LOS ANGELES — New York Film Academy’s Los Angeles (www.nyfa.edu) campus is using the Fairlight audio post tools within Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve software as part of the sound department’s curriculum. The software helped head of the sound department, Huch Platt, and his students pivot to remote learning in 2020 when they needed to quickly find a way to access professional post tools at home.
“The challenge came when COVID-19 hit and everything went remote,” explains Platt. “I needed to find a software solution that was not only free, but easy for the students to install and work with, since they are using a variety of computers, basically whatever they have at home, and I can’t spend the classes troubleshooting.”
New York Film Academy is a year-round school that offers three semesters a year. Students perform functions that include dialogue editing, cutting and effects, final mixing and exporting. Platt says DaVinci Resolve is both accessible and intuitive for audio post, and also provides tools for picture editing, color and VFX.
“The students just download it, and it works, which is a huge blessing for me because I can focus on teaching. Not worrying about the technical aspects allows the students to focus on being creative too.”
Platt adds that he also needed an tool that works with video.
“Most of my students are video centric and intimidated by the audio side,” he explains. “They know they need it, but think it’s unattainable for them. I love simplifying it and showing them it’s doable. Most of the students were already familiar with DaVinci Resolve, so it checked all the boxes.”
Platt personally tested DaVinci Resolve to ensure that the students could adopt it and that he could teach the same concepts. The biggest challenge, he notes, was slowly building the curriculum, which took almost a full semester. The learning curve for Resolve, he adds, took only a week. In addition, he took advantage of Blackmagic Design’s training program.
“I actually became a certified DaVinci Resolve trainer,” he notes. “All the trainers in the program are exceptional, and the content is easy to understand, especially from a layman’s perspective. I appreciate companies that understand how important training is and put the energy and resources into building it out.”