Day 1 in the new studio

Got the keys to the studio today! Very exciting to be new business owner. I'm more than a little bit nervous about how this is going to work out, but I don't really have time to worry. I have SOOOOOO much work to do to get the studio in working order and get ready to officially hang my shingle in two or three weeks.

I didn't get in until around noon. By that time, I had just enough time to unload all of my tools, make a quick run to Lowe's (my new hangout), put the mitre saw together and get about half-way finished with my first workbench when I had to go pick up the boys. We rushed back to meet with a local producer who is interested in using my space to shoot a commercial in early June. He really liked it, and is going to have the DP and Executive Producer come by to take a look at it. They would only need it for a couple of days, but I can also potentially rent some lighting and hire myself out to them to be the set photographer during the shoot, so it might work out to a little chunk of change. Just excited to potentially have my first booked gig!

The space is huge. It has about 600 square feet of office and reception and 1800 square feet of wide open warehouse space in the back. It has two nice little offices (interior - no windows) and two bathrooms, one of which is in the studio space and will be a great makeup/dressing room.

I think I have solved my cyclorama problem. I'll build the flat sides coming into the corner, then jam a bunch of styrofoam into the corner cove, and use marine foam to fill in all of the spaces. From there, I'll just carve the foam down (after it's cured, of course) and use fiberglass tape, resin and drywall compound to strength and shape it into a (hopefully) perfect infinity cyc. I'll post pictures of my progress. Going to use the new Nikon D300s I bought to do a time-lapse video too. I'll post that up somewhere -- maybe YouTube. There are a LOT of studio owners and managers looking for ideas on how to do this without breaking the bank and paying crazy money to cyc manufacturers. It would cost me somewhere around $8,000 to get a full cyc (for the size I want) from one of the big boys. I figure I can do the curve parts for no more than a couple of hundred dollars this way. Let the experiment commence.

I also plan to build a half-cyc, which is my term for a curved wall without the corner cove. I'm sure there's a better term, but I'm too exhausted and lazy to track down the official word. I'll have a couple of 2' by 4' work benches, and then plan to build several 4' by 8' flats, which can be connected in a variety of ways and painted, hung, decorated, etc. to create a lot of different sets and looks. This is VERY economical and will really increase the viability of JKB. I had thought about stretching canvas to save a few bucks. Then considered covering the frame with melanin board. I finally settled on quarter-inch plywood. It's a little heavier and more expensive, but should be more durable and easier to paint and re-paint. I can build 8 or 10 of these flats for the cost of one of the better canvas backdrops out there, and have much more variety for nothing more than half a can of paint or so.

Looking forward to tomorrow!