Athena Studios has opened for business in Emeryville – the East Bay area of Northern California. The new company provides full production services for film, TV, advertising, and multimedia clients and projects. Athena Studios offers a 40’ x 48’ stage, including a 25’ x 25’ green screen cyc.

Athena Studios is the production arm of AthenaOnline, which has been delivering award-winning educational programs to corporations around the world since its launch in 1994. AthenaOnline was founded by Jon V. Peters to leverage new technologies offering knowledge to a broader range of learners in the business world. Over the years the company, which began its online video delivery system even before the advent of YouTube, has been featured in Fortune, Wired, and numerous other publications. Considered pioneers in online education and development, AthenaOnline has created numerous interactive programs and thousands of online videos.

Regarding the launch of Athena Studios, Peters said, “We have always wanted to create a truly compelling experience for our corporate users. I realized that to achieve that goal we needed to strengthen our abilities in all aspects of filmmaking as well, so we gave AthenaOnline’s Production Group more creative autonomy. We realized that we also need a great stage with a full green screen cyc, capable of multi-camera shots with larger groups of people. We also needed superb compositing tools, CGI and special effects capabilities, not to mention really talented people to do it all. After almost a year of looking we finally found a 5,200-square-foot facility here in Emeryville that Athena Studios can now call home.”

Athena Studios’ first project on the new stage was hosting High Noon Entertainment for their new pilot Collection Intervention on the SyFy Network. The Athena crew has also worked with the Bay Area Section of the Visual Effects Society to provide video production and post services for special membership events at such private venues as Industrial Light & Magic and the Walt Disney Family Museum. In addition, they have collaborated with the California Film Institute on a special Raiders of the Lost Ark 30th Anniversary celebration and most recently worked with local VES board members David Tanaka and Brice Parker along with Ex’pression College for Digital Arts to produce the 2012 Mill Valley Film Festival official trailer.