New Job at READING FILM STUDIOS
We all know that ol' chestnut of a saying "When one door closes, another one opens." Well, in my case the door didn't close forever, but it certainly slammed and rattled on its hinges...
It was early August and we were on route to Mt Penn with our picture vehicle to shoot a teaser-trailer for our upcoming feature FLASHLIGHT. Spirits were high and we were excited to capture our truck on film for the first time. We turned off the highway and began climbing the hill towards the location when... disaster! The radiator hose on the truck blew, clouds of steam billowed from within and our plan was officially shot to hell. One pricey tow later and we were back at square one - not enough financing and no footage to show for any of our endeavors up to this point. Things were looking bleak.
Skip ahead a couple of weeks. We were contracted to shoot a short for a friend at someplace called "Reading Film Studios"... wait... what? I've been in this town over 25 years and had never heard of such a place! We scheduled a pre-production meeting at this place and WOW - here is a fully-functioning film production studio right in our backyard! We were equal parts gobsmacked and impressed and my only thought was "how do we get involved in this studio on a permanent basis???" Well, as fate would have it, a week later the owners were impressed with the smoothness of our shoot and our professionalism and asked US if we'd like to partner up with them!
"Hell yes!" was our stunned and enthusiastic reply.
A few days later we found ourselves in the RFS offices swapping resumes and ideas with our new partners Tony, Kem and Taiy. They brought us up to speed on the history of the studio: they came from NYC only a year and a half ago with decades of media experience and a dream to create a multi-functional production studio to service the local community and offer an affordable alternative to the studios currently dominating the New York and Philadelphia markets. Our backgrounds and goals were remarkably similar and we hit it off straight away. We were all hungry, ambitious and ready to get to work creating something our area was in desperate need of.
But first we needed to tear down some stuff...
The RFS complex consists of 2 buildings. The main production studios and offices are located in Bldg A and across the parking lot is Bldg B, a 7-story monolith housing a dizzying array of raw materials and props that is designated for future renovation and expansion. As a bonus, in its current state it is the ultimate setting for any number of horror and genre films... and yes, we are busy working on scripts for it.
We spent a week earning our stripes with some serious sweat equity, demolishing walls and organizing materials in Building B. We then relocated ourselves to Building A, where we dove headlong into creating a couple film sets to showcase both our skills and the potential of our large 3rd floor stage space to both future clients and the upcoming Reading FilmFest. It was a lot of fun putting my 20 years of Halloween set-building experience to use over the next few weeks, creating two spectacular and wildly different environments using nothing but raw materials and props conveniently located in our two existing buildings.
Once completed, the sets were a resounding success, generating enthusiasm both within the RFS team and with potential clients and investors. It was now time to settle into our new office and begin mapping out the RFS future - promoting our facilities to future customers while generating our own original content for sale and distribution. Exciting times for us all!
So that's it in a nutshell - a quick recap of my whirlwind past couple of months! The road ahead promises to be incredibly exciting and I can't wait to share it with you!
Until then - take care and be good to yourself and others... Scott
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