Full Sail University's 7th Annual Hall of Fame

Every year since 2009, Full Sail University has hosted an event called "Hall of Fame." This is an event where a multitude of entertainment-related companies, Full Sail alumni, and soon-to-be "Hall of Famers" come in and talk about their duties and jobs within the entertainment industry. To be inducted into Full Sail's Hall of Fame you have to have worked 10+ years in the entertainment industry, worked on a project that the world recognizes, and have given back to the community in one way or another - regulations that truly recognize those who are dedicated and extraordinarily passionate about what they're doing in the industry. This is my second Hall of Fame experience, and I'm going to try very, very hard to sum everything up into this blog post. 

"Position yourself as the only logical choice." -Demo Castellon

For me, it all started on Friday, February 12th, 2016. I received an unexpected email with my name on the call sheet to work at 10a.m. the following morning until 7p.m. I remember scratching my head and thinking, "I don't remember signing up to work this week. I signed up for next week, during the event." I later found out that the SPARK coordinator hand-picked a handful of hardworking students to assist in the load-in and setup. I was pretty excited to work because I knew I'd be working with the amazingly fun and talented Full Sailors in SPARK, but I had no idea how much work truly went on behind the scenes. This was quite eye opening.

After working early morning until the evening on Saturday, Sunday (Valentine's Day), Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (today), I realized how exhausting live sound events are. I attended the Hall of Fame events last year, so I had a pretty solid idea of what was going on throughout the week. And I also knew how much knowledge was spread out through all of the events - it was incredible! I thought last year's Hall of Fame was great... 

After learning a ton from the freelancers and other students on the audio team, having an absolute blast with the audio team setting up the audio in each room, and learning and being the front of house engineer during the events, I've come to the conclusion that this Hall of Fame was one of the best events that I'll attend while I'm here at Full Sail. I learned an incredible amount of stuff, so much so that I have a headache and I'm leaking brain juice. Not only did I learn a bunch of stuff from the people working the Hall of Fame events, I learned a lot from the people that spoke at panels in the room I was engineering for. I'm absolutely blown away by it all! 

"I never need to ask permission to do art." -Jeff Unay

To name of few of the talented panelists (also Full Sail graduates) that came through the room I was in (Full Sail On Air; you can also click on their names to view more info on them), I've compiled a pretty decent size list of the extremely talented and inspirational Full Sail Hall of Famers:

• Jordan "DJ Swivel" Young: DJ Swivel has worked with artists such as Beyonce, Tiesto, The Chainsmokers, Jay Sean, Rita Ora, Rihanna, Mary J. Blige, Jay-Z, Jamie Foxx, and Britney Spears to name a few... 
• Keith Guerrette: Lead FX Artist, Uncharted 2, 3, 4; Senior FX Artist, The Last of Us & The Last of Us Remastered; FX Artist, The Bourne Conspiracy
• Phil Pallen: Branding and social media strategy for TV personalities, experts, and businesses. Phil is awesome. Check him out! 
• Ashish Manchanda: Ashish Manchanda is a noted mixing and recording engineer, remixer and music producer based in Mumbai, India, most credited for his work with Bollywood. He is the founder of the music production house, Flying Carpet Productions, established in 1999. Manchanda offers services in music production, composition and arrangement, sound design, film re-recording (Dolby surround), music recording, mixing and mastering, and remote / location recordings.
• Jeff Unay: Soon after graduation from the Computer Animation program, Jeff landed an artist position with Raven Software working on the Quake franchise. He later transitioned into visual effects for film where he worked as a character modeler at Tippett Studio and then as a lead modeler at Weta Digital in New Zealand. At Weta, Jeff worked on two Academy Award-winning visual effects films: King Kong (2005) and Avatar (2009). Jeff’s groundbreaking work creating the faces for the digital leading characters forAvatar led him to win a Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Live Action Character in a Motion Picture. In 2010, Jeff began working full-time as a director and cinematographer in Seattle, WA. He wrote, co-shot and co-edited Valve Corporation’s first feature film, Free to Play (2014), which went on to receive a record-setting 5.5 million views in its opening weekend. Jeff is currently directing his first independent documentary feature film, Greywater, which will be released in early 2017. The film has already received multiple accolades for an in-progress film including the Tribeca Film Institute/ESPN Prize and the 2015 Points North Best Pitch Award at the Camden International Film Festival.
• Dylan Dresdow: Grammy award winner, Emmy award winner, and multi-platinum tracking and mixing engineer. 
• Sebastian Krys: Producer, engineer, and graduate of Full Sail in 1991; started job at Crescent Moon Studios in Miami, Florida and began his award-winning career as an engineer/producer that has worked with Shakira, Marc Anthony, the Black Eyed Peas, and many, many more. 
• Demo Castellon: One of the industry's most sought-after engineers, having worked with artists like Madonna, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Rihanna, One Republic, and dozens more. 
• Josh Gudwin: Producer and mix and vocal engineer for Justin Bieber and many, many, many more. Please click his name to read more information; far too much to type here. 

During Josh Gudwin's panel, my jaw was dropped to the floor. He mainly talked about working with Justin Bieber and his latest album, "Purpose." Being able to work with Justin Beiber, Skrillex, and Diplo is mind blowing, as they're a few of my favorite artists. He continued to reaffirm that working hard and remaining dedicated to your goals is extremely important, which is certainly what every Full Sail student needs to hear. I also got to shake his hand and visit with him for about fifteen seconds before we began the panel. So, I guess you could say I shook Justin Bieber's hand. :) (All of these sessions were recorded, so I'll link to them as they become available via Full Sail's YouTube page.)

I would like to extend a huge thank you to those who helped make Full Sail's 7th annual Hall of Fame event a complete success and a huge learning environment! You guys did a wonderful job! I would also like to thank the SPARK crew for being so amazing, supportive, and helpful. I'm so, so, so proud to be part of such an amazingly talented and spunky crew. We all work so well together and teach each other things we don't know. You guys have made my Full Sail experience truly memorable! Lastly, I would like to thank the Full Sail alumni and Hall of Famers for taking time out of their busy schedule to come back to Full Sail and share their knowledge with us students. It truly means a lot to see that all of you care so, so much about all of us! I can't thank you enough! Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

I learned an incredible amount of stuff over the past few days. I'm still in shock of how much talent the Full Sail graduates have and then put it to good use in an extremely tough industry. Hearing each of them talk about how they got their foot in the door to work with acts like Justin Bieber, Skrillex, Madonna, Beyonce and work on movies like King Kong and Avatar is incredibly inspiring and reassuring of how hard work pays off. As I've mentioned in previous blog posts, I live by the quote "hard work pays off." The Full Sail graduates who've succeeded in their industry are proof of that, and I won't stop until I am one of them! 

"I only do stuff that gets me to my goal. I always know where I'm going." -Demo Castellon

Lennon

Bachelor of Science, Music Production