Take a tour of Red Productions’ new office on South Main Street, and when your eyes land on an interesting piece of art or décor, chances are, there’s a story behind it. Like the American flag in the coworking space, brought home by a soldier who served in Afghanistan. Or the old trunk that sits among the staff desks, thrown off a bridge about 10 times during a shoot. Then there’s the aluminum art piece in the common area, titled “Truck Got Stuck.” More on that later.
It makes sense, though, for a company in the business of telling stories. Red Productions, whose portfolio includes everything from marketing videos to feature films, moved its headquarters from Foch Street to South Main in February. The company, along with its coworking space Backlot, occupies about 12,000 square feet in what’s collectively called MAIN+BROAD, a development by Kelly Capital Partners. And, as part of a bigger vision, Red Productions and Backlot are part of a Media Production Development Zone, created by the City of Fort Worth, that’s meant to serve as a hub for local creatives.
For the renovation of Red Productions’ space, the company called upon architecture firm 97w; and for interior design, Red Productions president Red Sanders called upon his wife, Jenny.
“To be able to have a piece in that and engage at home on that level was really wonderful,” says Jenny, whose day job is director of marketing and innovation at real estate company M2G Ventures. “It felt like the whole family was a part of it.”
The building is a story in and of itself. Built in 1926, the building still had traces of its former life as a Crouch Dairy Supply. Gears from an old elevator remained in place on one end; and on another end, a conveyor belt — which Red and his 4-year-old son, Hank, would jump on while exploring the possibilities of what the space could be. (Hank’s handprint is in concrete on the floor in Red’s office.)
Red Productions would keep many of the building’s original elements during the renovation. The original brick, ceiling and concrete floor give the space a rugged character. And that leftover elevator hardware — a conference table now hangs from its cables, locked in place so it doesn’t move.
And yes, that conference table has a story too. Its wood comes from an old textile mill in South Carolina, left to rot after the mill closed. Woodworking company Legacy Timber then salvaged the wood and transformed it into a table for Red Productions’ office.
Of course, there are other practical elements throughout the space. One of the biggest is the approximately 4,000-square-foot studio, oriented so the windows face north so as to not allow light to enter the space directly. The building’s naturally thick walls, coupled with added sound absorption material and soundproof windows and doors, also prevent outside sounds from coming through, and the Overhead Door allows cars to drive in easily for shoots.
Another practical happenstance — a corner on the north end of the building, relatively devoid of windows’ natural light, works best as the post-production edit bay, lit more warmly to allow editors to focus on finishing touches like color correction. The area also features a sound booth for voice-over recordings.
Also part of the office is Backlot, a coworking space run by Red Productions that’s specifically tailored to those working in the creative industry. Most companies office in the jewel box at the center of the building, designed with an emphasis on clean lines, glass and warm woods. To up the cool factor, lights illuminate beneath the box, creating an illusion of floating.
Much of the furniture comes from local shop Simple Things, while some pieces hail from other sources — like the director’s chairs in Red’s office, sourced from Casa Midy in San Miguel de Allende and made with raw leather and heavy iron.
The office is also rife with art, mostly by local artists, depicting candid moments that could easily be something out of a movie scene. There’s “The Last Conversation” by Jesse Sierra Hernandez in the green room, depicting three older men engaged in conversation while a fourth appears to be the odd man out. There’s also “Smoke and Stripes” by Riley Holloway in the kitchen, which illustrates a man lifting a cigarette to his lips.
And then there’s “Truck Got Stuck” by Tyler Germaine and Tom Diel — which was a bit of an accident. Germaine, a camera operator, was driving a truck to a shoot when it got stuck under a low bridge between Foch Street and Lancaster Avenue. The incident peeled the roof off the top of the truck (thankfully, Germaine was okay).
Some time later, the Sanders family found themselves on a trip to San Miguel to visit their friends at Casa Midy, where they came across an Aldo Chaparro art piece made from metal, bent in such a way that it appeared fluid.
“I was looking at it, and I said, ‘You know, that’s a really cool piece. It reminds me of when the truck got stuck,’” Jenny recalls.
Inspired, Jenny and Red sought to salvage the peeled-off roof from the truck. Red says, “We called the salvage yard and were like, ‘Oh, do you still have that truck there?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah.’ And we’re like, ‘Can we get the most bent-up piece off the top?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, that’s weird, but OK.’”
They then called upon artist Tom Diel to cut the jagged parts of the piece and paint it. Today, “Truck Got Stuck” hangs in the common area by the kitchen, complete with a label card listing the artist’s name and the unlucky driver who unintentionally formed the work.
And while the office has plenty more stories to tell, Red Productions simply looks forward to the ways their space will help them create more.
“There are some inherent challenges whenever you’re working to turn a former dairy supply into a living, breathing, working production office and studio,” Jenny says. “But the tradeoff is character — preserving a piece of the community that certainly has a whole lot of life left in it.”
