John McCoy is chasing after his dreams, and by doing so, he wants you to do the same.
The film and media arts senior is one-third of the film production company Le Krewe Productions. In addition to McCoy, the business is composed of Ole Miss seniors James Farris and Garrett Shearman.
Farris and McCoy were childhood friends since they met in kindergarten at Our Lady of the Lake Roman Catholic School in Mandeville. The two met Shearman when he moved to the North Shore after Hurricane Katrina. Attending high school together, the trio started taking film and theatre classes and found themselves loving it, they said.
The three of them started making films in high school and continued to produce them in college. During their sophomore year, they started thinking about opening a company, and Le Krewe Productions was born in 2016.
As far as specialties within the company, McCoy is the producer and the editor. Farris is the director, and Shearman is the composer and the cinematographer.
After the inception of their company, they immediately started planning their first short film “Expedition Saffron,” an adventure story about the strength of the underdog.
“Expedition Saffron” was written as a feature but was condensed into a short film due to budgetary reasons. Their goal with the short film is to obtain the attention of potential investors to make the full-length film in the future, they said.
Utilizing a theme that will be present in all of their films, “Expedition Saffron” is meant to encourage underdogs and show that what seems to be unattainable is often attainable, McCoy said. As direct symbolism for the tripod’s humble beginnings as underdogs themselves, McCoy hopes the theme will be resonant in inspiring people to achieve their goals.
“We want our films to be the fuel on the fire to inspire people and get them moving towards their dreams,” McCoy said.
McCoy said they owe a lot to the greats that came before them — namedropping influences like Walt Disney, Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg. McCoy wants to play a role in the reciprocal cycle of inspiration by making art the younger generation will feel inspired by, just like they have been.
“If there were no other artists, I would just be a blank slate, and I would have nothing to go off of,” McCoy said. “All these other artists have written me…and now I’m writing.”
The plot of “Expedition Saffron” follows a group of adventurers in search of a philosopher’s stone — a mystical object many people don’t think exists. By the end of the film, they attain it with the help of some supernatural characters directly based off of Greek mythological archetypes, a witch doctor in particular.
The witch doctor is where their New Orleans roots are put on display, as the character is an attempt to honor the Voodoo traditions of the city, McCoy said. The scene with the witch doctor was their biggest scene and took from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. to film. Filmed between Kentwood, Louisiana and the jungles of Mexico, the making of “Expedition Saffron” was not an easy process, but the boys loved every minute of it.
Shearman composed the score for the film and University musicians played his compositions. McCoy stressed the importance of a film’s music, as it can often make or break a film.
Just recently, “Expedition Saffron” was accepted into its first film festival, Mandeville’s Pontchartrain Film Festival. A huge milestone for the company, the trio hopes this is just the first of many, as they’ve submitted their film into major festivals like Tribeca Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival.
Moving forward, Le Krewe Productions has a few plans for the near future. Their next large project is currently in development and will take place in a Venetian Carnival setting, again dealing with a character of a lower socioeconomic status attempting to achieve a lofty goal.
In addition to their large projects, Le Krewe hopes to release multiple shorter films around holidays to keep their fans happy. Their Halloween short film, “Mystery Manor” is just days from release, and they already have Thanksgiving and Christmas films in mind.
Since the boys graduate this coming May, they’ve had to quickly decide what their game plan is from here. McCoy said they will all reconvene in the Mandeville/New Orleans area and start from there.
“We’re starting with New Orleans; see if we can’t conquer that city,” McCoy said. “Eventually we’re going to want to gravitate towards the king poles of film either New York or Hollywood. We don’t know in which we’ll end up.”
Regardless of where they end up, McCoy reinforces that he just hopes to inspire the next generation of creators with his art.
“Inspiring people and giving other people the same fire that inspires us is what we would die trying to do,” McCoy said. “We’re ready to take on the world.”