New York's Upriver Studios, home to 'Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin', shuts

Upriver Studios, home to the HBO Max series Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin has closed after four years of operation in Saugerties, New York.

The studio was founded by actor-producer Mary Stuart Masterson, of Fried Green Tomatoes and Benny and Joon, and transmedia strategist and filmmaker Beth Davenport, whose credits include Pushing The Elephant.

Speaking to The Albany Times, Masterson said they moved out of the 101,000-square-foot space at the end of July. Despite booking the HBO Max series as its first client, the pandemic and dual strikes caused significant problems for Upriver Studios.

"In four years we had, I think, 27 months where we could not have worked. As a tiny startup, it just was going to be too hard to dig out from under. … But having said all that, the most frustrating part was we know and still feel very strongly that there is a big future upstate for film and TV, and we just couldn’t make it in time," she added.

The local nonprofit Masterson and Davenport co-founded in 2016 that provides film and TV production training programs, Stockade Works, will remain operational.

Umbra Stages in Newburgh, New York is now the only large-scale soundstage in the Hudson Valley.

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