Important Update from Austin Studios
Rebecca Campbell | Jun 12, 2009 | Comments 6
UPDATE: Besides the FAQs below, there are additional answers to questions from the June 25th public forum here.
The Austin Film Society is pleased to announce that we have nearly completed negotiations with a new long-term tenant for Austin Studios, Soundcheck Austin. We began negotiations with this potential tenant back in October of 2008, when we brought principal Ben Jumper and investor Steve Kent to the TXMPA’s Spaghetti Western. The timing was excellent, as we were able that night to introduce them to Elizabeth Avellan, Robert Rodriguez, Richard Linklater, Bob Hudgins, and many other film community luminaries.
We will be entering into a five-year lease on Stage 4, one of three unimproved stages on the current Austin Studios campus. In recent days AFS has learned that this move has brought consternation to members of the local film community, from UPMs to craft guild members. The concern we hear is that now that film incentives are in place, Austin’s film crew is finally going to get some business, only to lose a key facility that gives Austin a competitive edge when fighting for business, and makes it a pleasure to film in Austin.
Below are some answers to the questions most frequently asked of us this week. In addition to this quick FAQ, AFS will hold an open forum on Thursday, June 18, 11 am to noon Thursday, June 25, 11 am to noon.
What is Soundcheck Austin?
Soundcheck Austin is a new Austin business founded by the owners of Soundcheck Nashville. Soundcheck Nashville serves the 300 bands that call Nashville home, offering full production rehearsal, tour prep services, set and equipment storage, cartage and backline. They also support concerts and televised music shows such as the Country Music Awards. Principal Ben Jumper was a roadie for the Charlie Daniels band for 20 years. He bought Soundcheck from Glenn Frey five years ago and has built a very successful business. He now feels ready to try out a very different market from Nashville. He had been looking at Austin as a potential market for a couple of years, and on his second major scouting trip, identified Austin Studios as the ideal location due to the synergies with film production.
The 28,000 square foot facility will have 6 soundproofed rehearsal studios, offices and showroom space, and 80 lockers. AFS has received a low-interest loan to build out the core and shell, and Soundcheck will more than match our investment to complete the finish-out. They will bring $700,000 worth of digital sound equipment with them, equipment which can be used in stages 3 and 5 at no additional cost to clients.
Why is AFS bringing a “music” tenant to a film facility?
It’s the confluence of the music and film industries that make this a great tenant for the Studios and for Austin. Soundcheck will attract big-name bands that don’t choose Austin for recording and rehearsal, as well as bringing infrastructure for local bands to a new level. Bands will book space to launch their tour, record tracks, and commission music videos. Television and web platforms will follow, with channels like VH-1, CMT, BET and MTV coming in to shoot “behind the scenes” and “unplugged” footage. Television series and even feature-length videos and films could ultimately be homegrown from this level of the music industry.
Second Reconfiguration
What about the loss of Stage 4: 28,000 square feet in raw production space? Won’t this hurt the industry?
While it is not ideal to lose any hangars, and especially right after we finally have a robust incentives program, the loss needs to be appraised in a long-term context. Austin Studios, in its lease with the City, has an evolving configuration. The initial configuration was from November 2000 to June 2008 and included the Red Building, five hangars, two t-hangars for long-term tenants, and a small office building. The “first reconfiguration” goes from July 2008 to September of 2012, where we have lost the t-hangars and the small production office. The “second,” and final, reconfiguration goes from October 2012 to August of 2042, and adds the National Guard Building: 61,500 square feet of offices and a 13,700 square feet cinderblock hangar. (see image to right: the blue represents the first, or current, reconfiguration and the yellow represents the National Guard.) In addition to the new space, we will in effect gain back Stage 1, or another 16,000 square feet, because our existing long-term tenants (Chapman-Leonard, Misc. Rents and Rhinogrip) will move over to the new building.
National Guard Building Space Plan
Tell me more about the National Guard Building.
With 61,500 square feet of office space, the National Guard Building will enhance our current production office of 10,000 square feet by adding at least 20,000 square feet. AFS envisions the building as a Digital Arts Hub with next-generation digital infrastructure that layers production services, training, workforce development, tech incubation, youth media, film appreciation and creative productions into a unique media ecosystem. The building is suited to act as an incubator and to house a variety of educational programs, with plenty of space for production and support services. The space plan to the right shows our first draft of a space plan for the building. This is a starting point for discussions, not an end point.
In coming weeks, AFS will announce a date for an open meeting to discuss the master plan for this building.
Is there room at Austin Studios to build a mill? Is Austin Studios open to private companies coming in to build mill space?
Absolutely. There is room, and potential partners should contact Catherine Parrington.
Will Proposition 4 money be used to build out Stage 4 for Soundcheck Austin?
No. The only Prop. 4 funds that were spent on Stage 4 were for sprinkler systems, as required by law. The Soundcheck Austin build-out will be financed entirely by AFS and Soundcheck.
If you still have questions, please call Catherine Parrington at 512-322-0145 x3208, or attend the meeting on June 25.
Filed Under: AFS News • Austin Studios • Featured
About the Author: Rebecca Campbell has served as Executive Director of the Austin Film Society since 1998. During her tenure, the Film Society expanded its nationally recognized exhibition and artist services, created Austin Studios, founded the Texas Film Hall of Fame, and established a community outreach and education initiative involving paid internships and summer youth camps.
Uh, what is a mill?
Good business decision. Go for it!
In the coming maelstrom of digitally-induced change to the media business, the first thing to disappear will be the bright-line distinctions between Recordings, Films, Videos, and Broadcast programming. Our company grew out of 15 years of visioneering, into precisely how media marketing will change in the digital era.
California and New York are both Privilege-To-Work states, which facilitates footdragging by those who wish to remain Luddites. Texas being a Right-To-Work state, provides a freer regulatory environment to those who wish to cross the traditional media boundaries, that arose when each major medium used an entirely different technology to convey the artistic experience to an audience.
I applaud the directors of AFS for having the foresight to create a new-business incubator, and to attract professional audio recording engineers, to the 51st Street campus. This can only improve the already-wonderful community of independent film and music that has evolved, organically, from the efforts of hundreds of Austinites who create music and motion pictures, and the many thousands of Austinites who relish the variety of artistic work product near to hand. Having personally watched Michigan repeat the same set of blunders made by the German government 20 years ago, when it tried to create an animation industry by throwing money at people, I am confident that Michigan’s unsustainable 45 percent production credit will fail to create a local film industry. I am equally confident that Austin’s homegrown film and music industries will continue to succeed, even as major players in New York and LA struggle through rough financial times. Why? People don’t come to Austin for money. They come to work with the folks who’ve made the Austin artistic community what it is today, and will be tomorrow.
A lot of those folks, like me, belong to AFS, and I’m proud as punch to see this kind of foresight and planning coming out of our Board.
Thank you kindly!
From the City Council agenda for Thursday 6/18, item number 16 - “The premises may be used only as a studio complex for the production of films, television programs, commercials and multi-media productions, as well as educational, and literary uses as well as accessory uses and job-training associated therewith.”
From the AFS Persistence of Vision journal on 6/12 - “Soundcheck Austin is a new Austin business founded by the owners of Soundcheck Nashville. Soundcheck Nashville serves the 300 bands that call Nashville home, offering full production rehearsal, tour prep services, set and equipment storage, cartage and backline.”
“Full production rehearsal, tour prep services, set and equipment storage, cartage and backline” are not services allowed under the proposed council recommendation.
The problem here is that there are already companies here in Austin that offer the above services and who have never received any “below market value” rent or any other kind of financial support from the city. The idea that the city is offering ANY any incentive to bring an out of state company to Austin to directly compete with established, self supported taxpaying companies will be meet with a great deal of criticism and resistance.
If Soundcheck wants to enter the Austin market on a level playing field by buying or leasing their own facility at market prices, build or finish out a facility at their own expense, advertise and bid on jobs, fine.
As an employee of one of the companies that will suffer from Soundcheck’s favored status, you can be assured that I’ll be at any city council meeting with even a hint of AFS or Soundcheck activity to voice my opposition.
According to AFS, they are renting the facilities to Sound Check at market price. I’d imagine that if a local outfit approached them to rent the space, they’d be pleased as punch to rent it to them. And if Sound Check is set on Austin, they’ll going to pay someone for space. Why not let them improve the studios while helping keep one of the most vital film organizations in Texas alive in the process? It’d be a shame to lose AFS in these hard economic times.
Also, this entire endeavor sounds like a multimedia fit to me: “Bands will book space to launch their tour, record tracks, and commission music videos. Television and web platforms will follow, with channels like VH-1, CMT, BET and MTV coming in to shoot “behind the scenes” and “unplugged” footage.”
[...] Read the original FAQs here. [...]