Baton Rouge

Team Foster

Sam Claitor

Head of Production
Producer

Sam was born and raised in South Louisiana and was often caught drawing cartoons in class. Life lead him to study business and design at Louisiana State University, and eventually to co-found an ad agency that he later sold. That's where he got a knack for the business side of the arts. His background in illustration and graphic design lead to work as a VFX artist where he worked on projects like Game of Thrones, ,Star Trek Into Darkness,, and Blue Ruin. After transitioning into management as a coordinator he soon partnered with companies like Marvel and Universal Pictures. He worked with Gentle Giant Studios during their acquisition by 3D Systems. More recently he co-founded the Louisiana based production company Fable House where he produced a number of projects like Zombie Sharks, A Deadly Affair, The Parallax Theory, The Long Shadow, and Desolation. His hands-on producer knowledge translates well into delivering exactly what filmmakers need when it comes to visual effects. Sam's credits include visual effects supervising the TV series Paradise Lost for Paramount and on-set supervising NCIS: New Orleans for CBS, producing a number of films for networks like Lifetime and NBC Universal, and commercials for brands like Toyota.

Kolby Kember

VFX Supervisor

Born and bred in the swamps of southern Louisiana, Visual Effects Supervisor Kolby Kember has always had a fascination with the art of visual storytelling. From a young age, he was rarely seen without a sketchbook or home video camera in his hand. Growing up he surrounded himself with various creative outlets from drawing and painting, to playing music, and eventually became a tattoo artist, before finally making the decision to go to art school. After graduating from Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL, with a bachelors degree in Computer Animation, Kolby moved across the US to work at VFX studios in Los Angles, getting his feet wet in the film industry by contributing to the effects on Captain America, John Carter, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and The Avengers. Since then, Kolby has been involved in the successful completion of major film and television titles such as Night Teeth, Black Lightning, Swamp Thing, The Passage, Scream: the TV Series, Gotham, Santa Jaws, Game of Thrones, Beautiful Creatures, and Star Trek: Into Darkness. Outside of work, Kolby can be found spending time with his family, doodling, directing, and throwing killer Halloween parties. He is easily spotted lurking film sets adorning his trademark mohawk.

Bananas Foster

Bananas were not introduced to North America after the Civil War and some decades later, when widespread consumption took hold, New Orleans became a major center for banana imports from Central and South America.

In 1951, Brennan’s owner Owen Brennan (the uncle of Ralph Brennan, the 3rd generation restaurateur and now-owner of Brennan’s restaurant today) asked his chef Paul Blangé and sister Ella to come up with a new dessert using bananas to name after his friend Richard Foster, the chairman of the New Orleans Crime Commission. At the time, Owen’s younger brother John (Ralph Brennan’s father,) was running “Brennan’s Processed Potato Company,” a produce company that had a surplus of bananas. What they came up with is now the world renowned Bananas Foster.

The dramatic, flambéed result is now the most-ordered item on Brennan’s menu. Thirty-five thousand pounds of bananas are sautéed each year in South American rum (but of course!) in preparation of the signature dessert.

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1/4 cup dark rum
1/4 cup banana liqueur
1 cup brown sugar
4 bananas, cut in half lengthwise, then halved
4 scoops vanilla ice cream

Directions

Combine butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a large sauté pan. Place pan over low heat and cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Stir in banana liqueur, then place bananas in pan. When bananas soften and begin to brown, carefully add rum. Continue to cook sauce until rum is hot, then tip pan slightly to igniter rum. When flames subside, lift bananas out of pan and place four pieces over each portion of ice cream. Generously spoon warm sauce over ice cream and serve immediately.