As a new young company, 3to1 Studios is surging ahead with production of a whimsical short film a month for podcasting and enough commercial business to pay the rent.
The name comes from the three commercial services offered in-one venue?film, web design, and graphic design?said Josh Reichlin, partner, editor and graphics designer.
The shop opened last February in a 300-sq. ft. studio in the Fine arts building when four Columbia College grads teamed up with veteran producer Floyd Webb.
They are editor and graphic designer Reichlin, cinematographers Andrew Maxwell and Gabriel Patay (son of corporate producer George Patay), and sound designer Ethan Cheng.
In addition to rent-paying work from steady work from Hockeytrainers.com, Chicago Tap Theatre and Hecky’s Barbecue and the stream of shorts, 3to1 also produces PSAs to encourage support of the arts, also for podcasting.
“The shorts are dark and interesting and dreamlike subjects, whimsical, Chaplinesque, horror, a silent film parody and an animated series. They are usually three to five minutes and everyone contributes his ideas,” said Webb, including “friends who come up with ideas so we don’t get stale.”
The animated series, of which two episodes have run, is titled, “?Four Angry Men.’ It’s about a pirate, a detective, a skeleton and a robot whose mission is to save a millionaire who is held captive by cannibalistic types on a remote island,” Webb chuckled.
