Full Sail Stories
Published Feb 26, 2014
10 Things We Learned at the Fifth Annual Hall of Fame
When everything was said and done we ended up with a lot of insightful (and random) notes, covering everything from career advice to what our grads are working on next.
We ran around like crazy during last week's Fifth Annual Hall of Fame festivities, catching up with grads and inductees, interviewing industry guests, sitting in for as many panels as possible, and handing out Full Sail Hall of Fame gear to students. When everything was said and done we ended up with a lot of insightful (and random) notes, covering everything from career advice to what our grads are working on next. Check out some of our favorite #FullSailHOF Fun Facts below.
- Record labels are reinventing their roles in the music business. As the industry continues to adapt in the post-digital age, some companies are launching their own boutique labels. Hard Rock Records' Director of Music and Marketing James Buell spoke about a business model whose goal isn't to score platinum plaques, but to develop new artists under a one-year contract that preps them for bigger labels while also strengthening Hard Rock's brand.
- The first batch of Playstation 4 and Xbox One games only scratch the surface. During “The Greatest Console Generation?” panel 2012 Hall of Fame inductee Chance Glasco commented on the latest home consoles, explaining the initial launch lineup only hints at the great things on the horizon, explaining “The early games that come out are sort of generation 1.5, because we haven’t been able to tune our engines properly. In another year you’re going to see some really amazing games.”
- 2013 Hall of Fame Inductee Kim Alpert used to be a carpenter. Kim told students in her "Ask Me Anything" session that it was after her sister showed her how to use Illustrator that she decided to come to Full Sail to study Digital Media. Over a decade later, she's the Founder/Creative Director at Make Amazing.
- Your Plan B should always be a variant of your Plan A. That piece of advice was just one of dozens dished out by 2010 Hall of Fame Inductees Leslie Brathwaite and Troy DeVolld during their "So You've Succeeded: Now What?" panel. We also found out the two friends are currently working on a book together.
- R.L. Stine’s "Goosebumps" series is being adapted to film. We ran into Film grad and 2010 Hall of Fame inductee Steve Cainas, who is currently working on the movie adaptation of R.L. Stine’s classic Goosebumps book series. The movie starts shooting this April in Atlanta, with Steve acting as production coordinator. Jack Black is set to star under the direction of Rob Letterman (Gulliver’s Travels, Shark Tale).
- Mixing engineers have an arsenal of creative tools they can draw upon in their sessions, meaning that they're doing more than just adjusting volume levels. Many guests shed light on their process inside the studio, including 2005 Recording Arts graduate/producer/mixer/engineer Jordan "DJ Swivel" Young. Swivel walked through a live mixing session of Beyonce's "I Care," demonstrating how sending her backup vocals through an Amplitube guitar amp plug-in created the illusion of a smoking guitar solo that perfectly doubled her melodic runs.
- You could be on "Real Rob," Rob Schneider's new television show. During a conversation with students, the actor and director shared that "Real Rob" will be casting locally in Orlando. He also mentioned that students interested in working behind the scenes may have the chance to do so as well. "Real Rob" will filming its eight episodes on Full Sail's soundstages beginning next month.
- The man who designed Full Sail’s Studio A also designed Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios. In Robert Margouleff’s discussion about his pioneering synthesizer collaborations with Stevie Wonder in the ‘70s, he mentioned that the sessions began in New York at Electric Lady. The studio was the first to designed by legendary architect and acoustician John Storyk, who also, Margouleff said, designed the first studio here at Full Sail. Storyk, of course, has gone on to head up the design and construction of many more studios (he's a founding partner of Walters-Storyk Design Group), including Bearsville, and private studios for the likes of Jay Z and Bruce Springsteen, so it was great to hear about his Full Sail connection.
- Reality television show writers are called "story producers. "Technically, a "reality" TV show isn't supposed to have writers, even though they do. 2010 Hall of Fame Inductee Troy DeVolld laid out the hierarchy of a reality television production staff during "The Specialized World of TV Writing Panel," while other guests talked about writing for sitcoms, dramas, documentaries, and animated cartoon programs.
- You don’t say “They’re in the bathroom” when a production tech asks “Where’s the talent?” We thought we were giving a straightforward answer to a straightforward question, but we ended up learning that you say “they’re in makeup,” because nobody wants to picture talent in the bathroom, apparently.