Court Square Studios
COURT SQUARE — Action.
A film production house and studio rental space opened last month in rapidly developing Court Square.
Court Square Studios offers video production and post-production services and studio space rentals inside a building at 21-38 44th Rd., near 23rd Street, which formerly housed a construction school, according to director Mauricio Arenas.
“We didn’t target Long Island City — it just happened,” said Arenas. “I had a studio next door and it just happened that this building became available, and we just jumped on the idea.”
Arenas started the operation with two longtime friends Jenny Bousquet and Hernan Guerrero from his home country of Chile. All have around a decade of experience in the film industry.
Western Queens is home to two big-name film studios: Kaufman Astoria, further north, and Silvercup Studios, just a few blocks away, putting them in good company.
“We realized that Long Island City is a really good location to have a film studio,” said Bousquet. “It’s one of the most prolific areas in New York City to filmmaking.”
The studio offers production services, including lighting, sound design and editing, and the space is also available for rent for other production companies to use independently.
It includes 3,500-square-feet of raw studio space for film, commercial, photo or music video shoots, which rents for $1,000 a day, as well as four additional rooms that can be used for wardrobe, make-up or classrooms.
“It could be used also as a rehearsal space,” Arenas said of the site. “Anything that has to do with arts or entertainment.”
