Making Space for Creativity
From the street, MADFUN Studios looks exactly like what it used to be. A mid-century bank, low and flat, with a deep overhang and a row of narrow concrete columns out front. Stone, glass, and nothing that gives anything away. It sits there like it hasn’t changed in decades.
You wouldn’t expect a photo and production studio inside. You definitely wouldn’t expect what they’ve done with it.
“There's this monstrous vault door, it weighs, like, 700 pounds…” said Ryan Blanski, co-owner. They turned the vault into a tiki lounge.
The main space is a wide, open floor with high ceilings and enough room to run multiple sets at once. Clients move through it instead of waiting around. Crews build what they need on-site. “You want a kitchen, we'll build you a kitchen, you want a bathroom, you want a bedroom, whatever it is…” he said.
MADFUN’s work ranges from fast food campaigns to commercials to fashion. Burger King, Tim Hortons, Victoria’s Secret, Under Armour. It’s high-volume, meticulous commercial work. Everything has to look right. A sizzling hamburger with perfectly-melted cheese. A dark beer with a single bead of cool sweat.
Music always plays. Everyone hangs out between shots. Ryan shoots and runs production. His wife Felicia, who came from years in TV production, handles the business side.
“We just want to have fun, hang with cool people, and create cool content, and that's about it,” he said.
This was never the plan. “I didn’t finish high school. I received my G.E.D. in night school, spent minimal time in Community College, and even less in Art School … I did not have a plan or a goal,” Blanski said. He got into photography because someone needed an assistant that night. “I'm like, ‘Yeah, cool, I can do that.’ And it went… until, like, 3 a.m.” It didn’t stop that night.
It wasn’t glamorous. Long days of tearing photo sets down and building them again. Product shoots where everything had to look exact.
He stayed with that studio for years as it grew and spread out to satellite locations. Eventually they moved him, and his family, to Columbus, OH. “But that company just got so big, I was just a number, and I didn't enjoy that,” Blanski said.
Then COVID hit. The company shut down the local branch and offered to move them back to Florida. He and Felicia passed. “I said, ‘You know what? I think we're gonna try going out on our own.’”
“I was terrified of going it alone,” he said. Ryan had been working inside something that already existed. The clients were there. The business structure was there. Leaving meant starting over, during COVID.
Luckily, for the Blanskis, the clients followed. They leased their first space in 2020 and started building the business. Operating almost entirely through word of mouth, business continued to grow. The shoots didn’t stop. The space worked, but it wasn’t theirs, and there wasn’t room to grow.
They kept looking for their own space, but finding something with the sheer square footage they needed to expand proved difficult. “No, you can't afford it, no, no… Wait a minute. We might be able to afford this,” Blanski said.
“This” was the old bank. “We bought this place with the help of ECDI,” he said.
Blanski served in the Florida Army National Guard from 1996 to 2002, six years active and two years inactive. Through ECDI’s Veteran Business Outreach Center of Ohio (VBOC), that background became part of the support MADFUN could draw on as they worked toward buying the building.
They already knew Tim Kehoe, before he became the Director of the VBOC. When he moved into that role, they followed him there. “It was because of his being there that we were able to make something happen,” Blanski said.
The building deal came down to timing. A standard SBA loan would have taken too long, and the sellers wouldn’t have waited.
Tim connected them to the right contact at Union Bank. That changed how the loan could be structured and how fast they could move. “The reason that we had the contact at Union Bank to get the SBA loan that we got was because of Tim…”
Union Bank was able to close it like a traditional loan and settle the SBA portion later. “If we had to wait until December, the sellers never would have agreed to work with us.” They closed in September.
Suddenly, MADFUN Studios had a dedicated space. More than one thing could happen at once. One set-build going up while something else was already being shot.
They still go back to Tim at the VBOC and ECDI. “He’s just been an amazing resource and confidant to bounce ideas off of,” Blanski said.
The Blanskis are starting to position MADFUN as more than a photo studio. The work already runs that way. They’re building sets, running video shoots, and handling production from start to finish.
At any given time, something’s being built, shot or in post-production. Someone in the beauty suite on hair and makeup. Food swapped between takes. The next shot getting set up. Work keeps coming in, and they can take on what they want and leave the rest.
They’ve talked about expanding the kitchen and doing more with food. When Firehouse Subs wanted to shoot with them, they bought a commercial meat slicer. When an ice cream shoot opportunity popped up for Burger King, instead of renting one, they purchased their own soft serve machine. “Do we need an ice cream machine?” he said. “Not really, but people love it in the summer.”
“I'm not looking to be much more successful right now. I feel like I have plenty. Creating a space we want to come to, and having clients we enjoy working with, for us, that's success.”
“It’s such a blessing. I’m not looking for much more right now. I feel like we have plenty. Creating this space, where we actually want to come each day, making it our own, and having clients we enjoy working with, for us, that's success.”
