SCAD Film Studios Savannah: Inside the Backlot Where Movie Magic Is Made
Built for the shot
Story by Carolyn Males | Photography provided by SCAD
I’m standing in a graffiti-scarred urban alley, flanked by rusty trash cans and a battered dumpster. Yet there’s no rancid smell, no scurrying rats, no hint of danger—only the quiet hum of possibility. On any given day, prop “pests” or digital creatures could appear on cue, summoned not by nature but by imagination.
I turn a corner and suddenly I’m facing a weathered gas station that feels lifted from No Country for Old Men, its pumps advertising 89-cents-a-gallon fuel. Inside, I can unfold a paper map or thumb through a roadside guidebook, ready to navigate some desolate American highway. A few steps farther and I arrive at a low-slung motel that evokes Florida or Palm Springs circa 1950—perfect for gangsters on the lam or lovers checking in for a discreet rendezvous. Cue cigarette smoke and Sinatra on the radio.
Another turn, another world. Now I’m standing before a stately brick building that could be a governor’s mansion, a library or a fraternity house. Nearby, I’m transported to Brooklyn, St. Louis or Chicago. I step into a brownstone and wander through a row of connected parlors, each one dressed for a different era. In one room, I’m a Victorian lady. In another, a Jazz Age sophisticate. In a third, a modern city dweller with a taste for historic architecture.
All of this exists within minutes of walking—and I haven’t even left Savannah.
Welcome to the Savannah Film Studios campus of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), an 11-acre studio complex and backlot that is the largest university film studio in the United States. Designed not only for students but also for professional productions, the campus blurs the line between education and industry, turning Savannah into a living film set.
On the day of my visit, the campus is quiet except for the rhythmic pounding of construction. New soundstages are underway, including a 9,000-square-foot commercial-grade stage—the only one of its kind in Savannah—along with classrooms and additional backlot spaces. But on another day, the same streets might buzz with cast and crew, students transforming façades or crews reimagining interiors to match a script. Classes often unfold inside the sets themselves, whether in a mock bookstore, restaurant or apartment.
My guide is Andra Reeve-Rabb, SCAD’s dean of the School of Film and Acting. Before joining SCAD 16 years ago, she worked as director of prime-time casting for CBS Television on shows like The Big Bang Theory, the CSI franchise and Two and a Half Men. She also scouted talent for film companies such as Castle Rock. At SCAD, she helped establish the country’s only university casting office, connecting students and alumni with opportunities across Broadway, film and television.
Listening to her, I feel a familiar pang of envy. Imagine redoing college with this kind of access. I’m clearly not alone in that thought.
Industry connections have brought remarkable moments to the campus: Ted Levine racing through a gritty “New York” alley directed by students. Spike Lee leading immersive classes. Natalie Portman conducting acting workshops while filming May December in Savannah. Leslie Odom Jr., Tony and Grammy Award winner, teaching a ten-week class that culminated in a cabaret at SCAD’s Gryphon Tea Room. One student, Eli Talley, so impressed Odom that he recommended him to Broadway producers of The Outsiders, who cast him as Ponyboy Curtis.
The LED Volume stages
One of the most futuristic spaces on campus is the LED Volume Stage, where filmmakers can create entire worlds without leaving the studio. Imagine filming a scene in which actors scramble away from an oncoming subway train. Instead of risking safety, the environment is built digitally.
On one stage, SCAD production design students have constructed a crumbling subway platform. Behind it rises a massive LED wall—40 feet wide and powered by hundreds of panels—where a digitally rendered train barrels forward in stunning realism. The footage, captured in real train stations and enhanced by game design students, appears in three dimensions, synchronized with camera tracking technology. The result feels so real that even actors can forget they’re standing in Savannah.
“Here you can create an entire world in one room,” Reeve-Rabb says. “We’ve shot on the moon in one hour and in the Serengeti the next. It speeds up production and saves money.”
Costumes, props and storytelling
Beyond the backlot lies another world: the costume and fabrication shops. Inside a low-slung gray building, costume production manager Shannon McCurdy introduces what students affectionately call “The Clueless Closet.” At the flip of a switch, an industrial rotating rack begins to spin, revealing vintage dresses, uniforms, medieval tabards and glittering gowns. Nearby bins hold everything from half-slips to boxer shorts—resources for study, design and production.
In the prop and fabrication shop, high-tech set pieces are crafted with precision. I expect chaos—sawdust, paint splatters, welding sparks—but instead I find immaculate workspaces and neatly arranged tools. SCAD, after all, treats creativity as both an art and a discipline.
As I prepare to leave, Reeve-Rabb smiles. “Every day, there’s a new building, a new idea, a new technology,” she says. “Come back in a week and it will all be different.”
A hospital façade might become a Hampton Inn. A diner reminiscent of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks could spring to life. Somewhere on the backlot, another story is already taking shape.
And in Savannah, movie magic is no longer something that just visits. It’s something being built—one set, one student and one scene at a time.
