After farming out much of their post work for films and TV shows to outside shops, 20th Century Fox and Sony are trying to keep much of the work on their lots by offering updated facilities.

Fox on Thursday officially opened the doors to its modern Fox Post Production complex, housed inside Stages 3 and 4. The new redesigned facility, which took nearly two years to complete, houses three digital feature dubbing stages -- named after Howard Hawks, John Ford and Robert Wise -- 14 digital editing suites and three transfer bays. It also houses conference rooms, producers booths, and full kitchen facilities.

Facility uses the Nexus Digital Interconnect System, which can control, convert and monitor digital audio throughout the entire house.

Mixing crew vets Andy Nelson, veep of re-recording services at Fox, and Anna Behlmer will man the dubbing theaters alongside Doug Hemphill and Paul Massey from Sony.

The first pic to set up shop inside the new facility will be Fox's "Anna and the King," starring Jodie Foster and Chow Yun Fat.

"We are very proud of our post production center, which sets a new standard for the industry," said Kiki Morris, senior veep of post production services for Fox Studio Operations. "We've worked very hard to create an environment that we hope will attract filmmakers working on projects outside the studio as well as on productions."

Sony upgrade

Sony recently began million-dollar renovations of its Stage 4, which will serve as Sony's first all-digital film dubbing theater skedded to open in January.

The new stage will be equipped with the latest digital mixing and recording technology, including Sony Digital Audio Disk Recorders (Sony DADR-5000) and what is being heralded as the world's largest digital feature film dubbing console -- a three position, 128-channel Solid State Logic Avant digital film dubbing console.

The device has 512 inputs and more than 1,100 audio paths. Conventional boards feature 300 audio paths. Once in place, Sony will be the only studio to feature such a system as part of its post offerings.

The studio is in the midst of converting each of its four large mixing theaters and five TV mixing theaters to the digital format.Both studio projects are expected to bring post work back to the studios and enable filmmakers to not only shoot their films but also finish the films on the lots, as well.

"We want to keep them here," Morris said. "But the business is cyclical. In a couple of years, you could see work being sent off the lot again."

The studios hope that not only will they be able to keep filmmakers on the lots but will attract other producers to rent the stages and keep them occupied, lured by the upgraded equipment.