Creative directors and co-founders of film and video production company
GSM Creative, Matt Lohr and Steve Wygman think of their new space Studio 342 as a "creative incubator."
Located at 342 Market Avenue, the new studio space is designed to support the production of most visual mediums. The studio space includes a green screen as well as black and white photography backdrops, with plans to install a 20-foot "cyc wall," or a big white infinity wall, that curves at the bottom to meet the floor and create a horizon effect.
Prior to moving into the new space, GSM Creative had been operating out of a small location in Eastown, and Lohr says they felt nested in with a few other film and video production companies and had limited exposure. However, on the day they planned to sign another three-year lease for an Eastown space, the owner of the property at 342 Market called and asked if they were still interested.
Lohr says the new space is perfect.
"There's an opportunity in being centrally located, [which] I think has opened up some doors for us in terms of being able to reach out to more of the Grand Rapids community," he says. "I think the thing we're all most excited for is being pretty close to the growing art scene in Grand Rapids. When we got started, we were struggling filmmakers ourselves and we want to create a space that's open to other artists, and not just filmmakers - photographers, contemporary artists, painters and other visual creatives."
He says GSM Creative is seeking to expand and grow into a more comprehensive creative hub, hoping to include web and graphic design as well as contemporary illustration and art.
"We want to become a company that is a one-stop-shop destination for visual communications," Lohr says. "So, if a client comes to us and they need anything from web to video to illustration to print, we can handle it in-house."
Other creatives can also rent space at Studio 342, and though they still have some work left in getting all of the necessary tools for some of the art forms they hope to eventually fill the building with, they do have functional workspace currently for photography shoots.
Lohr says they don't have a concrete pricing structure just yet, but they plan on making it as cost-effective and affordable as possible.
"For us, at this stage, this kind of fell into our laps, pretty much," he says. "(The space) became available at the right time and it's an opportunity for us to grow as well as help other young creatives who have a lot of potential. Not even just young, but creatives in all different stages in their careers. We want to make this space affordable and available to them as often as possible."
Studio 342 will debut with a
public open house event today at 3 p.m. Visit the event page on Facebook for more information.
"This is something we've always talked about doing when we first sat down to talk about starting our own film and production company," Lohr says. "We were thinking it might be 5-10 years down the line, but with this building or space that's opened up to us, we can do it now. There's nothing in our way now as far as building something that can be really strong. So, really, our ambition is the limit."
Written by Anya Zentmeyer
Images courtesy of GSM Creative
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