From acting roles and screenwriting to script consultation and internships, СAPP alumni, faculty and students helped make СAPPLost BayouСAPP a hit at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The feature film premiered at the independent festival in New York, which ended Sunday. Tribeca is one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world.
СAPPLost BayouСAPP tells the story of a woman struggling with addiction who returns to Louisiana to reconnect with her estranged father, a Cajun faith healer who lives on a houseboat in the Atchafalaya Basin. She discovers he is hiding a disturbing secret.
The film, which was shot last year, resonated with Shayna Weingast, the festivalСAPPs associate programmer. She wrote on the Tribeca website: СAPPСAPPLost BayouСAPP is a hauntingly evocative slice of Louisiana life that traces the fraught journey out of pain and into healing.СAPP
Two screenings of the film were originally planned for the festival, said Hunter Burke, who co-wrote СAPPLost BayouСAPP and was a supporting actor. After the initial screenings sold out quickly, Tribeca organizers scheduled another. When that one sold out too, a fourth showing was added.
Burke, who earned a bachelorСAPPs degree in performing arts from the СAPP in 2007, is thankful СAPP but not surprised СAPP by the filmСAPPs popularity at Tribeca.
СAPPThereСAPPs a certain desire for Southern-based content across the U.S. As for Louisiana, I think thereСAPPs a lot of interest in our customs and the way we approach life,СAPP he said.
Burke, who is from Broussard, Louisiana, wasnСAPPt the only СAPP graduate to feature prominently in СAPPLost Bayou.СAPP Teri Wyble, the filmСAPPs lead actress, earned a bachelorСAPPs degree in performing arts in 2008. She is from Arnaudville, Louisiana.
BurkeСAPPs and WybleСAPPs work on СAPPLost BayouСAPP isnСAPPt the first time on film for either actor.
Among many roles, Wyble played a resistance soldier in СAPPTerminator: GenisysСAPP starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
BurkeСAPPs growing résumé also includes roles in major Hollywood productions. In СAPPThe Big Short,СAPP for example, he played an analyst in a film loaded with A-listerСAPPs, including Christian Bale and Marisa Tomei.
Wyble said she was excited to act in СAPPLost BayouСAPP to do her part in accurately portraying the place where she was born and raised.
СAPPLouisiana and our culture isnСAPPt often depicted very well in film. We are often made fun of, or characterized in a way that isnСAPPt authentic. ItСAPPs like, СAPPWe donСAPPt talk like that and thatСAPPs not how we do things,СAPPСAPP she explained.
Conni Castille, a senior instructor at UL Lafayette and director of the СAPPСAPPs Moving Image Arts program, was a consultant during shooting of СAPPLost Bayou.СAPP As a filmmaker, she has written, directed and produced award-winning documentaries on Cajun and Creole culture.
Castille agrees with Wyble.
СAPPItСAPPs frustrating to see films about our way of life made by people who know nothing about it. ItСAPPs gratifying to know we can have control over our own narrative,СAPP she explained.
Castille helped three of her students СAPP Levi Porter, BreAnna Smith and Ryan Watts СAPP get a front row seat to the shooting of Lost Bayou.
Porter, from Berwick, Louisiana, and Smith, from Baton Rouge, will earn bachelorСAPPs degrees in moving image arts this semester. Watts, of New Orleans, earned a moving image arts degree in Spring 2018.
Each of the three worked as production assistants several times a week during shooting.
Smith photographed and catalogued СAPPcontinuity shots.СAPP The sequenced photos are referenced continually during shooting to ensure that actorsСAPP clothing is consistent from scene to scene.
СAPPIf costumes look even slightly different, it makes editing footage harder and increases the chances for mistakes to make their way into the finished film,СAPP she said.
Smith wants to be a screenwriter, director or work in art departments during movie productions.
СAPPI hope to go to grad school in Austin and then maybe come back to Lafayette or New Orleans because of all the opportunities in the movie industry here,СAPP she said.
For Watts, duties such as holding a boom pole topped with a microphone gave him an up close look at unfolding scenes. More importantly, his proximity to the inner workings of movie production emboldened him.
Watts is a director of video production at a local marketing agency where he helps create commercials. In his spare time, Watts makes short films. He envisions СAPPdoing bigger, more challenging projects in the future like being a director of photography for movies or TV shows.СAPP
СAPPThat kind of work, honestly, is intimidating. But after being on a movie set I was like, СAPPOK, maybe I can do that.СAPP It changed my thinking,СAPP he said.
One of PorterСAPPs duties was ensuring quiet on the set during takes. When cameras stopped rolling, he took every chance he could to pick the brain of Natalie Kingston, the cinematographer for СAPPLost Bayou.СAPP
Kingston earned a bachelorСAPPs degree in mass communication from the СAPP in 2004. Among other projects, she shot the Grammy-nominated film СAPPTwo Trains RunninСAPPСAPP - a New York Times Critic Pick.
Porter aspires to be a director of photography for feature films, in charge of considerations such as how shots are framed, lighting and camera angles.
He found a perfect mentor in Kingston.
СAPPShe was always willing to answer my questions, with everything else that was going on. It was really cool to be able to learn from a professional.СAPP
Photo: Teri Wyble, lead actress in "Lost Bayou," earned a bachelorСAPPs degree in performing arts from the СAPP in 2008. She is from Arnaudville, Louisiana. The movie recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.