Virtual production becomes more accessible to young Tampa area students

TAMPA, Fla. — High-level virtual production is no longer just reserved for Super Bowl commercials and Hollywood level films — now it’s becoming more accessible to students in the Tampa Bay area.

VU studios, pronounced “View,” is nestled in the corner of University Mall in Tampa.

Behind multiple camouflaged doors, there is a state-of-the-art virtual production studio with a massive curved LED screen made of thousands of small panels. It’s called the LED volume.

For roughly a year, local college students have had the opportunity to visit VU’s studio and intern with the company to learn about the latest in virtual production.

Now, the studio is opening its doors to a younger crowd.

VU partnered with Scholar Education, a local education technology company, for their solar system space camp. During the camp, elementary school students had the chance to experience outer space in the virtual production studio.

Daniel Mallek, one of the production gurus at VU, says this was a chance to get the younger generation interested in virtual production while learning something new.

“We need people, we need students, we need kids today to get excited about the technology that is accessible to them right now so that they can run these stages tomorrow,” Mallek said.

This camp brought 50 students inside of VU studios for the pilot program but will be the first of many experiences, according to the team at Scholar Education.

“When looking at the type of content out there, it’s not always the most engaging, right? We thought, ‘How can we change it up and improve upon that?’” explained Marlee Strawn, head of education at Scholar.

Mallek says working with students and making virtual production accessible to the younger generation is important to him and the team at VU.

“We want to get students and kids excited for this now,” he said. “So as this industry grows and evolves we have the people who can create and take advantage of it.”