Production Studio Las Vegas

New F11 Rentals Las Vegas Studio Cyclorama - Open for Business

The studio cyc game in Vegas isn’t the easiest to navigate, especially for out of town productions that don’t know the offerings.  Sure, there are some decent places but most are too small for many productions, don’t deliver on amenities or are out of the way and not convenient for talent or crew.  That’s all changed with the opening of F11 Rentals Studio Cyc.  This newly built stage offers a 3 sided cyclorama, 26’x35’x36′ with 18′ tall clearance.  The stage offers free wifi, a secured yard with 12×14 rollup door and ample parking.  The conditioned stage is open for business at this time and will continue to upgrade it’s offering with new makeup/wardrobe space, green room, lofted production overlook and state of the art lighting grid, all of which are coming soon.

The space is large enough to accommodate vehicles, multiple talent productions, photo shoots, music videos and various types of large rehearsals for the entertainment industry.  The F11 network speed runs on fiber and offers plenty of upload and download speed for live streams productions.  The studio is situated next to the airport and is conveniently located not far from the strip.  To make things even more convenient F11 Rentals is one of the largest production rental houses in Las Vegas which makes it easy to add gear to any shoot in the studio before or during the shoot itself.  They also offer crew to fill out any production needs.

This studio, now open, will soon be the premiere cyclorama stage in Las Vegas and it’s exciting to finally have a space of this quality in the city.  Contact F11 to arrange a visit if you’re interested or to go their site to book it in 2020 or beyond.  This studio has the FiveSix stamp approval.


Shooting in a Green Room - No, Not that type of Green Room!

Corporate video production can have it's challenges.  One of these challenges is locations as we don't often get to choose where we shoot.  If we're lucky, we get a scout day or pictures of the location we're supposed to shoot in or we've been there before and already know what we're walking into.  In these cases, we are prepared with the correct lighting and grip set up to make everything look great.  But sometimes we go into a location blind as to what we'll be working with.  At these times it's best to bring a versatile lighting set up because sometimes a green room is exactly that.

Recently in Las Vegas, we walked into a room where the windows had such a strange tint on them that all the light coming into the room was an eerie green in color.  These were large floor to ceiling windows and there was no time or enough crew to gel them accordingly.  Luckily we had brought four Litepanel Gemini 1 x 1 LED panels.  With these lights we were able to dial in the amount of green to match the light coming in from the windows and then after that, it was simply white balancing the Canon C300 Mark II cameras accordingly.  The room, despite looking eerily haunted, looked perfect on camera and the subjects, instead of looking sickly, appeared vibrant.  It's a simple technique but would have been much more difficult to pull off without the right tools.   It's one of the things FiveSix is known for, everything turned out great in a less than ideal situation.  Effective video production is about being prepared, even if you're tossed into a glowing green room.

 


Andrea - Showing At The Best Dam Short Film Festival

Studio FiveSix was selected to show our first short film, Andrea, at the Best Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City.  Andrea shows on Feb. 15th in the 8:15pm block of films.  We're very excited to be included and are happy that our premiere showing is going to be in neighboring Boulder City.  There was a good deal of work and planning that went into creating Andrea, mainly because it was our first narrative piece and we were finding our way through the process.  Since then we have shot a second short film called Maybe Tomorrow that is still in post production but will be out shortly.  We'll be at the festival this weekend so if you are there, stop by and say hi.


Render This - New Mac Pro Arrives at FiveSix

Sometimes you just need a little extra power to spice things up in the office.  Here at FiveSix Productions, we've been running a few different workstations for some time now, a couple mac trashcans from awhile back and a couple newer imac pro machines.  But with the new Mac Pro out, we decided our Edit 1 Bay could use an extra boost.  So far so good.  We run the Adobe Creative Cloud suite working primarily with Premiere Pro and After Effects but also DaVinci Resolve for some color correction.  This machine takes on video editing, real time 2D and 3D graphics creation and powers through the renders at a much better click than its predecessor, but I should hope so for the price tag.  We didn't load it up with all the extras and purchased most of the additions from outside of Apple, though we did opt for the afterburner card to help with quick encoding.  We're only a few weeks in but our editors can surely tell the difference.

There isn't much else to say.  We've cut a commercial, half a dozen corporate videos and a short film so far and haven't had any issues.  We'll update soon once we've really put it to the test and have some hard data of our own to report.  Until then, happy cutting!

 


Cast Away - Casting A Short Film

At FiveSix we do video productions of all types including corporate storytelling, commercial, reality, social media, political, event, documentary and short narrative films.  The last one in that list is fairly new to us and I'd like to chat about how the casting was done in a entirely different manner than our normal process.

For most of our productions in town we use local talent.  There is a good pool of models, actors and actresses in Las Vegas to choose from.  We normally utilize the local agencies and find a group that fit our demographics for each project.  Then, together with our client, we choose the talent that fits the look and feel we're going for.  We call the finalists in for an audition, all in one day, and then pick the final group.  This happens within a day or two.  It's a fairly simple process and one that we have become quite efficient in over the years.

Now, when we started casting for the short films, it was different in two main ways.  The first was that the entire production was financed by FiveSix.   We didn't have the budget to bring in talent agencies and pay the costs that go along with using their services.  A different route was needed.  With a little research we discovered that there are plenty of great resources on-line that give you access to thousands of talented actors and actresses.  Sites such as Backstage and Casting Networks are great communities that help both producers and talent match together on a project.  We ended up posting our projects on backstage.com and having a great pool of talent to choose from.  We were able to advertise our day rate for each role and get only those people willing to work for that rate.  It helped tremendously in budgeting for the films.

The second main difference in casting for the short films was that we searched over the entire country and not just locally.  This brought us a couple of challenges.  We ended up doing many auditions through recorded video and not in person.  One of the best parts about casting live is that you can ask questions and try giving different direction with lines.  You can get a general feeling of how the actor moves with you as you craft a role.  This isn't so easy with a recorded audition.  We found that we were able to quickly get a feeling about a particular role when auditioning in person but with recorded auditions it took many more views and lengthy discussions within our team.  I would always advocate for in-person auditions but when you're on a tight budget and quick timeline, that's not always possible.

Moving forward, due to our ability to find what we were looking for through the on-line talent sites, I think we'll utilize both local agencies and on-line communities for any future auditions.  On a last note, casting is fun but also difficult for all parties involved as it brings about more rejections than acceptance.  I admire anyone who is willing to put themselves out there like that and audition for a role.  Good luck!


Southern California

FiveSix takes on So Cal

We are excited to announce that FiveSix is expanding.

Time to bring on So Cal. Over the last decade, we have become a leader in the Las Vegas video production market.  As we have grown, so has the demand for our services, not only in the local market but all over the US.  We have been particularly busy in Southern California, including Long Beach, Anaheim and all of Orange County.  Due to this demand, we are proud to open a new office in Southern California.  The new office will operate out of Long Beach. With a full-time presence in Southern California, FiveSix is now better positioned to continue to create high-quality, creative and impactful videos over the whole of the Southwest.

Give us a call at 562-786-8456 or shoot us an email at longbeach@fivesix.com

 


Golden Men!

On this day in 1929, the first ever Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, CA. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was concocted by then head of MGM studios, Louis B. Mayer, as an NPO for the advancement and improvement of the film industry. Well, leave it to Hollywood to be fancy, and, within two years, they were giving out golden statues. In the beginning, things were a lot different; the winners were announced before the dinner/ceremony, which was only attended by about 250 folks, and the 15 statues were handed out in a quick, five minute ceremony after dinner. Actor and Academy president Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., presided over the ceremony, and presented awards such as best picture to the $2M blockbuster WWI picture Wings, and best actor/actress awards to Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor.

F11 Rentals would like to point out that the revolutionary and ground-breaking film The Jazz Singer, the first ever "talkie", was not awarded best picture, as it was seen as an unfair advantage since it had sound. F11 Rentals completely agrees with wardrobe and craft services, that sound on film is an unnecessary nuisance, and they got just what they deserved. (FiveSix Productions doesn't agree with those sentiments.)

In 1942 secret ballots entered the picture, making the ceremony much more exciting. Mix secret ballots, fancy dresses and tuxedos on a Red Carpet, and all the glitz, glamor, and lights of Hollywood, and... announcing the wrong film as "best picture", and we've got quite an exciting event on our hands each February.

Check out History Channel for more on this and other old subjects. And make sure to tell all your friends about FiveSix Productions, the best Las Vegas video production company!


Happy Seis de Mayo Eve!

Early May is a festive time for us here at FiveSix Productions. Sure, we're neck deep in projects, but that doesn't stop us from celebrating three consecutive days of fun. From May the Fourth Be With You day, through the festive remembrance of the Mexican's victory over the French at Puebla, and on to our favorite holiday, 5/6 Day- we're having a ball!

Although, we here at FiveSix staunchly stand with the Empire against those terrorist Rebels; and know in our heart that Vader fully intended to throw Luke, not the Emperor over that hand rail- we celebrate with glee and optimism. I think that Mr. Ren is a perfect example of the hope we have for the Empire getting things back under control... anyone who is awesome enough to take care of that piratical, criminal Han Solo, is a friend in my book. Furthermore, let me tell you something about the Battle of Puebla... what would you rather have, delicious churro or unsatisfying croissant? I rest my case. Lastly, FiveSix Day is a benchmark day in which we get to rewrap cables, organize screws by size and ware, and reflect silently in a darkened studio about the decisions we've made in the last 365 days. This year, we are exceptionally lucky in that it comes on a Saturday, not that we need an excuse to come to work on the weekend, but this just makes it that much sweeter.

And so, I leave you with all the splendor that May 4th through the 6th brings, and implore you to reach out to FiveSix Productions for all of your Las Vegas video production needs.


FiveSix Productions "Respects the machines"...

FiveSix Productions isn't just raw talent and rippling muscles, we also have oversized brains, oozing thoughts, emotions, and interests. One of our favorite clients put us on to a cool Instagram page that fell in line with some of our interests: awesome machines and gadgets. Veloxmachina by Garrett Lai is chop full of amazing gadgets and gizmos, and is sure to have you following and double tapping till your fingers fly off. Luckily, if your fingers do fly off, there's most likely a device on veloxmachina that can help with that. So, go check out his page, and let us know which one is your favorite, when we see you on your next Las Vegas video production.


Stoked For The New Year!

Now that the holiday decorations are put away, the confetti has been swept away, and the last of the sparkling cider has been sipped, it's time to get back to the fun and adventure that is Las Vegas video production! One of our favorite times of year is the winter and spring, as it brings great trade shows like CES 2017 to town. The fun doesn't stop at trade shows though, now that the kiddo's are back to the class room, mom and dad are back to getting some work done, and that means we have work too! We're excited to see what the new year will bring us, and we sure can't wait to reconnect with all our great clients and production contemporaries, as well as meet some new faces. So, don't hesitate to reach out for any project you need help with, and we will see you on set, real soon!