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LIBERTINE DREAMS – THERE IS NOWHERE TO GO IN NEW ORLEANS

I’ve been back home in New Orleans for a few months after being gone for the past nine years.

You’d expect some things to be a bit different. New leadership at the City Council, a new Governor, Chief of Police, and a new Mayor.

Perhaps some businesses and some established businesses had now shut their doors.

These are things that you’d expect after nearly a decade in any major city in the U.S.

However, there are changes that I’d never in a million years expected in New Orleans.

Known as a city that never sleeps, where there’s always an event or somewhere to celebrate and party, is no longer.

In my early adult years, the social scene was incredible.

There were many nightclubs, some legendary. Whispers, Discovery, A Touch of Class, Prime Example, Nexus, Secrets, and Atlantis were tops.

Hurricane Katrina was a huge blow, and the city has yet to fully recover. Unfortunately, as of now, the social scene is dead.

Outside of a few small bars and strip clubs, there’s absolutely nothing to do. There is nowhere to go in New Orleans.

A longtime buddy of mine, Mike, took me out to a few struggling spots to see for myself. Even on the weekends, there weren’t even more than ten people in any of them. I wasn’t only disappointed, it was a gutpunch.

Unless I’m willing to hang out in the French Quarter, which is basically a tourist trap, I’ll have to go out of town for a proper night out.

I guess I’d better start planning weekend getaways or perhaps, at some point, relocating.

Creole Gaudet

The views and opinions in Libertine Dreams are those of the author and make no guarantees or promises regarding the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of the information presented. It is solely for entertainment purposes.

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MY SONY A7III IS MORE THAN GOOD ENOUGH

Technology has come a long way from my beginnings with my Super 8mm GAF from back in the day. Who knew that digital cinema would be a thing? Truth is, no one, because it didn’t even exist back then.

When I began my journey to make my very first feature film, Girl 214, I had such grandiose ideas. I’d dreamed of multiple Panavision 35mm cameras on set with one of the best cinematographers, DPs, great actors, craft tables, etc. They would all be there to help me see my dream come to fruition.

But reality is a great awakener. When you don’t have millions nor the resources to tap into enough donors, you must compromise.

Not enough to water down your vision, but enough to find ways to still get the story told. Isn’t that what it’s about? The story is most important, right?

I spent a lot of time searching for what options I had by going digital. There were literally thousands of videos online that looked pretty convincing, but those were polished in post and did not show what you’d get right out of the camera. That was important to me because I not only wanted to know what the procedures were, but I also wanted to know what my costs would be. What good was it to save money on a digital camera if post-production was going to cost me more than if I’d shot on film?

I decided to give digital a try. I figured that I’d take the plunge, buy a camera, and give it a go. If it didn’t live up to my expectations, I would sell it and then get back to film. But if it worked, I could rebudget and get on to production.

After my research, I decided to go with Sony. I’m using the A7III with a single 50mm lens. That, along with all the needed accessories, lighting, gimbal, etc, is all there is.

I’d taken lots of test footage with my assistant, Eileen, and looking back, I’d had enough to put a few clips together to make a short. Don’t try to make sense out of it; it’s intentionally vague. Some may get it, and some may not. The idea was to capture footage right out of the camera and to see how it would look, and that’s what we did.

There are no LUTs, color correction, or editing. I can definitely work with this.

Creole Gaudet

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