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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Disney’s Frontier

Here in the entertainment capital of the world, production companies of all sizes battle for prime soundstage locations. Space and availability come at a premium. Productions often have an endless list of location requirements, and virtually all must meet increasingly stringent budget requirements. Even The Walt Disney Co. — which boasts more than $40 billion in annual revenues and has a current market value of more than $75 billion — faces a number of hurdles in trying to secure the best soundstages. For this global behemoth, though, an undeveloped, 56-acre parcel at its Golden Oak Ranch in the Santa Clarita Valley may solve some of the challenges and provide new opportunities for the company to grow. At this historic 890-acre property, Disney is preparing to bring to life a new production complex — Disney ABC Studios at the Ranch — that could create more than 3,000 jobs and pump tens of millions of dollars into the state and local economy each year. This month, the company expects to release its environmental impact report for the project, which was announced in 2009 and calls for 12 soundstages that offer space for up to six one-hour dramas, production and administration offices, and commissary and talent bungalows. Construction could begin by the end of the year, pending development approvals from Los Angeles County, said Richard Ballering, vice president, production operations for ABC Studios. Under that timeline, soundstages would be completed by early 2015. “It will be the most extensive creative campus within the 30-mile (studio) zone,” Ballering said. Investing in the future For more than 50 years, feature film, television and commercial production has taken place on the property, which Walt Disney began purchasing in 1959 and is situated between Route 14 and the Angeles National Forest. In addition to a rich natural environment, the Ranch features a Residential Street with more than a dozen homes in different architectural styles, an Urban Business District with more than 40 different storefronts and a range of rustic western, farm and prairie sets. scores of TV shows and movies. Compared with other filming locations, the Ranch ranks fourth in the number of filming permits issued in the county, according to FilmL.A., the nonprofit that coordinates on-location filming in the city and county of Los Angeles and other jurisdictions. The Disney ABC Studios at the Ranch project represents a multi-million investment in the last of the studio-owned movie ranches and a commitment by Disney that Southern California remains vital to television production. It also makes it easier to perform what Ballering described as “a complicated ballet” of finding for TV shows the right filming location within the space available. “It is a balancing act of having a large enough interior space to build inside and finding a location that gives the exteriors and practical looks you need when you go outside the soundstage,” Ballering said. Disney isn’t alone with making upgrades to its studio operations. Paramount Studios is spending $700 million on improvements to its Hollywood lot, including new soundstages. The $3 billion NBCUniversal Evolution Plan for the Universal City studio includes state of the art soundstages and post-production facilities. By investing significant dollars in these projects, Disney and the other studios are making an important statement about their long term faith in the entertainment industry at a time when other states and countries are competing for production work, said Paul Audley, president of FilmL.A. “This is the next phase of the backlot,” Audley said. The Walt Disney Company leased the Golden Oak Ranch property in the 1950s for “The Adventures of Spin and Marty,” which aired on the “Mickey Mouse Club.” Walt Disney began to purchase the land in 1959 and additional purchases over the years grew the Ranch to nearly 900 acres. Vegetables grown at the Ranch are used in Disney commissaries and hay baled there is used at Disneyland. Mountain lions, bobcats, deer and badger have been spotted at the Ranch. The bridges over the creek beds were built at Walt Disney’s insistence to state transportation codes to handle heavy trucks. Those bridges have not been replaced. The property has two man-made lakes designed to facilitate filming. One lake has an area shallow enough for horses to cross and the other end deep enough for horses to swim in. Some buildings at the ranch are more than 100 years old. Finding space ABC Studios currently produces 15 shows for broadcast and cable channels and has 17 pilots on deck to film in coming months. What can be especially challenging for Disney in finding a location is that its main campus in Burbank is the smallest production facility of the main Hollywood studios. For that reason, ABC is forced to take some shows elsewhere — the Ranch, Manhattan Beach, Culver City and Hollywood. For studios, geography, economics and previous relationships with soundstage operators come into play when deciding where to film, said Sam Nicassio, the president of Los Angeles Center Studios, which has six soundstages and is located near downtown. For soundstage operators, though, space is tight when you have hit shows on your roster, he said, noting his venue is home to cable drama “Mad Men” and several shows for Disney. “On the venue side, you are juggling to fit this guy in with the long-term shows,” Nicassio said. “It comes down to, ‘How do I take weeks from one show and give it to another?’” The Disney ABC Studios at the Ranch project offers the company more flexibility to deal with such scenarios, Ballering said. And while full build-out is likely still a few years away, the project continues to move through L.A. County’s lengthy project approval process. After the draft of the environmental impact report is released this month, there will be a period of public comment and a public hearing on the project. After Disney responds to the comments, the final EIR will be released and the county will approve construction permits. Once the new soundstages at Golden Oak are ready, the strategy is to move in shows that require significant interior space, but that also call for ample use of exterior shooting, Ballering said. On average, a single production requires enough trucks to stretch across four football fields to take equipment to a filming site, Ballering said. By adding onto the Ranch, he said, “you can stay in one place and concentrate on making the show.” The soundstages also may bring additional film work to an area that already attracts scores of production crews to the neighborhoods of Santa Clarita and the privately-owned ranches in the surrounding mountains. While the Golden Oak Ranch is outside the city limits, there are productions that leave the property to come to the city, “If there is a location not feasible at the Ranch, they potentially could come to Santa Clarita and film inside or outside one of our businesses or parks,” said Russell Sypowicz, administrator for the film office. In 2011, the City of Santa Clarita Film Office issued 359 permits for a total of 901 film days. The natural scenery at the Ranch, however, also may make it the first choice of where productions stay to shoot, Ballering said. Its landscape has stood in for Asia, and the American South and Midwest. The remoteness of the location — the nearest residence is three-quarters of a mile from the center of the property — makes it ideal for large explosions and fire and diminishes the glare of city lights. “Those are elements not found in the 30 mile (studio) zone,” Ballering said.

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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