Rockhouse Pictures chooses OKC over Austin

Rockhouse Pictures chooses city over Austin as home base
By Jim Stafford
Business Writer

Kenny Phillips opened his Rockhouse Cinema studios in far northwest Oklahoma City to a one-man tour Monday, showing off a vast array of editing equipment in what once was nothing more than a, well, rock house.

The facility offers editing equipment, sound booths, a recording studio with a new Steinway piano, computer equipment and a new mission for its owner: theatrical film production.

The studio is now home to Rockhouse Pictures, a new film production company created as a result of a partnership between Phillips and Austin, Texas, independent film producer Christopher Sharpe.

Phillips, 55, is a long-time professional musician who toured with various rock bands in the 1970s, then became a Grammy-award winning sound engineer.

In a 30-year career, Phillips has done lights and sounds for many performers, including, U2, Nirvana and comedian Robin Williams. He designed sets and lighting for Rob Becker's Broadway show "Defending the Caveman,” as well as lighting, sound, video presentation, props and set pieces for Eric Idle's live stage show, "Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python.”

Phillips bought the old rock house that was next door to his own residence in 2004 and remodeled it into a professional-quality recording and engineering studio.

"I gutted it all the way to the rock on the outside and started over,” Phillips said of the studio project.

The Phillips-Sharpe partnership started in 2004 with the production of a feature film called "Sex Machine,” which claimed the Best Film prize at the 2006 deadCENTER film festival in Oklahoma City. It's a story of a Frankenstein-like creature that has a "sex machine” tattoo on its arm.

"Chris Sharpe is an artist when it comes to video, so between his talents and mine combined, we can make a beautiful looking and sounding project,” Phillips said.

Oklahoma's advantages
Sharpe was present Monday via a live computer video link from his Austin office where he was busy working on a script. The first production from Rockhouse Pictures should begin shooting this fall, he said.
"It's an action-adventure movie about a punk rock band,” said Sharpe, 35. "We're still working on a title, but it's going to be fast paced, in-your-face type action adventure.”

Also, an Oklahoma City native, Sharpe is dividing his time between Austin and Oklahoma City and plans to relocate to his hometown.

Oklahoma offers some definite advantages over Austin, he said. The state has created tax advantages for production companies to film in the state, but there is more.

"Here in Austin there has been so much film production that it's harder to get a location here,” Sharpe said. "So many of them have been used in productions...it's just so much more expensive to get locations.”

Plus, Oklahomans are eager to help the state's film industry grow, Phillips said.

All of which means that actors and a film crew will be setting up scenes in Oklahoma locations this fall. The production is financed by unnamed investors who are eager to be associated with something "cool,” Phillips said.

As for distribution of the completed project, the pair described a new "distribution model” without providing details, except that the Internet will play a key role.

"We have a business plan in place that will be really, really exciting,” Sharpe said. "The way we are going to release it is going to be the real news.”

For more on the new film production company, go to ROCKHOUSE CINEMA.

OKLAHOMA FILM REBATE
The Oklahoma Film Enhancement Rebate offers up to 15 percent on Oklahoma expenditures to qualifying companies filming in the state, capped at $5 million per year.

Specifics:
•The rebate is extended to film, television and commercial productions
•General liability insurance with minimum coverage of $1 million, and a workers' compensation policy pursuant to state law are required.


The company also is required:
•To have a minimum budget of $500,000 and spend $300,000 in Oklahoma. The minimum budget requirement is cumulative so companies producing multiple projects in a fiscal year with a minimum budget of $250,000 and totaling at least $500,000 will qualify.
•To employ Oklahoma residents for at least 50 percent of its below-the-line crew to qualify for full 15 percent rebate. Rebates of 5 percent are available if a company employs up to 24 percent Oklahomans and 10 percent for companies who employ 25 to 49 percent Oklahomans. Crew tiers are waived if a) the budget is $5 million or higher or b) with a signed letter from the Director of the Oklahoma Film & Music Office verifying that inquiries have been made and there is not adequate crew available at the time required.

•To provide proof of complete financing prior to commencement of principal photography. If film is not bonded, no rebate money will be released until evidence is provided that all Oklahoma crew and vendors have been paid along with evidence that there are no liens against production company in the state of Oklahoma.

•To provide evidence of a recognizable domestic or foreign distribution agreement within one year from the end of principal photography or must provide evidence of being accepted to one of the top 15 film festivals or two or more of the top 30 film festivals in the U.S. as determined by the Oklahoma Film & Music Office.

•To secure no-cost filming permit from the Oklahoma Film & Music Office.

Source: Oklahoma Film and Music Commission

Very cool.

Yes, this is way cool. I wonder what impact it will have on the current film people we have - like Vacant Era and Outsiders Productions.

MMMM Competition!

There's also Every Tribe and Creative Vega as well as others.

I know this guy! He used to be a client at my old job. Good to see he's doing well.

There's plenty of room for the competition...if you want to call it that. At the end of the day we're all trying to increase Oklahoma's filmmaking visibility.