Press Junket Venue · Burbank & Albuquerque
Press Junket Production Studio in LA & Albuquerque
Press junket production in LA and Albuquerque. Talent sits inside the show's own world, or in front of a backdrop that changes for each outlet, live, in camera.
- A backdrop per outlet, switched live
- The show's own world, rebuilt virtually
- Teleprompter system and virtual set operator included
- Green rooms and makeup on site
Browse the set library: 250+ ready-to-load sets →
Or call 818-934-3775 Burbank 818-861-7317 Albuquerque
Watch the reel
Sit-down interviews, junkets and a reunion special, shot here.
Click any clip to play it with sound.
Junket backdrops
Backdrops for a full day of interviews.
What's included
A full day of outlets, one floor, nothing to reset.
- Two junket formats: the show's own set recreated virtually, or talk show and news sets that change per outlet
- Backdrops switch live, mid-sentence, as talent name-checks each outlet
- 250+ ready-to-load virtual sets included; custom or branded looks for the campaign are quoted with the day
- Teleprompter system in the room: beam-splitter and presidential prompters in Burbank, three teleprompters in Albuquerque
- The operator who runs the virtual sets is included in every rental
- Lighting, grip and audio package already rigged on the floor
- Green rooms, dressing rooms, and hair and makeup for talent between outlets
- 20+ parking spaces and easy load-in in Burbank; extensive parking in Albuquerque
- Optional crew: three camera operators (one on the jib) and a teleprompter operator, or bring your own team
- Captured sets reload for later press stops and pickups, with no storage fees
Productions that have trusted us
The networks, the streamers and the studios have all shot here.
Hart to Heart, Aquaman 2, Inventing Anna, Bosch, The Mummy, Greenland, Deadliest Catch and national spots for T-Mobile, Amazon and Domino's. Full credit list
Check availability
Tell us the talent, the outlets and the day.
Tell us the format and your dates. A producer replies with availability and a quote.
- Included: the studio, 250+ ready-to-load sets, lighting, grip and audio, dressing and green rooms, and the operator who runs the virtual sets
- Two studios, in Burbank, California and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Albuquerque shoots qualify for New Mexico’s 30% refundable film credit
- Quoted against your actual shoot, never a rack rate
Rather talk it through? 818-934-3775 · Burbank
818-861-7317 · Albuquerque
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A producer will reach out to talk through your project and next steps. Need us sooner? Call 818-934-3775 (Burbank) or 818-861-7317 (Albuquerque).
Press junket production without the hotel suite
A press junket is a production day that rarely gets treated like one. The talent flies in, sits in a hotel suite or in front of a step-and-repeat, and answers the same questions for forty different outlets. Every outlet crops the same room, and the footage looks it.
Press junket production runs here in a virtual production studio instead. If you have never shot this way: the location is a photoreal virtual set that appears around your talent live, in camera, on our stage. You see the finished shot on the monitor while you film, with no background added later in post, and the backdrop can change between interviews. That gives a junket two formats a hotel cannot offer.
Option 1: Recreate the show’s set, virtually
Hold the press day inside the actual world of the film or series. The show’s set is rebuilt as a photoreal virtual set and appears around the talent live, in camera. Talent walks onto the floor and sits back inside the story, not in front of a hotel curtain.
There are two ways to get the set. If the production captured its sets with CastleVision before strike, the junket loads that world exactly as it was shot. If not, our in-house set builders and artists build the environment from photographs, plans or reference. CastleVision is our patented method for bringing a real place onto the stage so the camera can move as if it were there.
The footage outlets take away is contextual and on-brand. Audiences see the world they already know behind the actors talking about the next episode or the sequel, which is the footage that gets shared. For genre titles, the library already holds worlds like the Spaceship Bridge set and the rest of our sci-fi and spaceship sets. Sets live on drives, so the same world can come back for a second press stop or for pickups, with no storage fees in between.
Option 2: Talk show or news set junkets with live background changes
Talent talks, and the background changes live behind them.
Each outlet’s block can sit on its own set: a morning show talk show set, a network news set, a grand hotel lounge, any of our hotel and suite sets or living room sets, a virtual white cyc set for a clean, neutral look instead of a step-and-repeat, or a branded look built for the campaign. When talent name-checks the outlet or the show they are headed to next, the operator who runs the virtual sets switches the backdrop to that look mid-sentence, without a cut.
Every outlet feels like it got a dedicated spot, and every host gets a name-check inside a context the audience recognizes. That is what drives plays and cross-promotion. The sets behind our talk show set rental and news set rental load for a junket in seconds.
How a press junket day runs here
Talent waits in a green room, not a hotel corridor, with dressing rooms and hair and makeup in the building. Outlets rotate through the interview chair in blocks. Between blocks, or live on cue, the operator who runs the virtual sets changes the backdrop, so nothing on the floor is rebuilt between outlets. That operator is included in every rental. Camera operators (one on the jib) and a teleprompter operator come as an optional crew package, or bring your own team.
The sit-down interview is a format our studios already know. Burbank has hosted countless talk shows, game shows and press junkets, and Hart to Heart, a BBC America production, the Safe Haven talk show and the Diarra From Detroit cast-reunion special were all shot on our interview sets. More talk-show and special credits are on our credits page.
The same talent day can cover more than the junket: batch-shot host wraps and promos can shoot on the same floor, on the same day.
Press junket studio gear: cameras, teleprompters and recording
The Burbank studio has three Panasonic Varicam 35 cinema cameras with Fujinon Cabrio cinema zooms, arranged as a three-camera studio configuration. Each camera gets its own render of the virtual set, and every camera records to its own file alongside the live composite. The teleprompters are beam-splitter and presidential prompters. Audio runs through Sennheiser lavs and booms and a Yamaha mixing console. The floor is a pre-lit green screen cyclorama with a 20-ft ceiling (15 ft to grid) and silent HVAC. The publicity team watches the finished composite on the giant LED video village, the big screen the whole team watches as each outlet is recorded.
In Albuquerque, the studio has three teleprompters, Sennheiser lavs and booms, an Allen & Heath SQ7 console, AJA Ki-Pro recording and Blackmagic switching and routing, with three ARRI Alexa 35 cinema cameras and Fujinon cinema zooms.
At both studios, a live video-linking pipeline can send the composited set out live in the feed to your stream or channel, so a junket block can stream as it happens instead of only being recorded.
How a press junket is booked and priced
Send the talent, the outlet list, the format and the date. A producer reads the inquiry and replies with availability at both studios, then walks you through the sets, cameras and crew. The quote is built on your actual press day: the number of shoot days, the crew size, how complex the set is (a library backdrop, a branded look or the show’s own world rebuilt) and which studio you book. There is no rack rate.
What a junket here does not carry: no set construction required, no strike at the end of the day, and no storage fee when the same world comes back for the next press stop. For more on what moves the number, see how a production is priced.
Press junket venues in Los Angeles & Albuquerque
If you are comparing LA venues for press junkets, most are hotel ballrooms and suites with one backdrop for every outlet. Our studios in Burbank and Albuquerque are junket venues built for the format instead, and the same floor handles series and specials as a TV studio rental. The backdrop changes per outlet, the show’s own world can surround the talent, and the teleprompter system and talent rooms are in the same building.
In Burbank that means green rooms, dressing rooms, 20+ parking spaces and easy load-in, directly across from Nickelodeon Studios, about 5 minutes from Warner Bros., 10 from Disney and 15 from Universal and Burbank (BUR) airport. The Albuquerque studio is about 10 minutes from the Sunport, with extensive parking and a star-talent motorhome, and every set in the library is available at both studios.
For the rooms, the parking and the logistics a publicist books, see our press junket venue in Los Angeles, or the full specs for the Burbank studio and the Albuquerque studio. New to the format? Start with what a press junket is and how the day runs. Running an executive or brand press day instead? See corporate virtual production.
Sample gallery
Press junket setups from past interview days.
A look at press junkets shot at L.A. & ABQ Castle Studios.
Click any image for a closer look.
Questions
Press junket production: what publicists ask before booking.
- What is a press junket?
- A press junket is a concentrated press day where a film or TV show's talent sits for back-to-back interviews with dozens of outlets to promote a release. Traditionally it happens in a hotel suite or a generic backdrop, with the same questions answered for forty different outlets in a single day.
- Why do press junkets matter for a release?
- Press junkets generate the bulk of the interview and promo footage that drives awareness ahead of a premiere, and they let a production cross-promote across many outlets at once. The more contextual and on-brand that footage looks, the more it gets shared and the more play counts it earns, so where and how you stage the junket directly affects the campaign's reach.
- Where can you host a press junket in LA or Albuquerque?
- At our two virtual production studios, in Burbank and Albuquerque. A junket runs here two ways: the film or TV show's actual set recreated virtually so talent is back in the story, or a talk show or news set whose backdrop changes live as talent name-checks each outlet. The teleprompter system, green rooms, dressing rooms and makeup come with the studio, and an optional crew package is available.
- Can every outlet get its own backdrop?
- Yes. That is the talk show or news set format. Each outlet's block can use its own set from the 250+ in the library, or a look built for the campaign, and the operator who runs the virtual sets switches it between blocks or live as talent name-checks the next outlet, without a cut. Nothing on the floor is rebuilt between outlets.
- What is included in a press junket day, and what is optional?
- Included: the studio, the lighting, grip and audio package, the teleprompter system, the virtual sets, green rooms, dressing rooms and makeup, and the operator who runs the virtual sets and changes the backdrops live. Optional, and quoted with the day: a crew package of three camera operators (one on the jib) and a teleprompter operator, or bring your own team, plus custom work such as the show's own world rebuilt or a branded look for the campaign.
- Can the junket backdrop match our key art or the campaign look?
- Yes. Our in-house set builders and artists build custom virtual environments to a production's spec, and custom looks can be branded, so the backdrop can carry the campaign's look instead of a hotel curtain. The other two routes are the show's own world, captured with CastleVision or rebuilt from photographs and plans, or a ready set from the library of 250+. Custom and branded work is quoted with the day.
- Can a press junket be livestreamed or sent out live?
- Yes. Both studios run a live video-linking pipeline, so the finished shot, talent and virtual set together, goes out live in the feed to the stream or channel you choose. In Burbank the publicity team can also watch that finished composite on the giant LED video village while each outlet's block is recorded. Tell us where it streams when you inquire, and a producer confirms the setup for your day.
- How much does a press junket cost to produce?
- There is no rack rate. Each press day is quoted on shoot days, crew size, set complexity and which studio you book, and there is no set construction, strike or storage fee.
- How do we get a quote for a press junket?
- Send the talent, the outlet list, the format you want and the date. A producer, not a sales queue, reads the inquiry and replies with availability at both studios, then walks you through the sets, cameras and crew before quoting the actual day. Tours are by appointment for producers with a project and include a live CastleVision demo.
More for publicists and junket producers
- Press junket venue in Los Angeles The rooms, parking and logistics a publicist books
- Hotel lobby and lounge sets The hotel junket look, without the hotel
- Living room sets for sit-down interviews The couch-and-coffee-table junket look
- How CastleVision works How the show’s world is brought onto the floor
- Corporate and branded video For company press days and executive interviews
- Feature Films and Series
- Vertical Drama and Micro-Series
- Talk Shows
- Game Shows
- News
- The Burbank studio Burbank, the Media Capital of the World, minutes from the major lots
- The Albuquerque studio Feature films and New Mexico’s 30% refundable credit
- The set library Every set, searchable by room and theme
- Rates and what drives the cost How a production is priced
- Tour the facility What is on site at each studio
- Credits Features, series and shows finished here
Tours run by appointment at both studios. Bring the script or the rundown and we will price the shoot against it.
