L.A. Seems Soundstage Boom Even as Dark Clouds Loom Over Hollywood
A few years ago, grip-turned-producer Brian Gork and cinematographer Richard Swindell got the idea they could open their own soundstage complex.
“We wanted to design a stage that would essentially be something that would be recommended from every department — art, electric or whoever,” says Gork.
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Back in the 2000s, it might’ve remained just a crazy, unrealized dream. But thanks to the spike in demand for content created by the streaming explosion, Gork and Swindell made their dream a reality with AKS Stages, which the duo co-owns with Sean Pascale. Located in northeastern Los Angeles neighborhood of Sun Valley, it has three soundstages totaling 52,000 square feet, along with 18,100 square feet of production offices and workspace. Since opening in early 2020, it’s hosted everything from two seasons of Netflix’s “Bake Off” to the Disney+ special “Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 u (a SOUR film).”
AKS Stages is part of a larger soundstage boom. According to a report released by FilmLA in March, Los Angeles County has 17 studio complexes in various stages of development, comprising of 155 stages and approximately three million feet of space, including Sunset Glenoaks in Sun Valley, Reframe Studios in Atwater Village and East End Studios in Glendale.
Meanwhile, several of the city’s oldest and most iconic studio lots are getting massive refurbs and expansions.
At Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank, Worthe Real Estate Group recently razed the façades of homes seen on sitcoms from “Bewitched” to “Young Sheldon” to make way for a $500 million development that will include 16 soundstages and a 320,000-square-foot office complex. Scheduled to open in 2025, it will be leased back to Warner Bros. Discovery.
Four miles away in Studio City, Hackman Capital is partnering with the MBS Group on a $1 billion upgrade for Radford Studio Center — which has hosted everything from John Wayne Westerns to “Seinfeld” — that will include up to 20-25 new soundstages.
In 2021, Hackman Capital announced it was planning a $1.2 billion overhaul of 71-year-old CBS Television City in L.A.’s Fairfax District. The longtime home of game show “The Price Is Right” and “American Idol,” it will be adding 1.13 million square feet of new space and upping the number of soundstages from eight to 15.
But some dark clouds are on the horizon for L.A.’s production community.
According to a report published earlier this month by FilmLA, permitted shooting days in Los Angeles were down 41.4 year-over-year in the third quarter of 2023. During that period, feature film production was down 54.6% and TV drama and TV comedy were down 99% and 99.4%, respectively. The figures don’t give the full picture, however, because they only account for projects shot on location or on non-certified stages, like converted warehouses.
More importantly, they reflect a near-shutdown of the industry due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. But other sectors not affected by the strikes were also down, including commercials (-25.8%) and reality TV (-23.2), the latter of which accounted for 40.8% of all on-location shooting days in the
third quarter.
More troubling is the fact that on-location filming in Los Angeles has declined for seven consecutive quarters, indicating the studios’ retreat in the streaming wars was already being felt before the strikes.
According to FilmLA president Paul Audley, it’s largely due to competition from other regions around the country and the globe that have enacted rich incentives that have led to the development of substantial production infrastructure.
“[Los Angeles] still has the broadest cast and crew base, but a lot of other places have now developed enough of that base that it’s harder to say it’s the only place you can film.,” says Audley.
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