ASHLAND – The doors are open at independent film studio Good Deed Entertainment.
Renovations are still underway at GDE’s new Ashland headquarters, but already, the company is welcoming key community partners for tours and building relationships with groups like students Ashland High School’s video production program.
“We want to become ingrained in the community, and we want to be a welcoming place,” said GDE staff member Robbie Chernow. The 141 E. Main Street building will be used for community events as well as test screenings of the company’s films.
Chernow envisions talking shop with local movie buffs and film students in the office’s lounge-style loft and showing pre-release films for local audiences in the studio’s 25-seat screening theatre that’s set to be completed in the coming months.
GDE executives are eager to get feedback from audiences outside New York and Los Angeles, and Ashland is a great place to do that, Chernow said.
GDE primarily distributes films now and aims to continue distributing eight to 12 films a year, but its leaders hope to become a full script-to-screen operation with production and post-production happening in and around Ashland.
The Ashland office features room to grow, with open space on the third floor for a sound stage as well as a second-floor room designated for future post-production work.
For now, the bulk of the activity in the office is on the first floor. The ground level is largely open-concept now, but a portion of the space will be built out into executive suites.
Chernow said the GDE team is excited to have moved from California to Ohio.
“We want to film here and we want to turn Ohio into the movie capital we know it can be,” Chernow said. “We have the opportunity to turn Ohio into the next Georgia. The potential is absolutely astronomical.”
But in order for the studio to succeed, it needs support at the box office.
The studio’s latest release, “Storm Boy,” had a slow opening weekend, said Kristin Harris, vice president of acquisitions and distribution.
Opening weekend numbers are crucial for all movie studios, but especially for small, independent companies like GDE. Low box office sales in the first few days can limit the length of time theaters will continue to show a film as well as the number of theaters in which the studio can release a film.
“We’re trying to hang onto as many theaters as we can and open in new markets where we can, but this is really a call to action to get out and support your independent theaters in the opening weekend,” she said.
Harris is asking any local residents who did see “Storm Boy” last weekend to tell their friends to go see it this week.
“We’re hoping people who saw it this weekend will be our champions, because word of mouth is the best advertising for us,” Harris said. “If you talk to someone who you know and trust who says it’s great, you’re more likely to go see it.”
For those who haven’t yet seen the film, “Storm Boy” is still playing throughout the week at Cinemark in Ontario.
A contemporary retelling of a classic Australian story about a little boy who rescues and raises pelicans, “Storm Boy” stars Jai Courtney, Geoffrey Rush, Finn Little, Trevor Jamison, Morgana Davies and Erik Thompson.
