Business Spotlight: Oaktree Studios

Owner: Mike Strain Jr.

Founded: 1994

Address: 9405 N. State Highway 13-E, Willard, MO 65781

Phone: (417) 619-1138

Web: www.oaktreestudios.com

E-mail: mike@oaktreestudios.com

Services: Independent motion picture and video production

Employees: 1

Mike Strain Jr. can make it rain for five days and cause explosions on command.

It’s all in a day’s work for Strain, who since 1994 has owned independent motion picture and video production company Oaktree Studios.

“I started as a special effects artist in the early to mid-1980s when I was about 10 or 12 years old,” Strain explains. “I inherited my artistic talent from my dad.”

The elder Strain painted and made crafts and furniture. Strain says his education came from people like his dad. He is not trained professionally in art or filmmaking, but he started working on commercials in his teens, where he watched and learned.

Then, it was sheer determination.

“(Strain) got my number from someone, called me up and said, ‘I hear you know how to make a squib (bullet hit)?’” says Steve Kelly, a stunt coordinator and actor with Midstates Stunts. “He came over, and I showed him. Then, he didn’t stop coming over for two years straight.”

Kelly and Strain now help each other with referrals.

Strain has worked on about 30 feature films, created makeup and dummies for episodes of “Rescue 911” and “America’s Most Wanted,” and even shot wedding videos locally.

The first feature he wrote, filmed and produced was a horror film, “Vile 21.” Strain shot the film for several years, but he didn’t have editing facilities, so the film sat for three years.

“In the spring of 1998, I sold my dream car – a 1950 Mercury – so I could buy an editing suite,” Strain recalls.

First, working out of his dad’s garage and, now, his own home, Strain shoots film on mini-DVD cameras and uses Apple’s Final Cut Pro editing software. He owns lights, tripods and other equipment and special effect pieces he’s made.

Strain is the sole employee of Oaktree Studios and works with about five or six regular freelancers, but he has up to 40 or 50 on call, depending on the size of the project.

“Vile 21” cost Strain $5,000, while other productions he’s worked on have cost millions. In general, he works on productions of about $1 million, including “Hotel of Terror” and “Best of Friends.” Coming titles are “Until Sunrise” and “Mystery Monsters & Magic.”

Funding for features comes from investors. According to Strain, 85 percent to 95 percent of deals don’t go through, and revenues for Oaktree Studios vary.

Without disclosing revenues, Strain notes that under the entity Fantasy Creations FX, special effects work brings in 65 percent of his income, while 10 percent comes from still photography his wife does through ArtWorks Photography, 20 percent from motion picture and video production and 5 percent from his distribution company, Royal Oaks.

Strain says his favorite jobs are in special effects and pyrotechnics. He owned a Springfield costume shop 2002–04 but eventually closed it because he was always elsewhere working on projects. He continues to use his talents at Halloween by decorating Wonders of Wildlife Museum and doing makeup for people such as former “The Bachelor” star Aaron Buerge, including a 400-pound version Buerge affectionately called his fat suit.

“He made me a ‘Predator’ mask that was form-fitted to my face,” Kelly adds, “and as I moved my eyes and mouth, it made everything move on the mask.”

Gary McClurg, who has produced nine feature films and recently started local production company Sac River Films, says Strain can do special effects on a Hollywood level.

“Some of his makeup work, people are amazed at the quality,” McClurg says. “His effects bring up the production level of smaller projects because they look like what you would expect from a higher budget film.”

Strain’s passion for film lead him in 2002 to create the nonprofit CineMerge Entertainment Group, which focuses on gathering local film enthusiasts for networking and making more local movies. The group only has about 24 paid members, but Strain says three times that attend monthly meetings and about 200 people attend the annual weekend CineMerge Film and Video Festival each October.

Strain also partnered with the Springfield Regional Arts Council in March to teach a film workshop. Even while teaching others about his passion for film, Strain admits his advice is to “find something more stable.” Why? Because most people don’t have the heart to take disappointments and keep going, he explains.

Strain’s short-term goal is to get a local production going with McClurg this summer. For the long-term, he hopes to work on one or two features per year that make it to TV and DVD.

There’s also another Strain movie fanatic in the making. Strain’s 9-year-old son, Michael, has been in six movies and is writing his first script.[[In-content Ad]]