ZZ Studios
A Description of the Property and Location
I
In developing Chapter Three, "Ripple Effect", of The Circular Object, my own short story series that draws inspiration from Sabrina The Story, I did a lot of research into ZZ Studios. I researched "Sabrina, The Story", "Zig Zag, The Story", and "Sabrina Online" the strip. Later, when I got around to reading "Rava's Story", I used that as a reference source as well. I also had some interesting conversations with a video editor that gave me some perspective on what ZZ Studios looks like & how it would be laid out.
In ZZ The
Story, (Zig Zag The Story), we learn that "ZZ Studios was one of the
most profitable adult studios in the states." This denotes that the current location
of ZZ Studios is a fairly large facility.
From what I've gathered, the general consensus is that ZZ Studios has
been at its current location for many, many years. Possibly even since it was formed. I am under the impression that it was
founded in a more rural part of
Entering ZZ Studios is a small waiting area, I imagine it with a couch and some chairs, a few tables scattered about with trade magazines on them and the reception desk. I would expect the chairs are leather, knowing Zig's sense of style and elegance, and I think of the reception lobby as being done in smooth curves. There are probably promotional movie posters, awards, etcetera displayed demurely about the room. I envision a single, wide hallway leading into the building from there, although there could easily be another one leading off in another direction. The main hallway leads to the offices of Marvin, Zig Zag and Sabrina as well as the lunch/break room and then splits off to the various other departments in the building. Zig Zag has claimed at least two rooms for her own personal use, her office, and her massage room. I suspect her massage table is set up in a disused conference room, (Zig Zag is not the conference type, I think we can all agree), and I expect that conference/massage room is adjacent to her office. Zig, of course, has the largest office, Marvin the next largest and Sab, no doubt, the old supply closet.
There would be the following rooms within
the bounds of ZZ Studios:
Computer equipment room. This is where the servers that service the buildings intranet reside. There would probably be additional spare components stored in the same room or near by. This room cannot be too far from Zig's office for the events at the beginning of ZZ The Story to work well. I suspect this room is off the main hall, otherwise, James would be left wandering the maze of halls to get back and forth to Zig's office.
As the computer servers are handled by Sheppard Computer Systems, ZZ Studios does not need a full time technical department to maintain the equipment. However, they would need someone to oversee the equipment on a day to day basis. Sheppard Computer could send a tech out to check the equipment weekly or monthly, depending on how often such equipment would need be checked, or, they might be able to dial in to ZZ Studios network to check up on the system remotely. I regret that kind of expertise is outside of my ken.
From the research I've done, reading through ZZ The Story and conversations with some people that know more about that stuff than I do, I have built the following network configuration. I apologize in advance if I garble the technospeak.
ZZ Studios employs a client server network consisting of various computers arrayed around the building and connected to a central server. Each independent computer is a free standing, intelligent system linked to each other in an intranet and to the main server. Any unit can access data on the central server. Sabrina can store her graphics files there and access them through translation protocols on the Amiga in her office, Zig can oversee Sab's work from the terminal in her office, (if she were so inclined), and the two non-linear editing bays can access raw video saved to the servers hard drives. The digital linear editing bay three would not be able to tap this network as it speaks a different electronic language than the rest of the network. For simplicities sake, for now, let\x92s leave the linear bay to the linear media and the non-linear bays to the non-linear media. Theoretically, ZZ will one day have all the technology to allow all the data files, no matter the source, to swap freely between all systems. In the meantime, we will have to make due with the system I have cobbled together from the various media sources, and the experience of my inside advisor.
Studios A, B, and C, (or 1,2, & 3). I figure there's got to be a minimum of three studios of varying sizes. The studios are where all principal shooting takes place, whether on film or digital for still shots, or video for the movies. Studio A would be the largest and the others smaller in alphabetical order as this is a logical progression. The largest studio has to be the size of a two-stall garage at an absolute minimum, and that's really small. Studio A should be the largest room in the building.
Photography Studio. Technically, there is no specific reason to have a room dedicated to still photography as any of the other studios can be used for the same purpose. However, Bruner specifically mentions a photography studio in ZZ The Story, therefore, for continuity, one must be added. If ZZ has the space it would be nice to have a room dedicated just for still photography where the sets and lighting could remain up for multiple shoots with different actors. Also, providing a separate room for still photography, instead of sharing the main production studios, would simplify shooting schedules. And, in a pinch, the photography studio could be commandeered to serve as studio D.
Darkroom. ZZ Studios undoubtedly uses digital
cameras to gather material for its website, and probably had professional
digital cameras for a long time prior to Zig buying her first 'personal' digital
camera at the Adult Film Convention in
Equipment room(s). There would be a large room, or rooms, dedicated to the storage of all the cameras, stands, lights, backdrops, and other paraphernalia necessary for a movie studio. There would be either one large room for all the equipment, with a specific place for everything, or, more likely, separate rooms for the various types of equipment. Cameras and camera equipment for in-studio use would occupy one room, lights and lighting equipment for in-studio use would occupy another room, and all field video and lighting equipment would occupy a third room. Additionally, there would be a fourth room for all still camera equipment, lighting, stands, etcetera. These rooms would be near the studios, presumably the still photography equipment room would be near the photography studio. The rooms would also contain all additional related equipment, power cords, patch cables, lens gels, camera filters, film of all types, spares of everything and boxes and boxes of gaffer tape.
Prop room. This would be a very large room full of props, large and small. Most likely a large open area dedicated to the larger props, with a section set aside full of cabinets and bins for the smaller props. This would be near the studios.
Important note: There is no wardrobe room as Lillian Bartholomew handles all costuming needs for the studio. She would keep all costumes at her own design studio and would send the clothes for the current productions over when shooting was due to start. Between acting days costumes would either return to Lillian's studio, or remain on premise in the actor's dressing rooms.
Prop shop. This could be a fairly small room, but would have all manner of regular tools and also the things necessary for the construction of props, so it would probably be quite large, though not as big as the prop room.
Green room/Actor's lounge. A room near studios A, B, and C, where the actors would wait until they were needed on the set or between takes. It would be important that the actors be in a place where they could be found when needed. I know that none of the media sources use this room, but there really would be one.
Supplies closet. This is also on the main hall, somewhere by the main executive offices, and is probably smaller than Sabrina's office but don't discount pathetic irony.
Employee restrooms. Yes, restrooms, plural. When full production is up and all three studios are in use there are a lot of people in the building. ZZ Studios must have facilities for that many furs.
Writers Office. Per Rava's Story, ZZ Studios contains their own writing department and is staffed by two writers. This makes sense and would allow Zig to oversee the creation of new scripts first paw. It also allows revisions to scripts to be done on premise which, besides saving time, would also have the benefit of being more secure. Also per Rava's Story, there are two full time writers with two computers in this room. These machines would also be hooked up to the local intranet.
Library/Archive/Vault. ZZ Studios would maintain a library of the features it produced, as well as any other media. This is where they would keep their master tapes and pictures. They may also keep the stuff that didn't necessarily make it into their pictures, but was still worth keeping. They wouldn't keep most of this stuff forever, but would keep a couple of boxes of mixes, re-mixes, audio dubs and extra raw footage as well as the original tape from their movies for a few months or years depending on how much space is available in the Library/Archive/Vault.
The video editors would create a finished movie by editing the video tape, and adding the sound, music, dialog, etc as well as titles and credits in post production. Once that was done and the entire movie assembled, it would be copied to another tape, called a protection tape, or backup tape, and archived. This is where all the subsequent copies of the movie fundamentally come from. But that still leaves the original footage and the dubs and re-mixes laying around. The original footage, now called the master tape, would be stored with the protection master in the Vault. As it's easier to reuse things then to re-shoot them, as well as considerably less expensive, there is no doubt that ZZ Studios would keep its unused footage and cuts around until it was absolutely certain it would not need it any more. At that point the media would be destroyed, either blown off, (erased), or physically destroyed, (shredded, or burned), per ZZ's instructions about kids & dumpster diving. It is likely that to destroy such media, Zig has hired a confidential sub-contractor skilled in such matters, and that the studio would likely maintain a "destroy log" of all media thus eliminated. This would be not just by Zig's edict, but also for legal reasons. ZZ Studios would protect itself from; A, any of their personal intellectual property from wandering off and, B, any lawsuits that might arise as a result of said property wandering off. It is safe to assume that everything created or considered inside ZZ Studios is tightly controlled.
There is an interesting note about the video industry that I
would like to point out and how it almost certainly applied to the porn
industry. Videotape came into the
mainstream in approximately 1985.
Prior to that it is a safe bet that most movies were shot on
celluloid. Figure it this way,
anything before 1980 had to be film.
1980-1985 was a transition period as videotape came into the
mainstream. From 1985 forward
videotape was an accepted medium.
This is a ballpark timeline, it is not intended to be overwhelmingly
specific. The porn industry, as
cost conscious as any other business, probably embraced the new technology and
even helped to push it into the mainstream. With celluloid you have to shoot the
film, contract out a lab to develop it, then do all the editing and then hire
another company to make copies of it and that doesn't include transferring it to
video. But videotape allowed the
porn industry to do everything in-house.
And this is why ZZ Studios needs to be so large. It also works with the projected
timeline for ZZ's own career. Zig
retired after ten years as a porn actress approximately a year and a half ago,
(counting out from 2001), per Bruner's story, without checking the book, (I'm
working from memory here), so figure twelve years ago, give or take two or three
years, she started ZZ Studios in California then moved to Ohio. Figure a year or so in
Three video editing bays. ZZ Studios is not producing movies twenty-four hours a day as an editing house would. The editing bays are not in constant use, though I expect it is not often that they remain idle during a regular business day, and there is no reason they could not be staffed 24/7. The editing bays consist solely of monitors and control panels for mixing, editing and dubbing of the movies. Each editing bay would be approximately the size of a one-stall garage. The size of the editing bay corresponds directly to: the complexity of the equipment, the needs of the studio, and how many people need to be in the room at the same time. I figure that there would be no reason to have more than three persons in any one editing bay at any one time. The older, linear bays took much more space and so are larger, the newer, non-linear bays take up less space so they are smaller. It is perfectly logical to assume that one linear bay could be converted to two non-linear bays, and it has been done out in the real world.
The three people who would have any interest in being in a video editing bay at one time, for reference, are: Zig Zag, (it's her name on the product so you bet she keeps an eye on what the editors are doing down there), the Production Manager, (the editors immediate supervisor), and the editor him or herself. Marvin would be far too busy managing the place to actually take a creative paw in the editing process and there is no one else that has any business in that part of the building aside from the other editors, the tech support staff and, of course, the janitor.
I had an interesting discussion with a friend about the
editing bays, and figuring out what ZZ would have now is difficult without a
specific timeline for when she opened in Ohio, and a financial record of how
profitable, (or lack there of), she was.
Zig started out with only the funds she made in
Zig adopted the genre and made it her own. She gathered a few friends she made
working as a call girl/actor and managed to produce a few movies. These movies would have been made with
rented equipment & edited by an independent editing house. But the profits and royalties from the
movies put her in a position to formally open ZZ Studios herself. I guestimate she stayed in
These are not cheap equipment upgrades. Editing suites cost between one hundred and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars each. Unless ZZ Studios was doing absolutely phenomenal business, it could not afford to replace these editing bays casually. Great thought and consideration would be taken before ZZ made any decisions to change technology. Zig would want to remain as state of the art as she could, but, judging which technology wave to ride as being the best one would be a major decision and, one that could make or break the company. I have given Zig all the credit as a very business savvy person & allowed that she made almost all the right moves. But that doesn't mean she doesn't have some equipment lying around that never caught on.
As a side note, it is likely that Zig has located junkfood, candy and drink machines near the editing section of ZZ Studios for the editors and technicians that likely work long and/or late hours. A similar group of machines would be near the studios for the stage crew. Or, the machines could be equidistant between the two. Ain't she a great boss?
Production Manager's
office. I expect that ZZ
Studios has two full time video editors and a pool of freelance editors at its
disposal. There would need to be an
overseeing editor that coordinates everything and manages the editor's
duties. Per ZZ The Story,
(assuming I have interpreted Bruner's vision correctly), his name is
Machine core. The editing bays themselves are limited to editing functions. All the bulky hardware is stored in a separate room. There has been a change in technology since video entered mainstream culture. Originally, video was professionally shot by analog signal onto 1inch stock, then copied onto 1/2inch for home use. Technology changed to 3/4inch Betacam SP analog stock, then to Digital Betacam linear. The machines that read and recorded videotape were huge and bulky, so they would not be in the suite. Any ancillary equipment that was not necessary strictly for editing would also reside in this room. With the advance of technology, it later became possible to have some, but not all of the video machines in the editing bay. I suspect ZZ has kept up with the march of technology and her editing bays are not far behind the state of the art. But that means that any older technology machines live in the core. The core/machine room also serves as the "patch" room and allows the video editors to patch the media source of choice to the needed editing bay and create a return circuit. It also would allow the media source to be connected to anything else in the network, i.e., the server or the graphics computer in Sabrina's office, or any other computer in the network, (assuming that the machines could understand each other). It would even be theoretically possible for Sabrina to patch into a video signal from a media source machine via the server and the internet were the media source correctly patched. (I\x92m not sure why she should want to do this, however, I\x92m just pointing out that it\x92s theoretically possible). The patch can be a physical connection, literally physically plugging cables into different ports to connect different machines, or it could be an electronic one, depending on which patch bay is used. An electronic patching machine is called a router.
I have given ZZ Studios both a patch bay and a router, as this is a pretty conventional configuration, especially for a place that has seen the evolution of technology like ZZ Studios has. The manual patch bay would rarely be used. The router itself is located in the core but the control panel(s) could be located anywhere one wants access to the media sources in the Machine Core. Router control panels are most likely located in the editing suites, studios A, B, & C, Zig's office, (though she probably doesn't use it), Sabrina\x92s office, the Photography Studio, (studio D), and the Production Managers office. With the router, the patch bay would not need to be used unless someone specifically wanted to isolate a media source from the router as Mike did in The Circular Object.
(Technically the video revolution started with 2inch tape, but, as Zig bought into the emerging 1inch tape technology, we can effectively ignore this aspect of the development of videotape).
This room is where ZZ Studios would keep its antiquated 1inch machines, George and Gracie. It is safe to say that ZZ Studios maintains two such machines at a minimum, partly to have a back up, but also to allow them to dub from one machine to another should they ever want to do so. All outdated format capable machines would also reside in the Machine Core, just to have a unit around that could read some obsolete media file. As my expert pointed out: \x93Tape formats are like languages. Even if you don\x92t speak it anymore, it\x92s helpful to keep one around in case someone outside your company does.\x94 Or, if ZZ Studios has one of those outmoded \x93languages\x94 laying around in the Library/Archive/Vault.
Sound library. This does not necessarily have to be a separate room. This could be a wall somewhere near the editing bays that contains all the canned music for the movies.
Engineering. There would be an engineering support workroom staffed by at least one full time tech to keep all the equipment in the machine core running, as well as the editing bays. With two editing bays, it is likely that there would be two full time engineers and maybe one or two part timers as well. As linear editing bay three is not often used, it would not be necessary to add a third engineer technician, however, if Zig decides to purchase into two additional state of the art bays in the future, she may want to consider adding at least one more tech. The Engineering department would be a workroom crammed with spare parts, repairs in progress and salvage machines, including the original Gracie.
Engineering office. In order to coordinate maintenance, repair, and supply functions of engineering, the senior technicians would need a workspace for them, and/or have a senior engineer to report to for the filing of such duties. One engineer could be the senior, the other, the junior. This would then be the seniors' office.
Executive offices:
Zig Zag's office.
Adjacent conference/massage room.
Marvin's office.
Sabrina's office.
Reception/lobby.
Additional
rooms:
Breakroom/kitchenette X 2.
NEW: Per the January 2002 Sabrina Online comic there are two breakrooms, one in the front, near the executive offices and one in the back, near the studios. Presumably, the idea is that one would be mainly for the non-acting staff and the other for the actors and web models, but, Zig probably doesn't care much who uses what area. Because this has appeared in one of the three original media sources, (Sabrina Online, Sabrina The Story and/or Zig Zag The Story), it will be considered CANON as far as DPL I, (this document), is concerned. There are two breakrooms.
Actors locker room.
Actors shower.
Actors dressing room.
Boiler/furnace room.
Electrical room.
Janator's closet.
Apparently, there is no file room. Per ZZ The Story, the file cabinets are located in the hall, (the main hall I expect), attesting to the fact that space is at a premium. ZZ studios may have to consider relocating if their business continues to expand.
This brings up an interesting point that my video editor friend brought up. ZZ Studios was not born this large. It is likely that they set up in a corner of the building they currently occupy and, as they grew, rented additional space within the building, as it became available, until they were its sole occupant. This makes good business sense and it is exactly the kind of thing we would expect to see from Zig Zag. I would expect that ZZ Studios now owns the structure it resides in and is probably incorporated there. This is congruent with Maxx Black Rabbit's Zig Zag profile.
There is an additional note about the building. The various media sources, most significantly ZZ The Story, seems to indicate that all comings and goings to and from the building traverse through the main doors at the front of the building. ZZ The Story often mentions either Zig or Marvin locking up at night, however, it is likely that the editing department and janitorial staff work long/late hours. So if Marvin locks the front doors, how do the editors, cleaning crew, etc get in or out of the building? The obvious answer is the service entrance. ZZ Studios must have a service entrance as well as additional fire exits.
The more I research this and consider how large ZZ Studios is, the more I am inclined to think that Zig Zag has maxed out her resources at her current location. If ZZ wants the business to continue to grow, she will have no choice but to relocate or purchase additional space. On the other paw, she may not have as many things in the building as I've outlined. Here's a smaller, slimmer ZZ Studios:
Executive offices:
Zig Zag's office.
Adjacent conference/massage room.
Marvin's office.
Sabrina's office.
Reception/lobby.
Additional
rooms:
Supply closet.
Breakroom/kitchenette X 2.
Employee Restrooms.
Actors locker room.
Actors shower.
Actors dressing room.
Boiler/furnace/electrical room.
Janator's closet.
Computer equipment room.
Studios A and B (or 1
and 2).
Photography
studio.
Darkroom.
Prop
room.
Prop shop.
Equipment room(s).
Green room/actors lounge.
Writers
Office.
Library/Archive/Vault.
Two editing bays. Both digital non-linear with video inputs and outputs for the older linear media, a larger, one time investment. With two full time editors and a stable of freelancers.
Production Manager's office. One full time production manager.
Machine core.
Sound library.
Engineering. One full time engineer and a stable of part-timers.
Engineering office. Office of the one full time engineer.
Of course, I am assuming that ZZ does her editing in-house. She could just as easily contract the work out. That would lead to an even smaller property location, however, I don't think she's the kind of person to do that if she doesn't have to and, besides, ZZ The Story clearly infers that all their editing duties are in-house & I have to agree with that concept. It is much easier, as well as cheaper, to maintain in-house production facilities where one can oversee the quality of the product first paw. A non-in-house scenario follows:
Executive offices:
Zig Zag's office.
Adjacent conference/massage room.
Marvin's office.
Sabrina's office.
Reception/lobby.
Additional
rooms:
Supply closet.
Breakroom/kitchenette X 2.
Employee Restrooms.
Actors locker room.
Actors shower.
Actors dressing room.
Boiler/furnace room.
Electrical room.
Janator's closet.
Computer equipment room.
Studios A, B, and C,
(or 1,2, and 3).
Photography
studio.
Darkroom.
Prop
room.
Prop shop.
Equipment room(s).
Green room/actors lounge.
Writers
Office.
Library/Archive/Vault.
This greatly reduces the amount of space needed at ZZ Studios, but makes control of the final product much harder and unreliable, as well as significantly more expensive in the long run. Let's take one more look at ZZ Studios. What if we paired it down to the bare necessities, including out-sourced editing and writing services? That scenario follows:
Executive offices:
Zig Zag's office.
Adjacent conference/massage room.
Marvin's office.
Sabrina's office.
Reception/lobby.
Additional
rooms:
Supply closet.
Breakroom/kitchenette X 2.
Employee Restrooms.
Actors locker room.
Actors shower.
Actors dressing room.
Boiler/furnace/electrical room.
Janator's closet.
Computer equipment room.
Studio A and B, (or 1
and 2).
Darkroom.
Prop
room.
Equipment room(s).
Library/Archive/Vault.
ZZ Studios is one of the most profitable adult studios in the states. Playfur made a starting offer of ten million dollars, with a lot of nice perks for Zig Zag, to purchase the company. The above two scenarios do not sound like companies that could be either the one most profitable and/or worth 10 million dollars. (Personally, I think ten million is way too low anyway).
This is a work in progress and has no significance outside of itself. I found it fun to try to categorize just what is ZZ Studios, and hope you find this information to be helpful. In no way am I suggesting that this list is complete or accurate or in anyway represents CANON in the way ZZ Studios is structured or operates. But it does help to give us perspective on just what ZZ Studios is.
Please give me feedback on your thoughts or views. ZZ Studios is a place where we can all have fun together.
Authored by
Gregg G. Guydish
No copyright infringements were intended in any way. If you feel I did so, please advise and we will discuss it.
Nighters!
>>> By the way, can anyone tell me why, as per ZZ The Story, ZZ Studios does NOT have a fur dryer?
Sabrina Online is \xA9 Eric Shwartz
Sabrina The Story is \xA9 Chris Yost
Zig Zag The Story is \xA9 James Bruner
The Circular Object is \xA9 Gregg G Guydish
Rava's Story is \xA9 Rava Purr
Identity Crisis is \xA9 Keith Dickinson
Note from the Author:
I am currently working my way through Workplace Relations by Michael Barnes and Awakenings by Grakin. Updates will be added as significance occurs. If you have a piece of Sabrina/ZZverse fiction that you feel will contribute to this list, or just want to share in general, please let me know, I\x92d be happy to read it and see what you have to offer.
Gregg