Terrapin Station Entertainment, a Sony Music Masterworks company specializing in family-friendly and brand-oriented live events and management, has announced a majority stake in the Los Angeles-based live event production services company Black Ink Presents.
Black Ink Presents, a leader in solutions for music performances, provides creative direction, design, and production management for concerts, tours, and other unique and immersive events in the United States. The company produces live-to-film shows where a full orchestra performs a film score live, synced with a film screening or other media.
Under the new agreement, Black Ink Presents’ CEO John Kinsner, CFO Alek Deva, and COO Mike Kasper will continue to oversee the company’s daily operations while working closely with Jonathan Shank, Founder and CEO of Terrapin Station Entertainment, to develop and grow new live-to-film productions and a range of unique live experiences for IP-based entertainment, including concerts, immersive exhibits, and cruise entertainment.
“I’ve collaborated with Black Ink on a wide range of projects, and they are tremendously creative and future-focused,” says Jonathan Shank. “They have strong knowledge of the intellectual property space, they’ve worked on a range of innovative projects, and they have a passion for finding new pathways. Their skill set, combined with Terrapin’s growing IP roster, will give us a solid foundation and further expand our presence in non-traditional entertainment.”
“After years of working closely with Jonathan and his team, we couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to deepen our partnership with Terrapin and the broader Sony Music Masterworks group,” adds John Kinsner. “This next chapter represents an unparalleled opportunity for Black Ink to continue to grow and to build new live entertainment experiences on the cutting edge of music, media, and technology.”
The partnership expands upon a long-running collaboration between Shank and Black Ink Presents, including Deal or No Deal Live and The Bob Marley One Love Experience. Recent projects backed by Black Ink Presents include Danny Elfman’s 2022 performances at Coachella and Hollywood Bowl, Get Happy: A Judy Garland Centennial Celebration featuring live singers, a big band orchestra, and media from The Judy Garland Show, and Disney’s Encanto in Concert, a large-scale live-to-film event.
Past live-to-film productions include event screenings of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, the Disney animated films Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, the Elton John-inspired musical Rocketman, Get Out from director Jordan Peele, Chicago, The Batman, The Evil Dead, The Goonies, and Ghostbusters.
