Video Symphony, one of Hollywood's leading TV, film and DVD education centers, has been awarded a two-year, $1.5 million contract by California's Employment Training Panel (ETP) to retrain professionals employed by the state's digital media production companies.
ETP funds are awarded to a select group of training centers, such as Video Symphony, to help keep California's digital technology companies competitive, and to diminish export of production work to other states and nations.
"In partnership with ETP since l998, Video Symphony has trained hundreds of California's film/video editors, sound editors and engineers, DVD authors, 3D animators and graphic artists," explained Video Symphony president Mike Flanagan. "Now, with this new award, many more can afford to expand their expertise utilizing our expertise and facilities."
ETP-qualified companies can now send employees to Video Symphony for 24 to 64 hours of intensive, hands-on, job-related training without direct cost to employer or employee. "The ultimate beneficiaries of this extraordinary fund are the students we train and the companies they work for," Flanagan added. "Students get 'state-of-the-science' know-how, and companies get 'up-to-speed' employees."
Video Symphony's ETP specialist, Dan Murphy, said, "To qualify, employees need to be on payroll full-time. Although we train editors and artists for all the major studios and television outfits, many small one- and two-person production companies also qualify. A sole proprietor could also send himself or herself for training here."
Since 1995, $30 million has been allocated by ETP to train employees of entertainment enterprises. These funds are derived from special taxes paid by the overall industry itself.
ETP's director, Peter McNamee, said, "As technology constantly changes, upgrade training is critical. In a high tech world, businesses recognize that success depends on adopting leading-edge technologies that require highly customized workforce training. California needs a workforce empowered with skills that can unleash the full potential of modern technologies."
ETP-supported classes at Video Symphony are offered in combination to suit the specific needs of student and employer. The most requested classes include:
Film and Video Editing – Avid Media Composer, XpressDV, Apple Final Cut Pro
Audio Editing and Mixing – Digidesign Pro Tools, including Certification Series for music and post production
DVD Authoring – Sonic DVD Creator and Scenarist, Apple DVD Studio Pro
Graphics and Motion Graphics – Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, After Effects, BorisFX
3D Animation and Special Effects – LightWave 3D, Maya, Discreet combustion and more
Video Symphony is an authorized training center for Avid, Apple, DigiDesign, Sonic Solutions, Adobe, Alias|Wavefront and NewTek. For more information call (818) 557-7200 or check out
www.videosymphony.com .
