Silicon Beach is getting two new studio spaces this spring designed to produce a variety of cutting-edge digital content.
Upload LA, a 20,000-square-foot facility scheduled to open April 17 in Marina del Rey, will become the flagship location for San Francisco’s Upload Inc., which offers production space, classes, and events to makers of virtual reality content.
Playa Vista is scheduled to see the opening of 30,000-square-foot Vista Studios next month as well.
Upload was co-founded in 2014 by Taylor Freeman, William Mason, and Nick Ochoa. Freeman, now 26, said the co-founders were inspired by the success of OculusVR, founded in 2012 and acquired by Facebook Inc. two years later.
Freeman, who serves as chief executive, spent time working as a production manager at Universal Studios. He also founded San Francisco ad tech firm Magnus Labs, which was acquired by Guru Media Solutions, also of San Francisco, in 2014.
Freeman said he and his co-founders started off by supplying Oculus with various resources and eventually evolved into a formal company. Utilizing its San Francisco co-working space, Upload Collective, Upload became known for its events and educational efforts to expand knowledge of the capabilities of virtual reality.
Freeman said the Marina del Rey studio will be able to provide space and resources for more than 100 companies, including a mixed-reality motion-capture studio. The space will also offer in-person and online virtual reality courses for various levels of expertise in partnership with Google Inc., HTC Corp., and Udacity. In addition, the facility will serve up mentorship and networking opportunities to virtual reality startups.
Freeman said he is excited about the medical applications of virtual reality, such as surgeons being able to practice techniques on virtual patients.
“It’s an industry on the path to being disrupted, (going from) a two-dimensional computer interface to actually breaking through that screen into three dimensions,” he said.
Upload’s co-working costs range from $349 a month for a floating desk to $599 for a dedicated desk. Private offices go for $5,000 a month and up. It is also working on an events membership. The company’s education courses are priced separately from co-working, but a bundled cost arrangement is being considered.
Vista Studios, meanwhile, plans to focus more on traditional TV, broadcasting, and content production services in its renovated 48-year-old warehouse. The site’s four soundstages are equipped with infrastructure capable of producing ultra-high-definition 4K content.
