20 Years of Training the Most Incredible Creative People in the Industry!
When a mutual friend introduced Tom Savini and Douglas Education Center (DEC) President Jeffrey D. Imbrescia over twenty years ago who could have known what was in store? Surely not a program that would acquire local, national and international attention…
Now, thousands of students later, Tom Savini’s Special Make-Up Effects Program is celebrating 20 years of training the most incredible creative people in the industry!
This growth stems from the programs’ creative flare, personalized and tailored classes (curriculum designed by Tom Savini himself), and from satisfied graduates who are finding career opportunities in a wide variety of areas including special make-up effects, prosthetics, and dental labs just to name a few.
“In 2000, we set out to build a new approach to the special make-up effects industry based on four components: make-up application, mold making and casting, animation fabrication, and exhibit and display design, never before attempted, that would foster new opportunities in what was then an emergent field,” said President Imbrescia, “DEC is proud of the graduates and their accomplishments.”
Tom Savini is passionate about the students who enroll in the program and makes every effort to represent them and DEC whenever possible. “For two decades we have been changing lives… seriously changing lives! A student comes here and has never sculpted before and you put clay in front of them and suddenly they give life to something that never existed before and he or she didn’t know what was inside them, and that is thrilling, to turn these people into special effects artists.”
Instructors include longtime associates such as program director Jerry Gergely, who earned a 1998 Emmy nomination for his work on the 1994 TV series Babylon 5.
“It feels good to change lives and that’s what we have been doing for 20 years! – Tom Savini
