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EDUCATION www.postmagazine.com 24 POST SEPT/OCT 2023 KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY Located approximately 70 miles from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's Kutztown University (www.kutz- town.edu) offers programs in cinema, televi- sion, media and audio production. According to associate professor and department chair Michael Johnston, the university has five certificates that students can ultimately achieve, and some of their courses run as little as seven weeks, allowing stu- dents to quickly start learning their choice of basic audio, video production, cinematography, post production and TV production. "Micro credentials," as Johnston describes them, help keep students motivated while working to- wards their four-year certificate. Kutztown University is home to two comput- er labs with 30 seats, each with DaVinci Resolve and the entire Adobe Creative Cloud suite. The university also has four DaVinci color suites, and two rooms for audio production. Their television studio has a Blackmagic Design Ursa Mini Pro 4.6K G2 digital film camera, as well as a Red Komodo. Additional Blackmagic gear includes the Speed Editor Keyboard, DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard, DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel and DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel controllers. In fact, a recent grant is allowing the institution to turn a classroom into a mastering suite, complete with an 80-inch 4K display, and capable of handling surround audio mixing, as well as video finishing,. Associate professor Jonathan Joy joined the de- partment in 2018 and says, at the time, they were in need of a complete technology overhaul in order to meet today's 4K standards. That led the team to apply for a number of grants, while also looking into products from Blackmagic Design. Joy recalls a past trip to the NAB show in Las Vegas, and how the company was bundling a ro- bust editing application — DaVinci Resolve — with its hardware purchases. "What Blackmagic has really done for us is close the gap for access for students in current industry standards," says Joy of the technology investment. "Students can be in a 4K workflow, or shooting in high resolution. They understand that the things they stream or watch in the theater are all done with these styles of cameras…Through these grants [we've] been able to put students in positions where they're at least having a founda- tional base to work with industry standards. So whether they go on a job or an internship, they recognize everything that's going on." Putting technology in the hands of their stu- dents at the earliest stage of the education process is something both Johnston and Joy agree on. At the same time, they want students to understand the real-world value of the gear they have access to, as well as the quality it's capable of delivering. "Blackmagic made that kind of instruction pos- sible, because we can just buy 15 Pocket Cinema Cameras, and we don't have to get this one camera that everyone's fighting to make their masterpiece over," says Johnston. "I think that it's very different from when I was in school a long time ago. With our students, they're really kind of job and work- force driven. And the result of that is how they treat their projects. We've tried to meet them on their playing field. If school seems expensive, imag- ine how expensive a 15-minute movie is? So we make them look at the rental prices of the camer- as, the lenses and the lights, and all of a sudden it goes from a 'student project' to a $6,000 weekend. They can kind of connect those dots." Kutztown University offers students a range of hands-on opportunities to learn about media production. All of the university's home football games are covered, as are road playoff games. They also have opportunities to cover concerts. With access to the school's cameras and post production suites, many have taken to creating their own documentaries and music videos. "It's a really active program," says Johnston of Kutztown's offerings, which in turn inspires both of them to continue teaching. "We're not a major city," he continues. "We're like 70 miles from Philly, so we do have students going to Philly and Lancaster, but I think overall, they're looking for a sense of 'education as security.' What Jonathan's done, specifically with Blackmagic, has made the professional world not feel so distant. And it's really, I think, been amazing to watch!" Micro credentials help keep students motivated as they pursue multi-semester studies. The university's hardware purchases included DaVinci Resolve seats. Kutztown University offers its students a wide range of production possibilities.