B.R. firm has heavy hand in new Web series ‘Suit Up’

Could any place be more appropriate than south Louisiana to film a series about the high-stakes nature of college football? Doubtful, though that isn’t why Fox Digital Studios chose Baton Rouge as the location to shoot and produce its newest digital video series, Suit Up, now playing on Yahoo. Rather, it was the state’s movie industry tax credits and the experience of Baton Rouge-based Digital FX, which co-produced the series with Fox, that brought the deal here. “This is the kind of stuff we’d love to do more of,” says Greg Milneck, president of Digital FX, which provided camera crews, office space, and editing services to Fox for the production. “It was a low-budget job, but we really believe it represents the future of video production.” A trailer for the series, which you can check out here, shows several scenes that locals will recognize, including an aerial view of the LSU campus and several shots of Tiger Stadium. Much of the series, which centers on a crisis manager hired to take the helm “at a scandal-soaked athletic department” at the fictitious Glory University, was also shot in Hammond. While the storyline may be entertaining, what makes the series interesting is the new breed of digital content it represents—music videos, series, short movies, news clips and sporting events shot and produced entirely for online or so-called second-screen viewing. Milneck believes more such content will be produced, and he is hopeful Digital FX and Baton Rouge can be a part of it. “It’s the new genre of content production,” he says. —Stephanie Riegel