Live at Live Oak

“Live Oak Hall has been vital to the growth and development of both our film program and our electronic media broadcasting program,” says Dr. John Fleming, dean of the College of Fine Arts & Communication. 

“We need to have state-of-the-art facilities to teach our students, so when they go out into the profession, they’ve already worked in circumstances similar to what they’ll find in their jobs.” 

The soundstage at Live Oak Hall looks like something you’d see in a movie, literally. Bryan Poyser, an associate professor of practice in the film program, shot scenes for his new feature film, Leads, on the soundstage, using the space to replicate the setting of a college acting class.  

“There’s even an electric lift because of the super-high ceilings,” says Poyser, whose movie will debut in June at the Tribeca Festival in New York. “On the first day of shooting, I saw the lift there, and I was like, ‘Hey let’s get a cool overhead shot while we’re here.’”

About 50 current or former students worked on Leads, Poyser says, which was filmed mostly on campus and mostly with TXST equipment. “We hope the movie will basically be a commercial for the film program at Texas State. … These are the tools, the lights, and the cameras that you can shoot movies on while you’re here.” 

TXST launched its film major in 2019. The number of film majors has since grown to 311 students. Last year, the College of Fine Arts & Communication added “Film” to the name of the School of Theatre, Dance and Film. Meanwhile, the school is working to change the name of the film major from “BFA in Theatre, with a concentration in Film Production” to “BFA in Cinematic Arts.”  

“I always told people that film could really take off, but we needed space, we needed people, and we needed equipment,” Fleming says. “And so, as the numbers started to increase, the university got ahead of it and said, ‘Hey, let’s go ahead and build a new facility.’”  

Richard Robichaux, an accomplished actor who teaches acting at TXST, says the soundstage at Live Oak Hall gives his students the chance to work in front of a camera, as they would when making a TV show or movie. 

 “The room provides the appropriate intimidation that is needed because it’s a real soundstage,” Robichaux says. “They feel the machine in front of them and it really produces that pinch for them, which is good.” 

Erika Lunkwitz, a film major who graduated in May, watched Live Oak Hall expand from an empty building into a central hub for filmmakers over her four years at TXST.  

“We get so much hands-on work with actual equipment,” she says. “We’re taking the equipment out to shoot and edit projects and then getting feedback. And with the Film Den, we’re able to borrow so much more equipment. That means we make more projects and get to work on other people’s projects, get our names out there, and build our networks.”  

Lunkwitz wrote and directed a short film about a sentient car for her capstone project. She and her team used equipment and industry-standard editing and scheduling software available at Live Oak Hall.  

“So many film students hang out here, and there is so much networking that goes on in the hallways,” she says. “I can’t tell you how many meetings I had with my cameraman and assistant director that just happened in the hallway between classes.” 

At first glance, Live Oak Hall’s TV studio and control room could easily be mistaken for a metropolitan broadcast news station. The difference is that TXST students are anchoring the newscast, operating the cameras and audio, and managing the control board.

Under the direction of Dr. Kelly Kaufhold, an associate professor of digital media and the electronic media program coordinator, the TV News class produces Bobcat Update, a university news report that airs on YouTube. Students also use the TV studio to produce Bobcat Matters, a video newsmagazine, and The Zone, a Bobcats sports report. 

“It’s a great space for students to learn the basics of what a television newsroom actually runs like,” says Marisa Nuñez, an electronic media major who graduated in May. “I currently have an internship at KXAN, and because of Live Oak, I went into my internship knowing a lot more because of the experience I had making TV news packages.”

Nuñez, who will attend Syracuse University to get her master’s degree in broadcast and digital journalism, made the most of Live Oak Hall as a student. Along with TV News, she also took two production courses in the building. Nuñez served as editor in chief of the University Star student newspaper and created Star News Network, a news broadcast. Star staffers produce the show in Live Oak’s TV studio.

“I really wanted to create that hands-on space for students,” Nuñez says. “We’ve been teaching people how to make video packages with their cellphones, which has been really fun, and it’s growing a lot.” 

Before Live Oak Hall, electronic media classes were held at Alkek Library using outdated equipment. Kaufhold, who previously worked in TV news, says the equipment at Live Oak is “much closer to what students will encounter in an actual production facility or TV station. It prepares them better for those kinds of jobs.” 

He points out the new studio’s five cameras, including two overhead cameras, wireless microphones, two greenscreen areas, a TriCaster video switcher, digital audio board, LED lights, and industry-standard Associated Press electronic news producing software.

“We can do many of the same things as we could do before, but it’s much easier and better and prettier now in Live Oak,” Kaufhold says. “I tell my students—and it’s true—that this is actually nicer than several of the TV stations I worked at.