Many people would have trouble imagining what would happen if Quentin Tarantino were to direct a witty comedic drama, but that is how Justin Bourgeois, mass communication junior from Raceland, described the two films he is creating this fall.Bourgeois, who plans to attend film school after graduating from Nicholls, is directing, producing and writing two films with hopes of adding two high-quality creations to his portfolio.
Bourgeois, with the help of James Breaux, mass communication senior from Chauvin, and Rusty Bouvier, art senior from Lockport, plans to have the films completed by November.
The two films, both of which are set in bars and deal with the pitfalls of relationships, will be filmed in downtown Thibodaux in October. Although the films are both of the same genre, Bourgeois is planning a double feature, one of them being silent with the other features full-sound.
“I literally threw myself under the bus with this,” Bourgeois said. “At the beginning of the semester, I had these ideas and was pushed by a couple people, so I just ran with it.”
Although he has not given the films titles yet, Bourgeois has written the scripts and plans to open casting to the Nicholls public on Sept. 14. Bourgeois has no plan to be cast in his own films, but he does not want to settle for unqualified actors and actresses.
“I don’t think I’ll be in the films, and I don’t want to be. I don’t think I’d even do a cameo in them,” Bourgeois said. “I’m not going to settle. I know what I want, and I can portray that. It’s an option.”
Bourgeois said he wanted to join the film industry since his junior year of high school, but he wanted to be in media since the beginning of his high school career. He gets most of his motivation from the lack of creativity Hollywood has created over the recent years. Bourgeois attributes most of his inspiring ideas to barstool conversation and believes the stories he hears are often better than Hollywood’s “unrealistic” stale fiction.
“I see a lot of films nowadays, and it’s all the same story over and over again. And I don’t think it’s realistic,” Bourgeois said. “People tend to be very open in bars.”
Bourgeois looks toward directors such as Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez for inspiration because of their originality and creativity in the film industry.
Although Bourgeois has big ideas for his films, he said equipment has been limited. The University has provided him with a crane, a high-definition camera, lighting kits and the use of the campus’ television station; however, Bourgeois said he has to work with what he has.
“That’s all I have and an actual big screen TV that I picked up on the side of the road,” Bourgeois said. “You figure out what you have, and you work with it.”
Bourgeois has most of the preliminary work completed but is still looking for qualified actors and a musician to compose the 20-minute score for his silent film. He has high hopes that his films will be completed without any major problems.
