SCAD Partners with Jon Gosier’s FilmHedge on XR Stage First Feature
Southbox Entertainment and FilmHedge founder Jon Gosier and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) announced today a new partnership as part of their innovative SCADpro program. Gosier’s upcoming action-thriller Collateral Data will be the first feature film shot on the university’s newest LED volume stage, which launched in September 2022 at Atlanta’s recently expanded SCAD Digital Media Center.
Based on “CODE SWITCH,” a personal memoir about hip-hop, hackers and Africa’s tech revolution, Gosier’s original screenplay, Collateral Data about the effects of data on privacy, public safety, and philanthropy caught the attention of Emmy® award-winning producer Chris De La Torre (The Square, The Great Hack), who has joined the production team that also includes Gosier, Cassidy Rast and Jason Corder. This team will be shooting on the Atlanta campus this summer with current SCAD students getting hands-on experience as part of the program.
“We are thrilled to collaborate and partner with Southbox on their upcoming feature film, Collateral Data. This project will include exceptionally talented SCAD students and faculty across multiple majors, providing them valuable insights into industry trends and practices, strengthening their knowledge base and preparing them for their creative professions,” said SCADpro Vice President, Paul Stonick. “The size and scope of this partnership is unique, innovative and transcends multiple facilities, locations and resources, including SCAD's trailblazing LED volume stage - filmmaking’s next frontier.”
Every year, SCADpro generates more than 50 industry-sponsored projects, pairing innovative companies with the brightest creative students, alumni, and professors. SCAD students are the designers, thinkers, and influencers of tomorrow. The program integrates multiple disciplines, offering partners innovative concepts and solutions. The students research, develop, and deliver professional results all within an academic setting. Top brands including Coca-Cola, Google, Amazon, Delta Air Lines, NASA, Hewlett-Packard, Coty, Deloitte, and more have collaborated on SCADpro assignments over the last 5 years.
“Our film will be among those privileged few to use this advanced technology which advances the way stories are crafted. To be the first director utilizing the SCAD LED volume stage for a feature is truly an honor,” said Gosier. “I had no idea that 25 years after enrolling at SCAD I’d be returning in a professional capacity to direct my first feature.”
Gosier attended SCAD as an undergrad in 1999 to study Sequential Art. His time at the university lit his passion for storytelling and technology. Prior to his work in film, Gosier spent ten years in venture capital and tech, founding the ad-tech company Audigent in 2014. The company made its debut on the Inc. 5000 in the Top 5% of fastest growing companies and was ranked among the top 100 fastest growing companies in the country on the 2022 Deloitte Technology Fast 500. He was named one of the new faces of Black Leadership in 2015 by TIME Magazine. His 2014 TED Talk about ethical innovation has been viewed millions of times. In December 2021, Gosier’s fintech venture, FilmHedge, kicked off its $5 million seed round including an investment from Savannah College of Art and Design’s SCADpro Fund. FilmHedge will support the production of Collateral Data with its financial solutions, tailor-made for features with budgets between $1M and $50M.
Complementing the university’s preeminent curriculum, SCADpro Fund invests in new ventures by SCAD alumni, helping them scale fast and solve business challenges through innovation by design.
SCAD is the only university in the world with two LED volumes and stages are the largest at any academic institution in the U.S., with cutting-edge XR production technology available for student use. Extended reality technologies like SCAD’s LED volume stages are groundbreaking innovations that represent filmmaking’s next frontier. This immersive technology combines live-action performance and real-time environments live on set, merging the real and virtual worlds.
Students from top-ranked degree programs in the SCAD School of Animation and Motion and SCAD School of Film and Acting will be among the first in the world actively working and collaborating on LED volumes, taking their filmmaking and storytelling capabilities to new heights. SCAD Atlanta’s trailblazing LED volume is an investment into the future of SCAD students and reinforces the university’s contributions to Georgia’s multibillion-dollar film and television industry.
About SCADpro
SCADpro is the university’s collaborative innovation studio that generates business solutions for the world's most influential brands. SCADpro is recognized as the preeminent university partner in higher education and among design agencies worldwide. Unlike other agencies and university programs, SCADpro invites clients to engage in every step of the ideation and creative process and to work directly with student designers, professors, and alumni focused on clients’ desired outcomes. For more information on SCADpro visit: https://www.scad.edu/about/scadpro