Forrester Media's Atlanta Video Production Blog

Atlanta's most popular studio?

When we decided to build our studio in 2006, we did it primarily for our own productions. We had rented studio space when needed, but I liked the idea of having our own space that was always available. Little did I know how popular a studio space this would become.

Over the last two and one-half years, we've seen a steady stream of celebrities, talent and business executives stop by our studio. They've taped TV shows, interviews, green screen videos, web videos and too many others to mention. Sometimes our clients just rent the studio and lights. Other times, we provide set pieces, cameras, switchers and all the crew. Each production is unique and we treat them as such.

What has pleasantly surprised me is the number of repeat clients we have using the studio. I like to think it's a combination of factors: good location, right size, sound-proof and pre-lit. Often times, clients are able to arrive and within a short time begin taping - especially if we are using the green screen.

Other times, more set-up time is required, especially for productions that need to utilize set pieces. Our news set is popular for news, medical and talk shows.

Our most extensive set-up was a production that brought in a full kitchen for a satellite media tour. It arrived in pieces in two delivery trucks, but was assembled in one day!

There have been numerous other set-ups and configurations, but I hope these pictures give you an idea of the diversity of the types of productions we've seen. It's nice to provide an affordable, well-maintained studio that serves the growing production needs of the Atlanta market. It starts to make me wonder...could we be Atlanta's most popular studio? Probably not. But it's a goal we work toward every day.

Is the economy finally turning around?

I'm happy to see autumn arrive. It was a long summer. As a supplier of camera crews to TV news organizations, we felt the economy pinch the networks pretty well. When advertisers stopped advertising, the networks stopped outsourcing much of it's work. That hurt just a bit!

Fortunately what didn't stop was our corporate and web business. In fact, we saw an increase in work from small companies that decided it was time to advertise and promote themselves. Our regular business clients also used the summer to work on projects that they had sidelined since last fall.

For the last month, however (and okay, I'm giving fall more credit than perhaps it's actually due) the phone has been ringing and jobs are booking for both corporate and network organizations. Yes, the networks are spending money again. In my book, that can only mean that companies are advertising which provides the networks needed revenue. The networks in turn, get a bit looser with their purse strings.

The other item I've noticed is that advertising agencies and their like are spending money to produce videos used to court new clients. That's really encouraging. Spending money to make money.

So I like to think my group of leading economic indicators (my clients) are seeing good news from their clients - and that is good news for everyone.