Hollywood is coming to Burton. Schoolyard Studio, a new video production company, recently broke ground at the old Berkshire High School on Sept. 12 in Burton.
“It was very exciting a great relief,” Det Chansamone, Schoolyard Studio’s founder, told The Weekly Villager. “There are always delays and there are always issues with design and coordinating everything together and then dealing with the strike and construction. It was very exciting and very much a relief to really see that we took a major stride in reaching our goals here.”
Having worked in content creation in Los Angeles for the past 25 years, Chansamone and his wife, Kiyomi, have come to Burton to build a film and production studio in the 96,000 square-foot former Berkshire High School building.
According to Chansaomone, he has always wanted to create his own content after 25 years of working in Los Angeles.
Having worked on movies such as Seabiscuit, The Matrix 2: Reloaded, The Chronicles of Narnina; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and television series such as Suits, Grey’s Anatomy and Cobra Kai, Chansamone is planting new roots in Burton.
Chansomone said he considered finding a warehouse or property in Los Angeles, but the property values were too high and went online to search for old school buildings and saw that the old Berkshire High School building was available.
He added that the property fit everything he was looking for to build his new film and production studio.
He liked the large space that was available, including the two gyms, giving him enough room to build a sound stage, and the overall footprint of the building allowed the company to keep everything in proximity to what was needed, like the production offices nearby and provided easy access for the production companies to enter the building.
In addition, Chansamone and his wife each had relatives living in the State of Ohio, purchased the building last year and worked with Berkshire Mayor Linda Tyer and the City Council to move the process along.
“Everybody was very supportive of us coming here and when we first came here and looked at the property, we were looking to make an offer on the property,” Chansaomone said. “They were all very supportive of what we were trying to do, and they really helped us in getting started. They helped with rezoning and gave any kind of support we needed.”
Schoolyard Studio purchased the building last year and is in the process of constructing a 10,175-foot soundstage and planning a multi-phase construction timeline.
“We have been planning and the architects have been designing everything else so initially, right now we are working on a multi-phase process for construction.,” Chansamone said. “The first phase is basically the sound stage and then later on we will add to the rest of the building as we get more productions.”
Chansamone acknowledged that he has not pinpointed a specific date for construction to be completed as the project is also impacted by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
“You definitely want to make sure this gets resolved,” Chansamone added. “It does not really benefit anybody to delay this negotiation so hopefully they will figure out a contract that benefits both sides, but it definitely affects a lot of the industry, like us included, so we definitely want them to get issues resolved.”
In addition to building the sound stage, Chansomone said Schoolyard Studio also planned to install an elephant door to the building, allowing production companies to bring in large props and will build production offices in the front and back to make things easier for the incoming production crews.
As production goes on, Schoolyard Studio will start assembling a workforce to establish a footprint in Northeast Ohio.
“I think it is a very symbiotic relationship,” Chansamone said. “We will need to build a workforce locally. We need people who can work here so we want to build up the work force through education and training and internships and so we think that will bring out a lot of opportunities for the local community here to build a sustainable work force in the industry so we can build that infrastructure.”
