Bayous, swamps, Louisiana ?

[Randall_Oelerich]

Anybody here lived or visited the bayou areas of the deep south, such as in Louisiana? I have never been there. I am thinking of traveling there for first hand research for a horror screenplay I have sequenced. To help better visualize scenes, scene description. Looking for suggestions on where to go if I were to do this. I do not want touristy destinations, at least not for the actual research, unless a tourist outing took me into the dark bayou waters, etc. I would prefer to really get back in some rural areas, see the bayou world first hand as much as possible-- where the cypress trees are in water, alligators, snakes, all that good stuff.

That said, would it be worth the cost of such a trip? Could the story be told well enough without actually seeing the story world?

I am pretty jazzed to write the feature screenplay-- the past couple of weeks I have been sequencing the story using Kate Wright's 12 step sequence approach that KyleMD led me onto (bought Wright's book and read it). Finished a first draft of the 12 sequences yesterday, a really good feeling. Going to tune it the next few weeks, with beats, before then writing it into a treatment. I already have about 15 pages of material (sequences w/ beats) so it should be a natural transition writing that up into a 15+ page treatment as a guide for then writing the screenplay. Feels so good to get the story all structured from the start, so I should have a cleanly structured screenplay after a first draft.
~randall

 

[nevill]

I would suggest watching films like O Brother Where Art Thou, Color Purple, Cool Hand Luke or maybe even Forrest Gump before you travel anywhere.
I know none of these are horror films, but you might feel more comfortable writing about the area after seeing how other people have portrayed it, personally it always helps me.
Maybe even reading abit of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn would help you visualize the area better?

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

And The Reaping. I loved the scenes in that film with the giant cypress trees, flooded bayou, etc. Yeah, the travel expense could surely be put to better use such as hiring a mentor consultant to bring the script to another level. It is just that I live up here in northern MN, that deep south bayou countryside is completely foreign to me! I have lived here 20 years and have not seen a single snake let alone an alligator, which I imagine are common down in bayou country, LOL. hell we do not even have cockroaches up here (a big perk if you live like a slob and leave pizza crumbs all over your house)-- just too cold in the walls of houses for the little buggers to hide and breed!

I would suggest watching films like O Brother Where Art Thou, Color Purple, Cool Hand Luke or maybe even Forrest Gump before you travel anywhere.
I know none of these are horror films, but you might feel more comfortable writing about the area after seeing how other people have portrayed it, personally it always helps me.
Maybe even reading abit of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn would help you visualize the area better?

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

So in spite of New Orleans being a tourist destination, there are some nice side trips out of hotels and such into the bayous? I hope New Orleans has recovered somewhat from Katrina, I would think it has, and could use the tourist money. Although economic times are rough, so while I would like to go there sometime, I might have to hold off until this economy turns around. Guess I can take a virtual vacation there-- rent flicks that take place in bayou country!

I've been to several Louisiana swamps on various vacations. They mostly look like you would imagine they would look. I don't think it's worth a special trip down just for that kind of research (though I do recommend the trip in general, just to see and experience something fun. You don't have to go very far outside of New Orleans proper to get into some swampy areas like you describe).

 

[Ezekiel667]

Watch Hatchet, the whole movie takes place in swamps and forest, albeit they built their swamp in the middle of the desert, but it looks incredibly authentic, plus Hatchet is a horror, so you may get some ideas.

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

I bet those gators would look a lot larger if your boat capsized and you were swimming in the dark bayou waters with a couple of gators moving in on you! LOL. maybe I can find some DVD on the bayous on blockbuster or something.

...The biggest surprise to me, though, was that the gators were smaller than I thought they would be.

 

[Capt Quirk]

You can also check out Swamp Thing, Legend of Boggy Creek (Even though that is Arkansas), and Angel Heart. Keep in mind, looking at the swamps is one thing, but being in them is less fun than you could imagine.

 

[Jeffrey Rice]

Another thing you might try are documentaries about the region, reality stuff like Travel Channel, Nat Geo, PBS Nova, Discovery, Animal Planet, etc.

Florida Everglades is similar, there are lots of shows about conservation efforts, gator tagging, etc. Not touristy, these are scientists deep in the swamps where tourists never go. And you can pick up actual-factoids about, say, gator behaviour, etc that can give you story ideas.

And, every time somebody says "gator" you can down a :beer: LOL ! :grin:

 

[Eximious]

I'm from Florida, so I have some experience with the Everglades and cypress swamps. Was there any information in particular that you were hoping to attain? I'd be happy to help you out with pictures and general descriptions, but you'd have to get back to me by this weekend.