Full Sail University

Year in Review 2014: Grads on the Year’s Biggest Releases

Through it all, our grads were working on some of the most exciting projects of the year.

Year in Review 2014: Grads on the Year’s Biggest Releases - Hero image

Our Year in Review series features the best of life at Full Sail in 2014, highlighting award-winning grads, popular student work, industry guests, and more. 

 Looking back on the biggest films and games of 2014, it’s hard to pick favorites. From comic book blockbusters to quirky teen dramas; continuations of beloved franchises and fresh offerings from new players in the gaming industry, the year’s major releases covered a wide range of genres. Through it all, our grads were working on some of the most exciting projects of the year. Check out some of the highlights below.

Games:

  • In March, Respawn Entertainment released Titanfall a multiplayer-only first person shooter available exclusively for the Xbox One, PC, and Xbox 360. The release marked the debut for Respawn, a team founded in 2010 by a group of former Call of Duty developers, which includes Game Development graduate Mohammad Alavi.
  • Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare dropped in November. This latest in the Call of Duty franchise featured work by six Full Sail graduates, including series founder and Hall of Fame inductee Chance Glasco.
  • Nine grads contributed to the making of Destiny, including Danny Bulla (Game Development, 2006) and Mike Hoffman (Computer Animation, 2006), who made a visit to campus in October to talk about their experience of working in the gaming industry. Destiny went on to win Best Score/Soundtrack and Best Online Experience at the Game Awards 2014.
  • Other winners included Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Best Mobile/Handheld Game), Far Cry 4 (Best Shooter), and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Best Action/Adventure Game). Each of those winners featured contributions by Full Sail alumni. Full Sail held a live viewing party to celebrate the awards.

Film:

  • Film grad Jeff Wallace gave us a look into the making of summer comedy Tammy, starring Melissa McCarthy. Jeff worked as a lighting technician on the film, which shot for six weeks in Wilmington, North Carolina.
  • Full Sail grads also contributed to a slew of comic book hero movies, including Captain America: The Winter SoldierX-Men: Days of Future Past, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Of his work as an audio mixer on The Amazing Spider-Man 2Recording Arts grad Nevin Seus said, “This project was fairly demanding and had its hurdles, but I was able to work with a lot of extremely talented people.”
  • Nine grads worked on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the second prequel to 1968’s cult classic Planet of the Apes. Film graduate and Hall of Fame inductee Larry Katz worked as a second assistant director in the film, and got to work with some of the movie’s biggest stars, including Andy Serkis.
  • We talked to Film and Computer Animation grad Danny Gonzalezabout his role as a lighting technician on David Fincher’s Gone Girl, this fall’s suspense thriller based on the book of the same name.
  • The teen romantic drama The Fault in Our Stars turned out to be one of the year’s biggest hits. Based on author and internet personality John Green’s book of the same name, the film’s crew featured five Full Sail grads.