Claire Schexnayder wants to be a film student but the best she could do was minor in audio-visual arts.
If she had her way, she would be concentrating on film studies, but LSU does not offer that curriculum – a matter that has had a profound impact on the creative writing junior’s college experience.
“If I would have known this was the situation I was going to be in, I wouldn’t have come to LSU,” she said. “As soon as I graduate I’m leaving for a graduate program that will teach me film because there is nothing I can do here.”
With Baton Rouge officials chomping at the bit to create a local film festival in the hopes of retaining young college graduates from moving away, it comes as a surprise to most that LSU does not have a film program. But local festival planners say that LSU not having a program will not stop them.
Schexnayder, president of the cinema club at LSU, considers her organization the “underground film school” at LSU. The club supports and encourages aspiring filmmakers and acts as sort of a home base to students who want to meet other film enthusiasts and talk movies.
The most important project the club undertakes each year is the annual Outhouse Film and Video Festival.
First appearing on campus in 1999, the festival showcases work by student and local filmmakers at the Union Colonnade Theater every spring. It also features film lectures, seminars and awards – but more importantly it serves as a networking tool for the local film scene.
The festival has grown to the point that city officials are beginning to take notice, referencing Outhouse as a potential starting point for Baton Rouge’s proposed film festival.
But Outhouse has not received enough assistance from the University or the community and working on a budget of $1,000 every year has been discouraging to Schexnayder. Not having a film program to feed the club’s membership has also been a factor.
“I’d love to stay and fight the good fight, but I have to consider my future,” she said. “Right now I’m looking to do my graduate work at UCLA. Maybe one day I could come back and do something for the festival.”
Schexnayder is not alone.
Tanna Orgeron, a recent English creative writing graduate, had to leave the area so he could get a job teaching television and film at a Florida high school. He wishes LSU would have had more to offer him in film education or at least the option to choose.
“Being the flagship university, LSU should give its students every opportunity,” Orgeron said. “It will be hard to have a festival without any locally educated talent.”
Mark Smith, director of the Louisiana Office of Film & Television Development, recognizes LSU has an untouched creative resource.
“LSU has aspiring filmmakers,” Smith said. “And I think they need to be involved in this process before we can go any further.”
He believes students at LSU are capable of producing art for the festival, and if the event is to grow, students will be essential on a creative level.
Beth Courtney, president and CEO of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, said a lot of local independent films could air on LPB.
“I want to encourage the development of filmmakers,” Courtney said. “We have a talent pool locally that we’re not tapping.”
Going to Austin
An envoy of about 120 Baton Rouge delegates traveled to Austin, Texas in late September for a three-day economic development workshop. They took the trip to gain insight into a city flourishing economically and artistically – something Baton Rouge is not accomplishing.
As reported by The Advocate, Rebecca Campbell, executive director of the Austin Film Society Campbell spoke to the group about how the Austin film industry started with a few students who began screening rare independent films for themselves.
That foundation nurtured small time filmmakers and attracted like-minds to the city. Now Austin has three film festivals, a movie studio and millions of dollars in economic development – all of which can be directly linked to that small group of students, Campbell said.
“I’m sure you have a film festival,” she said to the Baton Rouge collective. “Everybody does now.”
But the crowd did not respond according to The Advocate, and Campbell quickly added, “That’s something that’s a slam dunk. You’ve got to have a film festival.”
A Tale of Two Cities
During the economic boom of the 1990s Louisiana posted a net loss of residents, and according to recent U.S. Census reports the trend has continued into the new millennium.
Between 1995 and 2000, Louisiana lost more than 75,000 residents because of migration, the report said. A substantial portion of those who left were young and college-educated.
The findings, released earlier this month, show Louisiana lost 21,834 residents between the ages of 25 and 39 in 2000. Those residents held at least a bachelor’s degree and were single, divorced or widowed.
But, in that same time frame, the state only gained a little more than 12,000 people with the same characteristics. That is nearly a two for one exchange leaving state officials scratching their heads.
Baton Rouge elected officials and community leaders, well aware of the numbers, went to Austin to take notes on the city’s appeal to young people – specifically those young professionals in their 20s and 30s.
The group also went to learn how the city became an economic heavyweight. But while Austin has been successful in the last decade in citywide development, the metropolis was not listed in the Census report among the top cities for migration.
But the curiosity from local attendees is understandable.
Like Baton Rouge, Austin is a capital city housing a major state university. The University of Texas is a flagship school and according to Austin representatives, much like LSU, the school’s presence has had a major impact on the prosperity of the city.
According to the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, UT’s presence has created more than 26,000 jobs for the city of Austin, in addition to the approximately 19,000 jobs that are a part of the University.
According to NASULGC, for every state dollar spent on UT, the University generates $2.93 total spending in the state economy.
Last month LSU Chancellor Mark Emmert told The Advocate LSU has an economic impact of $1.2 billion on the area, providing 21,200 jobs with $576 million in household earnings.
If Austin or Baton Rouge did not have state universities within their city limits, the economic climates of both places would be substantially different.
But from the Austin trip, local and state officials have made two things clear: the city needs a film festival and LSU has to play a major role.
Getting it Started
Last week local government and arts officials met downtown for the first time to discuss ideas for a local film festival they hope to make a reality next fall.
Courtney brought up a key idea that would link film and literature.
“The focus would be on books and how they are translated into film,” she said.
Another scheme the group discussed was the possibility of scheduling LSU’s springtime student produced Outhouse Film Festival to coincide with downtown’s annual community celebration, FestForAll.
Coincidentally, LSU’s Creative Arts & Technologies Laboratory – a research cluster within the LSU Center for Applied Information Technology and Learning – plans to present an animation festival at around the same time. Stephen Beck, the interim director of the cluster, said the three events might not combine, but could run back-to-back.
Taking a cue from the people in Austin, Beck said the festival should support events already in existence, such as Outhouse.
“Start small on a grassroots level with passionate people [and with time] it could spin off into something bigger,” Beck said.
Lonny Kaufman, director of the film and television sector at the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, has high hopes for the project.
He said in a phone interview last week he wants the proposed festival to be the “Sundance of the South.”
“This all depends on the type of festival we want to create,” Kaufman said. “This could be an appreciatory event, similar to the [festival] in New Orleans, where the cost won’t be much, or it could be an actual film festival where we try to get Hollywood and industry types to our area.”
Kaufman pointed out his main priority is to create infrastructure and jobs, but he hopes “the model that we follow will bring the [film] industry to Baton Rouge.”
Some within the local industry do not share Kaufman’s optimism.
Chuck Bush, a local television and film executive for Family Tree Entertainment, thinks the idea of Baton Rouge being the next Sundance is ridiculous.
“I think they are going overboard,” Bush said.
Baton Rouge will not be the “Sundance of the South” for many reasons, Bush said, one being that the city is not a tourist destination like New Orleans.
“I think New Orleans has a better shot personally,” Bush said. “They already have an established film festival that could be built up.”
He also said Sundance has the backing of acclaimed film star Robert Redford and is located in Park City, Utah – a famed ski resort town.
Schexnayder hopes the committee does not forget about the Outhouse Film Festival. She attended the first meeting last week and sounded optimistic, but was wary of getting too excited.
“There are a lot of great ideas,” she said. “I hope they aren’t planning it too big before they have the local support. It would help our film festival, but more importantly it will help Baton Rouge.”
Genny Nadler Thomas, executive director of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, said getting the project started is most important.
“The first year out we won’t be Sundance, but given time, in perhaps five, six or even 10 years we could get there,” Thomas said. “I don’t think this is something that is going to happen over night. We can set high goals, but I go from a need base purpose in programming. You can’t just build it.”
With LSU arguably being the life force of Baton Rouge, it is no surprise city leaders are expecting the University to play a vital part in the festival’s impending creation.
“We need LSU to be very involved in this,” Courtney said. “What we will have to do is really support our screenwriting professors at LSU. This festival can’t be successful unless the academic side flourishes.”
But while members of the University agree the school should be involved in the endeavor, LSU currently cannot provide an academic foundation for a thriving film culture.
No Film Program
Many students and members of the LSU faculty and administration said they would support a film school or a film program if the University or state were willing to finance such a venture.
But housing a program of that nature at LSU might not be in accordance with state law.
Article VIII of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 grants the Louisiana Board of Regents the responsibility to approve, disapprove, or modify all existing and proposed degree programs and administrative units in Louisiana’s public colleges and universities.
Section 2.04 of the Board of Regents Academic Affairs Policy says the state does not want to fund a program that already exists at another state run school.
Because the University of New Orleans already has a division of film and video within their department of drama and communications, the possibility of LSU having a program of its own is slim.
“It is LSU’s stated purpose that they don’t want to overlap another school’s program,” said Steve Hank, head of the film program at UNO. “When there is another established program in the state, it is probably not in there best interest to overlap a sister school.”
Kevin Graves, chair for the department of drama and communications at UNO, said a duplication of a school would not be a useful allocation of taxpayer dollars.
“We don’t have a school of Mass Communications because [LSU] already has the Manship School,” Graves said. “The Board of Regents has a non-duplication clause, and unless they relax their policies nothing will change.”
Last year, Bush approached Chancellor Mark Emmert, LSU System President William Jenkins and former UNO Chancellor Gregory O’Brien along with a few state representatives to discuss the possibility of starting a film school at LSU.
Bush said University members “were not particularly open to the idea because UNO already had a program.”
He also said he received a $900,000 grant from the Department of Economic Development and put it on the table for LSU officials to consider, but in the end the proposal was denied.
Last summer Bush went on to Baton Rouge Community College and started their new film and video production program. The curriculum includes introductory video production, lighting and filed production techniques – none of which are offered at LSU.
“We have to make decisions based on what are the highest priorities for our school, while considering our scarce resources,” Emmert said.
Emmert did not mention the Board of Regents policies, but made it clear LSU has never “been in a position to have a [film program]” because one already exists at UNO.
But within the Board of Regents strict policies, exceptions can be made. If a prospective program can prove one of five criteria then the board can approve it. The Academic Affairs Policy 2.04 from the Louisiana Board of Regents states:
* The program will be formed through a reorganization of existing courses – requiring no additional state expenses for a five year period. (for example, new options or concentrations in existing programs).
* The program will be funded by reductions in expenses – requiring no additional state expenses for a five year period. (for example, programs funded by the reallocation of resources from terminated programs).
* The program will be funded entirely through non-state monies for a period of five years.
* The program will promote obvious economic development in the state.
* The program is deemed indispensable to fulfilling the mission of the university or a critical educational need of the state.
Kaufman, aware of the loopholes, approached the Board of Regents two years ago with a proposal for a film school.
“When I met with the Board of Regents I told them they needed a film school at LSU,” Kaufman said. “I told them that it would train people to be part of film crews. I don’t think there is anything preventing us from doing this.” But the board did not respond.
While a film program at LSU would be beneficial to city and state officials looking to create a film festival in Baton Rouge, most do not think it is a necessity.
“I see LSU playing an integral role in all this,” Kaufman said. “But LSU not having a film school won’t stop us.”
Economic Impact
The impact the film industry brings to Louisiana economically is serious business.
An example is the newly released movie “The Runaway Jury.” The movie, largely filmed in New Orleans, brought in $30 million into the local economy according to the Governor’s Office of Film & Television Development.
Another film, “Unchain My Heart,” the Ray Charles story starring Jamie Foxx, is expected to generate more than $20 million into the state.
Reuters news service reported last month that in the course of the last two years the Louisiana film industry grew from an estimated $30 million dollar to more than $100 million annually.
The rapid growth can be attributed to a package of incentives and credits Gov. Mike Foster signed into action in early 2002.
According to a story published last year in the Baton Rouge Business Report, the measures are supposed to help free up funding on the front end of a production instead of after the movie is completed and the film crew has left – a benefit that can save a production hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses.
Louisiana’s approach seems to expand on similar plans in other states.
In a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Louisiana is mentioned as a state with competitive tax incentives rivaling the growing Canadian film industry competing for U.S. productions.
According to Bush, who has headed many film and television productions in the area, community laborers can benefit too.
“We have paid seamstresses up to $750 a week,” he said. “And that’s just one example.”
Bush said the film industry is unique because it pays out larger than average wages without requiring an advanced degree, meaning people of all economic backgrounds can reap the benefits of the industries presence.