, Paul Feig’s comedy The Heat, director Robert Rodriguez’s Machete Kills, the acclaimed FX series The Bridge and Dom Hemingway, where he stars this April alongside Jude Law and Richard E. Grant. We spoke just after he finished filming his directorial debut Refugio in New Orleans.
Demiรกn Bichir as Marco Ruiz in The Bridge
photo by Frank Ockenfels/FX www.scenelouisiana.com | 39
ABOVE THE LINE MH: I love hearing you talk about Mexico. I can tell it’s something that’s really close to your heart. DB: Well, it is. It is my country, that’s where I’m from. I talk about it because I know exactly what it means and what it is. MH: You talk a lot about moving to New York in your early twenties and struggling. What made you move to New York instead of moving to Los Angeles, where at least you wouldn’t have to fight the cold weather. DB: Or versus moving to London! Well, first of all, London was a little bit too far away! But I did a film in Mexico called The Penitent and I fell in love with my ex-girlfriend. She was living in New York and I said, “Let’s go to New York.” MH: Haha! So you followed a lady there? DB: Yeah, I followed a beautiful girl! But I wanted to give myself a break from doing theatre pretty much all year. I was doing two or three plays a year. And I just wanted to live different kinds of experiences. And learn English. Everything was just right on time and in the right place. MH: I love that. So a few years later, you’re in New Orleans, and you’re making your directorial debut with the new movie, Refugio. What is the story you are telling? DB: It started a couple years back. It’s about a boy that grows up in the circus and how he becomes a man in search of true love. It’s a story about passion and love and redemption where faith plays a key role. MH: Where did you find the inspiration? DB: Unless you are Gabriel Garcia Marquez, pretty much every writer talks about personal experiences. And there are a few things that are based on my own personal experiences. But that’s only a small part of it. MH: Your acting career has obviously gone very well. You’ve been in such a wide array of amazing movies over the last five to ten years, just in the US alone. What made you want to direct this film? DB: Many, many different things. First of all, I love music. I love photography. I love writing. So this’s what you do: you just keep on doing everything you love and try to put it together. As a director, you can have control over every decision made in a film. That’s something that I’ve always wanted to do. And you can only do that with a story that you write, that’s really close to your heart. MH: Has it been challenging directing and performing in the same film? DB: It has been challenging, without a doubt. It’s been one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever encountered. And it’s just very powerful to be able to do many things at the same time. But it’s a job any actor can perform. That’s what we do as actors. We take care of many things at the same time.
40 | March/April 2014
MH: How are you making decisions about your own performance? Do you rely on the camera department to give you feedback? Or is that a decision you’ll make in postproduction? DB: Some decisions you make right there. And then others you will have to wait until post-production to put together. I think it’s kind of half and half. MH: Did you enjoy working in New Orleans or was your visit all work? DB: It was not all work! It was beautiful! It was fantastic! This was my first time ever in New Orleans and I have the feeling that I’m gonna keep coming back again and again. I see New Orleans in my future. It’s a city that I enjoy very much. One that I love. It will be in my heart forever because they opened their doors and arms to our film. They adopted us, and I adopted the studio. It was my first time ever in a football game, and now I’m a Saints fan! And I will continue to be a Saints fan. MH: That’s great! We’re certainly glad to have you. How did they talk you into going to the game? DB: I was hoping to attend a match, sooner or later. We were all very excited about that possibility to go, and we finally got some tickets. MH: How does New Orleans compare with filming in Los Angeles or New York? DB: Films are the same anywhere. The only thing that changes, of course, is the geography. We had some crazy weather in New Orleans! We would have a Caribbean kind of weather one day and New York the next day. And then, a windy cold night, like Chicago. But it was basically very nice. We had a great team and a great crew, and we were all very happy about it. MH: You are very diplomatic when people ask you questions about comparing different roles or different movies. I’ve heard you use the analogy of a father and his children to describe you and your roles, or to describe a director and his actors. What it is about being a father that has formed your work as an actor and director? DB: Um, I guess I am very fatherly! (laughs). I’ve been accused of that before. I love taking care of people around me. And I think every project that you do, it becomes your own child. Whether it’s acting or now directing, it becomes your own little kid. And you love him very much and you do anything in your power to overcome any obstacle to help that kid to grow strong and be healthy and successful. MH: You did an amazing movie with Steven Soderbergh called Che. It was a film that I saw pieces of pretty early on, and I was just so impressed with it as massive undertaking. It seemed like you guys must have shot that film for a year, in order to attain the scope of the movie. DB: It’s one of those projects that you always dream about when you’re thinking of becoming an actor. Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to do that and do it in that way. It was pretty intense. We shot in the jungles of Puerto Rico. That was hard,
ABOVE THE LINE
José Julián and Demián Bichir in A Better Life
photo by Merrick Morton
but it was a lot of fun. It was fantastic. It felt like we were part of something big. Not just because it was a big production, but also because we had the feeling that we were doing something special.
actors go free. You know, he trusts his actors. He believes the actor should be well prepared and bring the character on the set and be ready to shoot.
MH: What experiences working with Soderberg did you bring with you to the director’s chair? DB: Steven Soderbergh is one of my favorite directors ever. If I have anybody’s influence as a director, I think he would be the first example. Whatever I did on Refugio as a director comes from things that I learned from Chris Weitz [on A Better Life] and Steven Soderbergh. And a little from some of the directors I’ve worked with before in my life. But I took a lot from the fact that Steven Soderbergh moves very fast, and so does Chris Weitz. He’s clear and he makes everything easy. Robert Rodriguez works like that, too. His favorite word is “fácil.” And it should be like that. You should not complicate things more than you need to.
MH: That sounds like a father who is trusting his actors to be adults. DB: Yeah, if you wanna give them the keys of your car, you don’t wanna be in the car with them, giving them a hard time. If you have already decided to give them the steering wheel, then let them drive.
MH: What’s something else that you learned from Soderberg, who is not an actor? Maybe something that you learned from him about how to work with actors? DB: That’s something I admire very much with him. He let the
MH: The film you did with Chris Weitz was this amazing movie called A Better Life. And it became really big. I remember all of the buzz about it before awards season. You received a lot of very deserved awards recognition, including a Best Actor nomination at the Academy Awards. Since that film was released in 2011, how has your career changed? DB: Every project moves your career forward. That’s pretty much what life is about. You want things to affect your life or career positively. And that’s pretty much what happens every time you work on a new project. The next one is always better.
www.scenelouisiana.com | 41
ABOVE THE LINE
Demián Bichir as Fidel Castro with Benicio del Tor
MH: Your next project is the new comedy Dom Hemingway. The film has a really stylish look and seems like it’s going to be a lot of fun. I worked with the DP Giles Nuttgens on a movie a few years ago and he is incredibly talented. Did you have as much fun filming the movie as it looks like I’m gonna have watching it? DB: Absolutely. I had the privilege of working with two fantastic English actors. Jude Law and Richard E. Grant are so well-trained, like many British actors. They made the whole thing very rewarding. The process was very enjoyable. MH: You have had similar training as an actor. You’ve done a lot of theatre and now you’re doing a lot of film and television work. Did you find a kinship with actors who also have a background in theatre? DB: Yeah, absolutely. I always find that whenever I encounter an actor with a theatre background that happens automatically. That happened to me with Mary Louise Parker on Weeds. It’s an immediate connection whenever you find someone with the same background. The process changes a lot. MH: How is the process different for theatre-trained actors? DB: It’s more about the work than anything else. You have this 42 | March/April 2014
photo by Laura Magruder
discipline of going through a lot of work on the table first, and then, you go through an extensive personality profile, whatever you are going to put on screen. And then, you are very disciplined about it, and you become very passionate about it. It becomes an intense kind of workshop any time you encounter actors like that. MH: Tell me about your character in Dom Hemingway, Mr. Fontaine. DB: He’s a Russian, uh, “businessman” who owes some money to Jude Law’s character. He welcomes him and brings him back to his villa in the South of France to pay that debt. The movie is hilarious. It’s very intense. I think Richard Shepherd, the director, did a fantastic job. He’s also a fantastic director, and it was a lot of fun working with him. MH: Your profile has continued to rise with your phenomenal work in films lately, but you’ve chosen to work on projects on television like Showtime’s Weeds and FX’s The Bridge. Was there a specific reason you wanted to work in television? DB: I feel comfortable in any media. I think theatre, TV and films are all territories I feel comfortable in. It doesn’t really matter to me. What matters is the project and the people involved.
ABOVE THE LINE
Demiรกn Bichir as Esteban Reyes in Weeds photo by Sonja Fleming/Showtime www.scenelouisiana.com | 43
ABOVE THE LINE
Demián Bichir as Esteban Reyes in Weeds
MH: What was it that drew you to The Bridge specifically? DB: It’s great writing. And very good producers. And they have a fantastic lineup of directors, beginning with the pilot director, Gerardo Naranjo. That was crucial. And, of course, the cast: Diane Kruger, Matthew Lillard and Annabeth Gish, Ted Levine and Catalina Sandino Moreno. All these superb actors. That made my choice very simple. It was an automatic yes. MH: It’s a terrific show. I love that there’s really no difference between television and film now. The quality in television is so high, and it’s great to see your caliber of talent in long-form work. I’m used to seeing certain actors deliver a performance in the course of two hours. Then to see their abilities used to unfold a character over the course of twenty hours? That’s really an exciting change that’s come up over the last ten years. 44 | March/April 2014
photo by Sonja Fleming/Showtime
DB: I completely agree. Television is very well done nowadays, and that is exactly why you have so many great film actors coming into television, you know. It’s because we actors are looking for a fantastic process, a great story, and an amazing role, and you can find that on TV. MH: Now that you’ve finished filming Refugio, what’s next for you? DB: I’m one hundred percent concentrated on Refugio. And then, they ordered a second season for The Bridge, so that will happen in March. S
Demián Bichir can next be seen in Dom Hemingway, which opens in theaters everywhere on April 4. Find out more at foxsearchlight.com/domhemingway.
MUSIC |
FEST OF THE BEST:
THE NEW ORLEANS JAZZ & HERITAGE FESTIVAL by Catie Ragusa
S
ome music festivals are a quick sprint through the weekend. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is a marathon through the best local and national acts. This year, the forty-fifth annual fest will again span two extended weekends: Friday, April 25 to Sunday, April 27 and then Thursday, May 1 through Sunday, May 4. This fest will feature performances by Santana, Robert Plant, Eric Clapton, Lyle Lovett, Christina Aguilera, Irma Thomas, Vampire Weekend, Bruce Springsteen, Phish, Robin Thicke and The String Cheese Incident. Local celebrities will be performing as well, including Trombone Shorty, who recently performed at the Grammys with rapper/ producer duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. The majority of the acts are local to Louisiana or to the South, sure to send zydeco and swamp pop music flowing through the Fair Grounds. New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band is playing on the first Sunday of the festival. They’re also being honored as the subject of this year’s official Jazz and Heritage Festival 46 | March/April 2014
ANDERS OSBORNE photo by Marc Millman
| MUSIC
LYLE LOVETT
photo by Michael Wilson
ROBERT PLANT photo by Greg Delamn
BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO photo by Rick Olivier
ERIC CLAPTON www.scenelouisiana.com | 47
MUSIC | FEST OF THE BEST:
THE NEW ORLEANS JAZZ & HERITAGE FESTIVAL
TREY SONGZ
photo by Jimmy Fontaine
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN photo by Marc Millman
CHRISTINA AGUILERA photo by Enrique Badulescu
poster, on sale at the festival and online. This year’s poster, an original painting by Terrence Osborne, features the band standing in front of Preservation Hall. A side dish to the main course of music and local art, New Orleans cuisine will be famously available throughout the grounds of the festival, including crowd favorites like Crawfish Monica and endless variations of gumbo. Excellent food may be considered a foregone conclusion by locals, but it beats out the sometimes sad state of festival food everywhere else in country. For the full lineup of this year’s Jazz and Heritage Festival, visit the official website at www.nojazzfest.com. S 48 | March/April 2014
ERIC LINDELL photo by Jerry Moran
FOSTER THE PEOPLE photo by Darren Ankenman
JOE LOUIS WALKER photo by Michael Weintrob
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MUSIC |
TOO BUKU:
THE BUKU MUSIC + ART PROJECT 2014 by Catie Ragusa
E
lectronic, progressive and experimental music have found a new home in New Orleans: the twoday Buku Music and Art Project. Now back for its third year and expanding to include more rock and rap, Buku takes place Friday, March 21 and Saturday, March 22. The power weekend will include powerhouse artists The Flaming Lips, David Guetta, Ellie Goulding, Kaskade, Chromeo, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Zedd, all coming to NOLA to play in the festival. Organized by the same companies who put together Hangout Fest (Winter Circle Productions) and TomorrowWorld (MCP), Buku isn’t filled with the sounds of traditional New Orleans music that locals and visitors alike are used to hearing around the French Quarter. The beats of the electronic and experimental musicians also come with a show of neon lights and fierce energy. The new music and art fest sets up shop inside Mardi Gras World, the New Orleans warehouse that houses Mardi Gras floats under construction for the parades. In the past, Buku has brought three stages to the warehouse, but this year they’re adding a 50 | March/April 2014
THE FLAMING LIPS photo by George Salisbury
| MUSIC
MIAMI HORROR photo by Luis Ramos
GENERATIONALS
CHROMEO
photo by Tony Saccenti
PHANTOGRAM
MUSIC | TOO BUKU:
THE BUKU MUSIC + ART PROJECT 2014
ELLIE GOULDING photo by Meeno
SOUL CLAP
photo by Tim Jones
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY CASHMERE CAT
photo by photo by Steffen Kørner Ludvigsen
fourth stage for maximum musical enjoyment. Buku has a healthy mash-up of national acts and local artists, including Louisiana’s favorite bounce master Big Freedia plus Gravity A, Big History, The Generationals, Flight School Preps, Kid Kamillion, Unicorn Fukr and DXXXY. And because Mardi Gras World is located so close to the French Quarter, locals and visitors alike can visit their favorite restaurants, bars and shops in between shows. Check out the full lineup of the 2014 Buku Music and Art Project on their official website, www.thebukuproject.com. S 52 | March/April 2014
SMALL POOLS photo by Dan Monick
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AMERICAN HORROR STORY’S
EMMA ROBERTS by Micah Haley
E
mma Roberts was a new addition to the third installment of American Horror Story, which carried the subtitle Coven. FX’s unorthodox horror series, which reboots every season, re-casting current cast members and adding new faces, has become a smash hit that rivals the viewership of network television shows in its timeslot. The former child star of Nickelodeon’s Unfabulous and films like Nancy Drew, where she starred as the titular teenage detective, Roberts is now in her early twenties and tackling a wide range of new roles. Last summer, she starred alongside Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis in We’re The Millers. She also recently filmed the heist flick Empire State in New Orleans. Roberts spoke exclusively with Scene Magazine outside of Swedish fashion retailer H&M, which recently opened its doors on North Peters Street in New Orleans.
MH: I remember hearing you were in town recently to film Empire State with The Rock and Liam Hemsworth. And now you’re back! ER: “I’m in New Orleans filming American Horror Story which has been really, really fun. I’ve been here for like three months and I love this city. I’m ready to get a place down here!” MH: Emma, you really handle yourself well in your interactions with the press. I always watch a few interviews on Youtube to see what questions you are always asked so I can avoid those. And you are such a pro! ER: Thank you! I try! It’s all of my Nickelodeon media training from when I was ten. MH: That makes sense. It definitely shows. ER: (laughing) Yeah, when I was on Nickelodeon, they would take us to a stage and just train us. I’m so appreciative of it now because sometimes you get questions where you start sweating and you just can’t show that you’re sweating. MH: American Horror Story. You joined the show in its third season. Were you a fan before being cast? ER: I was obsessed with the show. You don’t understand! I mean, since season one, I’ve been obsessed. And I always wanted to be on the show. But it was one of those things where I just never thought that they would ask me. I never thought there’d be a role for me. So, I would kind of just fantasize about it, but I never thought it would happen. 54 | March/April 2014
Emma Roberts at the opening of H&M New Orleans photo by Kelli Binnings
| FASHION
MH: How did you find out that you would be joining the show? ER: Out of the blue one day, I’m walking around my house and [series creator] Ryan Murphy called me. He was like, “I think I have a role for you, if you’re interested.” And I literally jumped up and down! And then I was like, “Oh, what is it?” You know, trying to be cool, but I was so excited. I couldn’t have gotten luckier with the role. It’s like a dream come true and I’ve never been so excited to get my script before. Every week, when we get our script for the show, I’m so excited to read it because I’m a fan and I want to know what happens! It’s just honestly amazing. MH: American Horror Story stays so unpredictable and fresh. Part of that is because the storyline reboots each season, and the characters and settings change. But it’s also a Ryan Murphy show, which means you really have zero clue what to expect. ER: “Yeah! I mean, we’re on the show and we don’t know. Me and all my friends who work on the show, we all will talk to each other and be like, “What do you think? What do you think?!” Because we have no idea. So, when people ask us, “So, what’s the ending?” We look at them and we’re like, “Do you think that they told us? Because let me tell you, they did not!” MH: Did they at least tell you if you would have a season-long story arc? Or were you in the dark about that, too? ER: When I signed on to do it, they only told me what was going to happen in the first three episodes. Once I started working, I was like, “Oh my god, I should have asked what happens!” Because I only knew up to three episodes. What happens in the next ten? So there have been times when I get my script and I’m like, “Oh God, how am I going to do this?!” And you just kind of have to go for it. MH: How have you enjoyed hanging out in New Orleans? A TV show keeps you in town for a lot longer than a feature. ER: Yeah, I love it. When I found out I had to come down here for the show for five months, I was kind of nervous. But I’ve made amazing friends. I’ve gone to great restaurants and just the vibe of the city itself…it’s really inspiring being down here and working. L.A. sometimes
Emma Roberts in American Horror Story: Coven photo by Michele K. Short/FX www.scenelouisiana.com | 55
FASHION |
Emma Roberts at the opening of H&M New Orleans photo by Kelli Binnings
MH: New Orleans has a lot of great qualities, but this is not a heel-friendly city. ER: It’s not a heel-friendly city. I wore heels out one night and literally had to go home and change!
Emma Roberts in American Horror Story: Coven photo by Michele K. Short/FX
starts to feel like a nine-to-five. Coming here, it’s been nice to mix it up and really refreshing to work somewhere that has so much going on. MH: Tell me about your little black dress. ER: My dress is Isabel Marant for H&M. I’m obsessed with it. And the shoes are Jimmy Choo, which I’m also obsessed with, even though I’ve almost fallen down about five times. I haven’t worn heels in months because around New Orleans, you’re walking everywhere. So this is like my first time in heels in months and I’m not very good at them yet. 56 | March/April 2014
MH: Ha! It’s like the City of Rolled Ankles. Other than avoiding heels, what’s some style advice for my fellow New Orleanians? ER: I love H&M because they have great basic things you can grab. They also have the cutest cotton dresses that you can just throw on. If I was to give style advice, I would say don’t be afraid of things not matching. Lately, I love getting a great dress and pairing that with my favorite jacket and a great pair of boots. So just don’t be afraid to mix up brands and mix up colors. Just show your own personality. S
Emma Roberts was recently cast opposite Sam Worthington in For the Dogs, a new action thriller from director Jonathan Mostow. Follow her on Twitter at @RobertsEmma. And find out more about H&M at www.hm.com/us.
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A
ctresses Shantel VanSanten and Angelique Cabral and vocalists Christina Milian and MacKenzie Bourg gathered in December for Hope for the Holidays, a gala event raising money for the United Way. It was a fashion forward affair second to none. The event was hosted by VanSanten and former NBA star John Salley. New Orleans Saints players Roman Harper, Lance Moore, Jahri Evans, Malcolm Jenkins and Pierre Thomas were also in attendance. S
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58 | March/April 2014
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Q
I have a great idea for a reality TV show. There’s no script for a reality TV show or documentary, so how do I protect my idea if I can’t copyright it?
You are correct in that an idea by itself is not copyrightable or protectable, but there are a few procedures I would suggest that will afford you some protection of a truly unique concept. First, I would suggest you write a treatment for the show. The treatment would then be protected under copyright law. As you may or may not know, copyright protection subsists from the moment of creation. This means that any work that meets the criteria of originality sufficient for copyright protection will be protected from the very moment that it is reduced to a tangible form. Writing a treatment of the potential reality show amounts to reducing that idea to a tangible form under copyright law. With that said, I would suggest that your treatment be very specific so as to protect your idea as opposed to something that is very generic and likely difficult to distinguish. The other step I would suggest you take is maintaining the confidentiality of your material. In doing so, you must maintain the information in a confidential manner at all times. Require any person to whom you are disclosing the material to sign a nondisclosure and non-circumvent agreement.
The non-disclosure agreement will require the other party to agree that: (a) the idea for the show is unique and valuable; (b) the idea is proprietary information created and owned by you; (c) the company/producer will keep the idea and information confidential; (d) the company/producer will not exploit the idea without your permission; and (e) if the company/producer does exploit the idea you will either be attached or compensated for their exploitation of the idea. It remains, however, critical that you are aware of what is considered confidential information and the factors that determine confidentiality. Rather than discuss what may be deemed confidential information, I believe it prudent to point out what is not considered confidential information. That material that is typically excluded includes: (a) material which you disclose to other parties in a non-confidential manner; (b) material which the company/producer can show that it developed independently of you; (c) material that has become publicly known; or (d) material that is public domain or not actually proprietary in nature such as clichéd stories, plots or concepts.
Q
I would like to write a book and/or a screenplay about someone’s personal story. How do I get the so-called “life rights” to their story and what does that entail? What you need to create a work based on someone’s personal story while commonly called “life rights” is actually a series of rights and releases from liability. Generally, what you are looking to acquire is the following: (a) the right to portray that particular person’s life in whole or part; (b) the right to fictionalize or modify some portions of that story; (c) the right to use pseudonyms for people and places portrayed in the story; (d)
60 | March/April 2014
license to any pre-existing works covering the story; and a covenant not to sue for such things as libel and defamation, invasion of privacy and similar causes of action. If you are pursuing such rights, it is vital that you engage an experienced entertainment attorney familiar with these types of agreements so that you are properly covered from any potential issues that may arise under such circumstances.
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SCENE | MORE CINEMA ON THE BAYOU by Wyatt Gassen
A
At this year’s Cinema on the Bayou, not even arctic weather could stop us from having a fun time. Ice and wind and snow were not enough to keep moviegoers from attending. With each successful year that passes, Cinema on the Bayou has only grown in popularity, especially with our French Canadian brothers and sisters. A slew of Quebecois documentaries and Canadian narratives were included this year, winning a number of Goujon Caille (spotted catfish) awards. Works like L’état des Lieux (The State of Mind), Des Hommes à la Mer (Men at Sea) and Suki received honorable mentions alongside Aller-Retour, which won the Inspiration Award, and The Nature of Frederic Back, which won the Audience Award. The Director’s Choice Award, wherein a jury of directors and judges vote for their most favorite, chose Phil Comeau’s Secretariat’s Jockey: Ron Turcotte, the story of the man who jockeyed for the legendary thoroughbred Secretariat, winner of the 1973 Triple Crown. That isn’t to say that our fellow Americans were not a part of the festival. The jury for the Director’s Choice Award gave honorable mention to the twelve-minute animated short The Numberlys, directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldernburg of Shreveport-based Moonbot Studios. Other films like Can’t Stop the Water and This Ain’t No Mousse Music received awards for Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short.
A Warehouse on Tchoupitoulas screened at Cinema on the Bayou
Patrons and critics hailed the “great, great, great” festival as “a world class event” and simply raved about the food, culture and hospitality of the region, alongside the films and documentaries. One documentarian called it one of the best festival experiences in his entire career. For more on this year’s Cinema on the Bayou, visit the film festival’s official website at www.cinemaonthebayou.com. S
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SCENE | LOUISIANA AT THE OSCARS by Catie Ragusa
T
he Eighty-Sixth Academy Awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, March 2 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, hosted by comedienne extraordinaire Ellen DeGeneres. The Oscars set the standard for recognizing the best work being done in the film industry. This year, Louisiana again has a strong presence at the film industry’s premier entertainment awards. Nominated for Best Picture, and considered by many to be the odds-on favorite, is the South Louisiana-shot drama 12 Years a Slave. Based on the true story of Solomon Northup, the heart-wrenching film was directed by Steve McQueen and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Lupita Nyong’o and Louisiana native Quvenzhané Wallis. A historical film about a man who was born free in Upstate New York, but was drugged, kidnapped and sold into slavery in New Orleans, 12 Years a Slave has a good chance of winning the category, but as Argo proved last year, there are other films that could take the statue at the top of the cake. The film is also nominated in several other categories. McQueen is nominated for Best Director, while Chiwetel Ejiofor is nominated for Best Actor. Michael Fassbender is nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Lupita Nyong’o is nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Another Louisiana film nominated for Best Picture is Dallas Buyers Club, a New Orleans-shot but Texas-set drama about Ron Woodruff, a bull-riding cowboy who contracts AIDS and is given thirty days to live. He develops a desire to change his wild life, and learns to cope with the challenges that come with the life-threatening disease. By starting a club that offers drugs that have not been approved by the FDA and selling memberships to AIDS victims, Woodruff is able to help thousands of people. Directed by Jean-Marc Valleé, Dallas Buyers Club stars Matthew McConaughey, who is nominated for Best Actor, and Jared Leto, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Jennifer Garner and Denis O’Hare also star. The film’s makeup artists, Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews, were also nominated for Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling on the film. But Louisiana films face formidable competition. Director David O. Russell’s crime dramedy American Hustle, starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Christian Bale and Amy Adams, is nominated for Best Picture. The film is loosely based on an FBI operation in the 1970s and 80s, in which a pair of con artists is forced to work with the FBI in order to lighten their punishment after getting caught in a loan scam. The film also received nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress for Christian Bale and Amy Adams, accompanied by nominations for Best Supporting Roles for Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, who has become a favorite at awards shows as she balances big box office roles as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and awards contenders like American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook. Still, there’s a chance that Gravity, the space-based drama starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, will win Best Picture. The film is about a medical engineer and an astronaut who are left stranded and forced to survive in space when their shuttle is destroyed. Director Alfonso Cuarón is nominated for Best Director, and Bullock is nominated for Best Actress in the drama, winning over the critics and the public. And The Wolf of Wall Street, also nominated for Best Picture,
64 | March/April 2014
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup
photo by Jaap Buitendijk
Matthew McConaughey as Ron Woodruff and Jared Leto as Rayon photo by Anne Marie Fox
The cast of American Hustle
photo by Francois Duhamel
has a nomination for Martin Scorsese as Best Director. Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays Jordan Belfort, a greedy, drug-and-sexaddicted stockbroker on Wall Street, is nominated for Best Actor. Maybe DiCaprio will finally get the Oscar due him for decades of excellent work. 21 Jump Street’s Jonah Hill plays Donnie Azoff, a salesman and Belfort’s accomplice, who gets into the stock business with Belfort. Hill is nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Louisiana-shot films have a chance at winning Oscars in several categories this year, but the competition is tough. For more information on the eighty-sixth Academy Awards, visit www.oscargo.com. S
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n Thursday, January 2, veteran talent agent Claudia Speicher passed away. She was only sixtyfive years old. The owner of New Orleans Model & Talent, Speicher was well respected by both talent and casting directors alike. She was famously careful whom she chose to represent, and local actors coveted the opportunity to work with her. “Claudia was my agent for twentyfive years,” says actor and radio host Spud McConnell, one of the many actors to see great success alongside Speicher. “I tried for three years to sign with her and it wasn’t until I did The King fish at The Orpheum Theatre in ‘88 that she finally agreed to let me into her stable. She was particular about who she associated with because she represented the very best here and was fiercely loyal to the pool of actors she gathered.” “I’ve had other agents while living in New York and L.A. but I never ended my relationship with Claudia,” says McConnell. “She is as responsible for my successful career as I am. She is gone but she will not be forgotten. Her lilting voice and the way she called you ‘darling’ are what I will miss most.” Although Speicher worked in New Orleans for nearly four decades, it was not until nine years ago that the film industry based for so long in Los Angeles began to trickle down to Louisiana. During that time, she guided her local talent into roles in an unprecedented number of major motion pictures and television shows. The great success she saw in her final years was a fitting reward to someone who served the local talent community for so long. She will be missed. S
DR. JOHN HOLDS BENEFIT CONCERT AT HOUSE OF BLUES FOR GARY DRUILHET by Catie Ragusa
O
n December 23, 2013, the House of Blues New Orleans’ longtime sound monitor engineer, Gary Druilhet, suffered from a stroke while working on a multi-band show. He then suffered from another stroke at the hospital that same day. Because his health insurance had not yet gone into effect at the time of the strokes, his medical expenses were not yet covered, leaving him with a pile of hospital bills. Druilhet has been a part of the House of Blues family for years, and the venue is now taking donations on his behalf. To help pay for Druilhet’s medical expenses, the House of Blues held a benefit concert with a special solo performance from world famous New Orleans jazz and blues artist Dr. John. The “doctor” - whose real name is Malcolm John “Mac” Rebennack, Jr. - was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by John Legend in 2011. Rebennack has also recorded over twenty albums in his career,
SCENE | which now spans over fifty years. He has also won six Grammy Awards. Several other bands also performed for the benefit show on February 6, including New Orleans favorites Kermit Ruffins & The BBQ Swingers, John “Papa” Gros, the Linda Wright Gospel Band, John Lisi & Delta Funk, the Joe Krown Trio with Brint Anderson & Mike Barras and the Tin Men. In addition to the concert, a silent auction was held to help raise the money. Attendees could bid on special prizes like concert tickets, spa services and gift certificates, among other items, with proceeds going to the fundraiser. Even though the benefit concert is over, a donations page has been set up so that anyone can continue to donate money to the cause. If you would like to contribute to Druilhet’s medical expenses, visit www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/gary-druilhet-medical-fund/129644. S
BIC ALLIANCE HOLDS BATON ROUGE SCREENING OF LONE SURVIVOR
Minutes from Downtown Baton Rouge & Close to I-10 and I-12 AMENITIES INCLUDE: • 149 Spacious, Newly-Renovated Guest Rooms • On-Site Restaurant: The Bistro • Starbucks Coffee • Two Meeting Rooms (625 sq. ft.) • 24-Hour Business Center • 24-Hour Market • 24-Hour Fitness Center • Complimentary Wi-Fi Access • Outdoor Pool • Complimentary On-Site Parking
by Catie Ragusa
C
oinciding with the nationwide release of Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor, BIC Alliance held a private viewing of Lone Survivor to honor veterans and current military at the Grand Cinema in Baton Rouge on January 17. The film is based on the true story of four Navy SEALS who are ambushed by members of the Taliban in the mountains during a special mission in Afghanistan. Marcus Luttrell was the only SEAL to survive the attack that day. A touching movie that realistically portrays what the troops have to endure in war, Lone Survivor is a difficult but beautiful tribute to those who fight for freedom. BIC’s private screening of Lone Survivor had a successful turnout. With an audience of 150 of BIC’s partners, staff and many retired and active military, the theater offered free popcorn and soft drinks for audience members to snack on during the film. “A group of our team had the honor of watching Lone Survivor thanks to BIC Alliance,” says Ben Fromenthal of Bengal Transportation, who attended the screening. “We’d like to thank BIC for hosting and putting this great event together. All of us at Bengal express our utmost appreciation for every brave individual who has served and is serving to protect a country that allows us the freedom we have today.” During the event, BIC’s staff members and other attendees could be spotted wearing military-style combat boots under their jeans, another way to show appreciation and honor the troops. The boots were purchased from the Boot Campaign, a company started by five Texas women known as the Original Boot Girls. Proceeds from the Boot Campaign’s combat boot sales, events and donations benefit organizations that aim to help veterans find jobs, housing and healthcare, and raise awareness of those issues to the public. Find more information on Marcus Luttrell’s story, also told in his book Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, at www.lonesurvivorfilm.com. S
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The American Can Feature - Independent Starring: Will Smith Director: Edward Zwick Fax: 310.432.2401 Status: Active Development Location: New Orleans
John Keller returns from the second Gulf War, only to see Hurricane Katrina destroy his home town, New Orleans.
American Horror Story (Season 4)
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TV Series - FX Network Starring: TBD Resumes: ahs.office@tvbyfox.com Phone: 504.224.2227 Fax: 504.224.2291 Status: Shoots Summer through December 2014 UPM: Joe Incaprera Location: New Orleans
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Feature - Film Nation Starring: Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg Director: Nima Nourizadeh Resumes: ultralouisiana@gmail.com Status: Preps February 3. Shoots April 14. Line Producer: Ray Angelic Location: New Orleans
A stoner named Mike (Eisenberg) and his girlfriend Phoebe (Stewart) live in a quiet town, until his dark past emerges and a government operation targets him for annihilation.
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Feature - Relativity Starring: Michelle Monaghan, James Marsden, Liana Liberato Director: Michael Hoffman Resumes: bestofmenola@gmail.com Phone: 504.264.5171 Fax: 504.373.5115 Casting: Coulon Casting (couloncasting.wordpress.com) Status: Preps Jan 22. Shoots March 6 till May. UPM: Jojo Feiger - Line Producer: Scott Lumpkin Location: New Orleans
Two star-crossed high school students fall deeply in love, only to be torn apart at the end of their senior year. Twenty-five years later, they return home for a funeral, and confront their past over a weekend.
Cook
Feature - Independent Resumes: cook2014resumes@gmail.com Status: Shoots Summer 2014 for 5 weeks UPM: Tracey Landon Location: New Orleans
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Contact Liz Hidalgo, Sales Director: Liz.Hidalgo@CajunLodging.com • (225) 706-0338 68 | March/April 2014
The D Train
Feature - Independent Starring: Jack Black, James Marsden Director: Jarrad Paul & Andy Mogel Resumes: dtrainprod@gmail.com Phone: 504.662.1644 Status: Shoots February 18 for 22 days UPM: Anthony Rossi III Location: New Orleans
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Geostorm
Feature - Warner Bros Director: Dean Devlin Resumes: info@skydance.com Phone: 323.956.9900 Fax: 323.956.9901 Status: Shoots mid-August UPM: Carsten Lorenz Location: New Orleans
Get Hard
Feature - Warner Bros Starring: Will Farrell, Kevin Hart Director: Etan Cohen Resumes: hazardousresumes@gmail.com Phone: 504.595.1730 Fax: 866.716.5256 Status: Shoots March 17 UPM: Bob Dohrman Location: New Orleans
“Scene put us in front of people in the industry that we otherwise might not be able to reach! If you are a new supplier to the film industry, it is the one place that you can advertise that will maximize your reach to major key players and decision makers!” Danielle Doss Marriott Hotel
A rich investment banker named James (Farrell) is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. To prepare himself for maximum security prison, he hires the streetwise guy who washes his car (Hart) to get him ready to do hard time in the thirty days before he reports to jail.
Jurassic World (aka Jurassic Park 4)
Feature - Universal Starring: Ty Simpkins, Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Irrfan Khan, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy Director: Colin Treverrow Resumes: ebbtideresumes@gmail.com Phone: 504.595.1777 Status: Prepping now. Shoots June 2 through August. UPM: Patrick Crowley, Trevor Waterson - Prod Superviser: Russell Allen Location: New Orleans & Hawaii
The fourth movie in the blockbuster Jurassic Park series sees a return to Isla Nublar.
Midnight Special
Feature - Warner Bros Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton Director: Jeff Nichols Resumes: midnightspecial.resumes@gmail.com Phone: 504.595.1760 Fax: 855.632.1073 Casting: RPM Casting (www.rpmcasting.com) Status: Shoots January 20 to March 30 LP: Hans Graffunder Location: New Orleans
A father and son are on the run when the father finds out his son has special powers.
www.scenelouisiana.com | 69
cont’d
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Mississippi Grind
Feature - Independent Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Sienna Miller, Ben Mendelsohn Director: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck Resumes: msgrindprod@gmail.com Phone: 504.704.3292 Status: Shoots January 29 to March 6 LP: Jeremy Kipp Walker UPM: Edith LeBlanc Location: New Orleans
A veteran gambler losing his luck takes a young man with a gambling addiction under his wing, grinding through the South in an attempt to win back their losses.
NCIS: New Orleans
TV Series - CBS Starring: Scott Bakula, Zoe McLellan, CCH Pounder Resumes: ncisproduction@gmail.com, ncistv@yahoo.com Phone: 661.257.2650 Fax: 661.257.2688 Status: Shoots February 11 to March 9 Line Producer: Mark Schilz Location: New Orleans
A new NCIS spinoff set in the New Orleans office responsible for investigations from Texas to Florida.
Something Wonderful
Feature - Independent Starring: Forest Whitaker Director: Forest Whitaker Resumes: somethingwonderful2014@gmail.com Status: Shoots April through June 2014 UPM: Tracey Landon Location: New Orleans
Skate God
Feature - Independent Starring: Carter Jenkins, Evan Ross, Esti Ginzburg, Nathan Gamble Director: Art Camacho Resumes: alexandergarcia06@gmail.com Phone: 562.208.0476 Status: February 2014 LP: Jacov Bresler Location: New Orleans
A skateboarder discovers he is the descendant of a Greek god and soon finds himself doing battle with a shadow society out for world domination.
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70 | March/April 2014
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Terminator: Genesis (Terminator 5) Feature - Paramount Starring: Arnold Schwarzeneggar, Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke Director: Alan Taylor Resumes: terminator5vista@gmail.com Phone: 504.684.2066 Fax: 504.309.9504 Casting: Coulon Casting (couloncasting.wordpress.com) Status: Shoots April 21 to August 1 UPM: Wendy Williams
Location: New Orleans Part one of the stand-alone trilogy in the Terminator universe.
Wraith
Feature - Independent Director: Justin Groetsch Resumes: wraithmovieproduction@gmail.com Status: Preps Feb 3 for a March 10 start Location: New Orleans
Bad Ass on the Bayou (Bad Asses) Feature - Independent Starring: Danny Trejo, Danny Glover Director: Craig Moss Resumes: crewba3@gmail.com Phone: 225.308.5963 Fax: 225.330.6131 Casting: Caballero Casting (www.caballerocasting.com) Status: Shoots February 3 to March 1 UPM: Jennifer Beasley Location: Baton Rouge
WE’VE ALWAYS BEEN HOLLYWOOD’S HOME ADDRESS IN NEW ORLEANS.
The Fantastic Four
Feature - Fox Starring: (Rumored: Michael B. Jordan, Jack O’Connell, Miles Teller, Kit Harington, Saoirse Ronan, Kate Mara, Margot Robbie, Emmy Rossum) Director: Josh Trank Resumes: henrystreetresumes@gmail.com Phone: 225.330.6940 Fax: 225.330.6941 Status: Prepping now. Shoots March 24. UPM: Todd Lewis, Warren H. Carr - Line Producer: Greg Goodman Location: Baton Rouge (Celtic Media Centre)
A reboot of the comic book movie series. Four people gain super powers after being exposed to cosmic rays during a mission to outer space.
Pitch Perfect 2
Feature - Gold Circle Films Starring: Anna Kendrick, Elizabeth Banks, Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp Director: Elizabeth Banks Status: Spring 2014 Location: Baton Rouge
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TV Series - WGN Starring: Shane West, Janet Montgomery, Seth Gabel, Tamzin Merchant, Elise Eberle, Xander Berkeley, Alexandra Daniels, JD Evermore Resumes: breakoutkingsllc@gmail.com Phone: 318.213.0220 Fax: 318.213.0221 Status: Shoots Nov 4 to May 2014 UPM: Danielle Weinstock Location: Shreveport
It’s A Wonderful Life: The Rest of the Story Feature - Independent Starring: Karolyn Grimes Resumes: hummingbirdproductions.com Phone: 615.385.3729 Status: Active Development Location: Louisiana
A sequel to Frank Capra’s iconic 1946 classic film.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Feature - Walt Disney Pictures Starring: Johnny Depp, Keith Richards, Geoffrey Rush (Rumored: Christoph Waltz, Rebecca Hall) Director: Joachim Ronning & Espen Sandberg Resumes: fifthmaterprods@gmail.com Fax: 818.288.9397 Status: October 2014 LP: Barry Waldman PM: Trevor Waterson Location: Louisiana, Los Angeles, Hawaii, United Kingdom
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For frequent updates on job opportunities in the entertainment industry, subscribe to Scene Weekly for free at scenelouisiana.com/sw.
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THE UNSCENE FINANCE FEST Like waves at high tide, new filmmakers are constantly rising, risking everything to pursue their dreams. Off to Toronto, Park City, Cannes and Berlin they go, hoping to meet producers, investors, actors and others who they might marshal into battle. And don’t be fooled by campaigns of misinformation: filmmaking is war. The maturing film industry in Louisiana has a duty to equip bright young minds bound for film festivals around the world. A knowledge of Louisiana’s tax credit program should be carried with each local who treks to the far reaches of filmdom, if only to spread the good word. But rather than sending our brightest out to fight on foreign shores, we ought to continue to bring the business of film to our own state. Tired of seeing our sons and daughters leave for high-paying jobs in other states, Louisiana has created an entertainment industry out of whole cloth, attracting talent from across the country to our economy. Now, that industry has a responsibility to invest in a film festival that will rival the Big Four. To volunteer cash and in-kind contributions necessary to make our fest competitive. To marshal all its resources to bring producers, distributors and production companies to Louisiana. To create a true market for films screening at the fest. And to create millions in economic opportunities for themselves. Because if we don’t, Georgia will. The UnScene Writer Submit tips to unscene@scenelouisiana.com. Anonymity guaranteed.
74 | March/April 2014
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BIC Alliance celebrates 30 years
E
arl Heard took a risk 30 years ago when he created a publication that would reach across multiple industries in the oil and gas sector. What started as a newsletter grew into BIC Alliance, and Heard hasn’t stopped innovating since. Joined by his partner and son-in-law President Thomas Brinsko and Vice President Jeremy Osterberger, Heard has founded three additional divisions of the company — BIC Recruiting, IVS Investment Banking and BIC Media Solutions. This year, BIC Alliance and its team are celebrating 30 years of connections — the BIC Alliance partners, readers and staff who have made that commitment possible and share in the success.
BIC Magazine
BIC Alliance’s Business & Industry Connection (BIC) Magazine, published 10 times a year, delivers the messages of leading industrial service companies and industrial facilities to a national and international audience. BIC Alliance recently launched a brand new website for BIC Magazine. The new and improved BICMagazine.com will keep readers updated daily on the industry’s top news and provide enhanced online access to the content of BIC Magazine. BIC is also currently partnering with Launch Media in Baton Rouge, La., to expand its video capability and is planning to work with other regional video partners in Texas, the Northeast and elsewhere.
BIC Recruiting
BIC Recruiting places sales management, operations management with profit and loss expertise and C-level executives in the energy market. Its extensive network of more than 30,000 contacts allows
BIC Alliance’s Baton Rouge team.
the division’s recruiters to find the best candidate for your position; in fact, more than half of BIC Recruiting’s placements come from direct referrals. This is a major differentiating factor in using BIC Recruiting’s services.
IVS Investment Banking
IVS Investment Banking specializes in merger and acquisition matchmaking, investment banking and recapitalization. Through relationships and interest from strategic buyers such as BIC Alliance members and the limited universe of private equity groups, IVS is able to run a “dual path” when representing sellers, maximizing value for its clients. Since 2008, IVS has completed 13 transactions that total more than $270 million.
BIC Media Solutions
When Heard launched BIC Media Solutions in 2005, the idea was to offer networking and training events, keynote speakers and custom book publishing. Since then, the division has published eight books, hosted numerous networking events and has seen Heard speak all over the country on various topics. BIC Media Solutions has also expanded by partnering with Louisiana Entertainment Publishers LLC (LEP), publisher of “Scene Magazine” — Louisiana’s fastest growing entertainment magazine, to cross promote each other’s publications and begin co-producing premier events. For more information about BIC Alliance, contact Earl Heard in Baton Rouge at (800) 460-4242 or Thomas Brinsko in Houston at (281) 538-9996 or visit BICMagazine.com.
Year Founded 1984 Top Executives Earl B. Heard, Founder/CEO Thomas Brinsko, President/COO Jeremy Osterberger, Vice President Headquarters Baton Rouge, La., with an office in Houston Website BICMagazine.com Phone 800.460.4242 email earlheard@bicalliance.com tbrinsko@bicalliance.com jeremy@bicalliance.com
BIC Alliance’s Houston team.
76 | Special Advertising
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