The King's Academy's installs a new studio with Blackmagic

The multimedia digital art program of The King’s Academy’s has a new studio for virtual productions equipped with a digital film camera Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K.

Using a gigantic projection screen with 55 pieces, students of various ages as young as sixth grade are learning the art of virtual productions, in preparation for their real-world careers in the film, television, and post-production industries, among others.

Located in West Palm Beach, Florida, United States, The King’s Academy is a private, nonprofit elementary and secondary school serving preschool through 12th grade.

Austin Parenti, the director of digital multimedia art, had in mind to create a program in this field with worldwide recognition. To ensure that young people learned about the most advanced production technologies and work dynamics, the institution launched its own virtual production studio in December 2021, making it one of the first schools in the world to have a system with a gigantic projection screen in operation.

Today there are between 170 and 210 students enrolled in the school's semester-long multimedia digital art classes. every year Students produce eight short films and one feature film supported by a virtual production, which are screened in a local cinema twice a year for the community to enjoy.

Gray Trials, a series of followers of star wars It continues to be one of the institution's most notable projects. Under Parenti's supervision, a team of 21 students completed the project, for which backgrounds were designed in Unreal Engine, including a spaceship cockpit, a prison lobby, and a dark master's room.

“Con respecto a las producciones virtuales, la cámara que elegimos, por supuesto, es el modelo URSA Mini Pro 12K, debido a las resoluciones altas que ofrece, los filtros de densidad neutra y las múltiples salidas SDI, especialmente dado que el generador de sincronismos es obligatorio para la proyección con ledes, lo que requiere de una cámara de estas características”, señala Parenti. “En algunos casos, amplificamos el material grabado en posproducción con animaciones y efectos visuales, y juntamos a los estudiantes con un docente para que aprendieran a utilizar el módulo Fusion en DaVinci Resolve, a fin de diseñar y componer los efectos deseados”.

Thanks to Parenti, the program has grown in terms of staff, structure and equipment. For example, they went from having a single Blackmagic URSA Mini 4K camera to adding the models URSA Mini Pro 12K, Pocket Cinema Camera 6K y Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro, as well as DaVinci Resolve Studio for the post-production stage from start to finish.

“In the multimedia digital art program, we try to mimic the professional industry as closely as possible by incorporating standard techniques and technologies in the field,” explains Parenti. "Audiences leave the theater after watching our films and don't distinguish between our content and what they see on major platforms, and Blackmagic Design cameras are a big part of our success. "In addition to being what students will one day find on set, these units are economically priced, provide truly cinematic image quality and have an intuitive interface, which is why they are the choice of educational institutions."

Blackmagic RAW

Parenti not only recorded with Blackmagic Design cameras, but also began using DaVinci Resolve Studio in the classroom. "Our next feature film will be processed entirely in DaVinci Resolve Studio. The decision is based on the exceptional Blackmagic RAW file handling that the program offers," adds Parenti. "When learning how to use it, we found the software to be the most intuitive on the market. Of course, its grading tools are unmatched. It was a good surprise to see that Resolve offers a collaborative workflow for multiple users through the Blackmagic Cloud system, which can undoubtedly transform the way we finalize our films. This will allow us, as a group of teachers, to welcome more students in the post-production stage and divide the class into true editing teams, with lead editors, sound editors, colorists and room effects specialists, all collaborating in real time.”

Construction was recently completed on the innovation center, which features two computer labs for the multimedia digital art program, equipped with two private editing rooms and a production studio three times larger than the current space.

"The way we structure the program at The King's Academy directly mimics what large corporations, small television studios, universities and even major Hollywood studios with big budgets do," concludes Parenti. "Blackmagic Design is driving these productions at every level, and by exposing students to them, we ensure that they have the knowledge and success for the future."