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EDUCATION www.postmagazine.com 22 POST SEPT/OCT 2023 Tools of the Trade Colleges, universities, and even high schools, are giving students hands-on instruction and opportunities to create high-quality content BY MARC LOFTUS Today's high schools, colleges and universities are better equipped than ever, giving students the opportunity to work with the same gear they'll find in real-world settings. This month, we look at a handful of educational institutions that have upgraded their facilities, specifically with affordable cameras and editing tools from Blackmagic Design. Instructors are encouraging students to aim high with their aspirations, and to ditch the "student film" mentality, knowing that this equipment is often used on their favorite films and TV series. THE KING'S ACADEMY The King's Academy (www.tka.net) is a private Christian school located in West Palm Beach, FL. The school spans pre-K through 12 th grade, and its digital media arts program has steadily grown over the past five years, expanding from a converted classroom into an entirely-new building that came online in May. Austin Parenti is the director of digital media arts and has been with the school for five years, which included overseeing its growth and expansion. According to Parenti, students can begin learning about production as early as 4 th grade, but it's the high-school-age students that have an oppor- tunity to fully immerse themselves in The King's Academy's digital media arts program, which includes film & TV production, video game design and sports marketing. The school is home to two LED volumes, the newest of which measures 50-feet-wide by 10-feet-tall, along with two editing labs containing 40 workstations. "Our first space was a converted classroom, where they raised the drop ceilings for easier light- ing, and they soundproof the walls and [put] in the starter LED volume," notes Parenti. "The second space is brand new. They just built this new build- ing that's dedicated to innovation and technology. The first floor is STEM classes for elementary (stu- dents), but the top floor is all us." Even before the expansion, students at The King's Academy were creating a range of content. The school's football and basketball games are streamed live, with reports from the sidelines. Each summer, students write, direct and edit a fea- ture-length narrative project. And the school's first LED volume has been used to create a YouTube series that's garnered hundreds of thousands of views, titled Star Wars: Gray Trials. "We try to do as robust of a production as possi- ble," states Parenti, noting that the Star Wars series was the school's first foray into virtual production. "We thought that would really push the envelope of visiting different planets and worlds," he says of the Gray Trials series. "And that's been pretty fun too — to push that technology to the limit and to see our high schoolers 'ooh' and 'ahh' at what's possible." The school's production capabilities include Blackmagic Design Ursa 12K cameras for both LED volumes. "We shoot and deliver, usually in 4K or 8K," he explains. "In the field this summer, we were shooting on another Ursa, but we've also used the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6K. We also use Blackmagic as part of our editing workflow. Most of our projects are cut and color graded in DaVinci (Resolve) Studio. Previously, it was (Adobe) Premiere, but as we switched to the Blackmagic cameras, DaVinci just handles (Blackmagic) raw better." The transition made sense, as the camera pur- chases included software licenses for Resolve. "We just kept getting these Blackmagic cameras, and I'm sitting on a stack of Studio licenses, so it's like, 'All right! Let's put those to work.' DaVinci ba- sically kicks Adobe's butt in almost every category that we need it for. Occasionally we'll go back to Premiere if there's something visual effects heavy that requires us to run into After Effects and round trip back into Premiere." The King's Academy has an operational budget that helps with its annual features, as well as with equipment and maintenance. "Our operational budget allows us to keep pro- ducing," he explains. "We just don't have enough in our budget to make yearly purchases of big equipment. That's one of the reasons Blackmagic has become our go-to choice, because they are affordable." Producing high-quality content has gotten the attention of some of the school's more affluent parents, who've offered to donate to the program. "Our generous parents saw our movies and said, 'Heck, yeah! Let's help these kids do something even more spectacular. The Blackmagic Design cameras are the bread and butter of what actually makes that function." Parenti says the school plans to put its new LED volume to use on its next feature — a pirate-themed project. The school will build the hull of a ship and use the volume to create ocean environments, island locations and even other pirate ships. "What's so fun about these volumes is, you can animate into them. So we can have another ship pulling up next to the real ship (in) the volume itself and shooting a cannon fire. You see the smoke in the volume, and we kind of match that to what you're experiencing on the real set, just in front of it." In related news, The King's Academy recently began branding its capabilities as Studio 70 (www. studio70.tv), which is open to outside clients, including companies and actors. The commercial effort will bring in diverse projects and allow stu- dents to work with real-world clients. One of The King's Academy's two virtual production stages. Blackmagic Design's Ursa 12K is used for LED- volume shoots.