Father & Daughter Film Report
FUTURE TRENDS:
NEW REPUBLIC STUDIOS
Changing the paradigm of an evolving entertainment industry
One result of John S. Robison's unique 30 year career in the film industry was the creation of a brand new paradigm of blending both content & technology.
By creating New Republic Studios from the ground up, he has created yet another. You see this is more than a film studio, you can call it a 'creative production campus'
Sprawled over 200 acres - and still growing - just east of Austin, Texas on the banks of the Colorado River are purpose built sound stages, that is, structures built from the ground up with the ideas of television, music, commercial, new media, AR/VR/XR, voice-work and eventually virtual & augmented reality in mind.
In other words, a multi-dimensional concept of production that most other studios - who only retrofitted their existing structures - would find impossible to do.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
While the studio lot itself offers a diverse terrain of rolling plains, dense forests, pasture & river environments of Central Texas, four very distinct geographic regions of Texas are within a short drive from the studio, with three other unique geographical regions just hours away.
Yet still another paradigm concerning location has also been created in the design of this state of the art studio:
Community Relationships
Desert & mountains in the west, prairies, lakes & plains all over, woodlands in the east, plus the Gulf Coast & famous Hill County - almost any geographical topography found in the world are in Texas - except perhaps Antarctica.
While Texas itself is known for raising friendly folks, New Republic Studios has raised the bar in this quality as well in the concept of being 'film friendly'. By working closely with the county government and the two nearest towns of Bastrop & Elgin, issuing permits for sound, water, pyrotechnics, & anything are all but eliminated - saving everyone in the production time and money.
Both Amanda & I have personally witnessed an open house, the studio tour, and even a "County-to-Studio"meeting to facilitate co-operation between studio and the community and these were quite impressive. Never seen before - and we span the globe for these types of things - was the degree of partnership between a studio and local citizens in business, culture, and education. Again, a new paradigm.
Bastrop County residents entering New Republic Studio's first Open House are greeted by CEO John S. Robison, who also serves on the boards of the Austin Public Television, Austin Music Awards with SXSW, and on the Austin Film Society & Studios with Richard Linklater, John started in the film industry in 1994 with Regent Entertainment & also worked with Last Chance Picture Company with Bryan Cranston.
One philosophy of New Republic Studios is that "...ideas that come from outside the box shouldn't have to get shoved back into boxes when it comes time to create." This concept is more than a clever catch-phrase, it is a vision that aligns with a new paradigm of thinking on how to evolve in an entertainment industry (as one can see from the chart above) that is itself undergoing an evolution at a transformative rate.
New Republic is a vision of flexibility - and the ability to change - in media, in location, in community, in equipment, in models, in concept, and yes, in paradigms. In the words of Albert Einstein:
"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."
If this is the case,then it appears that New Republic has a head start on being one of the smartest studios around.
