Savannah College of Art and Design: A "Hot Spot" for HD
Since 1978, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Ga., has excelled in the fine art of preparing talented students from around the world for exciting careers in visual and performing arts, design, the building arts, and the history of art and architecture. Named among America's "Hottest Colleges" for studying art by Kaplan/Newsweek in 2005, SCAD maintains its top-quality programs, in part, by keeping up with the ever-changing demands of a fast-paced, high-tech world.
At SCAD's Department of Film and Television, keeping its technological edge has meant making an investment in high-definition video editing. A long-time Avid customer, the department recently upgraded and enhanced its systems to incorporate HD into its workflows. "SCAD is good at keeping up with the changes in the industry, and the industry is moving to HD," says Gokhan Ozaysin, Ph.D., a professor and graduate mentor in the School of Film and Digital Media. "We are holding our position on the front lines of HD technology, and Avid is helping us do that."
The move to HD is the latest in SCAD's ongoing commitment to providing students with hands-on access to industry-standard post-production workflows. "We want to prepare our students for successful careers," says Ozaysin. "Avid helps us achieve that goal by making it possible for us to take them through all the essential steps of the post-production process, just like the industry professionals use."
The most recent Avid systems' upgrade was completed in the autumn of 2006, enabling students to work with both standard-definition and high-definition editing systems. The department now has 50 Macintosh-based Avid Xpress Pro workstations in several different classrooms; a 21-station Macintosh-based Media Composer Adrenaline lab with Avid DNxcel cards; and an 11-station Avid Symphony Nitris lab running on the Windows XP platform. A graduate lab houses three of the school's 50 Digidesign Pro Tools LE systems, two Media Composer Adrenaline systems with Avid DNxcel cards, and an Avid Symphony Nitris system. Students also use an Avid DS Nitris system, which is housed in a private room designed for high-end projects. An Avid Unity MediaNetwork with four MEDIArray LP chassis and two 4-Gb fibre switches provides students with simultaneous access to 32 TB of shared storage when working from any of the Symphony Nitris systems.
This latest upgrade was also a smart investment says Harley Lingerfelt, vice president for Information Management and Technology at SCAD: "Avid has made it very cost effective for us to move to HD. We are always trying to keep the cost of education as low as we can while providing the highest quality tools for our students. Avid has been a great partner in helping us accomplish that goal. The prices for this equipment have dropped, and with Avid's educational discount, purchasing this equipment was definitely the right move for us."
"Avid has made it very cost effective for us to move to HD."
- Harley Lingerfelt, Vice President for Information Management and Technology, Savannah College of Art and Design
An Ideal Creative Learning Environment
Located at SCAD's main campus in Savannah, the Department of Film and Television offers undergraduate and graduate degrees of fine arts in film and television. There are currently more than 600 students in the four-year undergraduate program and approximately 100 students in the graduate program. In total, SCAD has more than 8,300 students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries. In addition to its historic Savannah campus, the school has a campus in Atlanta, one in Lacoste, France, and an online, 'e-learning' curriculum. The college offers 36 programs of study including art history, architecture, cinema studies, contemporary writing, documentary photography, fashion, interactive design and game development, metals and jewelry, performing arts, and visual communication and visual effects. "Students studying film and television at SCAD get inspired by all other art forms," says Ozaysin. "We have an ideal environment for a film and television education."
At the School of Film and Digital Media, freshmen start with an Introduction to Video Production course in which they learn the basics of storytelling and media-production technology while editing projects on Avid Xpress Pro software. They move on to Post-production Techniques, an intermediate nonlinear editing course in which they work in the new Media Composer Adrenaline lab. Each station has 1 TB of local Avid VideoRAID storage. Each Media Composer Adrenaline system is also equipped with an Avid DNxcel card, which uses the Avid DNxHD codec to significantly reduce HD file sizes, providing students with a practical, real-world strategy for working in HD in real time. SCAD was committed to using this encoding technology in its classes to prepare students to work with the latest HD editing technology.
"When they see the quality of their images with Avid DNxHD encoding, students cannot believe their eyes," says Ozaysin. "When I show them the size of their media, they realize that they can easily edit HD on their notebook systems or back up their media to an external drive. Avid DNxHD offers quality, efficiency, and productivity with easily manageable file sizes and gorgeous image quality."
Upperclassmen take Advanced Post-production, a high-level, nonlinear editing and finishing course in which they work on Symphony Nitris systems. In this lab, students learn how to effectively use the Avid Unity MediaNetwork to share projects. Each station in the Symphony Nitris lab has 2.5 TB of Avid VideoRAID local storage in addition to Avid Unity shared-storage access for a total lab storage capacity of approximately 60 TB. For HD projects, students enjoy the flexibility of using the Symphony Nitris systems with the Avid DNxHD codec for offline editing or with uncompressed HD media for finishing.
"If you want to be an editor, you take Advanced Post in the Symphony Nitris lab," says Manuel Valdivia, a recent Film and Television graduate. "Before the upgrade, we had a Symphony Meridien lab, and we used to cut in SD. Now, each of these stations has been converted to a Symphony Nitris station. It's fantastic because we can conceivably have 12 HD projects going at the same time." In addition, the department houses an Avid DS Nitris system for even more high-end editing, compositing, and finishing in SD or HD.
Students in the Film and Television department also work with students in the Sound Design department who finish their projects on Digidesign Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools|HD digital audio workstations with Dolby DTS 5.1 surround sound mixing. The easy interoperability between the Avid editing systems and the Pro Tools systems is seamless and mimics industry-standard video and audio workflows.
"Avid DNxHD offers quality, efficiency, and productivity with easily manageable file sizes and gorgeous image quality."
- Gokhan Ozaysin, Ph.D., Professor and Graduate Mentor, Savannah College of Art and Design
Real-World Workflows
According to Ozaysin, his students' "Post-production Techniques" project is a perfect example of an HD workflow using the Media Composer Adrenaline system. For this project, students create a trailer for a fictitious television show about two astronauts stranded in a space capsule. Students create 1080p/23.976 projects, import footage, and then edit their trailers. "All the editing is done with Avid DNxHD. It is efficient, takes up less space, and looks gorgeous," says Ozaysin. "They can print the trailers back to an HDCAM [tape] or downconvert to DVCPRO [directly from the Media Composer Adrenaline system]. It's a great HD project with lots of room for creativity and experimentation."
In addition to their classroom projects, some Film and Television students have gained valuable experience working on feature films made in Savannah, such as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The Legend of Bagger Vance. They also have the opportunity to create films for competition at the annual Savannah Film Festival, sponsored by the college and by Avid Technology. Student films, often edited affordably on Avid Xpress Pro setups, have been showcased at prestigious film festivals including the Cannes Film Festival, the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, and the International Art Film Festival.
"To successfully prepare students for careers in the arts we have made a concerted effort to provide them with professional-quality facilities and equipment in a professional working environment," says Peter Weishar, Dean of the School of Film and Digital Media. "Since Avid is the industry standard for film and video, Avid products were the logical choice to support our curriculum."
Connecting Students with Jobs
SCAD also has a strong Career Services department that provides its students with career development and professional job search assistance. The school's online "Job Magnet" makes it possible for students to post their portfolios for viewing by potential employers. The Job Magnet lists internships as well as freelance, part-time, and full-time opportunities plus access to other Web sites to assist with their job searches.
Valdivia, who received a bachelor's of fine arts degree in film and television in 2006, didn't have to look far for his first job. His demonstrated proficiency on Avid systems helped him land a job at the School of Film and Digital Media, where he now helps students with everything from equipment checkout to workflow questions to troubleshooting. "It's my job to make sure everything goes smoothly with the post-production projects," he says.
"SCAD grads are actually ahead of the industry," continues Valdivia, who has friends working in New York post houses and at E! Entertainment Network in California. "It's all about knowing your stuff and being able to fit any role, be it editing, post-production supervision, or teaching. After receiving a degree from SCAD plus experience using Avid systems, we are more than amply prepared to get good jobs in the industry."
* CREDITS: Courtesy of Savannah College of Art and Design. Photos: Nathan Bob Jones.