Massive film stage set to open in Wilmington
EUE/Screen Gems Studios built it. Now, all the producers have to do is come.
The Wilmington filmmaking facility will show off its newly completed “Dream Stage 10” at noon Monday to local media. A few details still need to be completed, such as electricity hook up and the final building inspection. But by the end of this week the sound stage’s massive airplane hangar doors should be open for business.
“That’s what we were aiming for is to create the big studio films or television shows where the big idea can be achieved and there are no constraints on the idea,” said Chris Cooney, COO of EUE/Screen Gems Studios in New York and Wilmington. “It really just makes the filmmakers’ job … that much easier. Because it’s a given that there’s a highly skilled crew base, great locations in Wilmington’s region and now you have a world-class studio on a world-class studio campus.”
Ground broke in September on the 37,500-square-foot columnless structure and its 50-by-50-by-6-foot special-effects water tank. The metal building’s is 45 feet high inside and the water tank features special attachments that expand it to 60-by-60-by-10.5-feet.
EUE/Screen Gems was already the largest movie studio out of California, with 50 acres and nine sound stages. Now, owners say it has the third-largest stage in the United States and one of the largest special-effects water tanks in North America.
Last week, workers filled the 90,000 gallon tank that sits in the floor on one side of the building. Nearby, Wilmington Regional Film Commission Director Johnny Griffin showed off the facility to Grant Gilmore, unit production manager for “Main Street.”
“Main Street,” starring Orlando Bloom and Colin Firth, wrapped shooting in Durham last week. Crew members from Wilmington made up most of the workforce on that show. Gilmore said they talked about the new stage and the Port City’s other movie amenities so much, he had to stop by and see for himself.
He stayed only about three hours because he had to catch a flight to Los Angeles the following day, but his short trip made an impression.
“The stage itself is freakin’ humongous,” he said. “I mean, you could put a New York street in there. You could put the insides of a football stadium … you could do a lot in there … I mean, you could do Hollywood Boulevard in that stage.”
Gilmore also called Stage 10 “state-of-the-art.” Its other features include engineer-designed soundproofed walls and ceiling. Overhead steel girders enable equipment such as lighting to be suspended from the ceiling. A lack of interior columns allows freedom of camera movement and more space for scenery.
The massive stage can also be divided with a moveable wall to create two regular-size sound stages. Stage 10A and Stage 10B would be complete with two of everything to make each one independently functional.
It is wired with 13,600 amps of electricity.
“If you think about that, your house has 200 amps,” said Chris Crowder, Stage 10 project manager. “When I talked to Progress Energy … he said, ‘I think you’ve got a zero in the wrong place.’ That’s more power than the hospital has.”
Crowder, a Wilmington resident and film construction foreman, was visibly excited about the completion of the project. He suggested taking a walk through Screen Gems’ next-biggest stage, Stage 4, to “feel” the difference.
After standing in Stage 10 for awhile and then walking into Stage 4, you get a similar sensation as when you drive a Ford Crown Victoria after driving a big dump truck. Even at 20,000-square-feet, Stage 4 feels smaller and much more insignificant than it really is.
Sound stage size is very important for a large feature film.
“We’re cognizant that it’s a tough economic climate right now, but we built it for the long term. The film ideas just keep getting bigger and bigger,” Cooney said. “You know, ‘Spider-Man,’ ‘The Dark Knight,’ the ‘Iron Mans,’ they need a studio complex like this to be able to achieve those goals.”
Moviemakers also need these buildings to control their surroundings. If the scene calls for rain, they can make it rain here even on sunny days. Or, they can make a sunny day inside a soundstage while a storm rages in real life.
They can make day when it’s night, or they can make night when it’s day. And that is especially important if children are some of the main actors in a film. When “Bolden!” shot here in 2006 and 2007, a large New Orleans set was built in Stage 4 so that the child actors could work day shift hours as required by industry rules, even though their scenes were supposed to have occurred at night.
Dave Beavis, a third-generation special effects artist who owns Carolina Effects in Wilmington, explained why the water tank in Stage 10 is so special.
It is possible to set removable steel walls into the floor with metal rods and rubber gaskets, which will enable the new tank to expand from a 50-foot square to a 60-foot square and add 4½ feet in depth. Beavis also said an engineer looked at the tank and said it could, if necessary, accommodate a metal wall as large as 15 feet for really deep water scenes.
But, you don’t have to fill it with water.
“It’s a big hole with water, but it’s really whatever you can use your imagination for,” he said. “You can build up to four floors here. … If you use your imagination, you can see a narrow street built here with subway exits coming up out of the ground on either side.”
Beavis also explained how filmmakers place blue, black or green screens behind tanks to make the water look endless or to digitally impose things such as helicopters or shipwrecks.
Metal tie-downs in the bottom of the Stage 10 tank allow cameras perched on towers to stand perfectly still while huge fans blow the water around for storm scenes. Beavis said this is a feature he wishes he had while working on a few submarine scenes in the television series “Surface,” which filmed here in 2005.
“I am modestly excited that the facility is here and I hope that our ‘master in L.A.’, when they find out about it, they’ll come here in droves,” Beavis said.
Bill Vassar, executive vice president of EUE/Screen Gems’ Wilmington campus says word is already out.
“We’re excited about the stage and the tank coming online,” he said. “We’ve seen curiosity from producers and studio production executives in L.A. and we look forward to our first clients soon.”
Gilmore, the L.A.-based unit production manager, said it was nice to see a first-rate facility like this one in a film-friendly town.
“Bottom line is, yes, I would love to shoot on it,” he said.
Amy Hotz: 343-2099
On Twitter: @AmyHotz
