Clayton State University’s Film and Digital Media Center will soon unveil its new studio in Lucy Huie Hall in Jonesboro.
“The timing of the opening of this unique space couldn’t be better,” said Clayton State President Dr. Thomas Hynes. “We have just entered into a partnership with the Fulton County schools, Union City and Atlanta Metro Studios for a ground-breaking, first in the nation training program that will put recent high school graduates on a path to jobs in Georgia’s exploding film industry. Those students will in fact be training in this very space.”
The Film and Digital Media Center’s film studio will be Atlanta’s newest small studio space. It will be the only space of its kind associated with a higher education institution in the state and one of the few in the nation.
The building, which was originally used as an airplane maintenance technician training center, has been under renovation for almost a year. The facility includes a 10,000-square-foot film sound stage, 6,000 square feet of which have been outfitted with acoustic treatment and black walls and floor. Some 3,000 square feet of that space has a 15-foot-high lighting grid with power and a 6,000-pound capacity steel superstructure with 200 amps of power available. An additional 200 amps on cam-lock connectors are also online. In addition, there a two permanent cyclorama walls – one 36-foot-long green screen and a 22-foot-long white screen. This space is also enclosed by a black sound curtain.
The other half of the sound stage has a 25-foot-high ceiling and 30-foot-wide-by-20-foot-tall sliding hangar doors, facilitating entry of large vehicles, sets and props. The overall space also includes a 2,000-square-foot area for storage of props and sets. The area will be quipped as a mill, with power and bench tools for set construction.
The adjacent building includes rooms that can be used for hair and make-up, dressing rooms, extras holding, craft services, and meeting and office space for productions. The building’s parking lot can accommodate more than 250 cars and in fact has already been used as a basecamp for a medium-sized production.
The studio will be used to support the University’s non-credit Digital Film Technician Training Program, which in its first year has placed 12 students in the local film union (IATSE 479) with another 20 students who are working in the film industry. The space will also be used by Atlanta area independent film productions the program partners with (more than 20 since July of 2014) and will be available for rent to productions and production companies.
