Almost 20 years ago, Richard and Amy James went on their first date in Los Angeles and realized they both aspired to start a film studio.
“We spoke about a dream that both of us happened to have about building a studio, a studio outside of the main Hollywood system, where people could have a quality of life where you could be courageous with the content you were creating,” Richard Janes recalled.
“In that day, we laughed and said, ‘Filmmakers Ranch. How cool would that be?’ We had no idea even about Oklahoma at that stage.”
In 2020, the couple teamed with Melodie Garneau and got started on realizing their dream in far east Oklahoma City, converting the shuttered Green Pastures Elementary School — a 35,435-square-foot building situated on 12 acres adjacent to the city of Spencer — into Green Pastures Studio.
Since, Green Pastures Studio has grown rapidly with the expansion of production infrastructure and subsequent increase in film and television activity throughout Oklahoma County and the state.
The studio has wrangled several diverse projects that have used its support services, facilities or both, from homegrown independent movies like “What Rhymes with Reason” and “Finding Carlos” to Lifetime and Hallmark titles to major studio projects like “Oppenheimer” and “Tulsa King.”
As they expand their 52,000-square-foot facility with two new production vendors and the state’s first certified Dolby Atmos sound mixing stage, the Janeses are rebranding their studio campus with their dream name, Filmmakers Ranch
“When we founded Green Pastures, we wanted to honor the local community with that name … and show the local community that we were serious about involving them — and we’ve been involving the local community in a big way, which has been great,” said Richard Janes, who recently celebrated his 18th wedding anniversary with Amy.
“Now, we’re going to the next stage with the evolution of how the studio is growing, with some new developments that we’re putting out about new soundstages that we hope to build (in the) next year. So, we felt that now was a good time to go through that branding process of Filmmakers Ranch. And I think that gives a producer the idea that they’re coming to a special destination.”
What homegrown Oklahoma film company is joining Filmmakers Ranch?
Billed as Oklahoma’s first film and television studio campus, Filmmakers Ranch is adding two new production vendors: NGP Film, one of the state’s largest film equipment rental businesses, and Apex Post Production, a full-service post-production company.
The homegrown NGP Film has served Oklahoma’s production industry since 2011, supplying camera, lighting and grip and electric equipment to numerous movies and TV projects that have filmed on location in the Sooner State, including Martin Scorsese’s Golden Globe-nominated epic “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the groundbreaking Hulu series “Reservation Dogs” and the Oscar-winning drama “Minari.”
“We’re so blessed to have their whole team at the studio now,” said Janes, who directed his indie film “Cricket’s Requiem” at what was then Green Pastures Studio in spring 2022.
Not only has NGP Film owner and founder Nathan Gardocki “touched every aspect of filmmaking — and all filmmaking budgets — that have shot here” through his rental company, Janes said, but he also is one of the only unit production managers in the state that is a member of the Directors Guild of America, working in that capacity on the biopic “Reagan.”
“NGP is excited to collaborate with Filmmakers Ranch in establishing a haven for cinematic creativity. Much like an artists’ collective, each business at Filmmakers Ranch offers a unique palette of products and services, yet we all have a shared goal — to foster the art of filmmaking in Oklahoma,” said Gardocki in an email.
“We have every confidence that our move to Filmmakers Ranch will significantly boost our capacity to support the thriving growth of filmmakers in Oklahoma.”
How will adding a certified Dolby Atmos sound mixing stage benefit the Oklahoma film industry?
In partnership with Apex Post OKC, the Filmmakers Ranch studio campus now will include a certified Dolby Atmos sound mixing stage, representing a $500,000 investment.
The addition of the advanced sound mixing stage that can work for the immersive Dolby Atmos format is expected to create up to 15 full-time jobs within the state’s movie and TV industry, which saw nearly $300 million in qualified expenditures from productions using the state’s film incentive program in fiscal years 2021 and 2022, according to the Oklahoma Film + Music Office.
“If you look at the movies shooting in Oklahoma, the majority of those movies are taking their sound post-production out of state. So, that is hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars that producers are having to go out of state for because we didn’t have a facility of this quality here,” Janes said.
“Immediately, there’s a massive market with the amount of movies that shoot here already, where we haven’t been able to service them. So, you’ve got your in-built audience already. Then, because of … the quality of this room, having been made with Dolby, we’re in a situation where we can attract more producers to coming here to do their post-production sound work.”
Janes said he expects the experience and reputation of Apex Post OKC owner Jon Vogl to be a draw, too. Vogl worked in the sound department at 20th Century Fox for 15 years in L.A. and started his Louisiana-based Apex Post Production in 2008, relocating to New Orleans in 2010. He recently bought a house in Oklahoma as he starts up Apex Post OKC at Filmmakers Ranch.
Vogl said Dolby Atmos certification is an industry-recognized mark of technical excellence for post-production sound facilities that is increasingly in demand.
“It’s not just a want. It’s also a requirement for the deliverables for any of the major studios. … Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, they’re all starting to require Atmos sound mixes on their films,” Vogl said.
“We hope to also capitalize on films that have been made in just the older Dolby 5.1 or just stereo surround mix needing to mix into Dolby Atmos. That’s a separate process on its own — and very lucrative — and it’s something that only an approved facility can do.”
Janes said he expects the certified Dolby Atmos sound mixing stage to be ready for business in early 2024.
“These big mixing rooms that you have for theatrical mixing movies, Dolby has to come out and they actually tune the room to make sure it’s absolutely perfect. … Then, we’ll be rocking for the new year,” he said.
How is Oklahoma positioned in the film industry as Hollywood resets after the recent strikes?
Filmmakers Ranch is expanding as Oklahoma continues to prove an attractive place for productions, with annual incentive programs available to the film and TV industry from state, city and tribal governments. The Oklahoma Film + Music Office reports that the state’s film incentive program, the Filmed in Oklahoma Act of 2021, created nearly 12,000 local career opportunities, with close to $120 million in wages paid to Oklahomans, in fiscal years 2021 and 2022.
“The idea is to build community and a collective … and build a one-stop shop that becomes really simple for producers to see what is really available here in Oklahoma,” Janes said. “That doesn’t mean that anyone who’s not in our group at the moment is excluded — we want to embrace everyone across Oklahoma that wants to be involved — but it becomes also a marketing tool for us all. We can go out and say, ‘Look, come to the Ranch … and we can introduce you to everyone that you need to know here in Oklahoma.’”
