SYRACUSE — SubCat Studios, located at 219 S. West St. in downtown Syracuse, on Aug. 16 announced the opening of its new post-production suite. The idea for this suite originated in 2019 when the production team for the film “Odd Man Rush” needed a space for post-production in Syracuse. Since then, movie-production incentives like Onondaga […]
SYRACUSE — SubCat Studios, located at 219 S. West St. in downtown Syracuse, on Aug. 16 announced the opening of its new post-production suite.
The idea for this suite originated in 2019 when the production team for the film “Odd Man Rush” needed a space for post-production in Syracuse.
Since then, movie-production incentives like Onondaga County’s PRIMED (short for production incentives for movies and entertainment development) have encouraged filmmakers to choose Central New York as their primary shooting location, “but still did not sway most from relocating their post to outside of the city,” SubCat said.
“We kept hearing the same thing from producers over and over again. ‘There isn’t a post-production studio in the area,’” Cody Slade, SubCat’s head of videography, said. “We were ready to change that. Now, local filmmakers and out-of-town production companies finally have a CNY–based post-production house that they can call home.”
SubCat made a “significant investment” to entice film productions to stay in the Syracuse area, TJ James, studio manager at SubCat, tells CNYBJ in an email.
The local studio hired Mixing Light LLC, a post-production consulting company from Washington, D.C., that helped it select of the equipment and screens for the editing room, James says.
The suite didn’t need much construction work, he notes. When the space was renovated once its recording studios were built, the film-production room, along with others on the 2nd floor of the SubCat facility, were built as isolated rooms on floating floors for rehearsal spaces, James says.
Realizing it was a chance to make full start-to-finish filmmaking possible here in Syracuse, the SubCat team set out to create an environment for post-production and make the city “a place for entertainment to stay.” For months, the SubCat team visited surrounding studios and consulted with professionals to calibrate the suite’s equipment and technology to the “highest industry standards.” Now, SubCat Studios’ clients are using the new space.
About the suite
The suite offers a set of tools and a team of audio experts to support all aspects of the post-production process, SubCat Studios says.
Editors and colorists can work with a new Apple Mac Pro Tower, with access to top-of-the-line film-editing and creative software, DaVinci Resolve 17 and Adobe Suite. These programs are paired with a Blackmagic color-grading board and DaVinci speed editor.
KRK monitor speakers and two 32” and 55” LG monitors span the length and width of the room, allowing for a “collaborative viewing experience from all angles,” according to SubCat.
Just one floor beneath the post-production room is a multi-million dollar recording studio, where SubCat’s audio engineers can help filmmakers rework their audio or track ADR (audio dialogue replacement) sessions directly into the suite.