Business Screen Magazine (1965-1966)

IVAN TORS 9-TUDIOS -jj— / iJ^y Filming a sccik jor I'ors-MGM science-fiction picture "Around the World Under the Sea" on the Ivan Tors Studios' 10-acre lot in North Miami. TORS STUDIOS LEAD THE WAY Producer of "Flipper" TV Series and Feature Films Believes Production in Florida Has Great Potential ■^rriTHiN Recent Months, at ^ the large and constantly-cxpandint; Ivan Tors Studios in North Miami, one unit was shooting a segment of the nationallytelecast Flipper color series, while another unit filmed a theatrical feature for Columbia Pictures' release. The outdoor and underwater action scenes for the latest James Bond' thriller Thunderhall were filmed in and around Miami. Evidence of Tors Studios' growth arc the two recently-completed sound stages which give this South Florida facility the capability to film a multi-million dollar theatrical feature, a television scries and a TV commercial simultaneously. Both new sound stages have encumbrance-free interior measurements of '■)() by 125 by 40-feet. They arc fully sound Howard B. "Ben" Chapman, president of Ivan Tors Studios, in Miami. proofed and supplied with TOO tons of air-conditioning. From Scripts to I'roiiuciion Ivan Tors, wiio first came to Hollywood as a film writer and achieved screen credits on major films starring such varied pcr I'lipper in action for tlie fantrd \li(' color television series proiluctd htj Ivan Tors Studios. IIi's rinf'inf' alarm hill for featured plinjirs Tommtj Nordcn. Brian Kilhi and Luke Ilalpin. Films are sliat III Xorlh Miami Studios, at thi Miami Seaquarium (on special set i and at Tors Underwater Studios tn S'assau, on the nearby Bahamas. sonalities as Katherine Hepburn. Judy Garland, Greer Garson and Red Skelton, launched his career as a producer in 1951. From the outset he began to explore the fascinating realm of science fiction feature films about astronauts, space stations and nuclear fission years before they became popular concepts. It was this same visionary spirit which led him to the opening in April, 1964, of the studios which bear his name on the lO-acrc lot in North Miami. Chapman Heads Florida Studio Ben Chapman, associated in all of Ivan Tors' productions since they met in 1954, is president of the Florida operation. It is his responsibility to work out the physical logistics of transferring Tors' imaginative ideas from script to the finished product on film. He comes well qualified for his exacting assignment. Beginning as a barnstorming stunt flyer, he was a fighter pilot in both World War II and the Korean conflict. In his movie career, he has handled the production logistics for such major films as Bridge on the River Kwai, Sayonara, The Young Lions, The Egg and I, and Escapade. His first movie credit was for 7"/;/.? Is My Love, starring Linda Darnell. He also produced Rhino!, mainly on location in Africa. Hard Core of Professionals Chapman's major accomplishment in Miami has been the building of a hard core, permanent crew of people skilled in all the motion picture arts — from set designers and dressers to camera techni cians, property men anddi who can act. He impord] Hollywood experts to hfj ( train Floridians and foun a vorable and cooperative laor uation in a state where the i vital need for new job opirti ties because of its popular plosion, the highcset pccnl increase in the U.S. Florida's Advantages Ned Chapman, a Miami ari i dent, is an ardent booster ir | duction in Florida. "We can turn out i quality work for 25 to 30 :r( less here, all factors con^.^n he says. "We not onh friendly labor situation, tx t state and local governmiits very sympathetic to our ptia problems, because every-" ' is trying to create new and new jobs in Florida. "This attitude is helpful, Q man continues, "but the d vantage of Florida and tl a cent Bahamas and Caribiai the variety of locales — e\ kind of setting you can i" and a climate that lets V' ulc shooting around the with dependably clean water. "We have more houi shine to work in during ,i we would have anywher. that, with the locales, tant to tiic type of pictu becoming increasingly in cm with the expanding use oIt' Ivan Tors Studios sp. than SIO million in salai ices and supplies localh up from 1964 when the ^oi in excess of $3 million. icr r Below: checking over new Bell & Howell Model C Additive Print. Capital Film Laboratories' Miami plant ii general manager we mm. ti.. ger Bob iWt 54 mieiviree er^Diri?v