BARTLESVILLE, Okla. — A historic church in Bartlesville could soon be home to a film school and sound stage if the proposal moves forward.
The city of Bartlesville has been home to a handful of production offices for feature films, including most recently Killers of the Flower Moon. But now one company is trying to capitalize on all of that by building a film school and multiple sound studios at the First Christian Church.
Welcome to Okiewood. Or at least it's what Garret O'Brien, an Oklahoma actor, has been saying for years.
"With industry kind of leaving Oklahoma, this is probably the most perfect thing to replace it," he told 2 News.
O'Brien's slightly biased having acted and been a crew man in Oklahoma for four years and loved every minute of it. Maria Gus with Visit Bartlesville can agree with him.
"Coming off a pandemic where many of our hotels and restaurants were suffering, so to be able to have a production like Killers and Apple Studios renting out three hotel properties, plus visiting restaurants - they really tried to localize local service providers as much as possible," Gus said.
When Gus became aware that Buffalo Roam Studios wanted to transform the 125-year-old church into a film school with multiple sound stages, production offices and more, she quickly got on board.
Gus says church staff wanted to hand it off to someone else.
In that proposal would also be a 10,000 square foot sound stage that will be built and attached to the church building where that parking lot is now.
Although O'Brien is making it in the film industry in Oklahoma, Gus says there aren't enough opportunities for young film enthusiasts to get trained on job-ready skills.
"We fall short in not having enough trained crew for the productions that we're bringing in," Gus said. "This will be another way to train them, get people ready to work on not only film sets, but television productions, industrial films or anything of that sort."
Gus says the Bartlesville City Council has been very receptive to the idea. She says she's hopeful by the end of the fiscal year, funding will get planned out to make it happen.
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