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A Dream Repurposed Snapchat moves into Venice’s landmark Serafine Building, one innovator taking over for another Photo by Martin L. Jacobs
By Martin L. Jacobs Surfers talk about getting “first to the curl,” which earns them the right to ride a wave. Business often operates on the same principle. Sound pioneer Frank Serafine was first to the curl in 1987 when, chasing a dream to build his own sound megafacility, he purchased a large lot at Westminster and Riviera avenues in Venice. Twenty-eight years later, Serafine has released his dream back into the wild; he sold the building, and Snapchat has moved in. The change of hands exemplifies the continuing sea change in the Westside media business paradigm. In 1986, the affluent future of the Abbot Kinney Boulevard was far from evident. The tony strip where patrons now exchange money for pricey clothes and fine cuisine was then a preferred place for the Culver City Boyz and Venice 13 gangs to exchange gunfire. One memorable Thanksgiving, a shootout victim died on the sidewalk in front of Serafine’s building. In 1986 there were also very few film and TV sound facilities on the Westside. “All of the film and television sound facilities were in Hollywood,” Serafine recalls, “and even home studios were quite rare. That all came much later.” Serafine enjoyed the art colony feel of Venice and hoped his clients would feel the same way. His “build it and they will come” mindset was powered by a string of successes, including his seminal work on Disney’s “Tron” and Paramount’s “Star Trek I.” These were the early days of what we now call sound design; a blue-sky reimagining of ways to use sound that embraced electronic and later digital music tools and techniques, and applied them to film sound. Serafine’s background in music and fluency with
Frank Serafine, a Venice tech pioneer since the late 1980s, masterminded sound effects and synthesis for “Tron” synthesizers and technology put him in the right place at the right time. In late 1988 he broke ground on the
That’s more than 11 acres, if you do the math, and probably a lot of Uber rides. The company stands to be the most successful Los Angeles tech start-up in history. large live/work space. During the first week of construction the teeth of a backhoe punched a hole in an under-
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ground fuel tank. Local history buffs knew the lot to be the location of one of the first gas stations in Los Angeles, a
Texaco, in the 1930s, but no one remembered the subterranean tank. It was just one of many rip currents Serafine would
have to navigate before the building was completed. Architect Madjid Farzanifar designed the iconic structure. The top floor was Serafine’s residence, with a rooftop garden inspired by his travels to Italy and Monaco. On the first and second floor were editing rooms, mixing rooms and office space. Carl Yanchar designed the main mixing theater. In the ensuing decades, Serafine’s studio thrived, conjuring sound artistry for countless films, game titles and music projects. “I was at the point where I wanted to evolve creatively, and I wanted to be close to the city but live in the country,” Serafine says, describing his reason for leaving Venice.
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