SINGING THE VALLEY'S PRAISES

More often than I can recall, prospective clients who contact our rental office for stage information or scout our facility end their conversations with comments such as, "Well, your stage sounds great, but the client doesn't want to drive all the way from the West Side." Or, "We love your place, but it's too far from our offices in Los Angeles."  I won't argue with people, but I know that they are laboring under a misconception on this point.  My attempts at guiding them toward the truth are usually dismissed, and we move on.  And again, more often than I can recall, those very same clients come back, rent our stages, and become devoted return renters.  Sometimes people just have to learn things for themselves.

Those of you who are familiar with traffic patterns in and around Los Angeles County know that the morning rush hours on the 5, 170, 405 and 101 southbound can be sluggish, exasperating, and even nightmarish.  Travel time in minutes is like converting Fahrenheit to Celsius--double it and add 30. 

Conversely, northbound freeways go against the vehicular tides, and traffic flows with ease.  Once, I timed a morning trip by car from Wilshire Blvd. and 26th St. to our stages in Arleta/San Fernando, and it took me 26 minutes.  Yeah, okay, I have a lead foot, but I was only going a few miles over the limit.  The point is, 26 minutes is nothing when it comes to going from Santa Monica to San Fernando.  LCS seriously puts the meaning in "freeway close."  

A client recently told me that a shoot he booked in downtown L.A. was difficult to get to, parking was a huge pain, and the location fees and permits were costly.  After shooting at LCS, he's totally sold on us and The Valley.  What us Valley-ites know, and have always known, is that you can find anything you need here in the Hinterland just beyond the 405 and Cahuenga passes.  In fact, most entertainment industry support services are located on this side of the Great Divide.  Within a 10-mile radius of our stages, there are hundreds of companies, small and large, that serve the film/video, marketing, and web content communities.  Prop houses, set vendors, grip and lighting, audio and visual post-production houses, theatrical fabrics, caterers, break-away glass, cranes and high-lifts, rental trucks, rental animals, rental body parts, rental zombies, you name it...it's all right here in The Valley, just a stone's throw away from our front door.

The next time you or someone you know needs a great shooting stage with a beautiful greenscreen, science-fiction spaceship sets, nearby top-notch support services, and an easy drive with plenty of free parking waiting for you, just remember--The Valley's got it, and it's a lot closer than you might think.

        Regards
        Mary Claypool, Rental Manger              Patrick Mason, Stage Manger

                                       Daniel Bither, Marketing