Inside this Atlanta area film studio, a new pro tennis league has risen

Since opening in 2022, a number of projects have passed through the soundstages at Decatur’s Electric Owl Studios. Gameshows. Mid-budget independent films. The new reboot of “The Naked Gun.”

Never did its general manager, Dan Rosenfelt, think Electric Owl would play host to live sporting events. But when the founder of a new tennis startup approached Electric Owl about occupying one of its stages this summer, he said it sounded like an amazing idea.

“They have a fully controlled environment,” Rosenfelt said. “Much like any live TV show that occurs on a stage, it made sense that any sport could do it.”

For six weeks this summer, Electric Owl is the home base of a new team-based professional tennis league designed to be more intense and engaging than the traditional form of the sport. The pace of play is faster — matches are condensed into three 10-minute sprints with 2-minute breaks, a fraction of the average length of a single set in tennis, which is around 40 minutes to an hour.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Marcel Dawson hits a backhand during an Intennse Challenge Series match at the Electric Owl Studios on Thursday, July 10, 2025, in Decatur. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Pulsating music plays behind each match, and so does a live audience. It’s team-based, too, with each composed of three men and three women representing Atlanta, Jacksonville and Tampa.

Over the past year, soundstages across the country have opened up their doors to other forms of media as traditional film and television production has remained in a precarious position after last year’s dual Hollywood strikes.

Though soundstages are designed specifically for film and television productions, they’re flexible spaces, and can accommodate shoots for commercial and print projects, music videos or video games. Earlier this year, Trilith Studios held a live boxing match from its Lux stage, which is one of its advanced virtual production facilities. The match streamed on BrinxTV, a sports entertainment platform backed by Trilith’s venture capital arm.

But this isn’t too different from a typical production. Rosenfelt likens it to a reality, game or talk show. Intennse has a crew of people working on the live broadcast, from gaffers rigging lights to technical producers in front of monitors directing live edits between cameras.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

The Intennse pace of play is faster — matches are condensed into just three 10-minute sprints with 2-minute breaks. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Intennse is the passion project of Charles Allen, a longtime tennis enthusiast who spent the first several decades of his career working in Silicon Valley and worked with the International Tennis Federation to create a data standard. One of the objectives of the league is to change the culture of a sport where the pathway for juniors and professionals can be convoluted, he said.

They’re providing players a professional pathway with a base salary of $50,000, health benefits and a schedule that doesn’t require them to travel the globe.

“It’s such a great sport, and yet the onboarding of people is so individualistic,” Allen said. “It has been a very expensive sport, particularly in some countries, so we’re trying to integrate all levels of the sport.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

One of the stages at Electric Owl Studios is occupied this summer by a new tennis startup. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Now in its inaugural season, matches in the Georgia market are broadcast on the Peachtree Sports Network, which is a Gray Media station. The league is also livestreaming contests on Twitch and YouTube.

After years of consideration, Intennse came together rather quickly, Allen said. It took his team about eight months from initially scoring $4 million from international investment firm Triple B to opening its doors to the public for its first match.

Because of this tight turnaround, Intennse didn’t have many locations to choose from. It considered hosting matches across multiple cities instead of just Atlanta. Staff members looked into basketball courts, but after they found a decent option, they discovered that it had permanent fixtures that couldn’t be moved. Eventually, a league staff member who also worked in the film industry suggested looking into soundstages.

Electric Owl checked off every box for Intennse’s space needs. The league needed high ceilings, so a typical warehouse, which averages about 25 to 30 feet in height, would not work. Electric Owl’s stages are about 40 feet high. They have strong internet and data systems for livestreaming. Plus, the space is both temperature- and sound-controlled.

And then there was the floor. The polished concrete floors of soundstages aren’t necessarily conducive to a sport requiring grip, traction and friction. So Electric Owl allowed Intennse to paint the floor with a textured coating called Acrytech so players can move around without slipping.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Erik Graves hits a serve during an Intennse Challenge Series match at the Electric Owl Studios. The studios filled all the requirements of the tennis league. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

“One of our rules at the studio is to say ‘yes’ to every production and their needs as they have requests,” Rosenfelt said. “Our job is to make sure that what they need to do to accomplish their goals is easy, efficient and doesn’t cost them anything.”

After the 2023 strikes and the threat of a similar measure from the crew members’ union, the pace of production is starting to pick up, Rosenfelt said. It’s much slower than it was years earlier, but Electric Owl, which is one of the smaller studios in the state, has kept itself busy. Within the last year, the studio played host to HBO miniseries “DTF St. Louis,” Maude Apatow’s directorial debut “Poetic License” and the Anne Hathaway-Ewan McGregor science fiction film “Flowervale Street.”