Small Business Profile: Infomercial Please Glendale Studios, cramped for space, fills a niche by providing facilities for infomercial productions as it plans for an expansion. Makhanian: Found technology upgrades made Glendale Studios more competitive among small facilities. By CARLOS MARTINEZ Staff Reporter Less than a year after threatened strikes brought film production in Hollywood to a near standstill, forcing Glendale Studios to lay off a quarter of its staff, the small, family-owned production facility may have carved out the niche it needs to be profitable. “It sounds kind of funny, but we’re having a great year,” said Steve Makhanian, the studio’s general manager and vice president. The company figures revenues will top $6 million this year, up from $4 million last year when production throughout Hollywood was stymied due to a dispute between writers and producers and later by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “Nobody wanted to do anything and we had to lay 10 people off,” Makhanian said. But by January, production at the studio had resumed as Makhanian and his marketing team signed several deals for infomercials and commercials by touting the state-of-the-art digital video equipment it had recently installed. “We knew we had to bring people in or we’d be in a lot of trouble,” Makhanian said. So far the studio, which has only two soundstages, has nabbed more than a dozen productions this year, with more scheduled to begin later this fall. The studio is known for a long list of infomercials produced there, including “Billy Blanks’ Tae Bo,” “Buns of Steel,” “Body By Jake,” “AbSlider” and “Dynomop.” “It’s a great place for us, not only because their rates are so reasonable, but because they have great facilities,” said Paul Greenberg, line producer for Los Angeles-based production company Sylmark Inc. So far this year, the company has shot four infomercials at the facility with another slated, Greenberg said. While the studio struggled last year, Makhanian said he realized he needed to replace its aging video production equipment if it was going to survive. “We had older equipment and a lot of companies just didn’t want to use that, so we were losing business,” he said. So, the studio invested $1 million in digital video equipment that it installed earlier this year, giving it an advantage over other similar studios that had yet to make the changeover. By touting its low rental rates and new equipment, the studio’s fortunes quickly improved, Makhanian said. Mike Ramsey, line producer for Santa Ana-based Script to Screen Inc., said his company had stopped working at the studio because of its outdated equipment. “I’ve probably shot 20 infomercials in Glendale. We shot ‘Torso Track’ with Suzanne Somers there, but we stopped coming until they got that new equipment,” he said. But, as with many service-oriented businesses, it wasn’t just the equipment that appealed to Ramsey. “They just seem to try harder and to work with you,” he said. Makhanian’s brother and sister work at the studio, as does his father, who still oversees the entire operation. Started back in 1985, the studio had been a sports uniform business before Makhanian’s father, Al, acquired the property. Al Makhanian had sold his interest in a downtown Los Angeles auto parts manufacturer to build his own studio. “He just always wanted to get into the film business,” Steve Makhanian said. After purchasing the one-acre property along Glendale Avenue, the elder Makhanian made a deal to acquire more than a dozen truckloads of film, video and related equipment from the Osmond family, which had just sold the Utah television studios where it produced the “Donny & Marie Show” from 1975 to 1979. “We didn’t really know that much about the business, but we wanted to make a go of it,” Steve Makhanian said. They struggled the first three years, attracting the syndicated sitcom “What’s Happening Now!” and a handful of commercials and infomercials, but revenues never went much over $1 million. “What’s Happening” was canceled in 1987 and the studio strung together a series of commercials and independent low-budget features to make ends meet. Then in 1989, “The Judge,” a syndicated courtroom series similar to “The People’s Court,” gave the studio much-needed steady revenue over the next three years, before it was canceled in 1991. That led to a steadier clientele that included news teams from NBC, CNN and others that wanted to take advantage of the studio’s satellite linkup. Among the films shot at the studio were 2000’s “Ring Master” with Jerry Springer and 1997’s “Mad City,” starring Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta. But the studio doesn’t attract major motion pictures often, due to the small size of its soundstages, Makhanian said. “Big pictures want big soundstages and we just don’t have that,” he said. Today, the studio employs 30 people and plans to expand into a newly acquired lot with a 10,000-square-foot stage set to be built later this year. Spotlight: Glendale Studios Year Founded: 1985 Core Business: Film and video production Revenue in 1985: $1 million Revenue in 2001: $4 million Employees in 1985: 10 Employees in 2001: 30 Goal: To secure contracts for film and video productions Driving Force: The need for affordable production facilities
