Film Institute
Zaentz Media Center (Our Building)
The Saul Zaentz Media Center is home to one of the most respected production companies in the history of film: The Saul Zaentz Company.
The Zaentz partners have won 3 Academy Awards for Best Picture; "Amadeus", "The English Patient", "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
In all, their company has won 22 Academy Awards for these films.
Berkeley Digital occupies the entire second floor of the Tower.
Stage 1 - The Green Screen Stage
More than 50 music videos for MTV, MTV2, BET, VH1, and other outlets have been filmed in this room.
Stage 1 is 37' feet Long by 27' deet wide, and has an 11' foot ceiling.
Stage 2 - The Saul Zaentz Theater
Our students are able to mix their projects in ProTools on our 5.1 surround Dolby stage. BDFI owns a Dolby License.
Screen size is 18 feet wide with Christie high definition projection.
Stage 2 is 35 feet wide by 30 feet deep & 11 comfortable theater seats.
Stage 3 - The Alan Splet Theater
The Alan Splet Theatre (named after David Lynch's sound partner, who worked in this room for 3 years) is located on the third floor of the tower and was originally used as the mixing and editing facility for more than 200 feature films at the Saul Zaentz Film Center.
The room, which was designed by renowned Jeff Cooper, (who also designed Skywalker Ranch for Lucasfilm, and Zoetrope for Francis Coppola), has won 3 Academy Awards for Best Sound in a Motion Picture for the films: "Amadeus", "The English Patient", and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".
The room has (2) 35mm projectors and Christie CP2000-ZX 2K Projector.
This room is also one of only four theaters in the United States used by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Academy Awards) to screen prints and large-screen digital projection for Academy members who prefer to see a film in consideration for an Oscar on a full-size screen.