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Liberty ends 525 Studios, consolidates

Unclear how many staffers Riot will hire

Consolidation of Liberty Livewire’s post-production houses continues: The conglom on Friday said that it will shutter boutique 525 Studios by the end of the year and fold the company’s resources and some staffers into its larger Riot Santa Monica facility.

Santa Monica-based 525 Studios, which has been beefing up its team of f/x artists over the past year, is mostly known for its musicvideo and commercial f/x and post work on high- profile projects. It has also created visuals for television shows, including “The Fugitive.”

Riot, which is also strong in the f/x and commercial markets, did not say just how many of 525 Studio’s roughly 30 employees — including colorists, editors and visual f/x artists and support personnel — it would hire.

Using artistic staff

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Liberty Livewire, a division of John Malone’s Liberty Media Group, said that the consolidation is designed to take better advantage of the artistic staff currently working at 525 Studios and eliminate the need to invest additional resources into the company.

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Liberty Livewire parent Liberty Media Group last year acquired Virgin Media Group’s holdings for $40 million through its Four Media Co. subsid. Deal included 525 Studios, London-based Rushes Post Production and West One Television and Virgin Television de Mexico in Mexico City.

Liberty Livewire Pictures Group prexy Larry Chernoff said 525’s greatest asset is its artists.

“They have a remarkable history and have consistently done exceptional work. To continue achieving at the highest possible level, artists need to have access to the best tools and be supported by a strong infrastructure.

“Our choice was either to invest significant new capital into 525 to prepare it for the future or relocate the key talent to a place where the tools and infrastructure already exist. Given the positive synergies that would be created, and the current business environment, the choice was obvious,” he said.

The closure of 525 Studios is seen as one of the first steps Liberty Livewire is taking to reduce the number of houses it owns in the highly competitive post production landscape and combine its resources into fewer entities, in an effort to reduce competition among its businesses and hike up prices.

Liberty Livewire owns many of the largest post houses in the entertainment biz in Hollywood and London, including Todd-AO, Four Media Co., Soundelux, Hollywood Digital, Riot, Encore Video, Editworks and Level 3 Post.

And its move on Friday signals, once again, that, as Liberty continues its consolidation efforts, Riot will receive much of the resources of its shuttered facilities. Earlier this year, Riot absorbed Manhattan Transfer, resulting in the rebranding of Manhattan Transfer as Riot Manhattan and Riot as Riot Santa Monica.

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Update: 2024-06-11

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