Movie travel offers way more than peering
at some places where a favorite film launched, or so I
discovered in Louisiana.
Check out this notion in the state's
northwest corner where Shreveport and Minden embrace imagination
and storytelling in multitudes of creative ways.
They call themselves and their neighboring
parishes Louisiana North.
Follow the Film Trail map to immerse in 30
movie locations, perhaps getting a copy ahead of your trip and
watching –or re-watching--each one.
Easy download from
www.shreveport-bossierfilm.com or call to ask if they'll
mail you a copy.
 |
| One of the Film Trail signs
Photo by Christine Tibbetts |
Louisiana Film Prize
You can also plan your trip for the annual
Louisiana Film Prize when the world's largest cash award is
given to the makers of a short film: $50,000.
It's easy in Shreveport to mingle with
directors and producers vying for the prize throughout the
three-day weekend when their films are shown in groups of 10 at
one sitting.
Even richer as a travel experience for me
during the October, 2015 event was sensing their genuine support
of one another. Some are
experienced filmmakers and many are newcomers to the art and
craft, but they watch each other's films, chat at receptions and
meals which travelers can arrange to attend, and share
moviemaking information in Q & A sessions under a tent in a
welcoming Shreveport downtown street.
This is a walkable city and I started
recognizing film people as I strolled about.
Sept. 30 – Oct. 2 are the 2016 dates.
Storytelling Studios
Do you like wondering who's who when you
travel? Celebrities are quite likely to appear in the midst of
Louisiana North filmmaking but the people I didn't recognize
intrigued me the most in Shreveport and across-the-Red-River
Bossier.
Here's why.
Movies need stories and Louisiana North
appears to have invited the storytellers too. And their art
directors and creative designers and technical wizards creating
new ways to bring those stories to the screen.
 |
| Occulus Rift is the blue head
Photo by Christine Tibbetts |
Creative spaces won't throw open their
doors because surprises and secrets seem to matter, but I found
one that will offer a tour if you ask. Get in touch with
Digital Media Institute at InterTech.
DMII they like to call themselves and this
is where engineers and artists go to school to hone their skills
in animation, visual effects and interactive content.
 |
| Digital Animation Photography
Photo by Christine Tibbetts |
What they're learning, you and I will see
on the screen soon.
Am I any smarter about cognitive content and interactive content
platforms after my tour? Probably not, but I do have a better
grasp of virtual reality and when the Occulus Rift goes on sale
to the public this year, I'll know I saw one at Digital Media in
Shreveport.
 |
| Morris Lessmore at the Library
Photo credit Moonbot Studio |
Moonbot Studios opens all sorts of
new doors for storytelling and once I learned about them, I
started searching for ways to touch their creativity.
Tours most unlikely.
First, believe that Imagination is a place,
not a concept. They believe.
Moonbot creates whimsical worlds and
characters for films, games, books and goodness knows what new
entertainment media that's emerging. They're sure the ways to
tell stories have not all been invented yet.
Second, download short films and buy some
books because the trio of Moonbot owners and their artistic
teams win Oscars, Emmys, Webbys, Clios and Cannes Lions.
Lots of them.
Know Moonbot Studios' "The Numberlys," a
film about a time when there was no alphabet, only numbers?
If you watch the 2010 restored version of the 1927
science-fiction drama "Metropolis," you'll see the connection.
Met Mr. Morris Lessmore and his fantastic
flying books? The app cost me $4.99 and expanded my horizons
about how to listen and participate in a story all at the same
time.
 |
| Morris Lessmore inside the Library
Photo credit Moonbot |
The print versions in many languages ought
to be on my gift-giving lists, and next trip I intend to visit
the Shreveport downtown library which inspired the artistry
within this story.
By experiencing Moonbot creativity ahead of
a trip -- in print, on the screen and on our tablets, it's
easier to recognize their touches on visits to
Shreveport-Bossier.
Municipal Auditorium
In Shreveport I figured out what's across
the street and what is
the street can enhance the significance of the place I planned
to visit. That's definitely true of the home of the Louisiana
Hayride, the Municipal Auditorium.
Find this handsome Art Deco building on
Elvis Presley Avenue. He was 19 when he performed his first show
here---Oct. 16, 1954.
 |
| The Elvis statue in front of
Municipal Auditorium Photo by Christine Tibbetts |
Today visitors can experience concerts,
and, if you call ahead, arrange a tour. That's a good plan
because the architecture is stunning: a million red bricks,
designs influenced by the 1920s discoveries of King Tut and the
Maya ruins.
Shreveport's Municipal Auditorium opened
Nov. 11, 1929 and tour guides share remarkable stories, like
these:
� The very first performer was
African-American singer Roland Hayes—on stage when Jim Crow laws
in American forced him to enter from a side door.
�
Every kind of music ever made in
America was performed on this stage, according to the National
Register of Historic Places
�
Eleanor Roosevelt gave two
speeches here
�
The Sam Cooke song "A Change is
Gonna Come" was written after he had been arrested in Shreveport
�
50 women sworn to secrecy during
World War II worked here seven days a week, housed at nearby
Barksdale Air Force Base and charged with duplicating the maps
for the Normandy invasion.
Art and math skills determined their selection.
The James Burton Foundation is across the
street from the Municipal Auditorium so make a day of it when
you go to Elvis Presley Avenue.
The cemetery at the end of the block holds interesting
stories too.
| |
|
The music banner in James Burton Foundation building
Photo by Christine Tibbetts
|
You may know Burton as Elvis Presley's lead
guitarist, or Ricky Nelson's friend when they were 17, guitarist
on the 1961 "I'm a Traveling Man."
Hear Burton's superb style with Johnny Cash, Merle
Haggard, Joni Mitchell, John Denver, Roy Orbison, Judy Collins,
Jerry Lee Lewis and many more stars through the decades and on
stages in America and Europe today.
 |
|
The locker in James Burton Foundation building
Photo by Christine Tibbetts
|
His Foundation is "all about helping kids
and getting music back in the schools," Burton says. That
involves putting guitars directly in the hands of kids since
2005, through their schools and through Wounded Warrior
organizations to add music to veterans and their families.
Performances and Films
Catch a performance at the 1925 Strand
Theatre, evoking memories of its era as a Baroque movie palace,
complete with murals of muses, elaborate chandeliers and
ceilings demanding upturned heads to gaze at the extensive
artistic patterns.
 |
| Ceiling of Strand Theatre Photo
by Christine Tibbetts |
Choose movie nights at the non-profit
Robinson Film Center with a mission focusing on independent,
international and classic movies in two theaters. Dine here too
at the Abby Singers Bistro where Executive Chef Tootie Morrison
won the 2015 culinary honors from the Louisiana Film Prize.
In Louisiana North, dinner and a movie
means more than it might in other destinations.
I ordered Morrison's shrimp scampi which
she describes as "a symphony of flavors," expanding on foodie
references to notes of tastes.
Road trip to Webster Parish
Minden is the town where you'll be glad you
have a QR Code app in your phone because Film Trail signs offer
entertaining information about movies filmed here.
Shop where the prop masters do, especially
Second Hand Rose Antiques, a three-story building jam-packed
with any conceivable item. Kind of fun once you get past feeling
overwhelmed with abundance to muse about the sets in movies you
see, wondering what came from this store.
 |
| Film Trail road sign Photo
by Christine Tibbetts |
Start by watching "I Saw the Light" when
it's released in March, 2016. This is the Hank Williams story
filmed in Webster Parish, starring Tom Hiddleston who masks his
British accent singing beloved Williams' songs.
Sleep over at the Fitzgerald House bed and
breakfast inn because movies were filmed here and also because
it is gorgeous.
 |
| Fitzgerald House table set
Photo by Christine Tibbetts |
This 5,260-square foot Victorian home was
built in 1902 and the live-in proprietors serve breakfast on the
original ten-piece dining room furniture.
Never mind the movie "Harold and Kumar"
filmed here focused on a brothel scene; your room will be quite
respectable.
To dig deeper:
www.ExploreLouisianaNorth.org
www.LaFilmPrize.com
www.dmi-intertech.org
www.moonbotstudios.com
www.shreveportmunicipalauditorium.com
www.Shreveport-Bossier.org
www.visitwebster.net
www.thestrandtheatre.com
www.robinsonfilmcenter.org
|