My Studio Woes.

Some of you might know that I'm a video producer and that I have my own production company. I've been an independent production company since 2003 when I had my last job which was at an educational television station that I have worked at for 9 years. Being my own boss is cool sometimes, One major part of keeping my company going is maintaining some office and studio space. I share a studio with my boy Rockefeller, he produces music television. Back in January we made a major studio move to a nice studio in a Mall that is more of a business park than a mall these days.

We decided to move because our landlord at our old studio decided to raise our rent from $1300 to $2200 (no utilities included) monthly and that was too much for the area it was in. The old studio was cool because we had our own private fenced parking lot and we had a lot of freedom. The studio was on one side and the office was on the other side with an open floor plan. The studio was in the hood for real though, there was a car accident at the intersection about 50 feet from the studio at least 6 times a month. Shootings were common, we were next door to a liquor store. I could go on but it was ok because once you were inside it was cool and nobody even knew what we did in there. Well at least they didn't know until the day Mike Jones came through in his wrapped tour bus, that caused quite a commotion in the neighborhood and had people asking what we were doing in there. I actually liked the place a lot until they raised the rent.

So this brings me back to January, we made a move that took about 2 weeks into the new place. We had a deal wit the folks who ran it that we would pay $1500 a month including utilities. The guy who ran it came to our old studio often so he basically knew how we got down. He knew that we worked with Models, Rappers, Singers, Actors etc. They also knew that our agenda was different from theirs, but we met about it and it seemed like everything would be good. This organization that we are sharing this space with offers services to families and other organizations, but they are rarely actually at the studio. Part of our deal with them was that we would build a wall to enclose our control room which we did do, we also have an office space that is exclusively for us. The only things that we saw the organization doing at the studio at all was meeting every once in a while, they also let the black Firefighters Organization meet there weekly. Every first and 3rd Friday night they have a poetic groove where some folks come down and do a poetry night. Other than those things we basically had the place to ourselves......or so we thought.

Maybe 2 weeks into us moving in a meeting was called with all of the groups who use the space, basically everybody complained about us because they were not used to change and not happy about it. They complained about lots of things including how we decorated our office, which they have no access to but they saw the door open a couple times. The Black FIrefighters were offended by one of my It Factor posters up behind my desk and asked me to move it. We tried to work with them and I even moved my poster to a different location. On another occasion a meeting was called about us again, this time it was about the people we had coming to our office, station that we should only use our office for business and no have a social club. They were also concerned about how people were dressed in the studio and they wanted everyone to dress respectfully and not used profanity. I later found out that the dress issue was brought up based on the attire of some of the models we had there.

OK.....I don't mind a few mutual rules but this is starting to get ridiculous, we pay $1500 a month to SHARE a space with folks who are on an entirely different page from us, every moth there are new rules created directly geared towards us which is BS. We are being treated like children when we are responsible adults. At this point we have decided that we have to move yet again. Today we told the organization that we will be moving and they were not surprised. It's unfortunate that we could not make it work because the studio and office are very nice, but we are paying too much to be treated like step children.

We have found a new place and we hope to move in soon, the new spot has 7 offices and a studio which is too much space for us, We have some cool people to split the rent with who we work with all the time that share our vision. I'm really hoping we can work everything out to move in, rent in the new spot is $2500 a month but we would only be paying half of that. Unfortunately we spent a lot of money making our last move (and building our useless now control room) so funds a kind of tight. Wish me luck. If this place does not work out we will find something else. but I'm hoping for this place. I've attached a diagram I made of the new spot. Cream factory is the record label that we would be moving in with.