The TV pilot "Spillway" is a 100% Louisiana project and that thrills director Jason F. Furrate.
From the story Furrate crafted to the cast and crew and location shooting, the crime drama all went down within the confines of his home state, just as the filmmaker had envisioned.
"I am passionate about, I believe whenever possible, if you're doing the Louisiana story, you should have Louisiana people," Furrate said. "Because they get the responses of this very diverse culture that we have."
First-day shooting for 'Spillway' takes place near the Mississippi River levee in 2023.
For Furrate, it's all about the nuances — and casting Louisiana people in a film about Louisiana alleviates the need to explain those nuances.
"Yes, we have our issues, but at the end of the day, it's family. It's food. It's fun. It's music. It's faith — and these people understand it," he said. "It's kind of like saying, 'Hey, we can do this. We're here. We can write it, we can shoot it, we can act. Here we are.'"
The finished project "Spillway" will be screened at 5 p.m. Sunday, June 30, at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge — an event that will probably be the only public screening of this pilot, according to Furrate.
Tickets for the screening are $6.50 plus fees.
"This is a big celebration for cast and crew and friends and family and anybody interested in this sort of thing," he said.
'Spillway' was filmed in Baton Rouge, Walker, LaPlace, Henderson, Mandeville and rural Lafourche Parish.
Typically, if a pilot gets the attention of one of the larger production companies, inquiries begin as to where the project's originators want the story to go, he explained.
"They may have actors that they have relationships with. They may want to reshoot it," he said. "It'll be a new partner coming in and starting over, so to speak."
"Spillway" is Furrate's second television feature project as his production company, Media Furrate, swallows the bulk of his time with commercial and corporate video work — and it does pay the bills.
In 2010, Furrate dove into his first such project, "LA-308 Assassin Redemption," also using local talent.
The drama was shot mostly on location on the coast of Louisiana, incorporating a Bayou State sunset.
Joelle Stoker, a Love Acting student, plays Hailey Arceneaux in 'Spillway.'
"I just waited 'til the end of the day to shoot. You can't lose in the last hour of a Louisiana sunset at the coast and the marsh, right?" Furrate said.
'LA-308'
In "LA-308," Furrate's first television piece, the main character is the military's best sharpshooter who becomes a sniper. The problem is that he hates killing and gets out of the service only to be asked by the government to go and take someone out.
The target is hiding offshore with the oil companies. Blending in in the coastal town until the wanted man's return, the former sniper ends up becoming friends with the target's sister and father. So will he be able to finish the job?
The film debuted in 2017 and is still streamable on Amazon and Apple for a small fee.
Filming close to three hours from home in Cameron Parish, renting cabins for cast and crew, using multiple boats, sinking a boat — the issues on "LA-308" were many.
"I bit off way too much in 'LA-308.' We pulled it off, but it was insane," he said.
Fast-forward to "Spillway" and keeping it simple began with the title.
Furrate says some research suggests that streaming shows with a single word title work well. Since the theoretical location of the story is the spillway area near Pierre Part, Belle River — the name for the project came easy.
Damon Lipari, director Jason Furrate, Jency Griffin Hogan and Jeff Routier answer a photo call for 'Spillway.'
With limited access to spillway locations, they opted for shooting in the Henderson Swamp out of McGee's Landing, and at Lake Martin outside of Lafayette, and just a few scenes sin Lafourche Parish.
Shooting had barely begun in 2023 when the writers' and actors' strikes erupted and halted filming on "Spillway."
Production finally wrapped in January.
For the TV series pilot, Media Furrate teamed with Louisiana production companies owned by Wade Henderson, Jency Griffin Hogan and Damon Lipari to form Spillway Production Group with their LLCs. Furrate, who created, wrote and directed "Spillway," provided the funding, while the others' contributions were in-kind, he said.
"Spillway" is about Detective Jack Landry, who runs into trouble and goes into hiding in his childhood stomping grounds — a spillway in south Louisiana. He ends up having to solve the case without his standard law enforcement resources, according to the pilot synopsis.
Veteran actress Hogan plays Tammy Blanchard.
"She's a hometown girl who works in tech, but when she finds out about the case and everything going on, she tries to get involved and help the guys out. So she's a really great, fun, kind of edgy, rough around the edges character, I would say," Hogan said.
Furrate said despite successfully casting main characters, he couldn't have made "Spillway" without the infusion of talent from Hogan's 10-year-old acting school, Love Acting, also in Baton Rouge. About a dozen of those students fill out the 30-member cast.
Love Acting's focus is on film acting for the camera.
"My idea is to build enough cast here in Baton Rouge so people don't have to even go to New Orleans. They could find people for their commercials or their movies they're making here, right here in Baton Rouge," Hogan said. "They're green, but they're ready to be in projects. And I think Jason (Furrate) just saw that and was like, 'Let's give them these opportunities,' — and it is the great marriage of the two things."
Following the premiere, Furrate will seek out a larger production company to pick up the pilot and advance it from there. If things go according to plan, audiences will one day be streaming "Spillway" the series, story by Jason Furrate.