I’ve Spent 25 Years in Production. Here’s Why We Built a Production Studio in Tampa That Can Do Almost Anything.

I’ve been doing this for about 25 years.

Commercials. Television. Film. Corporate work. Marketing content. Live productions. Podcasts. Branded content. Shoots on location. Shoots in studios. Big crews, small crews, and plenty of productions where you walk in thinking you have everything figured out and something changes five minutes later.

That last part never changes.

Production changes.

That is probably the biggest thing all those years taught me, and it has a lot to do with how we’ve been building Shear Media Studios in St. Petersburg, Florida.

We didn't want to build a production studio that was great at one thing.

We wanted to build one that could change.

Ready to see the studio?
Book a tour or talk through your production at (727) 540-9800 · peter@shearmultimedia.com
Schedule a Studio Tour →

Production Doesn't Fit Into One Box Anymore

There was a time when the lines were much clearer.

A television show was a television show. A commercial was a commercial. A podcast was audio. Corporate video was corporate video.

That's not how people create content anymore.

A company may come in to shoot a podcast and realize they should also knock out six social videos while the executives are already there.

A podcast starts getting traction and suddenly they want three cameras, live switching, remote guests and a bigger set.

A brand comes in for a commercial and needs interviews at the same time.

A weekly show needs its set to stay standing instead of rebuilding it every seven days.

That's production today.

The room needs to adapt to the production, not the other way around.

That idea became a big part of Shear Media Studios.

Building a Production Studio in Tampa Bay Differently

Shear Media Studios is a 15,000-square-foot production facility in St. Petersburg, serving Tampa, Clearwater and the greater Tampa Bay area.

Inside it, we have very different production environments because they're supposed to do very different jobs.

Studio G is 5,800 square feet and gives us the room for major productions, recurring shows, large custom sets, commercial work, sports media, livestreams, film and events.

Studio A gives us another flexible production environment.

Then there are our podcast and creator spaces, control-room workflows, green rooms, hair and makeup, production support areas, livestream infrastructure and remote-production capabilities.

But listing rooms isn't really the point.

It's what happens when you connect all of it.

That's where I think the studio gets interesting.

I Like Building Systems Before We Need Them

This is probably one of the things that says the most about how I work.

I like looking at something and asking:

What are we going to need six months from now that nobody is asking us for today?

Sometimes that makes me a little crazy.

Sometimes it works.

When we were building out the studio, I kept pushing for connectivity, control-room capability, networking, power, lighting grids, places to build sets and the ability to move productions around the facility.

Then a production comes along that needs exactly that infrastructure.

That's a good feeling.

Barstool Sports bringing a recurring professional football show into Studio G is a good example. Their production integrates a custom set, local production support, camera crews, vendors and our control-room/broadcast infrastructure.

We didn't suddenly decide we should have those capabilities because Barstool called.

We had been building toward that kind of production already.

That's the difference.

Big Production Doesn't Have to Mean Big Nonsense

I've also learned something else over 25 years:

You can waste an incredible amount of money making things more complicated than they need to be.

More crew isn't automatically better.

More equipment isn't automatically better.

A bigger studio isn't automatically better.

The question I ask clients is much simpler:

What are you trying to make?

Then let's figure out the smartest professional way to make it.

Sometimes you need Studio G and a substantial crew.

Sometimes you need three cameras, a good DP, clean audio, a switcher and five people who know exactly what they're doing.

Sometimes you need a two-person crew in one of our podcast rooms.

And sometimes you really do just need a camera, a microphone and a great idea.

I'm good with all of those.

One Production Should Create More Than One Piece of Content

This is another thing I'm constantly telling people.

If you're paying for a studio, cameras, lighting and a crew for the day, use the day.

You finished your podcast early?

Great.

Shoot the social clips.

Record the CEO interview.

Knock out sponsor reads.

Shoot intros and outros.

Get stills.

Record the next episode.

Make the marketing content you've been talking about for three months.

I've spent enough of my life on sets to hate watching good production time disappear.

That thinking is becoming part of how we sell Shear Media Studios too.

We're not trying to squeeze another hour out of somebody.

I'd rather help a client figure out how to leave with more.

Because they'll come back.

Tampa Bay Is Becoming a Serious Production Market

This part matters to me personally.

I love seeing more serious production happen here.

When a national media company chooses Tampa Bay for a recurring production, that isn't only good for our studio. It's work for local camera crews, production people, vendors, set builders and the larger production community.

That's something I said when we announced the Barstool production, and I meant it.

We've already had a wide range of work come through Shear Media Studios — from Barstool Sports and Quest Diagnostics to Up All Night, commercial productions, podcasts, independent film work and other projects.

I want more of that happening here.

Come Make Something

After 25 years, I'm still a filmmaker at heart.

I still like walking onto a set.

I still like figuring out a shot.

I still like building things.

And I still get excited when somebody walks through our door with an idea and five minutes later we're standing in the middle of the studio moving imaginary walls around and figuring out how we're going to shoot it.

That's probably the easiest way to understand Shear Media Studios.

We didn't build a studio for one type of content. We built a facility that could do everything — because that's how production actually works today.

If you're looking for a production studio in Tampa or St. Petersburg, come see it.

Tell me what you're trying to make.

We'll figure out the rest.

Pete Guzzo
Shear Media Studios
St. Petersburg, Florida