For nearly two decades the ESPN X Games have been a platform for showcasing athletes and sports from outside the mainstream, and we’re proud to see that two of our Show Production graduates were recently honored for their contributions to the network’s winter competition at this month’s 34th Annual Sports Emmy Awards.

Alumni Mike Pope and Tim Bischof both received statues for Outstanding Technical Team Remote (audio) for their work on the Winter X Games 2012, which were hosted last January in Aspen, Colorado. Mike served as engineer in charge for the audio crew at the chilly four-day event, while Tim was team technical remote.

This marks the second consecutive Emmy for Bischof, who previously won in the same category for his work on the 2011 X Games. A singular achievment for those in television broadcasting, we’d like to congratulate both grads for this recent honor from their industry peers.

When David Mittelberg first graduated from Full Sail’s Digital Arts & Design program, he had an interesting dilemma: While other grads were choosing their forks in the road – web development, graphic design, 3D animation – David simply couldn’t bring himself to decide.

“I loved every media platform I had the chance to explore at Full Sail,” David says. “I’m not just a graphic designer; I don’t just like photography or video; I’m not just a 3D animation guy.” David knew that the role of creative director would give him the chance to do it all.  “But realistically, most people don’t graduate right out of school and into a creative director position. You have to start your own business, which isn’t easy.”

While working on the production end of an internet marketing company, David started creating brands and collateral (logos, business cards, websites) on the side, sometimes working an extra 40 hours a week after hours doing low-paying and pro bono work to help build up his portfolio. “People gave me the chance to be a creative director and I was able to prove my ability.”

The strategy paid off. A few months ago, David came across a job-board posting from Southern Boating and Yachting magazine, which is based in Fort Lauderdale. “I always knew I wanted to be in print. I love magazines and the possibility of merging print with technology.” The job posting cited 18 requirements; thanks to the side jobs he had been doing for months and his Full Sail education, David had all the skills the magazine wanted and more.

Rather than go through the resume and cover letter submission process on the job board, David sent a cleverly crafted and personal letter directly to the magazine’s owner. He was called in for an interview two hours later. Three weeks later, he was starting his first day on the job as the magazine’s production manager.

The moral of the story isn’t lost on David at all: “If I hadn’t kept doing what I wanted to do, regardless of what I was being paid, I would never have had a shot at this job,” he says. “And, I was the only candidate that sent a thank you note.”

David also thinks that his ability to focus on profits made a difference as well. “I try to not think just like an artist; I think like a businessman, and I think that got my foot in the door,” he says. “The key is that Full Sail gave me the skills to be an entrepreneur.”

Last week, outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban posted a call-to-action on his blog for design ideas for new uniforms for his NBA team. An informal competition of sorts (or as Mark says, “crowd sourcing for the design and color of our uniforms”), Mark made it clear that if he chooses a specific design, that doesn’t mean the designer will be compensated. He was pretty direct about it, too:

“Who will own your design? The minute you post it, the Mavs will. If you think its horrible that the Mavs own your design. Do not post. If you think its cool that the Mavs could possibly use your design and you will have eternal bragging rights, then post away. If we really like your design and you, I may even throw in some tickets. If we don’t use your design, it will still be here on this site for now and ever more for you to glance longingly at. If your design is close, if not identical to other designs and we pick one of the other designs, for whatever reason, then thats just the way it goes.”

The Mavericks haven’t had new uniforms in more than ten years and Cuban is looking for a change to be debuted during the 2015-16 season. Anyone who wants to participate just has to post their ideas, graphics, and photos in the comments section of Cuban’s blog. Then maybe it will become the new Dallas Mavericks uniform and maybe you’ll get some free tickets. But you’re probably not going to get paid.

We know it’s important to gain exposure for your work, but would you submit your design knowing you probably won’t get paid? Or do you think it’s a cool opportunity to get recognition? Does it make a difference that Mark Cuban is being up front about it from the start? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

It’s a busy week on campus, with an opportunity to check out WWE Superstar Ryback in action, learn some personal budgeting tips, and enjoy free entertainment outside during the Veterans Student Union’s Memorial Day Block Party. Check out all of the details on those events, plus others, below.

Tuesday:

• Full Sail grads in and around New York City should check out the free Alumni Networking Event at Bowlmor Lanes in Manhattan. More details.

Wednesday:

• Join Eric Mason from design portfolio website Wix.com as he leads a presentation on how to make your own online website and portfolio. More details. (RSVP)
• Entertainment Business Course Director Rob Burrows will lead a GPS Workshop on personal budgeting that will help you get your finances in order. More details.
• The Social Scene group will host a networking event on the Full Sail walkway for Entertainment Business, Music Business, and Recording Arts students. More details.

Thursday:

• Straight from his appearance in “Extreme Rules,” WWE Superstar Ryback will take part in this week’s live NXT taping in Full Sail Live. More details. (RSVP)

Friday:

• Join the Veterans Student Union on the Full Sail walkway for food, entertainment, giveaways, and more during the Memorial Day Block Party. More details. (RSVP)
• This month’s Animation Industry Spotlight features a guest presentation from 3D software company Maxon. More details.
• Animators Justin and Shel Rasch will speak to students about their work in the industry. More details. (RSVP)

Today’s new release Star Trek: Into Darkness brings the long-running sci-fi franchise back to theaters after a long four-year layoff. The film is the follow up to 2009’s hit reboot of the classic Trek timeline, with creative lead J.J. Abrams once again returning to the director’s chair along with stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto.

The sequel is among the most anticipated of this year’s summer movie season, and we’re excited to see the work of over a dozen Full Sail graduates who contributed to its production. Many of these artists worked on the film’s 2D to 3D conversion, and we spoke with recent Computer Animation grad Mark Ferrer about his work as a stereoscopic roto artist on the potential blockbuster.

Full Sail: How difficult is the 3D conversion for an action-heavy film like Star Trek?

Mark Ferrer: It was a lot of fun, but challenging. People don’t realize what goes into these conversions. Just one example – there was this sequence that had a bunch of falling ashes that they wanted us to grab. The challenge is there’s a lot of contrast in the background so it’s really easy to lose things when you’re doing the conversion. They had to have several of us on that one shot and it turned out looking really good.

FS: Has 3D film technology evolved much since Avatar re-popularized the genre in 2009?

MF: The conversion process has gotten a lot faster in the past few years. How our pipeline works now it’s really quick and efficient, and I think the quality is pretty obvious with this film – not just because I worked on it. The difference isn’t just in the action scenes either, but the dialog-heavy scenes where the 3D adds a lot to the screen composition. There’s points in this movie where you really feel like you’re on the Enterprise.

FS: The last Trek film was a great reimagining of the series, does this one do a good job of building upon that?

MF: I saw it this past Sunday, they had a cast and crew screening at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, and it’s great. The first one was an introduction to the characters, the ship, and Starfleet, so now this one can get into the nitty gritty. It feels like a natural progression, and I think there’s a lot in there for the old Star Trek fans.

Full Sail alumni who worked on Star Trek: Into Darkness include:

• Schuyler Anderson (Computer Animation, 2011; tracking)
• Paul Baccam (Computer Animation, 2008; rotoscope artist/stereoscopic artist)
• Maxime Besner (Computer Animation, 2009; stereo compositor)
• Nicholas Canavan (Computer Animation, 2008; stereoscopic rotoscope artist)
• Tasha Carlson (Computer Animation, 2011; stereoscopic depth artist)
• Monica Castro (Computer Animation, 2011; stereoscopic depth artist)
• Devin Fairnbairn (Computer Animation, 2007; layout artist)
• Mark Ferrer (Computer Animation, 2012; stereoscopic roto artist)
• Matthew E. Gill (Computer Animation, 2010; stereo production assistant)
• Kolby Kember (Computer Animation, 2010; lighting artist)
• Christian Labarta (Film, 1999; set production assistant: second unit)
• Lyndsey Pendley (Computer Animation, 2010; stereoscopic paint artist)
• Vincent Robert Rosas (Computer Animation, 2009; stereoscopic artist)
• Daniel Schrepf (Computer Animation, 2007; stereoscopic roto supervisor)
• Emanuel Siu (Computer Animation, 2011; stereoscopic depth artist)
• Frederick George Stuhrberg (Digital Media, 1996; 3D scanning)
• Eric Timm (Film, 2010; stereoscopic artist)
• Paul Tirone (Recording Arts, 2005; sound re-recordist)
• Jeffrey Warnhoff (Computer Animation, 2011; stereoscopic depth artist)
• Zhuotao Zhang (Computer Animation, 2008; matchmove artist)

Already a successful producer with New York production company NYPS, Matt D’Amato launched Valiant Pictures in 2010 as an outlet for his own film and video work.

Since then the startup has found success developing commercials for clients like Hasbro, Best Buy, and Random House, as well as personal projects including the short film Love, NY, which Matt was taking on the festival circuit when we caught up last fall.

A few months later, and the short has gone on to win a number of notable industry accolades – including the Panavision Filmmaker Award and MNET Grand Jury Prize – and was most recently picked up by HBO for distribution on their cable networks.

“Love, NY played at this festival where it was seen by an HBO executive,” Matt explains. “They called us a few months after to say they would like to license the film starting in May, since that is when Asian Heritage Month begins. They have the license for a year, so currently it is on HBO GO and HBO On Demand, and will play on HBO Comedy all throughout June.”

In other Valiant Pictures news, Matt produced the documentary Soap Life, which saw a new trailer released this month. He’s also hoping to follow the success of Love, NY with the company’s first stab at a feature length film. The project is called Sunset City, with Matt and his team currently in preproduction.

“It’s always encouraging when your hard work is recognized and we’re using the positive momentum and exposure for Love, NY to move forward and develop Sunset City,” he says.

The annual National Rebuilding Day is dedicated to helping elderly, disabled, and veteran residents with much-needed projects around their homes. In April, a group of Full Sail students from Pure Motivation teamed up with local organization Rebuilding Together to help out residents of Central Florida’s local Eatonville neighborhood. Full Sail found this opportunity with Rebuilding Together via Entertainment Business Master’s graduate Melissa Geiwitz, who works with the organization and remembered Pure Motivation from her days at Full Sail. Student volunteers were featured on a local news broadcast – you can watch that video over on WESH 2′s website. Plus, check out the gallery of photos from the event below.

Last week’s Game Project Final Presentations featured two student-created games on display, both of which you can play for free over on the Game Project Web Portal.

In Wrath of Set (created by Team Vanguard), players act as treasure hunters trying to take down an army of undead inside of an Egyptian pyramid. It’s a fast-paced, two-player, beat ‘em up game with swords, booby traps, and more.

Midnight’s Bane (created by Team Specter) is a spooky, third-person action game with timing and position-based combat. As a vampire hunter, players must block and respond to attacks from undead minions in a castle courtyard before taking down the vampire lord who lives in the main tower.

Both games were created by Game Art, Game Development, and Game Design Master’s students from April’s graduating classes. As part of their final game project, they had to present a demonstration of it in the Full Sail Live Venue last week. To see more screenshots, watch those demos, or download each of the games, head to Full Sail University’s Game Project Web Portal.

Last month, renowned animator Bill Plympton took some time out from his scheduled appearance at the Florida Film Festival to speak to students in the Full Sail Live Venue. During his presentation, Bill shared stories from his career in animation, showed some of his animated shorts, drew live sketches on stage, and offered his insight and advice. Check out the entire lecture in the video below.

Last week, I introduced the concept of the visual resume in ‘Why You Need a Visual Resume: Part One.’ Part Two will cover how to share your story and what you should include in your very own visual resume.

Scout a Location for Your Story

Since your goal is to share your story using the medium that works best for your industry, the first step to creating a strong visual resume is to conduct a bit of research. Should you create a website in WordPress to feature samples of your work alongside your story? Would YouTube suffice? Which medium would be easiest for you to share with others on social media or a business card? I decided to use SlideShare to create my visual resume since leading industry professionals in the communication and presentation field were displaying their work using slides. Check out my visual resume here.

Know the Difference Between the Traditional & the Visual

After deciding which medium works best for sharing your story, the second step to creating an effective visual resume is to decide what to share. Communicating your story is essential with a visual resume, so decide how you want to do just that. Remember that a visual resume is very different from the standard paper resume. Where a paper resume lists skills, activities, jobs, and education, a visual resume gives you the chance to show who you are in addition to what you do.

Avoid Tired Buzzwords and Clichés

LinkedIn says that the most overused professional buzzwords in 2012 included “innovative,” “motivated,” “dynamic,” “creative,” and “effective.” They add that most people claim they are “creative” and have “extensive experience” With so many people writing the same things on their paper resumes, how can you stand out? The goal with your visual resume is to tell your story, a unique story, about who you are as a human being. Instead of just making the same claims as everyone else, you can use your visual resume to PROVE that you are creative or dynamic or motivated.

Share Your Story in a Unique Way

For example, David Crandall used a “superpower” theme to tell his story. He says on his 26th slide that he has “X-Ray Vision” (his term for systems optimization and business intelligence) and then proves this by giving specific examples of his work saving a company $2 million a year. This unique approach allows Crandall to stand out, to prove his worth, and to tell his story.

Brainstorm how you will showcase your personality and your story alongside your technical and creative skills. After taking an inventory of how other people have created strong visual resumes, spend some time imagining the way you can stand out. Students in my Professional Communication and Presentation class develop a visual resume each month, so feel free to email me at arister@fullsail.com if you have any questions or for some additional help and support getting started. Also check out Course Director Chiara Ojeda’s SlideShare presentation called “Visualizing Resumes.”

In FSBlog’s new Just Launched feature, we talk to brand new Full Sail graduates, right out the door from graduation, about what’s next for them as they head out into the workforce. This month’s Just Launched graduate is William Derryberry.

Name: William Derryberry

Degree Program: Film

Graduation Date: May 10, 2013

First Job: I’ve been hired as a live editor for ESPN at the Wide World of Sports complex at Walt Disney World. I go in for orientation on Monday [yesterday]. It’s a part time, freelance job, so I’ll continue to pick up other freelance work as well. I’ll be editing sporting events that take place at the Wide World of Sports complex.

How You Got Your Foot in the Door: Career Development set me up with ESPN. I had told them I wanted to stay in Florida after graduation and work as an editor, so they set me up with the interview. I had the interview here in the Career Development office and the next day I was hired.

Before Graduation: Before I came to Full Sail [from Michigan], I always enjoyed video editing: I shot and edited my own stuff in high school and worked at a hospital rehabilitation facility as a camera operator and editor. That continued to inspire me here, and while at Full Sail, I also got into production design. I mostly worked as the art director on our student film projects.

Down the Road: I’m going to work at ESPN and continue to look for other freelance video jobs around here. I’d like to save enough money to be able to move out to California or New York and find work there.

Long-Term Goal: I really want to become a production designer or an editor, and be working in the art department for films.

At last week’s Digital Arts & Design grad showcase, six students from April’s graduating class presented their final portfolios, motion graphics work, and demo reels for friends, family, and faculty in the Entertainment Business Auditorium. Check out some of their work below.

Myke Dobbins

Jade Foster

Taylor Holibaugh

Carlia Todmann (also pictured above)

Jaslin Tonton

Tyrell Turner

Ross Lara is having a good year. The 2009 Recording Arts grad co-produced a hit single for K-Pop sensations SHINee, and has recently dropped his latest collaboration, Gimm+Icky’s “Shake That,” which has reached number six on the Billboard Dance/Club chart.

Ross again served as co-producer on the track – the first single from the up and coming band, whose music has been previously featured in a Super Bowl promo and on ABC’s Modern Family.

Keeping that momentum going, Ross has just returned from a trip to South Korea, where he worked on five new K-Pop tracks with his partner Hyuk Shin at Joombas Music Group, two of which will also be dropping this month. It’s a lesson in maximizing your potential, and something students will have a chance to ask Ross about when he returns to Full Sail campus this week to speak about his life in the industry.

Ross’s lecture will be held at 9 a.m. on Friday, May 17 in FS3B-Room 112, and is open to all students and staff.

Congratulations to Bhavna Bhen, who graduated as valedictorian of her class from Full Sail this past Friday. Bhavna is 60, and enrolled in Full Sail’s online Graphic Design Bachelor’s Degree program after a stroke she suffered several years ago ended her dance and theater career. Local news station WESH 2 was on campus to capture the exciting moment. Check out the video below.

Check out details below on the presentations and workshops happening this week for both campus and online students.

Monday:

• The #MyBluePrint Instagram Contest officially launches today. More details. 

Tuesday:

• Fleet Supervisor Tim Comstock will be on campus to talk to and interview students about lighting and audio technician jobs available on Seabourn and Holland America cruise ships. More details.
• Online students can meet virtually with Career Development‘s Resume Architects to get help with their resumes. More details. (RSVP)

Thursday:

• The Internet Marketing degree programs present an online lecture about PPC campaigns and optimization from search marketing specialist Chris Edmonson.The GoTo Training link will be available on Connect this week.

Friday:

• Engineer, producer, and Full Sail grad Ross Lara (he’s worked with Paul Oakenfold, Britney Spears, and more) will visit Full Sail to talk about his work in the industry. This event will also be streamed for online students. More details. (RSVP)
• Career Development‘s Resume Architects will host an on-campus Resume Workshop. More details. (RSVP)

Sunday:

• The Behind the Scenes tour is the best way for prospective students to check out campus, meet faculty, and get all of their education, admissions, and financial aid questions answered. More details.

Once, back when he working as an assistant engineer in a major New York recording studio, an old industry hand gave Devon Kirkpatrick an ominous prediction: He’d be divorced before he made it. “If I’d have gone by his definition of making it, I might have been,” Devon says.

It was the late ’90s, and Devon was hustling at Sony Music Studios NYC, one of the biggest and most renowned facilities of the era (it closed in 2007), which had a stage large enough to hold a 90-plus-piece orchestra and virtually every piece of equipment known to music at its engineers’ fingertips. He worked on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and other Grammy-winning and multiplatinum projects. Being just five years out of Full Sail’s Recording Arts program (where he’d graduated as valedictorian) – and a thousand-plus miles from his hometown of Baton Rouge – he was doing well for himself. The next step, he thought, was to become a full-time freelance engineer.

And yet, the industry’s requisite craziness was eating at him. “I had an opportunity to see what that was like at that level,” he says. “The experience was something that was eye-opening.”

Back in those days, before cell phones, assistant engineers were issued pagers. When those pagers went off, they went in. There were no days off. No vacations. They were permanently on call. “That’s how the industry works, and that’s great,” he says, but it wasn’t the life he wanted to live.

Devon wanted this to be his career, but he didn’t want to burn out. Nor did he want to get a divorce, which seemed the logical consequence of his brutal schedule.

The answer, as it turned out, was back at that place he’d sworn he’d never go back to: Baton Rouge. His hometown, as it turned out, was lacking the kind of big, professional studios he’d worked for in New York. Despite its relatively small size, Baton Rouge has several things going for it: proximity to Louisiana State University, Southern University, and New Orleans, as well as Louisiana’s primacy in the film industry (thanks to generous tax credits, it’s only behind New York and California), as well as the state’s rich blues and gospel history. In other words, thought Devon, there would be a demand for a high-quality studio.

“If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have done it,” Devon says.

In 1999, Devon opened Sockit Studio, a self-contained 3,900-square-foot building. The goal was to bring the professionalism of New York City to an environment Devon could better control. And it’s paid off, both professionally and personally. He’s still married, for starters, and he and his wife now have two daughters, ages 6 and 8, whom he actually gets to see: He rarely works past 9 p.m., or on Fridays or Saturdays.

Sockit, meanwhile, is thriving. There are two studios now, and Devon’s roster of clients is as long as it is impressive. The facility has done Grammy-nominated work with the Williams Brothers and Mystikal, in addition to working with an assortment of record companies, films, spoken-word projects, and even video games.

For the first four or five years, Devon says, he took whatever came through the door. Today, he can be more selective with his schedule.

“Now that I can control my schedule better, I have a few more goals to reach before I start a label. To me that is the ultimate working luxury, being able to work on the projects I choose and not have to take whatever, whenever. I’m slowly getting there while having a great life balance along the way. ”

You’ve probably been asked before to describe yourself in one word. Easy enough. But what if you had to do it in one photo? That’s the premise of our new #MyBlueprint contest happening over on Instagram starting on Monday, May 13. Here’s what you have to do: Follow @FullSailUniversity on Instagram, take a picture of what you consider your life in one photo to be (the items that best define you), and post it to your Instagram feed with the hashtag #MyBlueprint. Be creative! There are a couple of examples shown in the banner image above.

Every Friday at noon, we’ll pick a random winner from the photos submitted and they’ll receive a Full Sail drawstring bag filled with a Full Sail T-shirt, Full Sail sunglasses, a $40 Steam gift card, a $25 iTunes gift card, and a $25 gift card to The HangR. When the contest ends on Monday, June 17 (at 11:59 a.m. Eastern Standard Time), we’ll pick two random grand prize winners who will each receive a Full Sail backpack filled with the prizes mentioned above and copies of Lincoln and Django Unchained on DVD and Bioshock Infinite for Xbox.

Throughout the contest, you can check out everyone else’s #MyBlueprint photos in a collage we’ll be creating over at fullsailblog.com/myblueprint. Our social media team will be sharing some of their favorite images on Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter as well. Good luck!

For the third year in a row, we teamed up with the Orlando Magic to host the National Anthem Contest: an awesome opportunity for a Full Sail student, graduate, or staff member to win a chance to showcase their voice in front of thousands by singing the National Anthem at an Orlando Magic game. After receiving video submissions, our panel of judges selected the first winner, Entertainment Business Master‘s grad Bobbi Ruffin, who performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Orlando Magic vs. Oklahoma City Thunder game on March 22. The judges then selected three more finalists and the voting went public. It was a close race, but the winner by popular vote was Recording Arts student Ledell Mulraine, who performed at the Orlando Magic vs. Chicago Bulls game on April 15. Check out both performances below.

Congratulations to Full Sail student Vika Beacham, who wrote and performed the song “Want You,” which was featured in the new film Arthur Newman. The film stars Colin Firth, Emily Blunt, and Anne Heche.

Beacham is a singer/songwriter from the Ukraine who is graduating from the Recording Arts Bachelor of Science degree program this month. Beacham has had number one hits on Kiev radio and has performed on international tours.

Check out “Want You” on Spotify.

One day, while driving around Orlando, then Full Sail Film student Paris Lay noticed a group of kids playing with toy guns in front of a house. That one simple scene became the inspiration for the entire plot of Men of This Life, the film Paris wrote and co-directed for his 35mm Final Film Project at Full Sail.

“I thought, this would make a really cool scene if it was slowed down,” said Paris. “And then I thought of a character in a car: Where is he on his way to? Is he about to do something bad? And that’s how the scene evolved into the film.”

The period piece/mob drama Men of This Life, set in Chicago, was shot in October 2011 and is about a young boy who, after witnessing the murder of his father, chooses to follow in his footsteps and defend his honor. “A boy grows up to be a man and he’s looking for a way to reconnect with his father, and unfortunately for him, that’s a life of violence,” says Paris.

The three-day shoot took place on Full Sail’s soundstages (where all of the office sets were built), on the backlot (where the car scene was filmed), outside of the Ballroom at Church Street, and in a cemetery near downtown Orlando. “Our biggest challenge was making Florida look like 1940s Chicago,” said Paris.

Since Men of This Life takes place across a time span of about twenty years, viewers witness scenes from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. One of the first things to appreciate is the work that went into the sets. Production Designer C.A. Barrow really strived to make sure the sets were as historically accurate and vivid as possible. And he was rewarded: C.A. won a 2011 Crystal Reel Award for Best Set Design for a Short Film. (Another Crystal Reel Award for the film went to Matt Dunham for Best Sound Mixing.)

C.A. first got into production design during his Film class’s 16mm project, and from there, knew he wanted to work on production for his final project, too. Every interior set was designed by C.A. and built with the help of the crew. The office set was so popular it was used for two more student films after Men of This Life.

“When Paris approached me about his idea for this film, I told him that if we were going to do this that we needed the production design to sell the film,” said C.A. The crew raised money for the sets on Kickstarter and closely managed their limited budget and maximized resources with the help of Production Design Lab Specialist Frank Geremia. “I spent days on the Internet, pored over old books and magazines, and watched old movies to get inspiration from their film sets. It’s really one of the highlights of my young career so far,” said C.A.

Behind the Scenes Video from ‘Men of This Life’

Paris co-directed the film with his classmates, Ryan Danielson and Donnie McMillin. “We did a lot of pre-production, and having three directors was planned,” said Paris. “Ryan has great command on set, he gets people to listen to him. Donnie has a great eye for camera, and I wrote it, so I knew what I was looking for from the actors. So I figured, why not just combine all of us into one?”

After graduating from the Film program, Paris got his Creative Writing MFA from Full Sail and moved to Los Angeles (along with his co-directors Ryan and Donnie), where he’s currently busy working on several television shows. He’s preparing to shoot his own web series and his ultimate goal is to sell a screenplay. C.A., who came to Full Sail from the Caribbean island of Barbados, has returned home, where he is currently working on several shorts and his first feature film.