The Ranch Studios: Take One.
Austin, Texas, entrepreneur Doug Foreman and Tom Taylor, a 17-year veteran of the production industry, are converting the former Post Oak Ranch nightclub in that city into a 10,000-square-foot sound stage called The Ranch Studios.
Taylor Foreman Productions will use The Ranch for its own productions and will lease it out to film companies, advertising agencies, multimedia companies and other businesses that need a place to film.
The sound stage can be used for filming movies, commercials, CD-ROM footage, music videos and other productions requiring a controlled setting. It will open May 18, Foreman said.
The interior of the building, with its dance floor and bars, will be bulldozed and renovated over the next few weeks at a cost of about $250,000. In addition to the sound stage, The Ranch will include 6,000 square feet of production offices, dressing rooms and a full kitchen area. The Ranch also will help in obtaining site locations, hotel bookings and production crews.
Construction of another sound stage is in the plans. Foreman said he expects his investment to grow into the millions of dollars if the business expands as he anticipates.
The Austin area has become a hot destination for television and movie productions over the last 10 years. The presence of The Ranch will only add to Austin’s allure, said Carol Pirie, assistant director of the Texas Film Commission.
When films come to Austin now and want to shoot in a controlled setting, they have to rent space in a warehouse or hangar and build their own sound stage.
With Austin’s thriving economy, the occupancy rate for warehouse space is around 96 percent. Because of the tight market, many landlords are hesitant to lease space for short periods of time to production companies.
“(The Ranch) is not betting on what’s going to happen,” Pirie said. “The film business is here.”
Texas has consistently ranked No. 3 behind California and New York in revenue generated by film production. Over the past three years, Austin has become the No. 1 production center for the state, largely because of feature films. The production companies like the area’s diverse settings, skilled crews, availability of production equipment, lower costs and no state or local taxes on equipment leased for television or movie production.
In 1987, four projects with budgets totaling $9.3 million were filmed in Austin. In 1995, 20 projects with budgets of $71.4 million came to the city.
Currently, 13 feature films and television projects are being made or are in pre-production around the state, including seven in the Austin area. Last year was the biggest year for film production in Texas–a 50 percent increase over the previous year–and 1996 is off to a good start.
In Austin, ongoing projects including the film “Michael” with John Travolta, “For the Love of Zachary,” a TV movie starring Valerie Bertinelli and Vanessa Redgrave, and “Suburbia,” Richard Linklater’s latest feature film. Most of these projects will be finishing up before The Ranch opens.
Pirie said the economic impact on the area is significant because 50 percent of a project’s production budget is spent locally.
Between 1991 and 1995, more than $114 million was spent in Austin. Filmmakers working on location depend on a variety of products and services, including hotels, dry cleaners, furniture rental companies, film processing labs and hardware stores.
“(The film industry) is a good business,” Austin Mayor Bruce Todd said. “It is a business that doesn’t have any impact on the environment. It brings in tourism dollars and doesn’t require any additional infrastructure.”
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The state’s largest sound stage facilities are at the Studios at Las Colinas in Dallas, which opened in 1982. Those facilities, totaling 72,000 square feet, are used primarily to produce broadcast television shows or programs such as “Barney.”
“I can’t say this sound stage will bring more productions to Austin,” Pirie said. “Will it be good for productions coming to Austin? You bet.”
For 38-year-old Foreman, The Ranch is the realization of a dream. Foreman has been involved in numerous ventures, including a restaurant, a nightclub and Austin-based Guiltless Gourmet, the manufacturer of fat-free and low-fat chips and dips.
But he said he has had his eye on the production industry since he was a teen-ager.
The idea for The Ranch came from one of his latest ventures. Foreman, who sold his interest in Guiltless Gourmet two years ago for more than $10 million, developed a 30-minute television show called “Nprint” that discusses and reviews books, magazines and CD-ROMs. He said he had trouble finding a sound stage to film the show.