According to a few folks who have contacted me today, I might have completely missed the mark with yesterday’s “It’s not as though studios will be building sound stages here, and really putting down roots…” remark. Apparently there is at least one studio sniffing around a large facility here in Ypsi that could accommodate several sound stages and all the required production facilities. Given the nature of production work, I don’t think the job creation would be as significant as, say, at a tier one auto supplier, but, still, it would be pretty huge news for our community… So, I may have been wrong… It doesn’t happen often… Savor it.
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I predict in five years, they’ll be filming Rambo VIII on Water Street, which, by then, will be virtually indistinguishable from the jungles of North Vietnam.
Of course, I may be wrong, but at least you know there’s a chance in five years you’ll have something else to savor…
Oh, and I’ve been savoring Mark’s failure a few hours now. It’s exactly like synsepalum dulcificum … the miracle fruit.
Makes absolutely everything else so much sweeter.
I should clarify. As of right now, I’m not wrong. There’s just a possibility that I will be. So don’t pop that miracle fruit yet. Just carry it around in your pocket for a while and let it get up to body temperature, so it’ll be good and ready when the time is right. I’ll keep you posted as to when to bite into it.
how large a building is needed for film production studio? Will the soon to be empty Ford plant be too big? are the still standing but empty buildings on the Water Street fantasy development land too small? Certainly these buildings have more economic viability as artistic studios of some kind than as empty, vacant land (for the Water Street properties) or as empty industrial hulks (as is the probable future for the Ford plant).
Anyone who’s been to MGM or Universal or Disney can imagine how little or how big a full-fledged studio lot needs to be. The smallest I ever worked at was really a 50×80 stage with 40′ ceilings and a cyclorama (seamless floor-to-ceiling cove in one corner and along the longest wall.)
With green screen technology, today’s “studio” interior can be 8×10 or 10×20.
If you want to build exterior’s (fascades for a western street, for example) or you may want to duplicate the great Ypsilanti fire where half the downtown burned to the ground, you’d need an equally large space or build a model … but models always look like models (no apologies to my set designer buddies, they just do look like models.)
Detroit film and video production in the 40’s-60’s was greater than Chicago and New York combined … total feet and minutes. There were sound stages all over town in addition to the sound editing studios and radio and TV stations, which were also used for productions and editing. It was all union, all the time, 24/7 … with crews on the road all over the world.
I had a great time in that business and miss it a great deal for the excitement, creativity and technical expertise of the shooters and crews. My 30+ years is a long time but I still dabble.
On this side of US23, there are a couple independent (non-union) video producers. And on the other side of 23 (non-union territory) there are small video and film production companies with offices, stages and the very latest audio/video editing gear. I still work with these people and have had great experiences both writing and directing.
Your friends were right about this apparently. I just found out yesterday that one of the biggest Hollywood studios is about to purchase an entire auto plant not far from Ypsilanti.