Meddin Studios - Latest Industry News & Events

Savannah seems like a studio back lot some days.

Squares are closed off for filming of "The Conspirator." Television crews tail Ruby Gettinger around Forsyth Park. Production trucks roll out U.S. 80 toward Paula Deen's home.

For as popular as Savannah has become with the camera-shouldering set, the city's beauty is only lens deep. Savannah lacks a vital piece of infrastructure for the production industry: a facility that offers sound stages, editing suites, postproduction services, screening rooms, equipment rental and digital storage.

Come December, however, Savannah becomes a one-stop-video-production shop. Meddin Studios, the brainchild of Savannah College of Art and Design graduate Nick Gant and business partner Jon Foster, will open its doors in early December.

The 22,000-square-foot facility is being carved out of the former Meddin Brothers meatpacking plant on Louisville Road. Four soundstages that can accommodate the needs of all but large feature films and television productions will anchor the project.
The facility could allow Savannah to become "a more vibrant production community," said Jay Self of the city of Savannah Film Office. Area video production specialists - be they makers of documentaries, television commercials, independent filmmakers or high-end still photographers - will no longer have to go to Atlanta or elsewhere for their projects.

"Savannah has sorely lacked a production facility such as this one," Self said. "It allows local filmmakers and producers an infrastructure that they need to be successful here in Savannah."
 
A full-service, self-service business
Infrastructure is a popular catchword with the Meddin crew.
The production industry has long been about specialization. A facility would offer studios or sound stages but limited editing capabilities. Postproduction needs would be provided by someone else.
"In film, the rule was one company can't do it all, because it would require too much of a capital expense to get anything off the ground," Foster said. "But equipment has become more and more affordable, and digital technology makes storage and management easier. We can provide all the infrastructure clients need, all under one roof."
And Meddin's roof can shelter all kinds of clients. The facility will offer more services than a handyman.

In addition to the professional video services, Meddin will offer training and workshops on digital technologies and production techniques.

The company's digital content capabilities will create other revenue streams. Municipalities looking to archive data or video feeds can do so through Meddin. The facility even can accommodate people wanting to convert old family videos or other programming to a digital format.

"We're not setting out to be everything to everyone, but there are layers to what we do here," Gant said. "I think that's why we're generating so much excitement."
 
Strange businessfellows
Gant and Foster are atypical entrepreneurial business partners.
Gant is Meddin's right brain: creative, artistic, a man who served as his college's mascot before flunking out, joining the Army and finding his purpose in life.
Foster is left-brained: focused, technically savvy, a man whose only rebellion was a desire to get out of his hometown of Glasgow, Ky.
Their synapses crossed a few years back when Gant, then working in Gulfstream's marketing department, contracted with Foster's employer, Niche Video Products of Atlanta, to install Final Cut Pro video editing software.

"It wasn't like we all the sudden became best friends, taking vacations together or something, either," Foster said. "But at one point, he was looking to launch something and I was looking to take what I was doing at Niche Video to another level. We eventually came up with this vision."

The idea lacked a home, however. Combining all video production services in one place - known as "pitch to post" in the industry, as in executing a project from the conception stage to completion in a single facility - was a unique concept, but the new company would face stiff competition from existing production companies in a city like Atlanta.

Gant and Foster focused on smaller markets instead. They visited Charleston, S.C., and Jacksonville, Fla., among others.
Savannah had an advantage over the others: a creative environment, a college and two universities that offer video production curriculum and an "obvious need" for a facility like Gant and Foster envisioned.
"Any time you can fulfill a need, and a need at this level, you have a business," Gant said. "We're not stealing business from somebody else. We're helping them do their business better."
And Gant and Foster believe there are countless other markets with similar needs.

Success here could lead to their opening similar facilities elsewhere
"We're not going to get ahead of ourselves," Foster said. "But we believe in this business model. It really could change the video production and infrastructure business."