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Seen from the outside, the newest building on the East Campus of Valencia College may look some-what utilitarian, even plain.

Constructed from slabs of pre-cast, alfalfa-gray concrete, the two-story structure is unadorned except for block letters announcing “SCHOOL OF ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT” followed by “FILM PRODUCTION” and “SOUND TECH-NOLOGY.”

Step inside, however, and the $13.5 million, 30,705-square-foot facility tells a different tale — a fascinating story about the intersection of creativity and technology.

As those block letters suggest, the building is the new home of Valencia’s film-production program and its sound

and music technology program, with additional space for its Digital Media program.

The aim of all these programs is to create technologically savvy artists to fill local jobs in filmmaking, at theme parks and for convention venues, as well as to take advantage of employment oppor-tunities elsewhere. The recognition of a need for a new facility grew out of a “listening tour” undertaken by Stacey Johnson, president of Valencia’s East and Winter Park campuses.

“What the Arts and Entertainment division spoke with me about is that they had really outstanding programs despite very old facilities,” recalls Johnson.

She also came to realize that only a small percentage of the students in those

programs were graduating, and that bigger and better facilities could help change that.

“What was a challenge for me was a very tight budget,” reflects Johnson. “It was a lean-and-mean budget, but we have gotten a very good value for this community.”

Understanding the students in these programs helps to explain why the new building is so important.

“Our students come to us with a lot of knowledge, experience and even talent,” notes Wendy Givoglu, dean of arts and entertainment. “They’ve been telling their story and creating art since junior high school” — often using their phones and other easily accessed technology.

“They come to us knowing this [field]

Valencia College’s new cutting-edge School of Arts & Entertainment facility offers students an innovative space to develop their creative talent for the real world.

BY JAY BOYAR

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is what they love but not fully under-standing the landscape of what all the jobs are,” Givoglu continues. “A lot of students think that, because they’ve been using all these technology tools for so long, they already know everything. So it’s our job to help them learn some of the rules.”

Before the building was constructed, the programs it serves were housed else-where on campus in a makeshift sort of way. Each year, about 150 students grad-uated or earned technical certificates from these programs.

“It was just too many students for that little space,” says Rachel Burkett, a recent film-program grad who now works in that program as a teach-ing assistant and aspires to become a camera operator.

“We are now working in actual, state-of-the-art studios,” offers Jesse Shirley, a sound and music technology student who hopes to land a job with a virtu-al-reality company. “Whereas before, we were working in just classrooms.”

“The environment,” Johnson points out, is now “more like a top-of-the-line work environment.”

And the facility is roomy enough to even-tually double the number of graduates.

“We’re getting ready,” says Eric Fleming, film-program chair. “It’s exciting and scary. You just want the quality of the experience to be at the level we’re doing right now. We can achieve that. Certainly, the building allows us to do it.”

The facility has been expressly — and cleverly — designed by DLR Group lead by architect Lindsey Piant Perez (whose specialties include higher-education structures) to serve the needs of students and their professors. In addition to classrooms and offices, it contains a sound stage for film, editing suites, a sound-effects room, setups for sound mixing and mastering, and an internet radio station, as well as areas where students can just sort of chill and discuss their school projects.

These discussion areas offer “new possibilities for the synergy between the programs,” observes Givoglu. “It’s amazing how this whole space can invite people into that.”

Upon entering the facility, you imme-diately notice that its ceilings are unusu-ally high.

“The higher [ceilings] make the [recorded] sound more natural,” explains Raul Valery, Sound and Technology

chair. And if you look closely, you’ll find that many of the rooms lack right angles — again, to improve acoustical quality by allowing for space between walls.

One highlight of the building is a green-screen chamber, which is used to create visual effects not unlike those you see in action movies. Another stand-out feature is a 120-seat, Dolby Atmos-commissioned screening theater.

Just walking through the facility heightens your awareness of the many and various skills required in the arts-and-entertainment field.

“We’re showing [students] that everyone has a role in this industry,” Givoglu ref lects. “You might be the performer on set, or you might be the person running sound in the back-ground. There is a place for everyone in lighting design, scenery and audio- visual systems design.

“We’re really helping to show the art of all of that to our students.”

Jay Boyar’s columns, reviews and arti-cles have appeared in such publications as The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily and Orlando Sentinel, where he served as the movie critic.

The aim of all these programs is to create technologically savvy artists to fill local jobs in filmmaking, at theme parks and for

convention venues, as well as to take advantage of employment opportunities elsewhere.

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