InPark Magazine: The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) announces a major expansion of the university’s film and digital media studios. The expansion of Savannah Film Studios, a landmark 10.9-acre project, will include a Hollywood-style film backlot, a next-generation XR stage for virtual productions, and new soundstages, among other features. The expanded Savannah Film Studios will be the largest and most comprehensive university film studio complex in the nation.
6 comments:
I toured and applied to SCAD, and if you have ever been to Savannah recently, you'd know that SCAD has pretty much taken over the city. I couldn't go anywhere in the more urban parts of Savannah without seeing a building or sign related to the school. It's insane how large the campus is already, and creating a full Hollywood-style backlot is such a major expansion. SCAD, from what I can tell, has a big film program, and one of things that actually turned me off from going to SCAD was that doing design and production there was more focused on film, not live performance. If this backlot and XR stage are really high-quality, though, I wonder if Hollywood studios could try to take advantage of it. SCAD has a beautiful campus and is a very wealthy school, but I've heard a lot of complaints that the tuition is not worth it is you don't get a massive scholarship. I hope, if SCAD gets any money out of this, they try and lower tuition and not run the institution like a business.
I actually know someone who is going to SCAD next semester and I am excited to see that they will be able to have all these state of the art facilities and equipment. This will be a great experience for anyone trying to get into the movie business and hopefully it will improve the education of everyone there. At Carnegie Mellon University, we would have almost no reason to have some of these facilities as most of our classes will never train us to use this equipment. For example, a Hollywood style backlot would be very unnecessary as none of our class would train us on how to film in this setting. A XR stage for virtual productions I think should be apart of the School of Drama as I believe that theatre as all forms of live entertainment and an XR stage would allow us to produce live content for the internet.
Especially since Georgia is a large hub for the film industry, it makes sense for SCAD to make such a major expansion to further cater their programs to the local industry. The author writes that "The expansion of Savannah Film Studios, a landmark 10.9-acre project, will include a Hollywood-style film backlot, a next-generation XR stage for virtual productions, and new soundstages." As film continues to adopt virtual technologies for production and expand into XR, providing a quality education would mean SCAD needs facilities and tools like their 2000 square-foot XR stage, disguise xR, Foley stages and motion-capture studios, in addition to the more traditional capture tools and stages in order to keep up with current trends like ILM's Stagecraft program and using video game engines to power virtual production. While the Stagecraft facilities are currently considered cutting edge in terms of technology and production capacity, it won't be long before facilities like these are considered standard for film, and the line between animation, live capture, and video games blur.
Wow this article was so exciting! I think that this is going to be a major accomplishment for a university and it is incredible that SCAD is taking the lead. Most people do not realize that Georgia is becoming more and more popular for filming. It is known as the hollywood of the south and it matches the amount of films produced in New York and California. I wonder if any of the students will be involved in the building of this project. It seems like it could be a really fun learning experience but they might just hire out all the work. When i was in LA i went to a backlot tour of Warner Brothers studios. It was so cool to see their backlot set and I recognized it from aot of TV shows and movies. I have a friend studying performing arts there next year so I am going to forward her this article!
Carnegie Mellon where is my sound stage? Where is my immersive Folly studio?? Come on step up your game CMU, lol. I didn't apply to SCAD, I do believe I have a friend attending SCAD (though I would have to reach out to her because I haven't talked with her in a while) I thought about applying to SCAD and can't really remember why I didn't (I think I didn't like their website) I am not sure where exactly in the entertainment industry I want to end up, nor do I believe that I need to have that figured out currently, but working in Atlanta or Savannah has always been on my mind. I was born in Georgia and have always liked the idea of moving back there and finding work in those areas. I don't plan on switching schools (I still like Carnegie Mellon, SCAD doesn't also have a great CS program) but maybe I will try to take a trip down to Savannah, visit an old friend, and tour their new film lot when it is constructed.
As someone who grew up in Georgia and who had driven past SCAD’s Atlanta Campus on a weekly basis for most of my life the explosion that the school has seen really in the past 5-6 years is amazing to me. The difference between what SCAD was when I was going into high school and the film industry was just kicking off in Georgia to when I graduated to now is insane. As Jem Said above if you’ve been to Savannah anytime recently you’ll that the school and particularly their film department has just taken over the city. I have plenty of friends however that are going to SCAD currently however and I think they’ve all told me at one point or another that this fast expansion is hard on most of the university especially the students as they build the resources and facilities sometimes the skillsets and just the bodies needed to film them aren’t there yet and students are either suffering through tuition prices or an education not being pushed to the fullest.
Post a Comment