INDOCTRINATION
There were six of us in that June Film and Video class, all guys. I was the oldest at 45 with the others all 20 somethings. The film program was still somewhat new–Full Sail had been founded as an Audio Recording Program. Only recently had the Great State of Florida given official accreditation to Full Sail and thus student loans were made available. It seemed as though they were actually trying to accomplish something positive. While sitting in a small conference room with my fellow students a stream of instructors passed through and introduced themselves. The lighting instructor had a braid down his back almost as long as my own and he was also balding. I got the hairy eye from the other students; I wished I had let Fish cut my hair into a DA, but on the other hand “old hippies,” I thought. In the course of the two hours the year was mapped out for us and we learned that our numbers would be growing in July with the addition of seven new students. The Program was a new group every month. The group joining us would “graduate” a month later. In June the school had a series of speakers from “The Industry”—recording and visual media, and survival classes for real world encounters. It was an annual event I was told. This is why they could combine two classes: The incoming July students would get the showboat seminar at the end of their year.
Moving to Central Florida in June or July had a limited market. Housing found two youngsters from the audio program to take the other two bedrooms in the apartment. Huck was right out of high school and Tuck had been booted out of the Coast Guard. They each paid their share of the rent by the week.
During the month long indoctrination seminar one of the speakers was from Disney and he spoke of a new animated feature due to explode upon the scene, “The Lion King”. Once again I felt nothing but positive energy from the entire Full Sail machine. The producer of the Emmy Awards Program gave a high energy speech. The students from the Audio and Visual programs were all put together in the soup and it was pure excitement, even for a jaded old man like me. Until—“Conform!” one of the instructors from the survival classes said. I couldn’t believe my ears. “What?” I asked.
“Conform.” She said.