The Real-World Educational

Experience at Full Sail

Providing a college education that prepares students for positions in entertainment media requires more than abstract theory and textbooks. It takes a curriculum that mimics real-world working conditions as closely as possible, complete with long hours, tight budgets, demanding goals, and hands-on time with state-of-the art, industry-standard tools. Full Sail, a fully accredited college in Winter Park, Fla., set its sights on giving students just such an experience when it opened its doors 29 years ago.

Film Program director Dave Franko has presided over Full Sails Film Degree program since 2000. The program has been part of the curriculum since 1988, when graduates earned a certificate for their efforts. Over time, the program evolved into an Associates Degree program and, since January 2006, the Film Degree program consists of a 21-month course for which graduates receive a Bachelor of Science Degree.

"Our students go to school 40 or more hours per week, as opposed to other universities where students might have 20 classroom hours," says Franko. "Everyone is required to take 29 different courses. They choose their specialties toward the end of the program. People come here not only for the teachers and the gear, but also for the accelerated study. Its basically like a job."

"Were open 24/7," he continues. "And students sometimes attend classes at odd hours such as 1 a.m. or 5 a.m. Theres always either a teacher or lab specialist in class with them, so our students are prepared not just for long hours, but for the red-eye shift. No one who hires our graduates complains they arent prepared for the rigors of the real world."

"No one who hires our graduates complains they arent prepared for the rigors of the real world."
 - Dave Franko, Film Program Director, Full Sail

Natural Selection

Full Sail faculty members come from the industries they prepare students to enter. And when it comes to selecting the gear students learn on, the school turns to its faculty, alumni, and advisory board to ensure Full Sails facilities house tools that the professionals use. Its no surprise then that Avid workflows, centered on Avid nonlinear editing systems and shared-storage solutions, have played a key role in the Film schools technology infrastructure since the early 1990s.

As standard practices and tools in the film industry evolved, Full Sail has kept pace. Post-production course director Bob Truett explains, "Four years ago when I joined the faculty, my class was part of the 16mm Production class. I taught in the second half of a two-month class using 12 Avid Xpress Deluxe systems with Meridien boards. Since transitioning to a Bachelors Degree program, weve expanded our course offerings and brought in more technology [to handle a growing number of courses and students]."

The school is strongly committed to using current technology and routinely upgrades its systems, relying on Avids support team to ensure that their large and ever-changing Avid installation stays up-and-running with minimal downtime.

A full range of the latest Avid editing, finishing, audio, and shared-storage systems are currently in use, including Media Composer Adrenaline systems, Media Composer software, Avid DS Nitris systems, and an Avid Unity ISIS system, so students gain hands-on experience with a variety of platforms. The Avid systems run on a combination of Macintosh- and Windows-based systems. Students learn how Avid projects, bins, and media can be easily exchanged across platforms to enable a seamless offline-to-online workflow that mimics those found in the real world.

"We encourage students to learn more than one nonlinear editing system, but one of them should be the Avid [system]."
- Bob Truett, Post-production Course Director, Full Sail

Learning the Ropes

Full Sails one-month Intro to Editing class gets students up and running with the basics of linear deck-to-deck editing and nonlinear editing. When their initiation is complete, Truetts Post-production class exposes them to Avid video editing technology for the first time. Many students are drawn to Full Sails program because they are aware of the role Avid systems play in most Hollywood film and television projects, and they are eager to get hands-on training on the systems.

"They come to my class just after theyve shot a 16mm movie, which theyll cut on Media Composer [software]. At first, some are put off by the Avid [systems] complexity, but once they get familiar with the system, they love it. There are 11 software-only Media Composer [setups] for the students, and I teach from a Media Composer Adrenaline [system]. We encourage students to learn more than one nonlinear editing system, but one of them should be the Avid [system]," he says.

Truetts class, which he and associate course director Sean Kinchlow and senior lab specialist Rich Aparicio teach, deals with both the creative and technological aspects of editing. On the technology side, they try to cover as much ground as possible. They particularly focus on media management and organizational techniques, skills that Truett feels are critical to fresh-out-of-film-school, would-be editors/directors/producers cutting their teeth as interns. Avid systems help support these skills with easy-to-use bins, a customizable interface, and a shared-storage setup that enables students to simultaneously share and flexibly access projects and media.

However, it is the breadth and depth of the program that inspires students to find their niche. "We get a mix of students, but there are several in each class who want to be producers or directors," says Truett. "Some change their minds and want to become editors. One of the beauties of Full Sails Film program is that the student is given an overall understanding of the filmmaking craft. In post production, we let the students know how important it is to understand the role of the editor and how understanding the editing process will help them as a cameraman, producer, or director."

Collaborative Networks

After completing the Intro to Editing class, students work on larger format projects in Post-production and Advanced Post-production courses. They edit their second film project, shot on 35mm film, on Media Composer Adrenaline systems. Students work in pairs, editing in one of two labs, each of which houses six Media Composer Adrenaline systems.

Effects and additional advanced editing techniques are covered in two more labs housing a total of 12 Avid DS Nitris

Projects and Deliverables

The Film program covers everything from creative writing and storytelling to production design and art direction, cinematography and producing, post production and sound for film, and still photography. Even makeup is covered.

There are eight soundstages at the school and a full-scale, 18-scene back lot that just opened. The back lot includes scenes from New York, New Orleans, Seattle, and Montreal, as well as alleys, banks, restaurants, a seedy underground section, and a standalone gas station. Students can shoot on one of the stages or on the back lot, or they can take one of two trucks or a van out and shoot on location in the Orlando area.

Students are expected to complete five projects by the time they finish the Film program: a short digital video, a 30-minute HD television show, a short documentary, a short Super 16mm film, and a short 35mm film. According to Franko, they usually leave the school with 25 projects, because they work on their peers projects as well.

Students shoot Super 16mm, 35mm, and HD footage, and its all digitized by a local lab in DigiBeta format. The post classes do not currently take advantage of the Avid DNxHD encoding format for storage-efficient HD editing, although Franko is considering it for future adoption. Outputting to Internet video formats - Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media - is covered in the advanced editing and HD courses and discussed in more depth in a Digital Media course. Theres also an entertainment business Masters Degree course that talks 

heavily about online and mobile delivery, from both a marketing and distribution vehicle standpoint.

Career to Campus

Of the 5,000 students enrolled at Full Sail, more than 1,000 are in the film program. According to Franko, "It takes about two years after a student graduates for us to get a read on what area of interest they end up working in. But we see a large number going into television and post production. About 13% of our grads go into post."

Full Sail Film graduates have landed jobs as assistant editors, assistant camera operators, grips, production assistants, art department crew members, and private production owners. Darren Lynn Bousman is their most famous alumni. He wrote and directed Saw II and Saw III.

If you visit FullSail.com, youll be greeted with the news that The Daily Buzz, a nationally syndicated morning news program, is being produced on one of Full Sails soundstages.

It brings industry work to the school, a fact that Franko is proud of. "Its a professional production, but part of the arrangement with the shows producers is that students are allowed to intern with the show. Not many students can come out of a school saying they worked on a nationally syndicated show."

Nor can many schools claim to allow graduates to return to campus at any time to audit any course theyd like, as Full Sail does, as a way for alumni to enhance or upgrade their skill set free of charge. Full Sail also makes a staff of 36 career development counselors available to its grads in perpetuity. Its these kinds of innovative career-building strategies and real-world experiences that set Full Sail apart from other Film schools and keep its graduates at the forefront of an ever-changing industry.

CREDITS: Courtesy of Full Sail.