Biola University Production Center | Services & Resources

Services

Room & Space Scheduling

The Production Center uses a scheduling application called Skedda to manage room and space reservations.

Room & Space Policies

Not all rooms/spaces are self-serve reservations. Some spaces (like Studio A & B) require a completed form to request a space. Find out more details about each space's requirements by selecting the space in Skedda.
Reservations may be made up to three weeks in advance.
No more than eight hours may be booked by a single user in a single day.
The Production Center reserves the right to cancel reservations made by anyone not permitted to use the rooms. Bookings that artificially inflate the amount of time in the room will be deleted.
CHECK-IN POLICY: Reservations require the booking holder to confirm their attendance within 15 minutes of the reserved time by responding to an automated email. A reservation may be canceled by staff if the room is not occupied within 15 minutes of the reserved time.
Food and drink (including water) are allowed ONLY in the kitchen and lobby. Users found with food or drink in other areas may lose access to the Production Center.
For a detailed list of the Production Center's policies, view the Studio Manual.
Failure to comply with established policies may result in the suspension of studio privileges.

More Information

Call 562-944-0351 x3618 or email production.center@biola.edu to make a special booking request or ask for more information. We are happy to help.

Skedda Access

You can access our scheduler at Biola.Skedda.com or on a mobile app through the App Store (ios) and the Play Store (Android) app.

Mobile Login Instructions:

When the app opens, select "Log in".
At the bottom of the login page, select "Log in with Single Sign On".
Enter "biola", then select "Log in with SSO".
A login page will open and allow you to enter your Biola email address and password.

You can also use the interface provided below to book a variety of spaces at the Production Center, Rood 55 (screening room), and Rood 56 (computer lab).

Collaborative Editing

Frame.io is a cloud-based collaborative editing platform that enables teams to stay connected on media projects.

Frame.io is designed so that a team can upload a variety of media like proxy videos of a project so that the team can collaborate within the Fram.io app. If changes need to be made, Frame.io integrates with editing suites like Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, and Avid Media Composer. For a complete list of integrations visit frame.io/integrations.

Request a Frame.io Account

Fill out the Frame.io Account Request form to request an account for your team project.

This commercial was shot by alumna Alissa Rooney, Class of 2019.

Resources

Music & SFX Library

The Production Center pays a royalty fee for the use of a library of around 10,000 sound effects (SFX). You can use the SFX in any production at no charge to you.

Sound Ideas SFX Files

We currently offer Sound Ideas and Lucasfilm SFX that are searchable using the Sound Ideas search engine available on the Sound Ideas Web site (http://www.sound-ideas.com). They also have a downloadable version of their search engine for you to download to your computer.

Access Sound Ideas Library through this link: biola0.sharepoint.com/sites/CMA-Shared-Files/

This library is currently available to all CMA students. If you are not a CMA student and need access, you can request access by contacting a Production Center staff member.

Big Fish Loops Files

Access the Big Fish Loops Library through this link: biola0.sharepoint.com/sites/CMA-Shared-Files/

This library is currently available to all CMA students. If you are not a CMA student and need access, you can request access by contacting a Production Center staff member.

ProSound Effects

ProSound Effects offers award-winning sound from more than 18,000 music tracks and over 800,000 effects created by Academy Award-winners and elite sound artists.

You can access this sound library by following these instructions on How to Access ProSound Effects.

Warner Chappell Production Music

The Production Center also pays an annual royalty fee for the use of an extensive library of music. You can also use this music in any academic production for which you do not receive compensation at no additional charge to you.

This music library can be accessed by following these instructions on How to Access Warner Chappell Production Music.

The Warner Chappell Music License includes:

Exports: Student projects for which there is no compensation received
Streaming: Covers use for streaming student projects online. Please note that your stream will need to be whitelisted by Warner Chappell in order to not be flagged.
Festivals: For an additional fee, a student can obtain a festival license from Warner Chappell. Please contact Production Center Manager for details.

Script Library

The Snyder School of Cinema & Media Arts’ faculty and staff have compiled and is actively updating a library of screenplays from feature films and television shows that are prominent in our society. You can access these scripts by using this link: S.A.M. Script and Material Archive

Computer Resources

Production Center Computer Use

Computers bring an incredible set of tools to student productions. It is also possible to destroy hours of work in almost an instant. The following are very important guidelines that will contribute to successful computing projects.

Computer Storage

The Production Center highly recommends the use of external hard disk drives to work off of and store project files. External hard disk drives are not provided by the Production Center.

Computer Storage Locations

Production Center computers provide two storage locations.

The first storage location is your local user profile (think Documents, Desktop, and Downloads folders). This is stored on the same disk as the operating system and only includes 1TB of space to run.
- We don't want users storing large files here because the storage space will fill up fast and cause the computer to crash.
The second storage location is the Media Drive. This is stored on an external 8TB hard disk drive attached to each computer.
- We encourage users to store large media files and projects on the Media Drive while they are working on them.
- Media Drives are to be used for projects that you are currently working on. Media Drives are not to be used for long-term file storage.

Files stored on the local drive or media drive are only accessible on the computer you stored them on.

EXAMPLE: If you save files on the desktop or on the Media Drive of Edit 2, then move to Edit 3 and look for the files, they will not be transferred to Edit 3, they will only be on edit 2.

Computer Storage Expiration

Production center computers WILL DELETE files in both storage locations automatically after a period of time.

Local user profiles (Documents, Desktop, and Downloads ) will be deleted after 4 days of inactivity.
- EXAMPLE 1: Josh logs into a computer, saves 30GBs of film footage to the desktop, and logs back in after 4 days. The files on the desktop will be gone and will not be recoverable.
- EXAMPLE 2: Sam logs into a computer, saves a file on the desktop and logs back in after 3 days. The files on the desktop are still there and the computer's timer resets to give you four more days until the files are deleted.
Media Drive folders will be deleted after 30 days of inactivity.
- EXAMPLE 1: Isaac created a folder on the Media Drive containing 30GB of Biola Film project footage. He checks the Media Drive after 31 days of not making any changes to any of the files in the folder he created and finds that his Folder has been deleted.
- EXAMPLE 2: Mark created a folder on the Media Drive containing 30GB of Biola Film project footage. He makes a small edit to one of the files in this folder after 29 days of not working on it. The computer's timer resets and gives him 30 more days to work on this project if he does not make any changes to the files.

Software

The Production Center provides a variety of software applications on each computer. Some software applications are only available on specific computers. Below is a complete list of available software applicaions:

If you need software installed that is not currently offered at the Production Center, please feel free to reach out to us at production.center@biola.edu. We are happy to help.

Learn more about what each computer location has to offer by visiting Biola.Skedda.com. There you can view the computer type, software, and desktop resoruces available at each location.

Access

The Production Center provides 24/7 access to it's computers that can be scheduled at a future date or booked as a walk-up, pending availability in Skedda.

To access these computers, login using your NetID username & password.

Computers are available in the following locations:

Edit Bays (9) - Rm# 106, 120-125
Audio Rooms (2) - Rm# 119, 128-129
Convergent Newsroom (20) - Rm# 103
CMA Computer Lab (21) - Rood 56

Learn more about what each computer location has to offer by visiting Biola.Skedda.com. There you can view the computer type, software, and desktop resoruces available at each location.

Best Practices

When editing a movie, the project file or edit decision list (EDL) is the most important file. This file stores all of your edits, all of your creative decisions. It is a text file, meaning that is usually very small in size making it ideal for backing up on a flash drive. Always make backups of this file! With this single file, you can automatically reconnect footage and completely restore your project if there is a computer catastrophe.
Keep all aspects of a media project saved in one folder. Media production on a computer can generate hundreds and even thousands of computer files. If these files are spread over several areas, your project will eventually fall apart.
Do not share your account with others.
The single, most common reason for a piece of software not to work properly in the Production Center is corrupted user preferences. If an application, such as Adobe Premiere will not open, go to Library/Preferences and delete the preference file for the application that will not launch or is behaving erratically.

Network Resources

Network Storage Resources

Storage Use Guidelines

CMA server storage is designated only for class use (Biola film included). At this time, we are not able to provided storage space for personal projects.
Faculty members can request server storage access on behalf students in their respective classes.
The server is only accessible on Biola's network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

Production Center Computer Network Access

The Production Center maintains a computer network for media production. All CMA/DJAM majors who are officially listed by the registrar and have completed registration on time by the start of the fall semester are assigned accounts in the Production Center computer system. The two most common reasons for students not finding their expected account are as follows:

You are not an official CMA/DJAM major.
You did not finish registration before the start of classes.

If you are not a CMA/DJAM major but you are in enrolled in a CMA/DJAM production class, an account can be set up for the semester if you request it. Please contact Production Center staff for details.

Login Instructions

Computing Suggestions

Laptops

The School of CMA and the Production Center are currently heavily Mac-based. Because of this, we recommend the Apple MacBook Pro line with at least:

Apple M3 chip with 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
16GB unified memory
1TB SSD storage

MacBook Pros aren't easily customizable after purchase, so we'd recommend spending part of your budget on upgrading the CPU, RAM memory, and GPU. External drive storage can be purchased cheaply, so we would recommend getting at least 1TB of SSD storage for the main, internal hard drive.

Some MacBook Pros only have Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, so you will need to purchase adapters like USB-C to USB and USB-C to HDMI to connect other peripherals; however, on newer MacBook Pros, Apple is starting to incorporate a variety of ports back into their products. Make sure to check the types of ports that your computer purchase will include.

Depending on how much you expect to be using the laptop for “heavy lifting” (like rendering and color-grading), you can choose different specs. We always have the Edit Bays in the Production Center and a computer lab available to take care of the heavier loads, if you'd like to purchase more of a standard laptop.

Software

All of the software that you'll need to complete class assignments is available on the Edit Bays in the Production Center and in the Rood 56 computer lab.

If you'd like to purchase your own copies or subscriptions of the major software, some recommendations are:

Adobe Creative Cloud
- Adobe offers discounted, student pricing for their subscriptions.
Avid Media Composer
- Avid offers free versions of their software—the “First” editions. They're fully functional, but have limitations.
Avid Pro Tools
Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve
- Resolve is fully-featured and available for free. You only really need to purchase a license for it, if you're going to be exporting in 4K.
Unreal Engine
- Unreal Engine is free to download and use at your convenience.
Final Draft

Hard Drives

External hard drives can be inexpensive, but be aware that you really do get what you pay for. Most spinning, slim, portable hard drives are prone to failure. If you are in the habit of frequently backing up your content, this shouldn't be a problem, though.

For the best performance, choose a hard drive that spins at 7200 RPM (5400 RPM hard drives are less expensive, but are slower). If you can afford it, go with an SSD, which has no moving parts, making it more reliable (with caveats) and much faster. SSD hard drives are more expensive than spinning hard drives for the same capacity but aren't prone to the same mechanical failures as their spinning counterparts. For example, an SSD can take a fall from a tabletop, and still work just fine. A fall like that can be the death knell of a spinning hard drive.

Help & FAQ

Production Center / Computer Lab

How do I get access?

What are the operating hours?

General

How do I connect to the server?

How do I reserve space at the Production Center?

Edit Bays, Audio rooms, the Control Room, the conference room, and the Graphics Lab can be reserved by creating a reservation in Skedda. Reservations can be booked immediately as a walk-in or at a future date and time.

Reservations for Studio A and Studio B can be made using the Studio Reservation form and require approval of the Production Center manager.

Availability for all spaces can be viewed at Biola.Skedda.com.

Ongoing or recurring room reservations require Dean's approval

Where can I get a list of equipment in the Equipment Room?

Once you create an account at the Equipment Room you will be given access to our Webcheckout searchable database of equipment where you will be able to see available gear and request reservations.

If you would like a more conversational experience, please feel free to drop by the Equipment Room during normal operating hours and our friendly staff would be happy to assist you.

How do I check out equipment for more than one day?

Normally, equipment checkouts are for one day only and are due back the following day by 1 PM .

Additional information about extended checkouts can be found on the Equipment Room site.

To check out equipment for more than one day, fill out an Equipment Checkout Extension Request Form which is available in the Forms section.

Am I allowed to check out equipment to complete a project that’s not for a class?

How do I check out an Advanced camera?

In order to check out a Arri or Red camera, you’ll need to:

Pass the Advanced Training Seminar quiz for the camera you want to check out. Advanced Training Seminars are available on the Production Center’s Canvas page. See the Equipment Room section for more details.
Fill out the Greenlight Form available on the forms page
Make a reservation for checkout at the Equipment Room. Once you have your production number from the CMA Department, you can reserve the equipment on Webcheckout and arrange for checkout.