Savanna Jones is the owner and creative director of Little Lighthouse Productions, a production company based in Biloxi. She also has worked in various roles in the camera department for a variety of Mississippi-based productions.
What’s your background and what led you into filmmaking?
I am a Gulf Coast native. I grew up in Biloxi in the Woolmarket area. In high school, my plan was to be an English teacher in a foreign country.
But one day a location manager came and knocked on our door and asked if they could film a movie in our house. It turned out to be Arsenal with Nicolas Cage. That was when I was a senior. I got to be a stand-in for one of the lead actresses in that. They had me be an extra in a couple of scenes too.
But it was cool, because our house got used in the film and we had to move out for like a week. That is really what got me started with the idea that this is a viable career option. Seeing everybody come in to make that film, I was wondering if it was something I could actually do in Mississippi? Then I did some more research and found out that USM in Long Beach had the film program, so I decided to do that as a minor with my English major because I was still stuck on teaching because I still didn’t know what path to take to do anything with filmmaking.Â
But I had a friend who had worked in news broadcasting and he had become a production assistant (PA) on Home Town. He was leaving to go back to work in news. He asked if I would be interested in filling in for him a couple days here and there. So I worked on Home Town for a little bit, and I also worked on The First 48 over in Mobile—I had just applied for that job on Staff Me Up. So I got work on random day playing gigs like that.
I graduated in December of 2020 from USM. By that time, I had started my photography business, Savvy Snapshots Photography. Around the fall of 2021 I started day playing on those gigs a little bit more, so I started doing more film work. Then in January of 2022, I had worked with Home Town enough that that when their PA left full time, they called and had me hop on his gig and the plan was to go from January to September, their whole season with them as the production assistant.
At that time, they didn’t have an office PA, so I was kind of doing both. I would be on set and then when they would wrap for the day, I would go to the office and do all the chores there that needed to be done. But then there was another opportunity–it didn’t end up working out, but I’m grateful it kind of happened the way it did–I was planning to go second assistant camera (AC) on a job for about 3 weeks. But it ended up falling through, and Home Town had already filled my place. But right after that happened, I’d hopped over to another show that needed a camera PA. That was Love in Fairhope, over in Alabama for Hulu.
I think that was five months of camera work, just building the cameras, charging the batteries, everything. From there I had bumped up to AC when one of our ACs got COVID for like 2 weeks. From that point on, the lead AC was telling me, you should try to stick with AC from now on. Don’t really look back on that. So, when First 48 called me back to PA, I said I only AC now. And then they were like, OK, great, we need an AC too. It’s been pretty much camera work for me ever since.
What are some of your current and recent projects?
I worked on Adult Best Friends with Delaney Buffett when they came down here to Ocean Springs. I was a second AC on that. Then last year was Roller Jam, a reality competition series in New Orleans. I also worked on Kitchen Nightmares as an AC, also in New Orleans. Here at home, I most recently was second AC on the soon-to-be-released feature Jesus Land.
But the most exciting thing I’ve done lately is the NFL Films Women in Sports Filmmaking Experienceship back in April.
What was that experience like?
This has been the third year they’ve done it. I think they had over 500 applicants. Fourteen of us were selected, half for audio, half for camera. And they brought us on a tour of NFL films in Mount Laurel, NJ. And then we learned how to build the cameras, prep the gear and we shot a scrimmage game with Temple University over in Philadelphia. So that was really cool. And I’m glad I got to work with my friend Katrina Blair on that. We didn’t know that we were both applying for it, and it ended up we were both selected, two Mississippians in the camera department.
I actually have two back-to-back shoots with them this week: the Jackson State homecoming and then they’ll fly me out to Jacksonville for the game versus Seattle.
It was great to be a part of and to represent Mississippi and women behind the camera. Like I said, had that movie not shot at our house, I don’t think I would have been in this field.
I feel like other people, and especially women, need to know that this is a viable option for them, especially here in Mississippi. That’s something I think is really important to shed a light on in everything I do, particularly the work with my production company. To make people more aware that we offer all these opportunities here. Mississippi’s a cool place.
If we all continue to work on it, we can build it up. Because I don’t ever want to leave. I’m very comfortable where I’m at. I love being from the coast and I’ve got New Orleans and Mobile right on either side. It’s a good area.
What has it been like to start your own production company?
My fiancée Dalton Husley and I created Little Lighthouse Productions. 2023 was our first full year. That’s when we started doing more stuff ourselves, producing and directing commercials and short films for clients here in Biloxi and surrounding areas.
The idea sprang from when I was working on Love in Fairhope in fall of 2022 and I noticed that a lot of the guys from LA had brought in their own gear and they had their own companies.
We had our own gear and we were already shooting photography. So Dalton and I came up with Little Lighthouse because it represents Biloxi and the Gulf Coast. We wanted it to serve clients locally and provide as much professionalism that we could, to provide a high standard of filmmaking to local clients that maybe didn’t have an enormous budget.
So, at first it was really kind of aimed more toward local mom and pop kind of shops so that we could gain experience. But as we grew, as our equipment inventory grew and we worked to add more freelancers to the team, it’s grown a little bit bigger than I’ve expected it to be. Now we get two or three phone calls in the same day or we’re triple booked and I have to fly out for NFL and I have to hire like five people to cover all the things. Now we service a wide variety of clients. We have our budgets and our projects set based on what their needs are. It’s more scalable. So if they need one or two people for their shoot, that’s what we’ll have. But if it’s something bigger then we’ll have a scalable crew of maybe five to seven people. I also should mention I’m FAA drone certified too. That makes us even more versatile too, because not everybody can do drone work and camera work.
Your career path seems to exemplify the need to be adaptable in the industry, to go between commercial, film and documentary work on the fly. Did that organically develop as you’ve gone forward?
We don’t have just features or just narrative or just documentary. We don’t have just one niche in Mississippi. I think having to be versatile is crucial because it allows me to get more opportunities that some people might not have if they’re just in one path. I’ve enjoyed getting to work on lots of different things. I’ve done a couple documentaries for schools. I’ve done a good bit of reality TV. NFL Films is completely different. I’ve worked in motocross before, but sports is a whole new field for me, so I’m excited to keep doing that. And then our video production company allows us to do more commercial work and more produced, better lighting, better audio than maybe run and gun reality stuff. Just being able to do almost anything at the flick of a switch, you know, that does allow me to be a little bit more competitive in the market.
Has there been anybody that’s been a mentor to you and helped you along your way?
Dalton, my fiancé and business partner. I’m more artistic, but he’s got more of a very structured mindset, so he’s the one that’s planning the events and how to schedule everything. Later on I met Bruce Roberts, he’s helped guide me a little bit too. We’ve been good buddies for a while now and talk shop all the time, and we’ve worked on projects together like Kitchen Nightmares too. I have to say Katrina as well. We worked together on Adult Best Friends. She was first and I was second AC. We still talk and hang out. We all have a great support group on the coast. It’s not just one person. I think it’s great meeting more and more filmmakers and freelancers in the area, as we all want to help each other. It’s a really collaborative group of people that we have here.
What other things about the state or the coast specifically make it a good place to work in film?
I love being on the coast because you can drive almost any direction and there’s a different setting, a different environment. There are hundreds, even thousands of different locations. I also love the type of people that we have here. You know, if you go to LA or New York or something, maybe they’re more used to the film industry, so people don’t care as much. And I think the environment we have here is very friendly and outgoing and people are excited and want to be a part of film production, whether they have a location that you can shoot at or whether they’re a client, they’re eager to work with you. I like that when a big film production comes here, they want to use locals. And I think being a local professional is important, representing your state well and sharing what we have to offer.
How would you like to see the film industry grow in the state?
I liked the energy I saw at the Film Mississippi meetup that you had a couple weeks ago at USM. I want the industry to grow exponentially, not to the extent of being overwhelming, but to where we have a good moderation of different jobs for different people. I want to have more reality shows being made here. I want to have more things providing consistent work, whether it’s that, narratives, or documentaries or even scripted series like we might not have had in the past. I’d also like to see more people start their own companies. Because if I can make my own company, they can do it too. More representation, more people sharing their identity and brand will make more connections with people when they come here to the coast.
