As reported in last week’s SHOOT, the spotmaking community has responded to Hurricane Katrina in assorted ways–producing PSAs to generate financial support for relief efforts, holding fund-raising events, and even trucking into stricken areas to deliver supplies and offer comfort. On the latter score, industry volunteers have returned from Louisiana and are sharing their experiences, reflecting on what they saw.
Initial feedback has come from a relief trip organized by several Dallas-based shops, including
Post Asylum and CG/animation house Janimation. This group collected dry and canned foods, bottled water, clothing, bedding, batteries, flashlights, diapers, baby food, soaps, disinfectants, garbage bags and other goods. During Labor Day weekend, a 10-person team trucked these goods into Louisiana for people in need. In a 24-hour span, the relief caravan–consisting of a pair of twenty-seven-foot U-Hauls, a big rig truck and a smaller truck–made stops near the LSU campus and in Southern University, both in Baton Rouge, a hospital in Slidell, “refugee” camps in St. Tammany Parish, and towards Pearl River closer to the Mississippi border.
Of the last stopover, Post Asylum producer Nancy Breaux related, “We were greeted by a community of refugees, a Sheriff Gonzales and a Red Cross volunteer who had been waiting for provisions and was happy to see us. Most of the people were living outside in this shelter and had been there since before Katrina [hit]…Just handing a pillow to a lady brought tears to both her and my eyes. Another young lady, holding a baby, announced to me it was her baby’s third birthday. I returned with a box labeled toddler and a baby blanket. I wished her baby a happy birthday from all of us and got back to work.”
In thanking all those who made the caravan possible, Breaux observed, “I feel strongly that my job is not done. It’s not really this kind of situation where you can go, ‘Okay, I’ve done my share.’ So I hope that next time you receive an e-mail from me, we will all be up for the next step, ready to carry our load of responsibility in taking care of our fellow man.”
Also part of the caravan was Steve Gaconnier, proprietor/chief creative director at Janimation. He reported, “What we hear in the media is only one side of the story; the people’s attitude was amazing. I never saw so much brotherly love….Ever since getting back, it’s hard to stay focused as I can only think of the others that still need assistance. Watching television has given us mostly negative reports. There was no gunfire to greet us, only a ‘God bless you’ from everyone we met. Having seen the destruction firsthand and having talked to the victims has only strengthened my resolve. We will continue to assist the recovery in the days ahead.”
The firsthand reports from Gaconnier and Breaux will be joined by eyewitness accounts from other industry folk in the coming weeks. For example, director Matt Ogens, who’s repped for spots by bicoastal Headquarters, trained with the American Red Cross so that he could help with the Katrina relief effort. During the training, he met a couple of directors and a plan crystallized for them to work as a team to document what they come across as they go into heavily impacted areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, as well as the Houston Astrodome and other refugee camp sites. The directors will take pictures and shoot video to chronicle the stories of victims and relief workers. The intent is for the videos to also give the Red Cross a record of how its people responded to the disaster, helping to determine what is and isn’t working and perhaps even serving as content for volunteer training sessions.
Ogens, who was included in SHOOT‘s New Directors Showcase earlier this year, is taking on the Red Cross-sanctioned production in tandem with directors Charles Haid and John Logsdon, and actor/writer/producer Paul James Palmer. Haid won the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award in ’95 for an episode of TV series ER. He has been nominated four times for the DGA honor. Logsdon’s filmography spans music videos, spots, TV shows and extreme sports documentaries. Palmer’s credits include producing and acting in The Hard Place, a film set to enter the festival competition circuit in December. Ogens, who estimated that the Gulf Coast trip will last at least two weeks, has a special place in his heart for the region; he lived in New Orleans for five years. He also went to college at Tulane University, New Orleans.
FUND-RAISERS
Member and associate member companies of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) have been involved in numerous events to support Katrina relief efforts. Last week, the Association of Music Producers (AMP), which has an alliance with AICP, held a business seminar in New York and donated a portion of the event’s proceeds to Katrina
Continuing the AICP rundown, production house Uncle, Santa Monica, helped to organize a BBQ benefit at Quixote Studios, Los Angeles, last week to raise funds for the Red Cross.
AICP’s West Coast chapter plans to donate a portion of the proceeds generated by its Sept. 21 golf tournament. The next evening, Buzz Management, New York, will stage a fund-raiser at Manhattan jazz club Satcat. And on Sept. 25, Crossroads Films, bicoastal and Chicago, will host a family style BBQ at its West Hollywood headquarters to benefit hurricane victims.
Earlier Zoic Studios, Culver City, Calif., and Backyard Productions, Venice, Calif., teamed to collect basic necessities (clothing, bedding, over the counter medication, phone cards, baby supplies, first-aid kits) from donors throughout the industry. Zoic and Backyard then split the work and costs of packing the essentials up and shipping them last week to Baton Rouge via semi tractor trailer.
Backyard sister shop Transistor Studios, Venice, produced a spot promoting ReAct Now: Music & Relief, a benefit concert special that ran on MTV, VH1 and CMT to raise money for the Red Cross and other organizations offering aid to Katrina victims. The :30 was directed by James Price.
Meanwhile, rather than hold an event, cancelling one proved to be a viable means to raise money for Katrina recovery. Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami, pulled the plug on its annual summer bash and donated the money budgeted for the party to relief efforts.
Also on the agency side, an online job board has been created for ad personnel displaced by Katrina. The Web site is www.PostKatrinaTalent.org and was created in part by Baton Rouge-based agency Object 9. Out-of-work ad professionals can post their resumes on the site for prospective employers to review. Facilities have also been set up where workers seeking employment can schedule appointments to access computers to write and update their resumes.
