Redlands Community College Partnership with Coleman Television Creates New Opportunities for Students

When Coleman Television CEO Nik Coleman visited Redlands Community College, he didn’t know the visit would be the catalyst for a long-term partnership with the college. He originally hoped to find some students to work as interns, but he soon determined there would be great value in working together in a wider sense. He also found the campus has the high-speed connectivity Coleman TV requires for its production work.

Coleman TV is an award-winning producer of documentaries that have aired on channels and platforms such as the History Channel, Amazon Prime and Netflix. Subjects range from UFOs and extra-terrestrials to the liberation of Europe and the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women.

Since that first visit to Redlands, Coleman TV has expanded its local projects to include a major documentary on a nonprofit that looks after people with disabilities. They have also filmed all their reconstruction elements in El Reno for “John F Kennedy: Final Evidence,” a major documentary for History Channel.

These projects grew into the development of a Certificate of Mastery in Documentary Film Production for Redlands students. The Coleman team worked with Marcia Shottenkirk, professor and department head of Liberal Studies, to develop the certificate program. The program launched with a seminar in documentary filmmaking and classes in video production, audio production, film and video editing, and screenwriting.

Coleman TV also provides internships for Redlands students. Micro-credentials and digital badges will eventually be incorporated into the program as well. To support the program, the college has invested in production equipment, including cameras and editing software, that students use in their classes. The level of hands-on collaboration with Coleman TV has been unprecedented for the college.

Redlands’ high-speed connection to OneNet has been vital to the partnership as well. Coleman TV has been able to send completed files and full-resolution pro shots to their cloud account so their colleagues in the UK can view filmed content in seconds after it’s been shot, rather than hours. It has also meant that content they already hold in the cloud from other sites can be accessed instantly, greatly improving their workflow. At other sites, Coleman has had, at best, download speeds of 500Mbps and upload speeds of 100Mbps. At Redlands, they take advantage of the campus connection to OneNet at 10G.

“OneNet is Oklahoma’s partner in meeting the high-speed connectivity requirements for our state’s higher education institutions,” said John Hennessey, associate vice chancellor for Information Technology and OneNet. “We’re glad to see our connectivity is spurring new education initiatives at Redlands and creating opportunities for our state’s students.”

Most importantly, the project is supporting Redlands’ workforce goals and the State Regents’ goal to produce workforce-ready graduates in its strategic plan. The State Regents recognized this successful partnership with the 2023 Regents Business Partnership Excellence Award.

“We are always developing and expanding programs to meet workforce demands,” said President Jena Marr. “El Reno has been the site of many television and film productions over the past few years, so our partnership with Coleman Television is not only providing greater opportunities for our students, but we are also supporting the efforts of the El Reno community to attract film and television projects.”

Read about Redlands Community College’s connection to the OneOklahoma Friction Free Network.

 

Photos courtesy of Redlands Community College.