$55, 000.00 A Day Studio.

David G. Smith

David G. Smith

Steak Knife Member
I just shot a low budget project where we were very fortunate to have been given access to a monster sound stage at the Raleigh Studios Complex in Pontiac Michigan. It is one of the stages where Sam Raimi shoot his up coming "Oz: The Great and Powerful" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1623205/ The place is HUGE and when a studio executive told me the normal daily rental rate, FIFTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS A DAY... I about soiled myself! (We didn't pay anywhere near that). It was great fun... and I think I am now spoiled!! Here are a few snap shoots I took.

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There was production from New Line Cinema shooting in a stage next to us and they had a stunt test set up where they were trying to jump an ATV over the boxes. The guy didn't make it, but was all right.

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And of course my FS100!
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That was a lot of fun.
 
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HorseFilms said:
Holy crap! Awesome.
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Holy carp! what a rip off! For $55k you could rent a warehouse twice the size for a month and deck it out with all the lighting and wall covers you want and still save $20k change.

I understand why they charge these rates in really. What ever you can get away with mentality like the shady Egyptian market seller.

In Britain there were heavy TAX frauds done on B movies in the 80's and 90's by the Cannon and Odean group. They claim[FONT=verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif]ed to have only made £100 gross profit! talk about Fudging stupid. Scumbags like Guy Hands made millions using this loophole. This is the man who invented private equity, say no more.

At least they gave you guy donuts. [/FONT]
 
Wow awesome, looks like you had a good time.

55k, though? Wow I can't believe it. You think that's what actual production companies pay? O.O
 
Sun said:
Holy carp! what a rip off! For $55k you could rent a warehouse twice the size for a month and deck it out with all the lighting and wall covers you want and still save $20k change.

I understand why they charge these rates in really. What ever you can get away with mentality like the shady Egyptian market seller.

In Britain there were heavy TAX frauds done on B movies in the 80's and 90's by the Cannon and Odean group. They claim[FONT=verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif]ed to have only made £100 gross profit! talk about Fudging stupid. Scumbags like Guy Hands made millions using this loophole. This is the man who invented private equity, say no more.

At least they gave you guy donuts. [/FONT]
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Well, actually, they didn't give us any donuts! They were donated by a local bakery the producers knew. I agree that the real cost is outrageous, but the place does have some amazing qualities, especially the acoustics, the electrical power available, the amazing 360 degree blue screen drape and the air conditioning.

I have shoot in a warehouse, as substitutes for a sound stage, and there is no comparison when it comes to the acoustics. The place, as big as it is, is almost eerily quiet. There is no echo at all and it is almost disconcerting. We stood in the middle of the room and had a girl give a loud high pitched scream and it was amazing to hear the sound drop off with no echo at all. Once you close the big "Elephant doors", of solid concrete, there is also absolutely no outside noise

I was also impressed at the electrical power available. I was just using standard 120 volt AC and I had 200 amps worth of power, in standard 20 amp sockets, which was plenty for what I was doing. If I needed more, all it would have taken was a call to the stage manager, who would have sent an electrician over to run me a bazillion amps! (or what ever). That made my life very easy over the shoot.

The blue screen draping was also very impressive with floor to ceiling, 360 degrees coverage all in almost flawless thick blue screen fabric. Hanging that much blue screen material, of that quality, in such a quantity, would cost several hundred thousands of dollars I am sure. I think that is very big cost of the daily rental rate.

My favorite part of the place was the air conditioning. It blew my mind. I took all of those snap shoots on a load in/rehearsal day and it was very hot outside with temps in the high 90 degrees F. We were all sweating our butts off with the AC off and the doors open. When we closed the doors and fired up the AC, it only took about 15 minutes to cool the place off. It got so cool that for the shoot days, the crew brought blankets and sweat shirts to work in. That was great. That would have been very tough to do in a warehouse.

Now, I don't know if that all add up to $55K a day, but I can see where a big money production would be well served utilizing facilities like that.

I talked to the producer a little bit ago and she finally told me what they paid to use the space. They paid $1000.00 for 3 days!!. If my math is right, that is about a 99.4% discount!!! She said that the studio wants to become more involved in the local independent filmmaking community. She also said that the studio wants to meet with me, her and a couple of the other indies folks we had working on the project and establish a future relationship. I am not going to hold my breath waiting for "All my filmmaking dreams to come true", or anything, but I was real pleased with that phone call. We'll see.
 
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thehadgi said:
Wow awesome, looks like you had a good time.

55k, though? Wow I can't believe it. You think that's what actual production companies pay? O.O
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We had a great time. I have to relate that even in a high end studio like that, I did end up shooting one scene lit entirely with one rope light and 3 Home Depot clamp scoop lights with two 250 watt halogens and one 100 watt household soft white bulb. The gaffer and I took a perverse little thrill in using less than a hundred bucks worth of lighting gear for a scene in that place. I am not supposed to discuss the project or post pix, but for that scene, imagine "The Tonight Show" from purgatory. The little lights worked out great.

I guess you can take the boy out of guerrilla filmmaking, but you can't take guerrilla filmmaking out of the boy... or what ever.

I guess the $55K is the posted day rate. Like a lot of things in filmmaking, it is all negotiable. I would imagine that Sam Raimi paid a lot for using the place, but negotiated the best deal possible.
 
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Postmaster said:
Hehehe, i like that. :beer:

Cool (pun intended) place to shoot.

Frank
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Thanks Frank. To be honest, that scene scared the heck out of me before we did it. Like I said, I wanted a "The Tonight Show" from purgatory kind of feel and I had tested a standard high key studio lighting set up for it earlier and it was just not right. They rushed up the scene and we had a very short time to shoot it. I was in that situation where EVERYBODY turned to me with the, "Can we do it" look. The filmmaking gods came through and it hit me... "Footlights"! I used the the two 250 halogens very low, to simulate the antiquated theatrical footlight look (Instead of the high key studio look). I used the rope light and the 100 watt soft white bulb to wash and model this elaborate red velvet-ish and black lace back ground and called it a day. I set up some LED pin spot like lights as a kicker, but cut them off, as they weren't appropriate for what we were going for. I am actually kind of proud that I was able to go from a dressed unlit set to wrap, on a four page scene, in an hour and fifteen minutes. Of course, we did have very pro actors for the scene, and they deserve most of the credit for that.
 
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You sure he didn't mean 55 hundred? $5500? The most expensive stage I've ever inquired about is Broadway Stages in NYC for about $5000 a day, which was about 20,000 sq. ft.
 
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I have shot on huge sound stages. Probably larger than this with cats and greens and the price was not even close to this. I think he may have been stating sg. ft. or some other number. I could not imagine any production paying this for an empty box. Perhaps for the box fully rigged.
 
Paul Hudson said:
I have shot on huge sound stages. Probably larger than this with cats and greens and the price was not even close to this. I think he may have been stating sg. ft. or some other number. I could not imagine any production paying this for an empty box. Perhaps for the box fully rigged.
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Now that I think about it, when I was talking to the exec, we were walking from the main office to the stage where we were shooting and my question was, "How much does THIS PLACE cost normally?" I meant, and pointed to the stage where we were shooting, but he may have meant for the whole place, which has 7 stages... That would make a lot more sense (Though still very expensive to me).

BTW, the pix don't really do justice to the place. the shots with the truck and with the tripod in front of the table with the green bag were taken from about the very middle of the joint. I didn't turn around and get a shoot looking east. They said that the local senior high school football stadium would fit in there, with room to spare and I believe it. It was a very cool place to work.
 
Its cool that they are willing to work deals for locals, that is how sustainable business is built. The tax credits may dry up and Hollywood may go else where, you need to build something local. Also I'm sure that big shows are booked far in advanced and in between would be sitting empty. If you don't need much they should be willing to deal.
 
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