After more than 25 years in the film-production industry, Dempsey Film Group is closing up shop in Little Rock.
The company, which hired a large staff of artists, directors and broadcast professionals for its church-turned-production studio, said it was hard to maintain its business model in the current economic climate.
Sam Cooper, the marketing director, said the film production industry has changed a lot in the past 10 years, now only requiring s a handful of people to create a commercial.
Dempsey preferred to keep a little more control over the creative process, which resulted in several national awards for its work, which includes TV commercials, documentaries, web-based video, interactive video kiosks for museums and tradeshow videos.
The building at 322 South State Street will go up for sale, and all of the company's equipment will be sold, Cooper said.
The Dempseys, who started the company, have done the responsible thing, Cooper said, adding that all vendor accounts have been settled and all workers have been paid.
The 20 or so workers left at the company are wrapping up final projects before the company closes for good.
Many of the Dempsey artists, videographers and directors plan to stay in the industry to pursue freelance endeavors in the area.