Home sweet home for Madison-based Tilt Media

Madison-based Tilt Media was just a one-man shop when Rich Rubasch started the video editing and animation company on Jan. 1, 2001.

But he immediately filed the paperwork to incorporate it, operating on confidence and high hopes as much as anything else at the time.

“I always thought it would be more than just me someday,” he said.

Going on 10 years later, Tilt Media has grown to a staff of five and is on the verge of its first big move from leased space to a new headquarters that Rubasch, 48, now owns.

The one-story, 8,480-square-foot building on Latham Drive on Madison’s South Side will have a studio, offices and warehouse space, and Rubasch plans to add a new revenue stream by renting out time in the studio to other production companies and film makers.

It’s seven times the size of the existing location in the basement of a three-story office building on Raymond Road.

“I really wanted to buy” a building, said Rubasch, a Chicago native who lived in Viroqua from age 14. “I knew from the beginning if I could make it happen in this crazy economy with the crazy banking situation we have, we would have security and equity for the company for sure.”

Chris Caulum, a commercial real estate agent with Madison-based Grubb & Ellis/Oakbrook, represented Rubasch in the transaction, which was completed Aug. 25 for $567,500. Rubasch expects to spend another $100,000 for remodeling the building, which most recently housed a printing company. He plans a Jan. 1 opening, coinciding with the company’s 10th anniversary.

“This is a big step,” he said. “This could be the one big move of my professional life. Most business owners will only do this once.”

About the building

The 4,000-square-foot studio on the building’s east end will take up nearly half the space.

On the west end is a garage/warehouse space of about 2,400 square feet where sets can be built and painted. It has a large door to accommodate trucks used by production companies to transport equipment.

“There’s no studio in town where you can physically back up a large truck full of gear and unload it in a heated space,” he said. “Everybody unloads their gear outside in the snow, and in January, they don’t like doing that.”

The rest of the building will house offices and editing bays.

Company grows, changes

Rubasch said he and his four employees have nearly 70 years of combined video production experience.

Tilt Media currently:

• Creates more than 100 show promos for PBS annually.

• Duplicates more than 8,000 DVDs for various clients each year.

• Has served more than a dozen nonprofit groups for free or at reduced rates.

The company also does spots for commercial television, Rubasch said, as well as work for commercial clients’ internal communication or training needs.

“American Family Insurance needs to get a video out to all of its agents,” Rubasch said, citing an example of typical work his company has done, “or Harley (Davidson) needs a cool video for a new dealership. That’s going to require editing and graphics, and it’s a little longer than a TV spot.”

In 2006, Tilt Media expanded its business model to include shooting videos, rather than just editing already-shot video and adding animation.

That prompted the need for a large, well-appointed studio to create the “larger set pieces” and better-quality footage needed for commercial clients, Rubasch said.

“Companies have to travel to Milwaukee or Minneapolis or Chicago for that,” he said, “for a studio that’s soundproof and that has the size and all the amenities you need.”

Rubasch wanted to solve that problem while he found his company a better, more permanent home.

“He sees a niche that’s not being met,” Caulum said. “He’s seeing video production work from local clients or local companies that is leaving Madison because there aren’t good enough places to shoot video.”

But the plan hinged on finding the right building, and that wasn’t easy.

Building from the ground up cost too much, he said. And finding a big enough, nice enough space to lease also wasn’t cheap and brought added complications, such as noisy tenant neighbors, or walls and wiring systems that didn’t meet the power and sound-insulation needs of a studio.

That left the option of buying a building. It offered the best potential combination of quality and control for his dollar, Rubasch said, assuming the right building could be found.

Finding the right one

Rubasch looked at properties for close to three years with Caulum before they found it in January.

The concrete building at 3209 Latham Drive has thick, energy efficient walls, ample electrical power and a good security system, plus enough space for the big studio and the warehouse space and offices Rubasch wanted.

“I was feeling it in my gut that this was the right one,” he said. “It was absolutely perfect.”

Rubasch had to wait out several procedural delays in getting a Small Business Administration loan through U.S. Bank to finance the purchase. While the deal was never at imminent risk of collapse, waiting for the money was frustrating, Rubasch said.

“You kind of have to pace yourself, and realize there are layers and layers of people who are looking at all the paperwork,” he said. “You’re not just negotiating with the seller. You have to go at the speed of the financier.”

Rubasch also said he wasn’t worried about buying a building and holding on to it during an uncertain economy and a suppressed real estate market.

“Every year we’ve been in business we’ve grown, in net income and gross sales,” he said. “I’m confident that will continue. I was really trying to create something (with the purchase) that was lasting.”