If you’re wondering where film students on Full Sail University’s campus gather, there’s a good chance you will find them working hard in one of its state-of-the-art soundstages.
“It gives them a community space to create their projects,” explains Jason Boyette, the Department Chair for Film & Television and a Course Director for Project and Portfolio VI: Visual Arts in the undergraduate film area of study. “It becomes a hub for all [film] students, a meeting space to learn the craft of filmmaking. It’s a safe space, it’s a controlled environment.”
Soundstages are spaces reserved for a film or television production. They typically have lighting fixtures, sound equipment, and green screens, as well as a power box to run electronics and soundproofing panels on the walls; they are usually painted black to prevent light refraction.
Full Sail’s undergraduate film students have access to five soundstages on campus. One of these facilities is the primary lighting lab location for Project & Portfolio I: Film and Video, Project & Portfolio II: Film and Video, Composition and Visual Design, and Fundamentals of Production I. In this space, students work on three-point lighting and rigging by shooting scenes and short films. They also learn the importance of being safe on set.
“Set safety is ensuring everything from climbing ladders to securing lights is done carefully – making sure nothing falls, equipment is stable, and cameras are moved safely. While accidents can happen, we place a strong emphasis on preventing them,” Jason says. Two other soundstages are primarily used by students in Project & Portfolio III: Film and Project & Portfolio IV: Visual Arts. In their lab sessions in these spaces, students handle lighting, camera work, and set construction to develop short narrative films.
Additional soundstages serve as the backdrop for some of the later courses, including Advanced Production I and Project & Portfolio VI: Visual Arts.
“Students use their previous construction knowledge to produce and/or repurpose sets that will be locations for their films,” Jason explains.
A few of the soundstages have mills attached to them with lots of woodworking materials. Lumber, hammers, table saws, power tools, paint, and other items are available for building sets. Using these materials, students learn how to create flats, paint, mud, construct, and dress their sets.
“They’re figuring out, ‘Okay, time of day… Is this interior day? Interior night? What do we want this to look like? Where do we want to put the camera? Where do we want to put the characters within this space that we’ve created?’ So they’re creating this world, and everybody has their part to play,” Jason explains.
After getting experience with these indoor facilities, students eventually go outside to shoot footage on Full Sail’s studio Backlot space. For this, students also learn about packing a truck for a shoot and using a generator to power it, as well as getting permits to film in specific cities and counties.
Jason says spending meaningful time in the soundstages is critical for future success.
“It’s so important that they get their hands on the gear,” he says. “They understand the process. They know the protocols. They know when to do something [and] when not to do something. They know who’s in charge. If they have a question, they know who to ask. The students who spend more time in those spaces… their resumes are more robust, they’re more confident, they’re ready for the industry.”