BATTLE: La.

If you’re into movies, watch movies. If you’re into engineering, carpentry and electrical work, a film set is an exciting place to be. The trick is to possess an appreciable skill for waiting. But there is no better place to wait for “action” in Baton Rouge than on one of Celtic Media Centre’s massive state-of-the-art soundstages off Airline Highway.

In June the company completed Phase 1 of late founder Brendan O’Connor’s baby, a true 23-acre film lot with purpose-built spaces for each phase of filmmaking: planning, producing, shooting, editing, post-production, and yes, eating and waiting—the works.

This month Celtic hosts the cast and crew of Battle: Los Angeles, a sci-fi action film from Columbia Pictures that stars Aaron Eckhart as a Marine leading the human resistance against an alien invasion. Battle is the first big-budget studio film that Celtic has attracted to its new campus. As such, the movie is both a bittersweet success for O’Connor’s son, Michael—who stepped in to oversee the facility after his father died last year—and instant validation of the state legislature’s decision last session to increase tax credits for film production from 25% to 30% and to make the incentives permanent.

Until now, Celtic Media Centre could have been compared to the Shaw Center for the Arts in its first year. The gorgeous Third Street facility seemed woefully underutilized in 2005. The same year that saw Brendan O’Connor—an entrepreneur with a maritime background—fall in love with the movie industry and purchase the buildings and property surrounding Master P’s never-completed recording studio also saw critics call the Shaw Center a pretty-looking jewel box without any jewelry. Soon, though, the Manship Theatre, Brunner Gallery, LSU School of Art gallery, the LSU Museum of Art and restaurants like Tsunami made the Shaw Center a lively success. Now O’Connor’s Celtic Media Centre has done the same.

Managed by Celtic Group Executive Vice President Bob Bayham and his son, Studio Operations Manager Aaron Bayham, the campus has a full-time staff of eight and long-term leases with 13 tenants in the film and entertainment industry. Among them are GreenscreenTV, Films in Motion and Hollywood Trucks. After signing Battle: Los Angeles, Celtic’s Hollywood-based partner Raleigh Studios has more leverage with movie productions to line up holds on these soundstages with potential projects that could make 2010 a very busy year for Celtic.

Anticipating growth, Celtic purchased a nearby 17,000-square-foot former Red Cross building in July.

Then in September, Patrick Mulhearn stepped down as assistant director of film and television for the state to become Celtic’s director of studio operations. The move consolidated power at Celtic, branding it an industry leader in Louisiana.

Things started picking up in June when the Battle: Los Angeles creative team first toured the facility. A month later HBO’s hottest series—True Blood, a Louisiana-set vampire drama—filmed the final scene of its Season 2 finale inside the Shannon Building. The exquisite building had only been used previously for private parties and camera tests, but at 29,000 square feet, it is Celtic’s largest soundstage.

What makes Shannon great for both waiting and working, though, is that it is so cool. Literally. The immediately tangible difference between Celtic and most Hollywood studios—because they were built in the 1940s—and most New Orleans studios—because they are converted warehouses—is the air conditioning.

“If you want to go in a warehouse and rent generators to run your A/C along with all the other things it takes to make a movie, go ahead,” O’Connor says. “But let us show you a real opportunity to shoot here in Baton Rouge.”

Leaving the 99-degree heat outside, True Blood production manager Gary Huckabay actually shivers for a split second when he walks back into the darkened soundstage. Air from six industrial-sized units 40 feet up is blowing cold and absolutely silent so as not to invade the always-delicate audio track. Sitting in the distance, veteran sound mixer Paul Ledford must approve.

“We wanted to show the difference in our A/C system,” Aaron Bayham says as another crewmember in shorts and a T-shirt wraps a jacket around her shoulders. “But maybe we need to turn the temperature up just a little bit.”

And that is Bayham’s call. The 25-year-old began working at Celtic in 2008 and was promoted to management earlier this year. The recent LSU graduate now works day-to-day with his father to manage the centre’s facilities and increasingly busy schedule.

“They say you shouldn’t mix business and family, but I tend to disagree,” he says. “Thanks to the O’Connors, Celtic is a family as much as it is a company, so working with actual relatives isn’t much of a stretch.”

In the middle of Shannon, surrounded by cables and lights, an old yellow school bus filled with supplies, technicians, assistant directors, set dressers and bystanders is a small, three-walled bathroom that Oscar-winning star Anna Paquin bursts into over and over for what sounds like a slow, simmering breakdown.

“This is it,” says the episode’s writer and co-producer, Alexander Woo. “The big payoff. The finale.”

Before things get really intense, the action is covered when the fourth wall is brought in like a shield for unspoiled eyes. Woo knows what’s happening, though. He describes his scenes as mere “sheet music” for the talented cast to make real. Woo jokes that he has eaten his way through Baton Rouge in his few weeks here. Today’s is the last shoot. He flies home tomorrow.

“Activity!” Bayham says to himself as he watches the action unfold. It must be a relief to see Shannon finally put to good use. Sherri McConnell is relieved, too. The day after Celtic announced the Battle: Los Angeles deal, the Entertainment Industry Division director for Louisiana Economic Development was overjoyed. “I just wish Brendan was here to see it,” she said.

Brendan O’Connor’s vision for Celtic Media Centre was relentless, says Michael O’Connor.

“He was a risk-taker and an entrepreneur,” O’Connor says. “It was hard to change his mind when it was set. Phase 1 is very emotional for Bob and myself. But Dad’s vision was to go further than this.”

Bob Bayham says Phase 2 will depend on the market. But Celtic has roughly 10 undeveloped acres on the property, some of which O’Connor believes could be used for educational facilities and partnerships with LSU, Southern and Baton Rouge Community College. Training local crew and filmmakers will fuel the industry, he says.

“Louisiana has lost a lot of talented young people over the years, and we know where they are going,” O’Connor says. “They’re going to these cities the Chamber goes to every year.”

O’Connor began his career in his father’s maritime cargo and transportation business. But he has learned a lot in the last year about the film industry. With plenty of competition from Georgia, New Mexico and other states with similar tax credit programs, and even in-state competition from Shreveport and New Orleans, O’Connor knows film is a tough business.

“The message from Baton Rouge needs to be: We are the state capital, we have Fortune 500 companies, and we have the hotels and infrastructure to do this,” O’Connor says. “It’s just like the maritime business. It’s a service they need, and the kind of service we provide brings them back. We have the people and the facilities to make it happen.”

Thousands of prospectors descended on California in the mid-1800s, but only a small percentage of those turned a profit. The guys who made the most were those like Samuel Brannan. He sold shovels. Bob Bayham identifies with that mentality.

“We’re not producers,” he says. “We just provide a state-of-the-art facility for producers to come in and make the magic. And we’re seeing our indigenous industry growing, too. Films in Motion is a perfect example. Our message is to stick with it because we see it happening.”

For more information visit thecelticmediacentre.com.

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