A group of filmmakers and industry professionals in town for the Sarasota Film Festival this weekend stopped spent time Friday, March 31, touring Ringling College’s on-campus teaching and professional sound stages. During their visit, the group also met with Film students and faculty. The group included a mix of local and visiting commercial and independent filmmakers, and other industry professionals, as well as organizers from the Sarasota Film Festival.
Film faculty Patrick Alexander opened the event with a casual introduction to the program, the space, and the students, and opened the floor for the professionals to make introductions. After introductions students had the opportunity to mingle with the guests, talk about their work and interests, and hear about the visitor’s projects and organizations. The film festival group toured the facility, where students were working on their projects in the editing rooms and soundstages, demonstrating mastery of their field and poised for dialogue.
Ringling College’s Film program consistently ranks among the best film programs in the country. Students learn to write, produce, direct, edit, and more. The program includes two tracks: narrative film and branded entertainment.
The commercial soundstages onsite give students the opportunity to work on professional films. Recently, students contributed to the Kevin Smith film, Kilroy was Here, and the TV mini-series, The Real Stephen Blatt, by Justin Long, among others.
Film students have access to 10,000 feet of acoustically-isolated soundstages, editing suites, a recording studio, a Foley stage, a color correction suite, and dubbing stages. Faculty who teach in the Film department are practicing professionals, like Alexander, who is a screenwriter, producer, and director, who was the co-director of the John Alexander Project in partnership with NPR; and cinematographer Mark Perry, who has more than 35 years of experience in commercial filmmaking. He is known for Honeymoon in Vegas and The Fantastic Four.
Alumni of the program have gone on to work for Netflix, Disney, Comedy Central, MTV, NBC, and ABC to name a few.
