Working On Movie Sets - Far From Hollywood!
By Keith Skinner
22 June 2008
With a struggling economy Shreveport Louisiana would be the last place on Earth one would expect to find Feature Motion Pictures being filmed. Almost 25% of the population lives at or below the poverty line and crime is a major problem within the city.
With New Orleans hard hit from Katrina many production companies steered their budgets to the Northwest Louisiana town and received a lot of help from the State of Louisiana to keep the productions in the state with tax incentives and the promise of cheap labor for the extra roles that would be required of major motion pictures.
Being from a neighboring community I began to get calls for photography assignments from both sides of the table, the Paparazzi as well as the production companies. I am a freelance and the bottom line is the bottom line in this business, we all have to eat!
The images I have posted for this article were taken on the set of "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins", the film had a working title of "The Better Man".
I was called with little more than a moments notice for my first project, I was contacted at 7:30 PM ... I had to round up an assistant and gather my seamless background, lights, stands, etc and be 100 miles from home at 5:30 AM to get set up.
Being hired on a day rate and having a very experienced photographer as my assistant the task of setting up barely took 45 minutes and I was ready to shoot. The actors would not be in until 7:00 AM so we were sent to the area the breakfast caterers were set-up in for an awesome breakfast.
By the time we finished our meal, met with the location manager and returned to our location, another production company moved in what appeared to be a quarter of a full size passenger jet with a 100' green screen behind it for another production being filmed in the same location. This building had five major motion pictures being filmed under one roof, I have been informed since, the building covers 20 acres.
I have been involved with the motion picture industry from small town Louisiana for the past three years and have had experiences a person only could match in Hollywood working so closely with many of today's top movie stars and producers.
Never loose the desire to make beautiful images; when a small town boy like myself can reach a level of accomplishment that feeds my creative spirit without packing my bags and heading to the west coast, anyone can! Set your goals high, be prepared to struggle and work hard!
Keith Skinner
Bayou Visions Photography
Information on Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins can be found at the following links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0494652/
http://www.film.com/movies/welcome-home-roscoe-jenkins/15087375
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