Located in Las Vegas, and working out of a 50,000 square foot facility, AMC Fabrication stays current with the most advanced equipment, technology and techniques in the industry. There’s more than 50 years of combined experience in precision machining, fabrication and certified welding among the 15-person team. They do CNC milling, CNC turning, rolling and bending. “Our CNC’s use three, four and five axis precision milling and turning centers,” says Joe Parnello, father of Matt and CEO of the company.
In one of the more colorful answers to the “how’d you get into this biz” question one might hear, is this one: the military/aerospace industry.
Entertainment Industry Roots
Joe’s roots in the entertainment industry go deep. His father was a famed bandleader and arranger for such icons as Frank Sinatra—and Joe himself was well on his way to being a professional musician when he took a left turn into fabrication. “I always liked making things,” he says. His wife Lori’s father had a machine shop doing work for the aerospace industry, and “I would play in his shop. I’d make components for my motorcycles, my cars, and it was noticed I was good at it.” So good at it that he landed contracts making parts for the aerospace industry and the military—clients who demand high precision and reliability. For 28 years, the senior Parnello manufactured the widgets and whatnots so planes like F16s could land and weapon systems like 25mm Gatling guns could operate.
“Then one day we got a call from a client who said he needed some special bolts for a video wall and couldn’t find anybody else to do it,” Joe recalls. “We were the only ones willing to do it and turned it around that night.” Then, in 2001, they got a call to help with the first Hulk movie, and they needed help making the Gamma Sphere that would turn the Hulk into, well, the Hulk. “It was a big problem for them, and they had gone to a bunch of people, and I told them to give me 24 hours and let me see what we can come up with.” Matt did a 3D drawing that was influenced by a soccer ball, and in the end, the studio was very happy with the work.
And so were the Parnellos. “I turned to my son and said, ‘Boy, this is the business we want to be in—why are we dealing with the government when we could be doing this?’” he laughs. So they liquidated their business and set up shop in Las Vegas.
Making it Live
In 2004, they started a long, successful relationship with Cirque du Soleil, making parts for their production of KA. “We’ve worked on just about every show of theirs since then, either building pieces from scratch or helping refurbish or update some portion of their set.”
They’ve kept busy ever since, and have built a successful, growing operation serving the live event, film and television industries. “All we did was apply aerospace practices and technologies to the industry,” Joe says. For the aerospace industry, the stakes are high, so components always needed to have more integrity, weigh less and be able to stand a longer duty cycle. That’s the edge AMC brings to projects like Marvel Universe Live. Feld, the producers of that show, wanted an over-the-top spectacle of live stunts that could compete with the computer generated graphics of the comic book films and had designed a set that included the head of the Statue of Liberty. According to the design, at one point in the show, a circle of truss around the head of the statue was supposed to descend, Slinky-like, to the floor, creating a spiral ramp that performers would ride up on dirtbikes before jumping off the points of Lady Liberty’s crown. There was only one problem: No one knew how to build it. When they reached out to AMC, there were no solutions and almost no time left on the production schedule. Matt and Joe went to work. “They thought it couldn’t even be done, it was so complicated,” says Joe. “We did it in four weeks and delivered it to Feld, and Feld just went—where have you been for the last 20 years?”
They are proud to work with many creative partners including Fisher Technology, Tait, Tomcat, Extreme Structures, Universal Studios theme parks and Sea World Orlando, among others.
While Joe still works, Matt runs the company today. “Matt is always on top of technology, and frankly, pushing innovations where a guy like me might be less prone to invest in. I’m not inclined to spend $400,000 on that water jet machine or $200 thousand on something else, but Matt knows that the key is to keep reinvesting in the company.”
“It’s all about efficiency,” Matt says. “You don’t want to become outdated, and you need to stay competitive. Each project has its own individual challenges and you need to have the tools necessary to do the work. That’s also why this business is fun, though — every project is different, and every day is different.”
AMC Fabrication is built to handle those differences. Their gear enables them to make custom rigging equipment for those jobs that need a little more creativity with their rigging, but just as much safety. “We make all the items major rigging manufacturers don’t,” says Joe. “If you’re rigging stuff and you have fleet problems around the cabling, that’s the kind of stuff we do. We’re a different kind of company.” They make specialty blocks and cable guides, diverter blocks, gimbling blocks, donuts, even articulating loft and mule blocks, not to mention a specialized product line of snatch blocks for performer flying.
“This is a one-stop shop,” Joe says. “We now have the ability to bring to life your complete set of blueprints or work with something you doodled on a cocktail napkin. We can fabricate it, engineer it, build it and deliver. And it’s all done in-house.”
For more information, please visit www.amcfab.com.
