Have you ever wondered how your favorite movies come to life? How the roar of a tiger or flames from an explosion or the clomping of horse hooves appear to be just as real as the real thing? How an action scene of hundreds of shots is cut together to make the perfect sequence? How a film’s color palette can reflect the story’s tone and setting?

If you have, then look no further than the Ringling College Studio Labs. A massive 36,000 square foot film and post-production facility spanning the length of a city block, the Ringling College Studio Labs is a commercial and academic space that has everything one needs to create a film, television episode or commercial spot.

The studio’s mission is simple: to create an environment that attracts high-end clientele while at the same time providing education and support to the Ringling College students. “We are a commercial and academic facility, catering to commercial clients and our students. The beauty of that is our students obviously get to work on our best equipment possible for post-production. They get to see major clients come through, hang out in the room and see how it all goes down,” says sound designer Nick Palladino. “I stumbled upon this place three years ago and it’s the most amazing facility.”

Palladino, an award-winning sound designer who has worked in the entertainment industry for over thirty years, oversees the post-production facilities at the Studio Labs. The entire facility is immense, because, well, a lot goes into producing something for the screen. After a film is shot on location and the picture is edited together, the audio must be edited and mixed for the screen. The Studio Labs have all of the tools to do that and more including two Dolby-Tuned Mix rooms, an ADR/Foley stage for sound effects, a color grading suite, offline editing suites as well as live mixing and conference rooms. Additionally, the complex is home to multiple, state-of-the art soundstages, including the 8,400 square foot Soundstage A and Soundstages C and D, each 1,800 square feet.

The Ringling College Studio Labs offer multiple workshops throughout the year to those who are interested in learning the craft of sound mixing or looking to take their film to the next level with the facility’s top of the line equipment.

The Ringling College Studio Labs, 1334 Dr. Martin Luther King Way, Sarasota, studiolabs@ringling.edu.