Scene Magazine - July/August 2014 - Mike Birbiglia

JULY/AUGUST 2014

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VOL. 5, ISSUE 4 • July/August 2014 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Micah Haley CREATIVE DIRECTOR Erin Theriot ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR Kelli Binnings PRODUCTION DESIGNER Michelle Preau EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Samantha Roberge, Rachel McMullen, Kate Bannon GRAPHIC ART DIRECTOR Burton Chatelain, Jr. SALES Beth Burvant, Lauren Fain, April Crifasi

EDITOR’S LETTER

W

e have two amazing new announcements!

First up, I am so excited to announce Scene Today. It began as a reimagining of a daily email, something we all receive everyday. I don’t enjoy most of the emails I get. In most people’s minds, email either means “spam” or “work.” But Scene Today is different. It’s an escape from those things.

Scene Today is beautifully designed with the mobile experience in mind. More than half of all our emails are read on a mobile device now. We’ve taken that fact to heart. Whenever you leave your desk for lunch, or take a break on set, you can quickly pull up all the entertainment news impacting you today.

Scene Today is something we love.

Something even internally we look forward to everyday. It’s

10 | July/August 2014

something we hope you are already using everyday.

We also have a new column in this issue. Health Scene will focus on fitness, nutrition and wellness.

Although we’ve not covered these areas to date, they are issues of intense interest to the entertainment industry and to the general public.

And we’ll be getting our content from the same place that Zac Efron, Josh Brolin and Emilia Clarke get theirs: fitness expert Aaron Williamson. In this issue, you can read about his amazing journey from the Marines to the film industry. In the next issue, it’s time to stop whining and get into the gym.

We still have some great stuff in the works, so stay tuned to @SceneToday.

MICAH HALEY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

editor@scenelouisiana.com

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Chris Helcermanas-Benge, Peter Sorel, Patrick McElhenney, Jay Maidment, Robert Zuckerman, Sidney Baldwin, Wilford Harewood, Nicole Rivelli, Michael Tackett, Claire Fogler, James Dittger, Merie Weismiller Wallace, Caitlin Cronenberg, Phil Bray, Tracy Bennett, Doane Gregor, Jim Bridges, Frank Ockenfels, Kelli Binnings, Stacey Revere, Charles Ravaglia, Brian Friedman, Jason Kruppa, Catie Ragusa CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AJ Buckley, James Napper, III, Michelle Preau, Kate Bannon, Susan Ross, Arthur Vandelay, Catie Ragusa 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.sceneent.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.sceneent.com All submitted materials become the property of Louisiana Entertainment Publishers LLC. For subscriptions or more information visit our website at www.sceneent.com.

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CONTENTS

Lic # 0786031

Members of perA • AiCp • ASepO • SdSA

SpeCiAlized induSTrieS:

ON THE COVER

Special effects • Transportation

Mike Birbiglia

lighting & Grip • Stages

cover photo by Kyle Ericksen

ABOVE THE LINE

40

Wardrobe • Sets • post production

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Miniatures/Mechanicals

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props • Commercials

Mike Birbiglia

SCENE ON Celebs currently filming in Louisiana

BEFORE THE SCENE A conversation with Doug Ellin

COMING SOON 20 SCENE IN GEORGIA

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Music Videos • Video duplication

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Broadcasting • Audio, Sound, Video

The Walking Dead

SCENE IN TEXAS

Nine Inch Nails & Soundgarden

SPORTS

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Why LSU Really Won in 2014

SCENE EXTRAS

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MUSIC/SOUND SPEED

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Notable News and Celebrities Hangout Fest 2014

FASHION / THE RED CARPET 54 Actress Courtney Clark

HEALTH SCENE 58 LETTERS OF THE LAW

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ON THE SCENE 34 TODAY’S SCENE 32

Call robert Sulzinger, Ken Tucker, or ross Garner

(800) 576-6194

THE UNSCENE 74

2450 Tapo Street • Simi Valley, CA 93063 e-mail: ktucker@insurancewest.com 12 | July/August 2014

SCENE ON BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD 50/50

In the heartfelt comedy 50/50, Bryce Dallas Howard plays Rachael alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen. Now after filming the Tennessee Williams period piece Loss of a Teardrop Diamond in Baton Rouge, the versatile beauty brings her auburn locks to Williams’ favorite city, New Orleans. She’s portraying Beth in Jurassic World, the highly anticipated third sequel to Jurassic Park.

CHRIS PRATT

Guardians of the Galaxy Bryce Dallas Howard as Rachael photo by Chris Helcermanas-Benge

In almost no time, Chris Pratt went from shoe-shining schlup on Parks and Recreation to Navy SEAL in Zero Dark Thirty. This summer, he makes it to superhero in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, where he plays Star Lord. Now he’ll be working for the ultimate parks department in Jurassic World. Ultimate because, y’know, dinosaurs.

Chris Pratt as Star Lord photo by Jay Maidment

JAKE JOHNSON New Girl

Irrfan Khan as Pi Patel photo by Peter Sorel

On the small screen, funnyman Jake Johnson has kept the laughs coming on New Girl. And on the big screen in 21 Jump Street, Drinking Buddies, The Lego Movie and Neighbors. Now, after shooting the ultra-low budget Safety Not Guaranteed with director Colin Trevorrow, the two are reteaming to spare no expense in Jurassic World.

IRRFAN KHAN Life of Pi

In the brilliant and inspiring film Life of Pi, Irrfan Khan softened the hearts of audiences worldwide as an all-grown-up Pi Patel. Now in New Orleans, he traded in his startlingly real tiger for some real apex predators in Jurassic World because he could. But…did he stop to think if he should?

Jake Johnson as Nick Miller photo by Patrick McElhenney

MORE SCENE ON 14 | July/August 2014

The Baton Rouge Irish Club presents the 6th annual

Rouge

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The

ton

s i r I

ton Ro Ba

Ir

e ug

Ba

stival e F m Fil is h C l u b

SATURDAY FESTIVAL FEATURE FILMS Life’s a Breeze

Good Vibrations

Two days of entertainment with feature films, short films and a documentary about Ireland. Entertainment by McTeggart Irish Dancers of Louisiana, and live Irish music by Wild Irish Roots

AT THE MANSHIP THEATRE Friday, July 18, 2014 Wee Irish Film Night

7:00 - 10:00 p.m. $8.50 includes eight short films, music, refreshments & cash bar

Saturday, July 19, 2014 Irish Film Festival Noon to 10:00 p.m. $8.50 includes one feature film, music, refreshments & cash bar WEEKEND PASSES AVAILABLE BONUS! Watch the full length documentary, The Irish Pub, for free with ticket stub from a feature film

The Bachelor Weekend

Calvary

TICKETS www.manshiptheatre.org or call 225-344-0334 or at the door Special Thanks

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS

n

ctu Pi

re Studio M ec h

T

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478

ics an

Mo tio

LAMAR FAMILY FOUNDATION A

BENNETT’S BOOKKEEPING

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OFFICE OF THE MAYOR-PRESIDENT

®

LOUISIANA & SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI

SCENE ON ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER Sabotage

At sixty-six years old, The Machine still can’t be stopped. After a tour of duty as The Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger has rejuvenated his acting career with films like Sabotage, The Last Stand and The Expendables. He filmed Escape Plan in New Orleans. And now, he’s back to film Terminator: Genesis, where he’ll reprise the role that made him a superstar.

LUCAS BLACK Arnold Schwarzenegger as Breacher photo by Robert Zuckerman

Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Lucas Black has sure as hell been typecast, and that’s a good thing. His country boy affectation has landed him roles in Sling Blade, Friday Night Lights, Jarhead and The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Now he’s sure as hell headed to the Deep South, reprising his role as NCIS Special Agent Christopher Lasalle in the new crime scene spinoff NCIS: New Orleans.

Lucas Black as Sean Boswell photo by Sidney Baldwin

MICHAEL B. JORDAN That Awkward Moment

Miles Teller as Sutter photo by Wilford Harewood

Few actors his age have evoked as much audience heartbreak as Michael B. Williams. Ask any fan of The Wire where Wallis is and watch them crumble. With standout performances in The Wire and Fruitvale Station, Williams is fast emerging as one of the best actors of his generation. Now he’s in Baton Rouge with Miles Teller filming Fantastic Four.

MILES TELLER

The Spectacular Now A short but stellar career has made Miles Teller a Sundance favorite, with powerful performances in indies including The Spectacular Now and Whiplash. He’s also hopped aboard the studio features That Awkward Moment and Divergent. Now Teller will get to showcase his spectacular super powers in Fox’s reboot of The Fantastic Four, now filming in Baton Rouge.

16 | July/August 2014

Michael B. Jordan as Mikey photo by Nicole Rivelli

Law Offices

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Baton Rouge • Lafayette • New Orleans • Shreveport • Houston

by AJ Buckley

DOUG ELLIN Doug Ellin is veteran writer, director and producer. A graduate of Tulane University, Ellin is best known as the creator and executive producer of HBO’s Entourage, for which he earned three Primetime Emmy nominations over the course of eight successful seasons. He is currently in post-production on the highly anticipated Entourage feature, set for release next year.

What made you want to become a writer?

Lack of skill in any other field.

What was your biggest fear?

Starvation. For real. I didn’t know a single person when I came out here. I had no connections in the business whatsoever. I had no idea how I was going to make a living, so those were real fears. I wasn’t poor. My parents gave me a little financial help so I could survive, which was great, but I ate spaghetti and ketchup at least three or four days a week for a couple of years.

What was your lowest point?

My lowest point was, surprisingly, after I had some success. I didn’t really struggle for a while. I got into film school early. I made a movie that cost nothing that was picked up by a studio and released worldwide.

And then did a second movie and the same thing happened. I made a living for a while. But after that second movie came out and didn’t make money, even though it was such an exceptional independent movie that Universal released it as a big studio film, I couldn’t get a job for the first time in a decade. I mean any job. That was my low point after having pretty good success. And that was right before Entourage.

What was it that kept you from walking away?

I don’t know. I really don’t. It’s one of those things. They keep teasing you with success. There would always be something that led me to believe I should still stay here. You can make a movie for 100,000 dollars that you think is never going to go anywhere. I would be out of money for eight months. And then, someone comes in and says, “I’m going to release it around the world.” It comes out and it doesn’t really make any money. But you just keep going. Little things keep happening that made you think things would be good at some point.

What were you doing the morning before your life changed?

So many times, it seems like my life was changed. The most steady thing was Entourage. The first call was that they bought the script. It seems like that changed my life [overnight] but that took two years. We got picked up for season one, but we didn’t really have any ratings. Then we got nominated for an Emmy.

But you know, twelve years later, it’s still a grind to get the [Entourage] movie going. Nothing feels like it really changed for me, to be totally honest. I’m kind of in the same mental spot I was twenty years ago.

What were some words that kept you going?

Entourage was such a struggle to get going. When we got reviewed by The New York Times - which for my family was like a big thing - my whole life was that New York Times review. It literally called us the smartest show on television. That was kind of an amazing moment. It held me together for awhile.

How do you think you’ve changed?

I don’t think I’ve changed a bit. I have a tremendous amount of friends from literally elementary school on that I still keep in contact with constantly. I’ve gotten older and fatter, but other than that, I don’t think I’ve changed and I’d be shocked for anyone to tell me otherwise. Even my ex-wife!

What are some words that you have to inspire others?

The exciting aspect of this life is when things go well. If it’s something you love, when good things happen the rewards are so great. Success is just a matter of strong perseverance.

It’s one of those things where you’ve just got to keep going.

What did you have to walk away from?

I can’t think of anything I’ve necessarily walked away from.

This business is one of those things that you just have to keep adapting to. Early on in my career, it really looked like I was headed for big success and then it just evaporated. After making significant progress and money, buying myself a house and living out here at thirty years old, I was thinking about going back to law school. I didn’t know what the hell to do. I was like a pariah.

Who was your closest ally?

Probably my German Shepherds. They’re the ones who have taught me the most!

18 | July/August 2014

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.

Success is just a matter of strong perseverance.

Doug Ellin sceneent.com | 19

COMING SOON

Melissa McCarthy and Susan Sarandon

photo by Michael Tackett

TAMMY • JULY 2

Melissa McCarthy keeps churning out laughers with this upcoming summer comedy directed by Ben Falcone. The all-star female cast includes Sandra Oh, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, Susan Sarandon and Kathy Bates. 96 min. Rated R.

by Michelle Preau

Jason Clarke

courtesy of WETA/20th Century Fox

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES JULY 11

The most expensive movie to ever film in Louisiana that’s also one of the most highly anticipated of the year. A war of the species emerges in theaters after the surviving humans of a destructive virus threaten the rising population of genetically advanced apes. Rated PG-13.

THE PURGE: ANARCHY • JULY 18

The purge continues in this sequel as a young couple fights to survive after their car breaks down. James DeMonaco returns to direct the sequel to his own 2013 horror thriller. Rated R.

PLANES: FIRE & RESCUE • JULY 18

Reese Hartwig in Earth to Echo

photo courtesy of Relativity

Dusty (Dane Cook) joins forces with the firefighting team: the Smokejumpers. Joining Cook are Modern Family’s Julie Bowen, Ed Harris and Regina King. Rated PG.

EARTH TO ECHO • JULY 2

Be a part of an alien adventure this summer when Panay Films’ Earth to Echo hits theaters. This sci-fi movie targeted at young audiences was written by Henry Gayden and Andrew Panay with director Dave Green. 91 Min. Rated PG.

AMERICA • JULY 4

A controversial political documentary. Is there any other kind?

Take a glimpse at the world if we had lost the Revolutionary War. A world without the existence of the United States. Directed by John Sullivan and starring Dinesh D’Souza. Rating and Runtime TBA.

AND SO IT GOES • JULY 11

Veterans Diane Keaton and Michael Douglas team up in the upcoming rom-com as they take care of the estranged granddaughter of Douglas’ character. The Wolf of Wall Street star Rob Reiner, who directed the comedy classics When Harry Met Sally and The Princess Bride, also directed Keaton and Douglas in The American President.

94 min. Rated PG-13.

Cameron Diaz and Jason Segal

photo by Claire Folger

SEX TAPE • JULY 18

From director Jake Kasdan comes this comedy about a married couple trying to spice up their relationship. Disaster ensues. Cameron Diaz and Jason Segal star as they desperately search for the position of their missing sex tape. Rating and Runtime TBA.

MORE COMING SOON 20 | July/August 2014

The Allen Schwalb Group announces a slate of six faith-based films that will be created through their subsidiary company Star Partners Aspire. Founder Allen J. Schwalb is teaming up with the Co-Producers of God’s Not Dead - Lisa Arnold of Check The Gate Productions and Jarred Coates of Red Entertainment for their first feature film entitled CAGED. Slated to begin filming this summer in Louisiana, CAGED is a compelling action thriller based on the novel by Molly Venzke. This film is the first of a trilogy and is set to release Fall ‘2015.

The story highlights Trafficking Hope, a Baton Rouge organization that raises awareness and leads efforts to end human trafficking here in the United States.

OKAY and in order to stop this issue, we will have to spread the word and work together. Stories like CAGED in the media will bring much needed awareness to eradicate this issue.”

“Our hope is that everyone that sees this film will understand how prevalent trafficking is and that it could easily impact your family; your home,” says Lisa Arnold, co-founder of Aspire Entertainment and owner of Check The Gate Productions.

Star Partners Aspire is the faith and family division of Star Partners and the Allen Schwalb Group. Previously, Star Partners funded seven slates of films, dating back to the 1980s, including “The Right Stuff,” “The Killing Fields,” “The Color Purple,” “The Mission,” “Moonstruck” and “Rain Man.” They are currently in development of the sequel to “It’s A Wonderful Life”.

“We are excited that through Star Partners Aspire we can continue to build the faith and family film industry in Louisiana”, says Jarred Coates of Aspire Entertainment and Red Entertainment Group.

Founder Lee Domingue of Trafficking Hope says, “Human Trafficking is NOT

Feature Films Commercials Documentaries

Animation EPKs Visual Effects

For a full list of services, visit us online:

www.red-ent.com

COMING SOON WISH I WAS HERE • JULY 18

Director Zach Braff stars alongside Kate Hudson in this summer comedy, playing a character that finds his crossroads. The movie was launched on Kickstarter, raising $3.1 million dollars, the largest amount to date.

120 min. Rated R.

MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT • JULY 25

Emma Stone stars alongside The King’s Speech star Colin Firth in this romantic comedy directed by Woody Allen. Firth’s character is sent to study a spiritualist (Stone) and determine whether she is for real.

Rated PG-13.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY • AUGUST 1

The next big Marvel movie from Slither director James Gunn follows Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) as he finds himself hunted after stealing an orb from the villainous Ronan. 122 min.

Kate Hudson and Zach Braff photo by Merie Weismiller Wallace

HERCULES • JULY 25

Dwayne Johnson stars as Greek demigod Hercules in this action adventure, fighting to defeat a domineering warlord. Brett Ratner directs. Rating and Runtime TBA.

LUCY • JULY 25

Writer/director/producer Luc Besson delivers this action-filled flick about a woman who fights back after being captured. Like, really fights back. Rated R.

CALVARY • AUGUST 1

Directed by John Michael McDonagh, who also directed the very excellent film The Guard, Calvary is a film about a priest fighting dark forces after being threatened during a confession. 100 min.

GET ON UP • AUGUST 1

Chadwick Boseman steps up to the mic as James Brown. Get on Up shows the Godfather of Soul’s rise to stardom out of poverty. The Help director Tate Taylor helmed the film. Rating and Rumtime TBA.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES AUGUST 8

The new film from Battle: Los Angeles director Jonathan Liebesman follows brothers Raphael (Alan Ritchson), Leonardo ( Johnny Knoxville), Michelangelo (Noel Fisher) and Donatello ( Jeremy Howard) as they rise to save New York City with the help of reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox). Rating and Runtime TBA.

THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY • AUGUST 8

French restaurant owner Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren) faces some competition after an Indian family opens up their restaurant across the street from her Michelin-rated hot spot. Rated PG.

Ryan Guzman, Briana Evigan, Parris Goebel and Christopher Scott photo by James Dittger

STEP UP: ALL IN • JULY 25

Apparently there are still steps, so up we go. You may recognize these veteran dance stars as they team up and battle it out for a victory in Las Vegas, including Briana Evigan, Ryan Guzman, Adam G. Sevani, and Misha Gabriel Hamilton. Rated PG-13.

Daniel Radcliff and Zoe Kazan

photo by Caitlin Cronenberg

WHAT IF • AUGUST 8

Harry Potter goes to med school. Well, actually, he drops out. Daniel Radcliff wonders whether obvious chemistry with his best friend should lead to something more. 102 min. Rated PG-13.

MORE COMING SOON 22 | July/August 2014

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COMING SOON LET’S BE COPS • AUGUST 13

New Girl stars Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans, Jr. star in this action comedy about two friends who take their costumes too far. Now they must decide how far they will go before they get tangled up in a mess.

104 min. Rated R.

Jim Caviezel, Alexander Ludwig and Michael Chiklis photo by Tracy Bennett

WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL • AUGUST 22 Jason Statham

photo by Phil Bray

THE EXPENDABLES 3 • AUGUST 15

Follow the impressive crew of stars known as “The Expendables” on their last ride as they fight to defeat the group’s co-founder who is trying to destroy them. Patrick Hughes directed this action thriller.

Rating and Runtime TBA.

THE GIVER • AUGUST 15

Based on the beloved sci fi novel, The Giver stars True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgard as the father, Meryl Streep as Chief Elder, Jeff Bridges as The Giver and Brenton Thwaites as Jonas. Witness the story as a boy learns the truths about the “real world.” Rating and Runtime TBA.

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW • AUGUST 15

Go on a (terrifying) treasure hunt this summer with two archaeologists as they search below Paris for a lost fortune. Directed

by John Erick Dowdle. Rated R.

Shot in New Orleans. A legendary football coach, Bob Ladouceur ( Jim Caviezel) transforms his insignificant De La Salle High School Spartans into a record-breaking team. Rated PG.

IF I STAY AUGUST 22

Chloe Graze Moretz stars as Mia Hall, a young girl with a dream to pursue music. But a car crash wakes her: into a world between life and death.

Rating and Runtime TBA.

THE NOVEMBER MAN • AUGUST 27

An important mission brings an ex-CIA agent (Pierce Brosnan) back in the game. There are high-level CIA officials and Russians aplenty. Rating and Runtime TBA.

JESSABELLE AUGUST 29

The Louisiana-set horror thriller stars Sarah Snook as Jessie, who returns home after a car accident to find a tormented spirit awaiting. Rated PG-13.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR • AUGUST 22

Robert Rodriguez re-teams with Frank Miller as they direct the sequel to their ground-breaking film Sin City. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green and Bruce Willis star alongside Sin City veterans Jessica Alba, Jaime King and Rosario Dawson. Rating and Runtime TBA. 24 | July/August 2014

Chloe Grace Moretz and Jamie Blackley photo by Doane Gregor

Sarah Snook

photo by Jim Bridges

LIFE OF CRIME • AUGUST 29

The flawless Jennifer Aniston goes blonde in this summer comedy directed by Daniel Schechter. Aniston plays a wealthy man’s wife who gets kidnapped and held for ransom. 94 min. Rated R.

SCENE in

GEORGIA

Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes in season four of The Walking Dead

photo by Frank Ockenfels

REANIMATED: THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 4

by Arthur Vandelay

T

he first season of The Walking Dead was a revelation. A drama that took a fairly ridiculous premise – the zombie apocalypse – and made it emotionally real. It treated the undead as an analog for an actual epidemiological threat, a plague that establishes microbes as Earth’s apex predator. And it was, at turns, intelligent, tearful and terrifying. The six episodes that introduced us to Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon and company were both thoroughly satisfying and something more: a ratings juggernaut.

When it returned, The Walking Dead was a different show. The abrupt departure of its creator and showrunner Frank Darabont left the series scrambling to assemble a sophomore season in the towering shadow of the first. Although it held some surprises, and more than one memorable zombie gag, the second season’s thirteen episodes felt bloated and aimless. Previously intelligent characters became imbeciles with no discernable motivations. It was a tremendous fall from greatness.

With proper time to prep for the show’s third season, Glen Mazzara – a talented veteran of FX’s The Shield - assembled the show’s third season. A great villain was introduced in the Governor.

The show settled in, focusing on zombies, territory, supplies and

26 | July/August 2014

survival. And there were some great new characters like Michonne.

But other characters were unable to recover from the damage done to them in season two. Their confusing and often contradictory history of actions made them impossible to invest in. Season three of The Walking Dead featured some amazing episodes, great new characters, but ultimately suffered from decisions made in season two.

Begin season four. A change in cadence. A renewed focus on character development over conflict alone. It was the same show and yet radically different, all of the characters resuscitated. The splintering of the Ricktatorship allowed for slower, richer storytelling. The events of season three were paid off in a manner that was more than satisfactory: it was great. And after Rick, Carl, Michonne, Daryl and the rest of those left alive were reunited in the sixteenth episode in an epic cliffhanger, the conclusion any fan of long-form storytelling would agree with was clear.

AMC’s unlikely zombie drama that could was once again one of the best shows on television. The Walking Dead has returned, reanimated.

If, like this writer, you gave up on The Walking Dead in season two, its time to play catch-up prior to its season five premiere. When the train leaves the station sometime this fall, you’ll want to be in that boxcar.

SCENE in

TEXAS

NINE INCH NAILS & SOUNDGARDEN

AUSTIN

by Kate Bannon

I

t’s getting closer. Nine Inch Nails will soon be in Austin, Texas, riding sidesaddle with Soundgarden. Both bands bred in the 1990s, these are headliners that still rock.

Nine Inch Nails released Hesitation Marks in the summer of 2013 to resounding acclaim, including a nomination for Best Alternative Music Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards. Reznor has been touring since the albums release, rebooting the live show every three months to keep it fresh. Nine Inch Nails never settles for less than perfection. Joining Reznor on tour are musical talents including brilliant bassist Pino Palladino, who has previously worked with The Who, Paul Simon, Jeff Beck, John Mayer and Eric Clapton.

Last fall, NIN headlined the Voodoo Experience in New Orleans, sustaining the crowd with two hours of pure sound.

It was a special show for Reznor, who used to call the Big Easy home. Although those were darker times, Reznor still looked at home on stage in City Park. Now, Reznor seems to be living a much healthier lifestyle with a family and an Oscar under his belt.

“This time around, I kind of let myself go, going on tangents, not really worrying about the end result,” said Reznor during Austin City Limits. “I think it led to an album that is probably the purest and the straightest path from my subconscious to your eardrums that has ever taken place in my world.” For an album entitled Hesitation Marks, Reznor certainly seems

28 | July/August 2014

Trent Reznor in New Orleans at Voodoo 2013

photo by Kelli Binnings

to have checked his musical inhibitions at the door. Although the lyrics still delight in darkness, the music sounds much more concentrated on complex rhythmic patterns than on the wild rage expressed in past albums.

And don’t think this will be Reznor’s last tour, or last album, as Nine Inch Nails. Reznor assures that he is dedicated to his fans and that he still has a lot to learn about sound and music.

Nine Inch Nails will be rocking out with Soundgarden on August 14th in Austin, Texas. For more information and some amazing exclusive videos, visit www.nin.com/live.

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SPORTS

LSU BASEBALL: REASONS TO WHY

LSU REALLY WON

by Graham Wiltz

S

eeing the LSU Tigers’ 2014 baseball season come to a close was hard. Emotions ran high for Tiger fans throughout the entire Super Regional. Many Tiger fans were left saddened, disappointed and even irritated by LSU’s performance in their last game against Houston. While watching the last inning go by, fully knowing the season was coming to an end, I started to reflect on the Tigers’ 2014 season. Sure, we aren’t going to Omaha, but this season wasn’t a big disaster. In fact, this was an extremely impressive season by the Tigers. Here are five reasons why LSU really won.

1. AARON NOLA DELIVERED AND MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TOOK NOTICE

The Philadelphia Phillies drafted Aaron Nola in the first round of the 2014 Major League Baseball Draft. Selected seventh overall, Nola is the third-highest draft choice in LSU baseball history. At the end of his threeyear collegiate career, he’d compiled 345 strikeouts, a 2.09 ERA and a final record of 30-6. Nola brought immense energy and excitement to Alex Box Stadium each and every time he stepped out onto the mound.

We’ll see Aaron Nola pitching in the big leagues in years to come.

2. AWARDS, AWARDS, AWARDS

Several Tigers were honored for their play on and off the field this season.

LSU freshman Jared Poche’ was named to the Freshman All-American team and the SEC All-Tournament team. Big slugger Sean McMullen was nominated for the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award and received the Wally Pontiff Jr. Scholar Athlete Award, presented to him by Wally Pontiff Sr. On top of Aaron Nola being selected in the top three finalists for the Golden Spikes Award, he was awarded the Skip Bertman Award by legendary coach Skip Bertman. The college baseball great’s award is given to the player who most exemplifies the spirit of LSU Baseball.

These three players gave a lift to the Tiger team when needed the most.

3. THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE: 2015 SIGNEES

The Tigers lined up a few big name incoming freshman that will be joining the team in 2015. New Orleans native Greg Deichmann has passed up the MLB draft and committed to LSU. Deichmann is a phenomenal middle infielder with a big league swing from the left side. Adding to our pitching staff, LSU has acquired LHP Mac Marshall and RHP Alex Lange.

Both pitchers are expected make an immediate impact and will offer much help to the Tigers pitching staff. With these great additions, and some other commitments from players across the nation, LSU’s in a great position to take a run at a National Title.

30 | July/August 2014

photo by Stacey Revere

4. FOREVER LSU: THE FANS

If you have never been to an LSU baseball home game, you haven’t experienced collegiate baseball to its fullest. LSU baseball wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for the fans. LSU has been ranked as having one of the best fan bases in all of college baseball. Tiger fans pack Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field every time the Tigers play at home.

The passion these fans have for their team is indescribable. From the noise level to the standing ovation for opposing teams starting pitchers, LSU fans are not only fans of the Tigers, but also fans of baseball. The energy they bring to the stadium is unlike any I’ve ever experienced. Tiger fans should be proud of the way this year came to an end. The Tigers fought hard all year and brought a lot of excitement to the 2014 season. And the crowd was a huge part that success.

5. THE CHAMPIONSHIP

The Tigers won the SEC Championship! Although LSU’s history has Tiger fans understandably spoiled. It’s hard enough to win a divisional playoff. The Tigers were able to do it in extraordinary fashion. Going in to the SEC Tournament ranked third, they eventually defeated first-ranked Florida in the championship game. They didn’t just win: they absolutely dominated in the SEC Tournaments. With a combined total of four runs scored against and thirty-one runs scored for, the Tigers put up some of the best game performances in LSU baseball history. Although we aren’t making a run at a National Title, LSU ended their season with a 46-16-1 record. That should tell any LSU fan that we really won.

Graham Wiltz is the president of Grind Academy and a travel team manager for Gurus Baseball. Find out more at www.gurusbaseball.com.

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TODAY’S SCENE

WANDA SYKES PUTS GIRLS FIRST

by Kate Bannon photos by Charles Ravaglia

O

n Thursday, May 29, comedian Wanda Sykes arrived at the Loews New Orleans Hotel to host “Girls Night Out,” an annual fundraiser for the nonprofit organization Girls First. All proceeds went to fund camps for underprivileged girls in New Orleans. Sykes, who has starred in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Rio, Evan Almighty and is one of the most well known comedians working today, is currently starring alongside John Goodman in the Netflix series Alpha House.

For the past two years, Sykes has served as the celebrity bartender for “Girls Night Out,” serving specialty drinks and enjoying the company of the local community. The annual cocktail party is the only fundraiser event for Girls First, which is dedicated to bringing sports and other activities to the underserved girls of the New Orleans metropolitan area, including an annual summer camp for girls in June on Tulane University’s campus. The camp is wholly run by volunteers, offering the girls supervised instruction in swimming, team and individual sports, outdoor recreational activities, nutrition and health education.

This year’s “Girls Night Out” was attended by women of all ages - and a handful of men – all eager to drink to a good cause. The continued support of Wanda Sykes attracted a great crowd with her radiant, upbeat energy. Not that this comes as any surprise,

32 | July/August 2014

but Sykes was the life of a very lively party, even from behind the bar. She took shots with members of the crowd, who purchased t-shirts with a hilarious Wanda slogan that she signed and offered in exchange for donations. Although the consummate funny lady, Sykes is sincere. While in New Orleans filming a movie, a bartender told her about Girls First and she immediately volunteered to get involved.

The crowd that gathered to support Girls First understands the struggles young girls are faced with, especially those growing up in low-income households. Girls First strives to deter girls from substance abuse, sexual activity and alcohol abuse by building up their self esteem and body image simply by encouraging exercise.

They believe that by improving physical fitness, the girls will benefit in all areas, throughout their adolescence and into adulthood.

Although the program is small, girls are benefitting. During Hurricane Katrina, a young girl’s house flooded and the only reason she survived was because she had learned to swim at the Girls First camp. Other stories of success include improved skills in conflict resolution, better communication with guardians and other authority figures, and academic success.

To learn more about the mission of Girls First, visit the nonprofit organization’s official website at www.girlsfirst.info.

TODAY’S SCENE

sceneent.com | 33

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34 | July/August 2014

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sceneent.com | 35

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ABOVE THE LINE

Sleepwalk with

MIKE

BIRBIGLIA

by Micah Haley

O

ne of the greatest comics of his generation, Mike Birgbilia is redefining comedy. With a disarmingly relaxed delivery, Birbiglia lures in audiences, telling semibiographical tales of an average American life that bloom into hilarious but meaningful truisms.

In 2008, Birbiglia opened his one-man show Sleepwalk with Me off-Broadway. It was presented

by Tony Award-winning stage and screen actor Nathan Lane. He also began regularly contributing to This American Life, a syndicated

40 | July/August 2014

radio show hosted by Ira Glass. The two coinciding events propelled Birbiglia into the mainstream.

After three Comedy Central specials, Birbiglia wrote, directed and starred in his first feature film. Based on his one-man show of the same name, Sleepwalk with Me quickly became a festival darling after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Two years removed, the film stands as a modern comedy masterpiece comprised of surrealism and sentimentality.

We spoke over the phone before his live show in New Orleans at the Civic Theatre.

photo by Brian Friedman

sceneent.com | 41

ABOVE THE LINE MH: Mike, what’s going on?

MB: Wow. That is some act to follow.

MB: Not much. I’m just getting ready to go to the dentist. Yeah, I’m dreading that. I’m getting a filling.

MH: Well, I hope you make some friends while your down here.

MH: Oh man! That is a nightmare.

MB: I know. I’m really not looking forward to that. And it’s like the dentist is one of those things where, like I went last week and they did a check on my teeth and then, they’re like, “You need a filling.” And because I have so little knowledge of anything to do with my teeth, all I can do is be like, “Yep whatever you say! Have your way with my teeth!” Because you don’t know.

You don’t have any base of knowledge about teeth.

MH: I had a friend who went to the dentist the other day and after he left, he got a text message from the dentist that said, “Feel free to text me any time. If you have a problem.”

MB: Wow. MH: He was really creeped out.

MB: That is really forthcoming. I had a thing with my urologist recently.

Where I had a symptom. A urological symptom. I had like a pins and needles thing in my urethra. And I made an appointment but it wasn’t for like a few weeks. I was like, “Wait, but this might be serious.” And so I emailed the doctor because I had his email from going a few years ago. I was like, “Hey. This is the most graphic email I’ve ever written and the most personal thing I’ve ever written. I have this pins and needles sensation blah blah blah and then he wrote back like, “Shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll see you in a few weeks.” And then he cc’d in someone else.

A third party. And I was like, “No, no you can’t do that.” That’s like the most personal info. You can’t take someone’s most personal email and then introduce another party without asking permission.

MH: Yeah, that’s like breaking the code. Can’t break the code.

MB: Exactly.

MH: Have you been to New Orleans before?

MB: No, I’m thrilled to come to New Orleans. Pretty sure I’m gonna bring my father-in law, my wife’s dad, who loves New Orleans and has been a ton of times. I’m trying to convince him to come down. I’ve never been there, and I’m very excited about it.

MH: It’s a cool place. The venue you are performing at, The Civic Theatre, is really beautiful. It’s an old theatre and they just renovated it last year. One of the first big things that happened there was that 12 Years a Slave premiered at the New Orleans Film Festival.

MB: Oh, really?

MH: So, in a way, you are a follow-up to 12 Years a Slave.

42 | July/August 2014

MB: I’m friendly with the folks who made Beasts of the Southern Wild, actually. I know Dan Janvey, and I know Benh Zeitlin. I pretty much know the producers and directors and writers. Lucy Alibar and Michael Gottwald a little bit. Sleepwalk with Me was in Sundance the year that Beasts was there. It was one of these funny things where every single article written [was about Beasts]. I was very bitter about it at the time.

I was so young and every article about Sundance that year was like, “Nothing is good…except Beasts of the Southern Wild.” It was like one of those moments. You are like, “Hey, what about me! I have a movie too!” And journalists just like to be hyperbolic, you know? Like people love to say, “Sundance is terrible this year! Except for this one film.”

MH: Oh there’s definitely some hyperbole in journalism.

MB: It was kinda like, “Nothing you can do about it.” But it was such a great movie and our movie did great as well. So I was all, “No harm, no foul.” And also, those guys are some of the nicest people who I’ve encountered in any film.

MH: Yeah, they really are. Scene Magazine was fortunate to be able to produce the New Orleans premiere of Beasts of the Southern Wild. And it was after they had done the majority of their press for the movie, so it was a real homecoming for them.

MB: No way! That’s awesome!

MH: Beasts is just a big, amazing success story. It’s a beautiful and powerful film. And it’s hard to believe it got made. I think it’s essentially about Hurricane Katrina. But even today, if you ever tried to sell a Katrina movie, it wouldn’t get made.

No one would ever go see it. There’s a “Katrina fatigue” that still exists as a result of all the ridiculous media coverage.

MB: Wow, yeah, it’s true. It’s a tough sell. But Beasts is a great movie.

I was actually recently in a movie with Quvenzhané Wallis. I’m in the remake of Annie.

MH: What role do you play in that?

MB: I just play this inspector who comes to inspect the orphanage.

And Miss Hannigan, played by Cameron Diaz, flirts with me. I’m just in one scene but it was a super fun set to shoot on. It was awesome.

MH: Oh that’s awesome! Did you happen to meet her family?

MB: I’d met her family before because she and I were both nominated for breakout actors at the Gotham Awards a few years ago. I don’t think they’d remember me, but I’ve met them.

MH: They’re really nice people. I was fortunate to meet her mother and her siblings when Scene did an interview and photo shoot with Quvenzhané for our cover. I think we were the first to do that.

ABOVE THE LINE

Mike Birbiglia in Sleepwalk With Me Going into Sundance that year, we had our eye on Beasts because it was a Louisiana movie. But there was also a huge groundswell of buzz for your film, Sleepwalk with Me. There were so many people in my circle of friends just waiting for Sleepwalk with Me to come to New Orleans! It was a joyous day, Mike, when it finally did.

MB: Good, good! There’s a lot of love in that movie. There’ s a lot of love in the process of making it. It means so much to me when people have seen it. And have seen it on the big screen. That’s a huge thing.

MH: I was just telling my co-worker before you called that I consider Sleepwalk with Me to be the best feature film ever made based on a comedian’s work. And I mean that sincerely.

MB: Oh, thank you.

MH: There’s a lot of television shows — Seinfeld for instance — that are base on the comedian’s material, but I think you did it better than any other comedian on the big screen.

MB: Thank you so much! That was really the goal. The scene I’m

courtesy of IFC Films probably most proud of — in terms of what it’s like to be a comedian - is the condo scene with me and Jessi Klein and Henry Phillips wife.

After hanging out eating pizza, I have the pizza pillow dream. That’s like my favorite representation of life on the road. But it’s also the most fun to shoot. We were just laughing throughout every take. That was problematic because we only had so many pizza pillows. Which is a sentence rarely uttered. We only had so many pizza pillows.

MH: You studied screenwriting in college, is that correct?

MB: Yeah, that’s right.

MH: Was there ever any discussion about having someone else direct the film?

MB: There was a discussion of it up until probably the week before we shot it. The day before, even. The truth is, in film, no one wants to let you direct your film if you haven’t directed a film. And so it’s a little bit like waiting tables. You can’t get a job waiting tables unless you’ve waited tables before. It’s like the great paradox of directing movies and waiting tables. So you kinda have to fake it till you make it. I guess I sort of sceneent.com | 43

ABOVE THE LINE

Birbiglia with Lauren Ambrose, James Rebhorn and Carol Kane in Sleepwalk with Me convinced people by saying, “No, I got this, I got this.” I’ve been basically directing my own career and my own shows and performances for many years. I am capable of this. And it was hard. Definitely a lot of people wanted me not to direct it. But now that I’ve directed it, everyone was like, “Oh yeah, of course we knew that it would be great if you directed it!”

MH: Everybody loves to crown a king after you’ve already won the war.

MB: Yes, the revisionist history is incredible. It’s stunning.

MH: It’s a really difficult thing, even for a veteran director or veteran actor, to do both. Was there ever any consideration on your part of maybe casting an actor to play you?

MB: I considered it. I enjoy acting so much that I really didn’t want to give that performance of mine up. I mean, no one - no one - is casting me as the lead in anything. And so the idea that I would also not cast myself as the lead was discouraging somehow psychologically. I was like, “At least I should give myself a vote of confidence that I could be the lead in the film.” It’s funny cause it’s actually led to a lot of acting opportunities now. Like I just got cast in Judd Apatow’s new film he’s directing with Bill Hader and Amy Schumer. I got cast in Amy Schumer’s new season. I do a sketch in it. I’m in The Fault in Our Stars with Shailene Woodley. And I’m doing a film with Joe Swanberg right now, a couple weeks of filming. And all of it’s from Sleepwalk With Me. So it’s like I gave myself my big break!

MH: That’s really funny. I love Amy Schumer, too.

MB: Amy Schumer is brilliant. And she’s doing really edgy, challenging comedy right now, which is rare.

44 | July/August 2014

courtesy of IFC Films

MH: What kind of learning curve was there for you as a director?

What was some of the first day, or the first week things you had to figure out about the logistics of directing yourself?

MB: I feel like every day was a learning day. I think one of the biggest things you have to learn to not do as a director is this: you can never say “I don’t know.” People ask you questions all the time. They’re like, “What color should this shirt be? What color should this wall be? What lens should we use for this shot?” In theatre, you say “I don’t know” all the time. There’s more of a process because there is an unlimited amount of time and self-indulgence in theatre. You just say, “Oh, I don’t know” and then you’re like, “eventually we’ll find it.” In film, there’s no “eventually we’ll find it.” It’s like, “We need to know now because time is money.” And so, if I didn’t know the answer to something, eventually I learned to say “I will tell you in five minutes.” That was the biggest thing.

MH: Oh that’s actually really brilliant! I’ve never heard someone recommend that before.

MB: It’s a good trick. I’ll tell you in five minutes. The moment you say “I don’t know” is when everyone on the crew is smoking a cigarette down the street. Know what I mean? Everyone goes on break.

MH: I think you’re right. There’s one of the things I love about the film industry, Mike. Nobody forces a kid to go into it.

MB: Yeah, you’re right about that.

MH: There are so many lawyers who are lawyers because their parents wanted them to be lawyers. Or doctors. But in film, even when you meet some grizzled, jaded old

ABOVE THE LINE

photo by Brian Friedman sceneent.com | 45

ABOVE THE LINE grip or camera guy, at some point that person wanted to work in the industry. And everybody has that enthusiasm at the beginning of a film. But there’s a breaking point where they lose confidence in the director.

MB: Yeah.

MH: Did they lose confidence in you, Mike?

MB: I think a couple of them did. But not most of them. We’re not gonna name names. And I think that a couple people definitely did. But overall, the majority of the people really believed in it. I would say a lot of it comes down to the script. When you have a good script, the people believe in it. I feel like a group of people are willing to buy into that all the way through the process. The problem is sometimes every now and then, I think some people skim the script. Then, they get on set and they’re like, “What the hell is this!”

MH: I think you’re right about that. A lot of people read coverage — and it could be terribly inaccurate coverage by some hungover assistant — or they just get someone else who’s read it to summarize it for them.

MB: Yeah, it’s an interesting phenomenon.

MH: How do you feel like your training in screenwriting has helped you write for standup comedy?

MB: I think it helped me tremendously. When I was in college, I studied screenwriting and I was doing improv like all the time. Just constantly. I was captain of the improv group my freshman year. In my sophomore year, I was in the improv group with Nick Kroll, who has done so well with his show on Comedy Central and everything.

So I was surrounded by people who were living, eating and breathing comedy and writing all the time. I feel like that was really formative.

Ira Glass has this saying that he says. Not a saying but in his videos on YouTube, he talks to the camera about telling a story and being a storyteller of any kind, whether it’s in film or radio or whatever it is.

And sort of how it starts with taste. You just have to have good taste and know what’s good and what’s interesting. That’s first, that’s the start and then you can try to do that and you’ll fail. You’ll try to sort of make things that are like the things you like and admire. And you’ll fail. But inevitably practice makes perfect with art. You know it’s never perfect because nothing is perfect. But it takes practice. It takes years of failing at something to get better at it. And it just takes years and years and years to get to the point where you’re at the level of the things you admire.

I feel like my screenwriting background has placed me in situations where I was thinking about what I like and why at a very young age, like when I was nineteen years old. And I think it’s really important to start that young. I feel like the sooner, the better with that part of the process.

MH: You mentioned Ira Glass. How do you feel like your life has changed after appearing on This American Life?

MB: A few things changed my life tremendously. One is Nathan Lane presented the stage version of Sleepwalk With Me in 2008 and then right around that time, Ira put me on This American Life. Those two things kind of colliding at the same time, happening in tandem, really led to me going from someone who was extremely niche in terms of popularity (or not existent perhaps in terms of popularity) to someone who is kind of somewhat legitimized. It gave me two luminaries in their fields: one in storytelling and storytelling journalism, and the other in acting and theater. It really made a lot of people go, “Oh I get it. This guy’s for real. I get that what he’s doing isn’t an accident.” Cause I feel like a lot of what I do is kind of conversational. Like, “Oh this guy is just talking.” And then by the end of it, you realize, “Oh, this adds up to a larger story.” And I feel like there was a period of time in my career where I was doing that and people were just going, “It’s just a guy talking. It’s not anything kind of dazzling. There’s no bells and whistles.”

And I feel like it was those two people endorsing me that basically said to theater and radio audiences, “No, that is the bells and whistles.”

Not having bells and whistles is the bells and whistles, so to speak.

MH: Exactly. I love your comedy for that reason. My experience with your comedy is that it makes me very anxious. There’s a dialectic between that anxiety that I feel sympathizing with you, but then there are little payoffs on the way. And then, there’s an ultimate, “life lesson” payoff at the end in the form of a punch line.

MB: That’s the goal, yeah!

MH: It’s very satisfying. It almost harkens back to ancient Greece where as an audience, you want to go on a roller coaster. You want to feel afraid or feel anxious and then feel relieved. You’re great at creating an experience that’s universal.

MB: Thank you so much! Last week, my wife and I were re-watching all these Cameron Crowe films. Cameron Crowe and James L. Brooks are like two of my all-time favorites. With James L. Brooks, you have Broadcast News, Terms of Endearment. With Cameron Crowe you have Say Anything, Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire. And those are movies where they’re really packed with jokes but they’re also packed with bits and truisms. Then, they add up to something that’s much larger and you realize halfway through that you’re very invested with the characters. And yeah that’s, that’s sort of the goal and those are always things I gravitated towards. But I actually have to run.

Cause I have to run to my dentist appointment. Believe it or not.

MH: I absolutely agree.

MB: Because like in the movie world, there’s going to be so much failure and so much disappointment in general. Whether it’s in screenwriting or on stage. But you just gotta get out there and take the plunge.

46 | July/August 2014

Mike Birbiglia can next be seen in the remake of Annie starring Quvenzhane Wallis, Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz. For more from Mike Birbiglia, visit his official website at birbigs.com.

MUSIC |

HANGOUT FEST 2014 photos by Kelli Binnings

Amos Lee Gary Clark Jr.

The Black Keys

Wolfmother 48 | July/August 2014

Wiz Khalifa

| MUSIC

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MUSIC |

HANGOUT FEST 2014

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Modest Mouse

The Killers Capital Cities

Queens of the Stone Age 50 | July/August 2014

Jack Johnson

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sceneent.com | 51

52 | July/August 2014

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COURTNEY CLARK Keeps Faking It

by Micah Haley photos by Jason Kruppa style by Hailee McCumsey makeup by Lauren Prats hair by Katie Bellerino

“I

t was a fake audition for a fake movie,” says actress Courtney Clark. “I had ten minutes to do this audition and send it in.

Then, I had an improv class and a show. It was a crazy day.”

Like most working actors, putting auditions “on tape,” as they anachronistically say, is a way of life. “Nobody was there to help me so I just taped it all by myself. Luckily, it was just three huge monologues so I didn’t have to talk with anybody. So I did it and then sent it off, thinking, ‘I don’t even know what this movie is about.

Don’t have a synopsis of it. Don’t have an idea about this character.’

Then, a while later, I got a call that they were waiting on studio approval and…surprise! This was actually for a really big movie.”

It was in fact the biggest movie of Clark’s young career. “Everyone is giving you the go ahead,” her reps said. “The studios dig it.” The film Clark was cast in? We can’t say just yet. It’s a highly anticipated sequel now filming in Louisiana. That doesn’t narrow it down much, which is its own special commentary on the state of the film industry.

A native of Mandeville, Louisiana, Clark moved to Los Angeles in 2011 after starting her career in her home state’s burgeoning film industry. “I studied at LSU and did shows at the equity theater, Swine Palace. Right after I graduated, I toured with an equity show in China for a few months. Then, I came back and got a Louisiana agent and started building up my resume.”

“After narrowly losing a role in The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, I did featured extra work on it,” says Clark. “It was like two weeks, but I felt like I got to learn a lot. It was a small group and I got to figure out the lingo while on set with Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Evans.”

“I got my SAG card on a film called Mardi Gras with Josh Gad,” recalls Clark. “And soon after that, I booked My Own Love Song, which was directed by Olivier Dahan. I filmed that with Renee Zellweger, Forest

54 | July/August 2014

Whittaker and Madeline Zima. That was an exciting experience. It was a really small set. We worked for days on that scene so we became close.”

After landing minor speaking roles in her home state, Clark started thinking about moving to the West Coast. Although the talent pool in Louisiana is relatively small, the leads in most film and television projects are still cast in Los Angeles. “I thought I might get a lead in an indie film as opposed to another supporting character.”

But before Clark would leave, she landed a role opposite Zac Efron in The Lucky One. “Once again, that was a really tight, small set and we spent a lot of time together. Zac’s a good guy,” recalls Clark, who played sister to Efron’s character. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Nicolas Sparks, a well known author with a built in audience of both his books and films adapted from them. “Those movies always do well in the box office because girls love those!”

After finishing work on her role in The Lucky One, the role started to work for her. “It was a big film. And I was starting to get a lot of pulls from agencies in Los Angeles,” says Clark. “That’s when the move made sense. I just wanted to go but still work here as well because I feel like Louisiana has always been so good to me in my career.”

Shortly following her arrival in California, Clark booked a big K-Mart commercial campaign. “National commercials pay very well. It’s not as creatively fulfilling but it pays the bills,” she says. “I did three commercials for them and that led to more commercial auditions. I booked six nationals in a two-year span. It was awesome.”

But Clark’s move to the City of Angels wasn’t all K-Mart shopping and bubble gum. “I got a manager and he kind of dropped the ball,” she remembers. “The Lucky One was about to be released.

I trusted him to make the most out of that. But I ended up having to call the studio myself just to get on the red carpet. I learned

that not everyone has your best interests in mind.

You’ve just gotta go with your gut and be proactive.”

“Now, I’ve grown and I guess that was a big learning experience for me,” says Clark. “Now, I know what I want.

And I do have a new manager, Randy James, and we have a really great relationship. He is very communicative and we both know what’s going on. I feel a lot more empowered than I did when I first went out there.”

After the untimely passing of her Louisiana agent Claudia Speicher, Clark has new representation in Louisiana, too. “I’m with Brenda at Open Range Management,” she says. “I met with her and she is very understanding. She knows what type of role I would want to play. She is very communicative with me. She’s rockin’ and rollin’.”

In addition to the big budget sequel she just landed, Clark also recently booked another Louisiana project called Mind Puppets. “It’s like a comedic thriller about a group of people that get hypnotized, and then the guy hypnotizing them goes into a coma. One guy thinks he is this religious savior and he starts a cult.

I got to work on this cult set in the boonies, True Detective style. I also got to work with Kevin Pollak.”

To stay sharp in between projects, Clark is an

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FASHION | advocate of improv. “Acting is like a muscle you have to exercise,” she says. “I got into the improv scene with UCB: the Upright Citizens Brigade. One of the founding members is Amy Poehler. That’s the kind of humor it is.

You have no idea what your thirty minute show is gonna be about or who you’ll be up there with. They don’t even tell you who is performing at a show. Or that Jane Fonda is literally going to be sitting in the audience.

It’s a very tight community, very supportive.

And you know who was there one day?

Kristen Bell, who just did Frozen. She recently did a surprise show there, which was great.”

“Improv is exciting because you don’t know if people are going to be like, ‘Get off, you suck!’ Which is really scary,” says Clark. “But now, it’s empowering. I feel like it’s given me more confidence in auditions.

And recently, I’ve started my own improv group and we perform around L.A. I just booked a monthly improv show at this club in Hollywood. I’ll be doing the first Saturday of every month. That’ll be a constant for me and my improv group, Carol’s Pool House.”

Courtney Clark continues to split time between Louisiana and Los Angeles, taking the best opportunities available to her in both markets. You can follow her on Twitter @CourtJClark and on her website at www.courtneyjclark.com.

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AARON WILLIAMSON CAN LIFT YOU UP

by Micah Haley

photos by Jason Kruppa style by Hailee McCumsey makeup by Lauren Prats clothing courtesy of Rubensteins

T

he next issue of Scene Magazine will feature a new column. Health Scene will offer professional health and fitness advice from Aaron Williamson. You may not know his name yet, but you’ve seen his work. As a professional fitness advisor in the film industry, Aaron has helped craft the physical transformations of Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained, Zac Efron in The Lucky One, That Awkward Moment and Neighbors and Josh Brolin in Oldboy. He’s also worked with fitness legends Sylvester Stallone and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

A former United States Marine from Daytona Beach, Florida, Aaron now lives in New Orleans, where he works in the film industry. His journey hasn’t been easy. No story of inspiration ever is.

“I had a little bit of a rough childhood,” says Aaron. “I had no direction.” After high school, one option was the military. “Two weeks after I graduated, I was in the yellow footprints at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina. I was eighteen.”

“I traveled the whole world and found myself in some really cool places. And I found myself in some really not-so-great places,” says Aaron. “Fitness was huge. No matter where I was - Europe, Iraq, Afghanistan - everyone always knew me for one thing and that was fitness. For me, it was a sanity thing. In the most difficult times, the gym was literally all I had. It was my sanctuary. I was able to turn to it when I didn’t have anyone.”

During his service, Aaron worked in Washington, D.C. at the Marine Barracks and the Pentagon, traveling with and providing security for General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Throughout his public and private service, whether in Washington or Iraq, he found a way to stay fit.

“You have to be very creative. At the State Department or one of the embassies, the accommodations are a lot better,” Aaron says.

“But if you go out to combat outposts or forward operating bases, you might be using sandbags or water jugs to get your training in.”

Finding a gym, or making one, wasn’t the only challenge. “Nutrition was pretty tough out there,” Aaron says. “I found myself buying a lot of what I needed from places in the States and just having it shipped over to me. People would send me care packages, a lot of protein bars, protein powders, all of my vitamins. When it came to eating in the chow halls, some of them serve good food and sometimes not so good. No one that I know looks forward to eating an MRE, but you’re not over there for a fitness competition, so there’s a reality check in just being out there.”

“Over there becomes a new reality. I knew that I needed to get out,” Aaron says. After years of service around the world, he wanted to return to the States. “I got offered a position with the Component Command for the Marine Corps, which was based in New Orleans. It was a leap of 58 | July/August 2014

faith coming here because I didn’t know anyone. I’d never been here.”

After relocating to the Crescent City in June of 2009, Aaron found that funding cuts had eliminated his position. “It left me in a pretty bad place. But I went back to the mindset I had throughout my entire Marine Corps career: when I didn’t have anywhere to turn, I always had the gym. I started working out trying to keep myself sane and in shape. And then, one day at the gym, I ended up meeting an actor who showed me a glimpse of the film industry.”

The actor was Zac Efron. The High School Musical star was in New Orleans to film The Lucky One, in which he plays a Marine home from Iraq. “We met through the trainer he had at the time, Logan Hood,” Aaron says.

“Logan’s a former Navy Seal who trained the cast for 300.” More recently, Hood has worked on The Expendables 2 and the reboot of RoboCop. “From the production’s standpoint, there was a need to get Zac

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into the character of being a Marine. Zac and I connected, we hit it off and he told production about me,” Aaron says. “I met with production and I became part of the crew as his military advisor. I helped Zac become a Marine for that film. Walk like Marine. Talk like a Marine. I shared what it’s like to be over in Iraq. Towards the end of the film, we jumped into the training a little bit and to this day, Zac and I keep in touch. I help him through all his movies with his training and his fitness consulting and nutrition.”

Aaron had a great story, but he wondered if his skillset could become a career. “After Zac, I really wasn’t sure what to expect,” he recalls. “Two weeks later, I met with a director named Anthony Hemingway, a supervising producer for Treme. He liked the physique I held and wanted to try and obtain that.”

Throughout the winter and spring, Aaron trained Hemingway. When Treme wrapped, the Red Tails director had some advice for him. “He recommended I should come out to California because I could make this a career,” Aaron says. And Hemingway wasn’t the first to suggest a move to the West Coast. “But there was something that kept me here.”

“Two weeks after he left, I got contacted by the production of GI Joe: Retaliation,” Aaron says. “Sylvester Stallone called me. Josh Duhamel called me. And Zac came back in town for The Paperboy.

That’s when I realized, ‘Wow, this is something bigger than I thought.’”

Aaron would soon work with Sylvester Stallone and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, men known the world over for their physiques.

He also worked with Jamie Foxx on Django Unchained, and achieved the almost unbelievable transformation of Josh Brolin for Oldboy.

“We fluctuated Brolin’s body weight roughly sixty pounds over the course of a couple weeks. It had never been done before in film.”

“Dwayne Johnson’s probably the greatest guy I’ve worked with so far,” Aaron says. “I was his training partner. A lot of people talk about him being my client and he wasn’t my client. I trained the rest of the cast for GI Joe, but Dwayne knows his body. He knows how to train.

We have the same mentality when it comes to our appreciation for fitness and the gym. It’s more of sanctuary and a place of solitude.

You go in there, put your headphones on and tune the world out.”

Aaron Williamson has become one of the foremost fitness experts in the film industry, training clients who are filming in New Orleans and advising clients throughout the world. You can now follow his journey in each issue of Scene Magazine.

For more of Aaron Williamson’s inspiring story, and the same health and wellness tips that actors bet their careers on, go to health.sceneent.com and aaronwilliamson.net.

60 | July/August 2014

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Q

A well-known actress bought a shirt from my store and my employee took a picture of us! I’d love to use it in any way possible to help promote my business. What kind of restrictions are there? Can I use the photo on my website? Can I use it in an ad I’m running?

The short answer here is, no, you may not use the image in any commercial way.

This presents an intellectual property issue known as the right of publicity.

Stated simply, the right of publicity prevents the unauthorized commercial use of an individual’s name, likeness, or other recognizable aspects of one’s

Q

persona. It gives an individual the exclusive right to license the use of their identity for commercial promotion.

Without the express written authorization of the actress, the proposed uses of this candid photograph would be an unauthorized commercial use of this actress’s likeness, name and persona.

I am a young screenwriter and I have a production company seeking to option one of my screenplays. I was told by a colleague that I should ask for reversion rights or a turnaround provision. What are these?

First, let’s discuss reversion rights.

When a producer is optioning a property, they do not acquire the actual rights in that property until they exercise the option, meaning they exercised their exclusive right to purchase that property outright in the designated period of time wherein they had an exclusive option to purchase the property. The most common form of reversion rights found in an option agreement simply requires that if the producer does not exercise the option within that period of time covered by the option agreement, the option rights held by the producer will terminate and all rights revert to the writer.

Additionally, many writers will request reversion rights even after the option has been exercised and the property purchased by a producer. For example, some may request that if the property is not produced within three years of the exercise of the option, the rights revert to the author. At this stage is where you might see a turnaround provision.

If the producer has exercised the option and paid the purchase price, they have then acquired all rights in and to the property that were granted in the option agreement. They now own

62 | July/August 2014

those rights wholly. For this reason, many producers are willing to agree to a reversion should the property not be produced within a specified timeframe, provided that they are paid the purchase price plus any verifiable out-of-pocket expenses for development of the property.

This is usually accomplished in one of two ways. Firstly, the rights revert back to the author upon the expiration of the designated time period, subject to a lien for the purchase price and development expenses. Or secondly, a turnaround provision that grants the author a turnaround right, which is a right for a designated period of time in which the author can exercise the right and pay the purchase price and any development expenses as agreed to in the option agreement, and the rights will then revert.

I hope this has provided some clarification to you on what reversion rights and turnaround provisions are and the purposes they serve in an option agreement. It would behoove any screenwriter trying to sell or option any of their properties to seek the counsel and guidance of an experienced entertainment attorney as these are very specific areas of the law and protection is essential.

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SCENE | LAGNIAPPE TRAVEL KEEPS BUSY

by Susan Ross

L

ast fall, Scene profiled Louisiana-based travel agency Lagniappe Travel, a veteran travel agency that expanded to court the film industry. We checked in to see how they’ve faired.

“We’re much busier,” says Karen Peeler Wild of Lagniappe Travel Services, a New Orleans area travel agency and concierge service. “Business has definitely picked up. New entertainment companies reach out weekly to see if we will be their official Louisiana travel management company. The big benefit there is an itemized statement at the end of production they can use to apply for the tax credit of up to 35% in Louisiana.”

Because Louisiana’s film tax credits are only earned on dollars spent in state, producers are particular about where money is spent. A flight booked online is paid to an out-ofstate entity, so no tax credits are earned. But a flight booked through an in-state travel agency does earn tax credits, allowing the local economy to capture the film’s entire travel budget.

And the next six months look “very good,” Wild adds. “Our biggest success story is that people are starting to hear about our great service. They see our ad in Scene and are seeking us out to assist them.”

Lagniappe has done business in Louisiana for a quarter century.

“We provide exceptional service and make our clients the priority,” says Wild. “Our goal from inception has always been to make sure each and every travel experience exceeds our clients expectations.”

Wild first connected with the entertainment industry in 2008.

Five years later, it accounts for 25% of Lagniappe Travel’s business.

“We have worked with a diverse group of entertainment companies, including major films, TV series, independent films, tours and concerts,” says Wild. “Our experienced Entertainment Group is well versed in coordinating air, hotel and ground transportation logistics to ensure that production stays on-schedule at the lowest cost possible.”

The films Lagniappe has recently serviced include Flip My Food and Splash. They also recently wrapped The Monkey’s Paw, starring Stephen Lang and Charles S. Dutton, and Tarantula, starring Danny Trejo and Billy Zane. A host of reality shows and touring concerts have also booked services offered by Lagniappe.

Entertainment companies require more attention, but the new business is worth it. Film now spends over one billion annually in Louisiana, allowing companies like Lagniappe to grow during the national recession. For more on how Lagniappe Travel Services is helping the entertainment industry, visit www.lagniappetravel.com.

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www.lagniappetravel.com 64 | July/August 2014

GOD’S NOT DEAD PRODUCER MAKES TIME FOR CLASSIC RESTORATION

by Kate Bannon

A

fter producing the faith-based hit God’s Not Dead in Baton Rouge, producer Jarred Coates has kept busy producing the short film Classic Restoration, a modern retelling of the biblical parable of the Prodigal Son. Priortoworkinginthefilmindustry,Coatesworkedwithconvictedcriminals as they left the penal system and reentered society. It gave him a very grounded view of forgiveness. “Churches don’t give Christian filmmakers the ability or the latitude to depict life in a real way,” says Coates. “They make films wrapped up with a little bow. Well, that’s not what life is all about. Life is raw, edgy, gritty.

It’s tough. When you give your life to the Lord, it’s not just all the sudden roses and lilies popping up and life’s troubles fade away. It’s sometimes dark stuff.”

In retelling the story of the Prodigal Son, Classic Restoration is the first in a series of contemporary parable retellings Coates hopes to retell in a series of films. The short follows the Gonzales family, who owns an auto shop specializing in restoring classic cars. The youngest son decides he’s is not satisfied working under the hood his entire life.

Directed by Debby Gaudet and written by Wendi Porrier, the short was shot in Baton Rouge, including shooting at Fisher’s Automotive on Airline Blvd. Owner Dick Fischer previously worked in stunts before he began restoring cars. After wrapping, the cast and crew gathered for a wrap party at the scenic Oak Lodge in Baton Rouge. Classic Restoration just finished filming and is now in post-production.

CORT STAYS CONNECTED

M

any aspects of a film must come together to make it successful.

And everything is easier when you’re comfortable. Cort Furniture is a Berskshire Hathaway company with stores in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The furniture giant has become a regular supplier of furniture to films shooting in Louisiana over the past few years. Their growth has been extensive, their income going from $50,000 to around $150,000 annually since 2009.

Cort’s local employees have aggressively courted the film industry for years, and being part of large productions has been an enjoyable experience for them. “Nothing ever compared to working the entertainment industry for me.” says Danielle Berthelot of Cort Furniture. “To be able to say I had my hand in that is a fun thing to be able to do- even if it is, ‘I did the furniture for that.’” Berthelot has been with Cort since they first began courting the film industry and has helped their brand grow.

Cort initially landed jobs by referral and worked hard to get their name out in the movie industry. “I try to get in front of as many people as I can in the industry,” Berthelot told Scene. By networking at Scene parties as well as LFEA, they were able to land themselves preferred vendor list with the Celtic Media Centre, suppling office production furniture, corporate housing, and set furniture. Their furniture has been featured in a number of movies including Battle:LosAngeles,Secretariat,Oblivion,TheHost,PitchPerfectandFantasticFour.

Cort is always willing to go above and beyond to keep their clients happy. “We are delivering a load of furniture in less than twenty-four hours and we have a forty-eight hour delivery policy,” Berthelot explains. “There are days that I jump through hoops and make stuff happen in an hour.”

To find out more about Cort Furniture and the entertainment industry, visit batonrouge.cort.com or neworleans.cort.com.

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DARDENNE HOLDS FUNDRAISER AT FILM STUDIO

by Arthur Vandelay

L

t. Governor Jay Dardenne, well known as a fan of cinema, recently held two political fundraisers to connect with supporters in the film industry. A long time supporter of the entertainment industry as a tool for economic development, Dardenne was one of the authors of the first tax credit legislation in Louisiana a decade ago. In his role as Lieutenant Governor, Dardenne has played a big role steering the state’s tourism marketing, and recognizes the tremendous role the film industry has played in keeping the state’s tourism industry robust, even as marketing budgets have shrunk.

The first event for “Reel Friends of Jay Dardenne” was held on April 29 in Shreveport, Louisiana at Millennium Studios, located at 300 Douglas Street. The second was held on May 15 at the Celtic Media Centre, located at 10000 Celtic Drive in Baton Rouge, where Scene Magazine’s offices are located. Both events were an opportunity for supporters in the film industry to meet Dardenne and speak with him about issues affecting the industry now, and in the upcoming 2015 fiscal sessions of the Louisiana state legislature. Suggested donations to the “Reel Friends of Jay Dardenne” were at the following film-themed levels: $5000 executive producer level, $2500 producer level, $1000 production manager level and $500 crew member level.

Dardenne’s outreach to the entertainment industry for support is nothing new for politicians. In connecting with content makers, politicians are appealing to a demographic that is both wealthy and influential. Donations for Dardenne are still being accepted online at www.jaydardenne.com.

L

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SCENE |

LIVE LUXURIOUSLY WITH VIP TRAVEL EXPERIENCE

by Catie Ragusa

T

The entertainment industry can bring its loyal supporters anywhere in the world, sending filmmakers and other entertainers from one extreme location to the next. But when the work wraps up and the crew is ready for a break, relaxation becomes a top priority.

“They may be interested in having us make dinner arrangements, or help them to decide on excursions, or maybe check out the nightlife,” says Robert Landen of VIP Travel Experience, a high-end, luxury concierge travel service. “Whatever it is that they choose to include on their itinerary, we want to have all of that taken care of. We want to deliver a complete package that can even incorporate ideas that someone may not have ever thought about when they planned their vacation.”

Landen has traveled the world extensively. Throughout, he noticed that there was no complete, high-end travel service. So he decided to build one himself. By connecting with luxury travel suppliers worldwide, Landen has built a network of professionals across the globe. A strong base of clients looking for the best luxury travel experience available.

VIP Travel Experience crafts vacation packages and itineraries for professionals looking for a hassle-free, creative and completely pre-planned luxury vacation. The travel specialists at VIP work closely with clients to create dream vacations, creating a complete luxury experience managed under one roof.

“We want to take care of all their needs, whether transportation from their home to the airport, from the airport to the hotel, or to their villa where they’re lodging,” explains Landen. “Whatever we need to put together, we want to include it in one luxury package so that our client doesn’t have to go through many companies and spend extra money on their personal travel experience.”

Luxury vacations can mean relaxing on a privately owned yacht in Monaco - an excursion that VIP recently offered - or it can mean traveling the world to experience some of the most-watched sporting events on the planet. Recently, two of Landen’s clients purchased a grand vacation package to Brazil, including tickets to two World Cup games and a five-star luxury hotel, among other excursions and amenities. To show appreciation for their business, Landen sent the couple unique gifts to take along on their trip.

“It was a specialized gift that I gave to them,” he says of the personalized beach towels, embroidered with “2014 World Cup Brazil,” and a soccer ball in the country’s national colors. Their names were embroidered in gold thread. “They were shocked that I went out and did something so personalized for them. That gives you an idea of what we do. As a business, we want to be on a more personal level with our clients. We want to take care of their personal needs, their travel needs.”

Landen’s personal touch is possible because of his company’s close connections to vacation vendors all over the world. VIP Travel currently works directly with over 110 suppliers, and Landen says more contact him weekly to learn more about how the company collaborates to create amazing dream vacations. After initial contact, the suppliers are carefully screened to see what services they offer and if their organization is compatible with VIP Travel’s high standards. VIP and the new partner work together to generate specialized vacation packages for their clients. “That is the backbone of our business,” says Landen. “VIP Travel 68 | July/August 2014

8 WAYS TO TRAVEL LIKE A VIP 1. REALLY TRAVEL!

Dance in Ibiza, Spain or go exploring in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The world is your destination.

2. LEAVE THE HOTEL!

Decide on the best excursions to suit your style. Do you want to cruise through Europe in a Lamborghini, or would you rather tour the rainforests of South America?

3. RIDE AND RELAX.

Private helicopters and luxury cars will keep you refreshed until you arrive.

4. LUXURY LUGGAGE.

Don’t lug around something ugly. And if possible, forward your luggage! Enjoy the experience, not just the destination.

5. UPGRADES ARE ESSENTIAL.

Ask your travel specialists and airline professionals about upgrades. You may just luck out.

6. DRESS THE PART.

Extra effort on the way to your destination can go a long way, especially when you’re looking for those upgrades!

7. THINK “ALL-INCLUSIVE.”

All-inclusive vacations can get you the most fun for your money. The umbrella drinks don’t hurt either.

8. TRUST YOUR TRAVEL PROFESSIONALS.

Tell VIP what you’re looking for, check out your packaging options and they will plan accordingly!

Experience has worked over the years to establish personal relationships with our suppliers in exciting destinations all over the globe.”

Now VIP Travel Experience is catering to the famous faces, music and movie producers making Hollywood South their new home.

While relocating to a rich culture can make work seem like play, sometimes a trip to paradise is a necessary getaway, even for frequent travelers. “We want to accommodate people who are in the movie and entertainment business, who are coming into the Louisiana, Mississippi and surrounding areas, and actually take care of all of their travel needs in one place,” says Landen. “We want them to be able to use us for air travel (think private jets and helicopters), ground travel, lodging, excursions and everything else to make their trip a success.”

For the latest vacation packages and destination information, visit www.viptravelexperience.com.

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If you are in the film industry and have information or corrections for jobScene, we welcome your emails at info@scenelouisiana.com.

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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) TV Series - FX Network Starring: TBD Resumes: ahs.office@tvbyfox.com Phone: 504.224.2227 Fax: 504.224.2291 Status: Shoots July 14 through December 2014 Location: New Orleans

The hit FX horror show American Horror Story is returning to New Orleans to film its fourth season.

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Management & Marketing Consultation Media/Film Investments & Partnerships Independent Media Representatives Custom Book Publishing Event Planning Speaker Services/Keynote Presentations For more information, please contact Earl Heard or April Crifasi at 225.751.9996 or visit www.bicmediasolutions.com.

70 | July/August 2014

Feature - Independent Director: David Anspaugh Resumes: cook2014resumes@gmail.com Status: Shoots October 2014 for 25 days UPM: Tracey Landon Location: New Orleans

A black man is employed as a cook by a young girl and her dying mother. Inspired by true events and set in New Orleans.

Don’t Mess with Texas

Feature - MGM Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara Director: Anne Fletcher Resumes: dmwtresumes@gmail.com Phone: 504.595.1750 Status: Shoots May 12.

UPM: Julie Hartley - Line Producer: Jeff Waxman Location: New Orleans

A police officer (Witherspoon) and a prisoner (Vergara) are forced to go on the run together in Texas.

Geostorm

Feature - Warner Bros Starring: Gerard Butler Director: Dean Devlin Status: Shoots October UPM: Sara Flamm - Line Producer: Herb Gaines Location: New Orleans

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: ebbtideresume@gmail.com Phone: 504.595.1777 Status: Shooting now 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, and Dr. Hammond’s dream fully realized in an operational dinosaur theme park.

NCIS: New Orleans

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TV Series - CBS Starring: Scott Bakula, Zoe McLellan, CCH Pounder, Lucas Black Resumes: ncisnolaresumes@gmail.com, ncisproduction@gmail.com Phone: 504.662.1668 Fax: 504.734.3127 Status: Shoots July 22 UPM: Joe Zolfo PM: Rob Ortiz Location: New Orleans

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A new NCIS spinoff set in the New Orleans office responsible for investigations from Texas to Florida.

The Runner

Feature - Independent Starring: Nicolas Cage, Connie Nielsen, Peter Fonda Sarah Paulson Writer/Director: Austin Stark Resumes: therunnerresumes@gmail.com Phone: 504.522.9717 Status: .Shoots June 23 LP: Erika Hampson Location: New Orleans

A thriller about a Louisiana politician whose career implodes after a sex scandal.

Something Wonderful

Feature - Independent Starring: Forest Whitaker Director: Forest Whitaker Resumes: somethingwonderful2014@gmail.com Status: Shoots Winter 2014 UPM: Tracey Landon Location: New Orleans

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Terminator: Genesis (Terminator 5)

Feature - Paramount Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke Director: Alan Taylor Resumes: terminator5vista@gmail.com, t5prodnola@gmail.com Phone: 504.684.2066 Fax: 504.309.9504 Casting: Coulon Casting (couloncasting.wordpress.com) Status: Shooting now through August 1 UPM: Wendy Williams

Location: New Orleans Part one of the stand-alone trilogy in the Terminator universe.

Trumbo

Feature - Independent Starring: Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren Director: Jay Roach Resumes: trumboprod@gmail.com Status: Preps July. Shoots September 15 to November 6 LP: Monica Levinson Location: New Orleans

Hollywood history comes alive with the story of Dalton Trumbo.

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sceneent.com | 71

When your film scores, Louisiana SCORES. Creating a film that scores is easy when you know the players and have an experienced game plan. That's why Hollywood always calls on FBT Film and Entertainment to help them execute their films from start to finish.

Call: (504) 584 - 5888 Hollywood’s favorite film players have found a home in Louisiana and an experienced partner in FBT Film and Entertainment, including the following:

FotoKem, IATSE Local 478, Film Finances, Inc., Raleigh Studios, Road Rebel Entertainment Logistics, Ease Payroll, Grosvenor Park, Hollywood Trucks, Endgame Entertainment, Emmett Furla Productions, WWE Entertainment, & many more!

The Whole Truth

Feature - Independent Resumes: thewholetruthproduction@gmail.com Status: Shoots July 7 to August 7 UPM: Jamin O’Brien Location: New Orleans

The Fantastic Four

Feature - Fox Starring: Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell Director: Josh Trank Resumes: henrystreetresumes@gmail.com Phone: 225.330.6940 Fax: 225.330.6941 Status: Shooting now. Wraps early August.

UPM: Todd Lewis 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 Resumes: pitchslapped2015@gmail.com Phone: 225.228.0575 Fax: 225.757.6547 Status: Shoots May 22 for 8 weeks UPM: Garrett Grant Location: Baton Rouge

The sequel to the hit film Pitch Perfect.

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72 | July/August 2014

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.

I Saw the Light

Feature - Independent Starring: Tom Hiddleston Writer/Director: Marc Abraham Status: Shoots October 2014 Location: Louisiana

A biopic about country legend Hank Williams.

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 Status: October 2014 LP: Barry Waldman PM: Trevor Waterson Location: Louisiana, Los Angeles, Hawaii, United Kingdom

Girl’s Trip Sticky Notes From Heaven The Unholy (Gold Circle) The Raven (Gold Circle) Blood Red Sky (Gold Circle) Independence Day 2 6 Point The Incredible Mr. Limpet

Ant-Man Bessie Constantine Duty A Love of Money Red Band Society Ride Along 2

“This

publication exemplifies the great impact that we have made as a state in the entertainment industry.”

Christopher Stelly Executive Director, Entertainment State of Louisiana

American Crime Hysteria

For full details on Georgia and Texas productions, along with daily updates, visit jobs.sceneent.com.

“Advertising in Scene Magazine helped to promote and build our film and entertainment book of business. We received more than sufficient responses from all over. The results speak for themselves.”

Penny Starkey McInnis Tyner Insurance sceneent.com | 73

THE UNSCENE ASSET ALLOCATION Making a movie is a creative endeavor. While manual labor, travel itineraries and parking are all essential underpinnings of feature film and television productions, at the center of the process are writers, actors and a director.

Making a movie is also creating an asset. An asset that is an annuity. It has a fixed cost that will continue to provide value far into the future. A producer makes a movie on an initial investment of five million with another five million in prints and advertising during its release. And in its first few weeks of release, it makes that ten million back. But that movie doesn’t stop earning. On an initial investment, it will live on. In the theatre. On Demand.

On pay cable. On standard cable. Broadcast. Streaming. BluRay. A Broadway producer may pay for the rights to adapt it into a musical. Or another producer may pay to reboot it.

What of the State of Louisiana’s “investment” in movies?

For it, the State takes no ownership. It cannot participate directly in downstream revenue. But make no mistake, Louisiana benefits. The indirect monetary benefits of additional cash in the economy aside, Louisiana benefits.

When True Detective debuted, a veritable television phenomenon, Louisiana benefitted. In thirty years, when it’s rented on demand, Louisiana will benefit. When 12 Years A Slave won Best Picture, Louisiana benefitted. In fifty years, when a film studies class watches it again, Louisiana will benefit.

Louisiana is missing out on an estimated $130 million a year in tax revenue because of film and television projects.

But that’s not a loss. It’s resource allocation at its finest. When Super Bowl commercials are going for $8 million for every sixty seconds, Louisiana is paying a pittance for the creation of hours long assets that will advertise Louisiana for the rest of time.

The UnScene Writer Submit tips to unscene@scenelouisiana.com.

Anonymity guaranteed.

74 | July/August 2014

SCENE |

BIC MEDIA SOLUTIONS GROWS FILM, VIDEO SERVICES

by Catie Ragusa

S

hortly after BIC Alliance celebrated its 30th anniversary with networking events in Baton Rouge, La. and Houston, BIC Media Solutions has reached exciting new goals and deserves a celebration of its own. A division of BIC Alliance, BIC Media Solutions is now extending its services to include film and video production, as well as investments in inspirational and faith-based films, and has begun offering wrap parties and red carpet events to companies ranging from those completing a turnaround to those making movies.

Since launching in 2005, BIC Media Solutions has accomplished great feats, including publishing nine books and hosting many networking events. The original intention behind the media division of BIC Alliance was to guide the energy sector with networking and training events, keynote speakers and custom book publishing. That goal later expanded into additional publications like Louisiana Sports Legends and Heroes – Leaving a Legacy and now, to film and video.

BIC Media Solutions has joined forces with the Baton Rouge fullservice video production company Launch Media. Working closely with Launch’s president and executive producer John E. Jackson, BIC Media Solutions is producing webisodes and other videos to air on BIC TV. BIC Media Solutions has also partnered with Louisiana’s premier film production company Red Entertainment Group LLC, which co-produced the recently released faith-based film God’s Not Dead.

By connecting book authors with screenwriters and industry innovators with movie producers, BIC Media Solutions helps to not only introduce opportunity beyond the energy realm but also supports the film industry and the peaking interest in the faithbased and inspirational film movement that has been successful in the recent past. Specifically, BIC Media Solutions has partnered with Jarred Coates of Red Entertainment Group LLC in the production of a modern version of the Prodigal Son story, titled Classic Restoration.

Additionally, BIC Media Solutions and IVS Investment Banking partner John Zapalac have connected with film producer Matt Keith to help fund and co-produce a feature film titled The Gift Horse.

The heartfelt film is the story of a young girl and her struggle to accept a new woman in her father’s life. Through trying times, the two women bond over an injured horse despite their differences.

BIC Media Solutions continues to connect with other publications to help promote their messages. After partnering with the entertainment publication Scene Magazine last year, Heard reached out to other magazines in the Gulf South. Bay Area Houston Magazine published an article announcing BIC Alliance’s 30th anniversary and industry appreciation party in Houston, which hundreds of energy professionals attended.

For more information on BIC Media Solutions’ custom books, event planning and speaking services or other services BIC Alliance offers, contact Earl Heard, April Crifasi or Catie Ragusa at (800) 460-4242, or send an email to earlheard@bicalliance. com, april@bicalliance.com or catie@bicalliance.com.

76 | July/August 2014

From left, Launch Media’s John E. Jackson and wife Fairleigh Jackson, Celtic Studios’ Patrick Mulhearn and Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne discuss film opportunities in Louisiana

From left, BIC Alliance’s Earl Heard and April Crifasi visit with Gary Stewart on his new book, The Most Dangerous Animal of All

Classic Restoration cast and crew standing with a poster that hung on the film’s set. From top left are Amy Leblanc, Monica Acosta, Jennifer Guedon, Steve Lindsay, Dallas Montgomery, BIC Alliance’s Earl Heard, David Wills, Bridget Nichols, Debby Gaudet, Mike Stevens, Sara Saurage, Wendy Poirrier, Kristin Cheramie, Eduardo Losan, Jarred Coates and Victor Fisher

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Does your dealership open early at 7 am for service and is even open on Saturdays???

Do they wash your vehicle every time it’s serviced?

Is there a complimentary shuttle service? Or even loaner vehicles?

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