Francis Tuttle Technology Center Students Work With OKC Film Studio To Create Sets

Francis Tuttle Technology Center is expanding its professional training opportunities by giving its students experience on the big screen.

“This is something new that we're trying and it's the first time for me. We're actually using students to build some major pieces of our sets,” Travis Wright, Nefarious construction coordinator said.

Around 30 students in a construction class are building movie sets for the psychological thriller Nefarious, Prairie Surf Studios' first film.

“There's an opportunity to take a trade and shift that trade into a new industry that generates higher wages for Oklahomans,” Matt Payne, Founder/Co-CEO of Prairie Surf Studios said,

Matt Payne with Prairie Surf Studios said this is just the start of the film industry really taking off in Oklahoma. He said this comes after Senate Bill 608 passed last legislative session.

“That's opened the doors for more and more productions and when there are more and more productions happening that means that we need more people to work on these films,” Payne said.

Payne said Francis Tuttle has been pivotal in fulfilling their need for more crew members. This partnership is opening students up to learn more about prop building, set design, set decorations and many other pathways. Cody Mosley with Francis Tuttle said that falls directly in line with their mission for their students to create a pipeline to success.

“It's really exciting for us to show our proactive nature this time and show the film industry, show our partners at prairie surf we have students, we have space, we have the equipment to really deliver these needs right away for you,” Mosley said.

Francis Tuttle Technology Center said they want to create more opportunities for their students to get involved in the film industry. They have three new classes that students can enroll in classes starting in February.