Odds & Ends Around the Valley
Picture Perfect
If you are building or redoing your home, you might want to tell your architect or designer to check in with the Universal City Studio Mill.
For more than 75 years, the mill has been building intricate and detailed sets used in the thousands of motion pictures and television shows that come out of Universal Studios.
Much of the interior of Jessica Fletcher’s house in “Murder She Wrote,” and of Robin’s Nest in “Magnum, P. I.” are examples of the mill’s abilities, as are interiors from “The Deer Hunter,” “On Golden Pond,” “Out of Africa,” “Field of Dreams” and “Sophie’s Choice.”
When the shop isn’t creating movie and TV sets, it builds custom doors, windows and cabinets for local homes at competitive rates, according to Jamie Fleming, studio marketing director.
One of the best buys at the mill is its supply of wood moldings, those carved strips that go between the walls and ceilings.
“Because of the demands of interior photography, the mill had to come up with some advanced synthetics to create a flexible mold for the moldings,” Fleming said. “So, if an architect is looking for a rounded or curved molding, we may have it in stock, or else it can be created using our technology.”
There must be a certain cachet in saying the woodworkers who did interior work for Angela Lansbury, Tom Selleck, Robert DeNiro, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Kevin Costner and Meryl Streep also did your windows.
Mac Attack
Some businesses are said to be recession-proof, but the business of computer rentals seems to be recession-enhanced.
People who don’t want to lay out $1,500 to $15,000 for a computer can rent everything from a couple of hours on a Macintosh in a store, to having a whole hardware system delivered to their workplace.
And it’s a growth industry.
When term papers are assigned at Cal State Northridge, the computer rental department in Kinko’s Copies in Northridge comes under a Mac attack.
For $10 an hour, students rent time on computers in the store to give their studious efforts that polished look.
And Toni King, who’s in charge of the store’s desktop publishing department, said that these days it isn’t just students who are renting time. “We’ve had a lot of people coming in to do resumes and business letters,” she said.
A sign of the times.
King said that most of the people who come in to use the more sophisticated programs available for rent have day jobs on which they use computers, but don’t have the devices at home. They rent time for their moonlighting.
And if you are looking for an entire system for work, you can find a number of firms that put computers into businesses. Ganton Micro Computer Rentals in Burbank says it is one of the oldest and largest.
Ganton rents or leases IBM, Compaq, Toshiba, Hewlett Packard, Epson and Macintosh hardware, and appropriate software. Installation and maintenance are part of the deal.
“People seem to be cautious about making business investments in things like computers right now,” said Clarisse Sirianni, an account executive at Ganton, “so they may choose to rent rather than buy.”
Sirianni said many people assume that computer renters are merely trying out a system or waiting for a new technology to come out, but that isn’t the case.
She says most of her customers know exactly which system they want, and many rent because they are business transients.
“We are in the heart of the movie industry and we have production companies coming in to have us outfit an office all the time,” she said.
“The companies use the hardware during the length of the filming and ask for it to be picked up when shooting is over.”
Information, Please
Business people in Chatsworth have a new weapon in facing down the recession.
It’s Richard Roberts, a member of the Service Corps of Retired Executives, a nonprofit organization of men and women who offer free advice.
SCORE members volunteer as consultants to members of organizations such as chambers of commerce. A private appointment is set up for any member who would like to use the service, and the member can bring to the table any issue he or she may choose.
“We had heard about SCORE sending a volunteer, on a regular basis, to chambers in Canoga Park and Northridge, and knew the program had been a great success,” according to Chatsworth Chamber Executive Director Debra Sakacs. “It was definitely something we wanted to try.”
She said the first time the program was offered, it was completely booked with people who sought everything from advice on starting a business and devising marketing plans to getting business loans and focusing on goals.
It was so successful that the chamber wanted its own volunteer, which is how they got Roberts, an MBA from Pepperdine University who operated his own business for 37 years.
He will be available to any member who would like his help between 1 and 5 p.m. Mondays by appointment through the chamber.
Overheard
“My husband says to forget sending the dog to obedience school. He wants to send me.”--One woman to another at Studio City Park
