New Soundstage Opens Near Hollywood

At the corner of Occidental and Council streets stands a gleaming new building. It’s the latest and largest soundstage at Occidental Studios. Occidental is one of the oldest continuously operating movie studios in all of Los Angeles.

Occidental Studios — Almost 100 Years in Los Angeles

Founded in 1913 by Hobart Bosworth, the lot at first had little more than some office bungalows and a stage with no roof or lighting for shooting silent movies. Mary Pickford filmed there.

Over the years, as the property changed hands, the stage was enclosed for sound production.

Robert Aldrich, director of The Dirty Dozen and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, built a larger second stage. In 1990, Occidental Studios took over and has remained there ever since.

The studio at that time had “a lot of deferred maintenance,” says president Ricky Stoutland. But the owner of the Occidental Entertainment Group, Al Sweet, invested in the property and made the necessary upgrades.

TV shows like Disney’s Phil of the Future and Showtime’s The United States of Tara went on to film there. But when Tara had to move to a larger studio for its second season, Occidental made the “decision to build a new stage,” says Stoutland, so other shows wouldn’t outgrow the facility.

May Be First New Soundstage in L.A. in 10 Years

Combining the feel of old Hollywood with a new soundstage gives this studio “the best of both worlds,” Stoutland continues. He says this is the first new soundstage to be built in Los Angeles in at least 10 years, and Occidental made the “pretty unique decision to invest in Hollywood, in Los Angeles.”

The Occidental Entertainment Group also offers prop services, set dressing and lighting, meaning film productions have the ease of “one stop shopping.”

Eric Garcetti: New Soundstage May Help L.A. Keep Film Jobs

Council President Eric Garcetti was present for the ribbon cutting on Monday, June 20. In a statement he said that the “new soundstage will help us reaffirm Los Angeles as the world's entertainment capital and help keep our city working.”

The new soundstage, Stage 1, looms over its smaller predecessors on the lot. Inside, the stage stands 54-feet high and is 14,000-square-feet in area. That’s almost double Stage 2, at 26-feet-high and 8,600-square-feet.

The space also includes offices and conference rooms with views of the downtown skyline. A new parking lot has over 200 spaces. The studio also offers 30,000 plus square feet of production offices that can host everything from casting to post-production work.

Local Filmmaker Loves Occidental

Local filmmaker Charles Haine, of Silver Lake’s Dirty Robber, says, "Discovering the Occidental stages a few years ago was a great joy.” He enjoys a having “a fully outfitted production facility that I could ride my bike or even walk to” in the neighborhood. Haine says he “couldn't be more excited about the new stages they are building."

Stoutland says that the most exciting thing about the new studio is “the opportunity it provides to be able to service our clients.”