The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is delighted to announce the opening of its new Hollywood backlot at the university's Savannah Film Studios. The completion of Phase One of the backlot is part of a landmark 11-acre, three-phase expansion, making it the largest, most comprehensive film studio complex at any university in the country. This expansion includes two new soundstages, and production design and costume design shops. A next-generation LED volume for virtual productions opened adjacent to the backlot in 2021.

"More is more: more films being made, more stories being told, more students creating films under the guidance of the very best professors in higher education," said SCAD President and Founder Paula Wallace. "Together, the backlot, soundstages, and LED volume form the sought-after trinity of filmmaking opportunities, placing everything at a filmmaker's fingertips, from outdoor shooting locations to indoor sets to entirely computer-generated worlds. Add our television studio in Hamilton Hall and all models of production are being taught right here in Savannah. If you have a story you want to tell on a screen, big or small, you can tell it at SCAD."

Phase One of the backlot resembles Savannah's historic district and includes 17 separate street facades and totals over 4,500 sq. ft. of dressed set space.  The facades include historic Savannah homes, a cafe, a pub, hardware/antique retail space, a boutique, barber shop, a general-use lobby for a hotel or hospital with an exterior porte-cochère and automatic doors, and a double-height bank with interior overlook on the most East elevation.

"Georgia is the new Hollywood and Savannah's film industry is booming," said SCAD School of Film and Acting Dean Andra Reeve-Rabb. "When we designed the backlot we wanted to give our students access to all the filming locations they either cannot access, like a hospital emergency room, or common filming locations like a coffee shop, without requesting permits or competing for space with the studios who are filming in Savannah. Plus, one of the reasons Savannah is such an attractive filming location is it can easily resemble a quaint European town and be dressed for the 1800s or modern day."