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Austin Studios gets a makeover

Back in my day, we were real filmmakers. We'd shoot out at Austin Studios in a 103° heatwave. We didn't need air conditioning; when someone passed out we would slide open the 100-foot doors and let in a breeze. Soundproofing? Poppycock! We'll just clean it up in post. Because we were real  filmmakers.

OK, so maybe this scenario wasn't so far in the past, but the good news is that it is about to change. Back in 2006, the people of Austin felt a dose of the filmmakers' pain and voted-in Proposition 4, a $5 million bond to improve the 20-acre production facility, Austin Studios. This is the 100,000-square-feet worth of former airplane hangars out at the old Robert Mueller Airport, where producers of films, commercials, and music videos come to shoot their projects. The goal of the bond? Provide people who shoot in Austin Studios a cool, quiet, and safe place to make their films. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Build it and they will shoot. Build it better and they will come in droves.

Challenged by the obvious shortcomings you might imagine from... well, shooting in an airplane hangar, films including Grindhouse, Friday Night Lights, The Hitcher, How to Eat Fried Worms, and many other productions have braved the Central Texas heat and shot their projects here.

HBO setting up at Austin Studios

Click to see a panorama of Stages 1,4, and 5.

Click to see production offices with Stages 2 and 3.

What is the problem with what was there?

 For anyone never involved in a film or commercial production, these "obvious" shortcomings may not just spring to mind, so here's a little production primer:

One of the very biggest issues to consider when shooting a project in a studio has to do with sound. It is referred to as a sound stage after all. The general idea: record the sounds you desire and none of the ones you don’t. Easy, right? Not so fast; having to constantly stop production for a plane to pass overhead, a loud truck to drive by or for a distant lawnmower to stop doesn't just waste time, it burns through money. The trick is to create the right-sized sound space that keepsyour sounds in and all other sounds out, while keeping reverberation to a minimum. Most of which is something you can pretty much expect not to get in an unimproved plane hangar.

As for running 15,000 watts of lighting in a big metal box with the doors closed during triple-digit heat with no AC? Well, you better keep your hair and makeup person near by along with a second set of dry wardrobe for your cast because they are melting right before your eyes. And where do you think all those lights go? Look up, because lots of them are hanging from the ceiling. And they’re really, really heavy. Can’t speak for anyone else, but this actor would greatly prefer keeping really heavy things above my head firmly supported.

The Austin Film Society running Austin Studios

How is the city involved?

Austin Studios is a joint venture formed through a unique public/private partnership with the City of Austin and the Austin Film Society. You can find out more about the Austin Film Society by visiting their site and becoming a member.

Where’s it at now?

As we crank through 2008, Austin Studios is now in the final approach for the expected year end completion date. Here is the punch list for the design and construction team.

Sound

This is really where a good stage earns its money, period. There is nothing worse than constantly seeing that little canine-inspired, crooked-head look you get from your sound recordist who hears a small noise that doesn’t belong. Acoustic Spaces is the sound design firm hired for the task of sound proofing Stages 1 and 5. This will include a lot of extra wall sheathing and sound proofing materials, a decoupling of the interior ceiling from the exterior roof to help reduce rain and hail noise, as well as all the appropriate sound dampening of the new AC.

Big improvements to Soundstage 1

The massive doors of the hangar create a big 100-foot gap when opened, so they will be reduced down to about 20 feet. With a lot of this door turned into a wall, there becomes far fewer places for sound to pass in or out. Although crews typically bring in their own lights to shoot their scenes, the house lights hanging from the ceiling used to make some pretty nasty buzzing sounds when they were on. It’s lights out to them in place of some new super quiet ones.

If you have ever screened in the existing Austin Studios screening room, it is abundantly clear that they know how to design an isolated cube of sound. The room sits in a trailer, yet when inside, you would hardly know it. Dark, quiet, and cool. All beautiful things to a recordist, projectionist, and especially a viewer.

Coolness

One hundred tons of new air cooling. This will be carried by “flexduct” and tapped along the way, bringing the coolness only where it is needed.

Safety and Security

A new, full sprinkler system. Apparently this wasn’t a feature installed by the previous tenants for some reason. There will also be a complete security infrastructure for the facility including badge readers for access.

Infrastructure

A healthy portion of the expense for this project is vested in the 106 tons of steel they will retrofit onto the existing structures. After all, the existing building was designed to house really big things, not hang them from the ceiling. The electrical system throughout the site will be improved as well to boost both the capacity and avaialbility of juice.

Technology

Throughout the campus, they will be set up with wireless internet access. And you don’t even have to bust your budget on an over priced latte or espresso just to use it.

Workers sealing out the sound

The community

People of any community love it when their hometown is featured in a film or TV show. Few things are more exciting when driving around the city than to see a large film crew all set up and working hard. But when crews are shooting inside the studio, people hardly know anyone is there or what they are shooting. To help tether themselves more closely with the community, Austin Studios will also be putting up a nice monument sign near the facilities with large LCD screens informing the public of the cool projects going on at any time.

Keeping it green: for Austin's sake

Austin Studios is also participating in the Austin Energy Green Building Program and they are on track to achieve a two-star rating by the end of the project. This is a major accomplishment, considering the industrial nature of the site.

The next wave

The Director of Studio Operations Catherine Parrington told us a little bit about some of the new things that Austin Studios has planned in order to keep Austin near the top of the locations list for producers around the world. Some of this will certainly require some extra funding in later phases, but it is absolutely necessary to keep Austin at par as a production destination.

Staying competitive

Competitiveness in the film business is less a concern of firms in Texas competing with each other, but more of Texas competing with the world. Film companies and financiers take care in determining which state will pay them the most to shoot there. The quality of the studios, resources and other services will play into the equation, but only after they consider the incentive plan of that state. Hopefully, when lawmakers get back in session in January ’09, they will vote in a Texas incentive plan of at least 15%, instead of today’s shy 5%. In the meantime, Austin Studios and other local businesses in this industry need to work even harder to attract productions. The good news is that once incentives are upped, Austin Studios will be prepared to help rekindle some of our recent glory as filmmaking’s “third coast.”

Steve Muccini is president of SpotEdge Media, an award winning video production company producing content for TV and the web, and also HomeSaleVideo.com . He is also a writer, producer and actor in Austin, Texas.