Announcing FIVE slots for in-person mentoring on the FOOLPROOF SYSTEM that let a geeky kid from Iowa earn over six figures a year editing unscripted TV in Hollywood every year since the age of 24… who now chooses and regularly turns down gigs because he’s booked all year long…
…and if you qualify, it will do the same for YOU.
WHILE THIS OPPORTUNITY IS CURRENTLY CLOSED, WE ARE ACCEPTING WAITING LIST APPLICATIONS FOR THE NEXT LA ACADEMY AND THE UPCOMING VIRTUAL ACADEMY.
From the desk of Jeff Bartsch
TV Editor, Author, and Teacher
Los Angeles, CA
I’m not usually the bragging type.
Those who know me will agree that I’m not the type to go randomly tooting my horn all over the place. But in this case, I’m gonna go there, because what I have to say could very well represent a major turning point in your editing, and in your ability to consistently make LOTS OF MONEY doing it.
So at the risk of sounding like a bit of a douchebag, I’m gonna brag on what I’ve accomplished in Hollywood… for the specific purpose of giving you the chance to explode your earning potential.
Fair enough?
Jeff Bartsch, Editor. Present day.
Ever heard producers say things like, “Oh yeah, that guy’s a killer editor. He’s a finisher. If he’s ever available, hire him. Don’t even think twice, just get him on your project.” I used to always be slightly jealous when I heard about those kind of folks…
…but the fact is, I’m now one of them.
Post supervisors, EIC’s, and executives call me repeatedly to see if I’m available to cut for them. Huge network, tiny cable channel, whatever.
I average 48 weeks of editing work per year. I am booked constantly.
Showrunners regularly ask me to “take a Jeff Pass at this” or “do your thing.”
Getting the response of “Great, let’s move on,” or “no notes” is normal for me.
I do not randomly take just any job, and I definitely don’t work with jerk producers or sleazy shows. I no longer have to. On the contrary, I tend to work with really, really sharp executives like the ones quoted below.
What execs say about me.
Here are some opinions on my work, from executives who put their post-production budgets where their mouth is:
Editors are a dime a dozen – Jeff is an artist. The difference is that Jeff doesn’t just tell a story, he makes you FEEL it. From gritty, underground drama to pure comedy, Jeff distills unedited footage into a heart-pounding (or heart-wrenching) cinematic masterpiece.
– Mary Jaras, EP/Showrunner, A&E, VH1, MTV, FOX, NBC, E!
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Jeff Bartsch has been one of my go-to editors for the past six years. In addition to his storytelling prowess, he has the rare ability to turn a concept into a fully executed segment, making it his own while maintaining the vision of the producer.
– Anthony Storm, Vice President/Executive Producer, A. Smith & Co. Productions, ESPN, UFC, FOX Sports Net, TV1
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Jeff took a project with a minimum of shoot outline and field notes and helped craft it into an amazing sizzle. If you want to learn how to be a fast, efficient, and often-recommended editor, Jeff is your guy.
– Rupert Dobson, VP Programming, BASE Productions, BAFTA-Nominated Showrunner, SKY, Channel 4, Channel 5, Discovery, HGTV, Travel
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Jeff is one of the most talented and trusted editors I have ever worked with. But what separates Jeff from many other talented editors is his diversity – I would happily use Jeff to edit on any show. Many editors excel at a certain style or a certain type of programming, but Jeff is great at everything! This is because Jeff is not only a highly skilled technical editor, but at his core he is a storyteller. He understands the nuances of each particular show and scene and always finds a way to make the finished product better than I could have hoped for.
– Frank Sinton, Executive Producer/COO A. Smith & Co. Productions, Former VP Programming FOX Sports Net, Former VP Programming Disney Channel
Geeky kid from Iowa makes it big in Hollywood!
It took a long time for me to get here. Growing up mostly in South Dakota and Iowa, I was always interested in moving pictures, sound, and music. I started piano lessons at the age of 4, started playing with basic multi-track music recording in 5th grade, and spent hours arranging and recording music with MIDI synthesizers hooked up to my first PC.
I graduated high school in a class of 35 people in a zero-stoplight town of 1,000 in Northwest Iowa. I was That Kid with the VHS camcorder permanently attached to my shoulder, and I was the only person in my entire school who cared enough to shoot hours of footage, drive an hour away to a state-funded video suite, and use an S-VHS linear editing system to assemble my video projects.
Moving to Nebraska for college, I studied music composition, traveled with musical ensembles, and took weekend DJ shifts on a local 100,000 watt FM radio station. To keep the bills paid, I worked at a lumber and building supply yard packing semi trucks by hand. One day after two years of shlepping construction supplies at the lumber yard, I decided I wanted to get back into the TV and video thing.
So that summer, I packed up all my earthly possessions into my car and drove out to Los Angeles to start my 3rd year of college at film school. I worked 3 part-time jobs, lived on campus taking a full load of classes, and generally busted my tail working on any student film project I could.
And about a semester later, I dropped out of college, never to finish my degree. It was all my own nickel, and my nickel ran out… I was flat broke.
Thankfully, a film school professor connected me with a producer up in Hollywood who allowed me to show up Friday and Sunday nights for 5 months, for free, to feed Betacam tapes into this machine called The Avid. Those 5 months of slave labor turned into my first assistant editing gig.
Two seasons later, I was the lead assist, and I was promoted to full editor at the age of 24. That was the first year I crossed the $100,000 line from my editing work, and I’ve exceeded that in the 11 years since, editing for everyone from ABC to Animal Planet, NBC to MTV.
What I realized: not everyone can do unscripted TV, it pays really good money, and I’m very good at it.
For years, I thought everyone was ahead of me. That the guy who cut the latest primetime network show was automatically better than me. That the gal with alphabet soup after her name (MFA, ACE, etc.) was operating at a higher plane of consciousness than me, poor lowly soul who didn’t even graduate from college. Poor me.
But after years of editing my brains out, my brains finally made some connections:
• In a word, [cough] bulls*** [cough]. There will always be someone with “better” credits or a higher payscale. So give yourself some credit for where you are, Jeff (said my brain to myself) – and it’s a very, very good place. Unusually good.
• Unscripted television editing is a very unique animal that requires unique skill sets. Not everyone can do it, even if they’ve come from the scripted or feature world. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
• Most people, especially LA editors, worry about how much they earn. Well guess what? Aside from an elite handful of film/scripted folk, unscripted TV editors in Hollywood are the highest-paid editors in the entire industry. And the world is continually screaming for unscripted content. A recent survey from the Hollywood Reporter declared that the average income for a Hollywood editor is $95,000. Sheerly by the numbers, an LA unscripted editor who makes $95k is working just over half the year.
• I hear LA editors constantly complaining about the people they work with, and the horribly produced content they “have” to cut. I don’t complain about any of that, because I am constantly working on cool projects with cool people. This is not by accident.
• LA editors are always worried about whether they will have work. I am working, ALL THE TIME. Now I’ll temper this with a caveat – dry spells happen to everyone, period. If it hasn’t happened to you, it will. It could happen to me any time for any number of reasons. Having said that, I have to look at the bare facts: my last multi-week break from editing that was not of my own choosing was in 2006. This is not a coincidence.
Expanding beyond editing
And I’ve gone beyond just editing. I’m now teaching and writing about it. My commentary on editing and the entertainment industry has been featured in TIME Magazine, USA TODAY, the Associated Press, and multiple textbooks. My businesses, Editmentor.com and ThePowerEdit.com, have served film schools and individual clients in over 30 countries and 6 continents (I wanted all 7, but the penguins down in Antarctica aren’t really into editing).
And my recently published book, EDIT BETTER: Hollywood-Tested Strategies for Powerful Video Editing, is bringing 5-star rave reviews like these:
The amount of knowledge Jeff has and the way that he communicates it instantly makes your editing prowess that much better. The information Jeff gives from experience is usually found in conversations with editors in edit bays, not readily available in text.
– James Gregg, Freelance Editor/Videographer, Linden, NJ
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Simply outstanding! Clearly a professional’s POV, and here’s one of many things I love about it: even though I’d say I knew or practiced about 90% of what you’ve written, man, the 10% I didn’t know or hadn’t thought of the way you’ve presented it is unbelievably helpful. Anybody from seasoned pro to newbie is going to find it very helpful. I’d even go so far as to describe it as essential reading for the 21st century editor. Please quote me on that. Lovin’ it, dude, you’re a badass!
– Harold Houze Jr., Editor, Los Angeles/New York (credits on CBS, FOX, ESPN, MTV, many others)
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In the reading of this book, you will likely have moments that range all the way from “yeah, I already knew that” to *mind=blown*. But that’s the beauty of it. It all functions together invaluably so that, by the time you finish it, you have a certain baseline of knowledge that creates a wonderfully solid platform to take a confident high dive off of into whatever type of editing you do or desire to do… and do it better.
– Micah Carter, Amazon Review
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Jeff has an amazing ability to flesh out concepts that previously only lurked hazily in the back of my editorial mind. I’ve learned more about the craft of editing from his insights than I ever learned in four years of film school.
– Chuck Gonzales, Producer/Editor, Houston, TX
I am driven with the burning desire to pass on the knowledge of powerful communication to people who are worthy of that knowledge.
So towards that aim:
Here is the FOOLPROOF SYSTEM to being a constantly working unscripted TV editor in Hollywood, cutting great content with great people:
Cue the reverse cymbal please:
ssshhhhhhHHHHHP!
Significant Skills. And a Significant Professional Network.
Cue the crickets.
Chirp chirp chirp.
“Greaaaat. That’s the secret?” you might be thinking. “How the heck does that happen?”
Exactly. That’s a really good question to which most people shrug and say either, “I don’t know…” or they tell you reassuringly, “Don’t worry, it all comes with experience.”
Which is true. But it seriously sucks to hear that if you don’t know how to get there in the meantime.
Ask me how I know this.
The roadblocks to significant Skills
Let’s face it, pretty much any time we look to improve our skills or to move to the next level of editing, we’re confronted with deadlines and stressed-out producers.
If we happen to work with an experienced editor who is actually willing to pass along some of his or her knowledge that took decades to acquire, it’s rare that you get any real time with her… because she too has continual deadlines and stressed-out producers in her face.
You might have gone to film school and read books by film industry luminaries. You might have edited narrative shorts and learned how to start with the master shot, go to the reverse, then the close-up… except for that time you’re all tricky and start the scene with the close-up. You sneaky iconoclast, you.
The vast majority of what we learned in film school and from books written about film just plain does not apply to unscripted TV.
Unscripted TV requires an entire separate set of skills that are virtually impossible to learn except through years of in-person mentoring and appropriating (aka stealing) cool tricks from other editors… and painful on-the-job training with lots of producers saying “ehhh, yeah, we’ll let so-and-so take it from here.” [Young editor hangs head in shame.]
Hang tight, because there’s a way to bolster your editing chops. I’m talking about arming you with legit, LA-caliber Skills. The kind of Skills that make executives and producers say, “Damn, you nailed it. No notes.”
And in today’s world where any shmoe can buy Final Cut or Premiere and call themselves an editor, people with actual Skills stick out like a Van Gogh in a stack of finger paintings.
The roadblocks to a significant professional Network
How do you get to the point where you have enough people that will hire you? Well, you have to have worked with enough people in the first place.
Fantastic! Another Catch 22… the way to get hired all the time is to have been constantly working with different people, but how do you meet people if it’s hard to find work in the first place.
Bang head against table.
Well, how about Plan B – having other editors recommend you? That’s fine, if they’ve seen your work. But that’s rare if you’re still getting your professional editing feet under you.
You have to have people in your corner, ready to refer you and vouch for your skills. And let’s face it, most people just don’t do that. They’re usually too worried about their own next gig, and they think that if they recommend YOU, there’s less opportunity for THEM.
That kind of person is stuck in their way of thinking, and there’s no point arguing. It’s like wrestling a pig – you get covered in mud, and the pig likes it.
But here’s the good news – confident, abundance-minded editors who hook up other editors do actually exist.
Like me.
Introducing the Power Edit Academy:
The FASTEST way for you to gain the Skills, In-Person Mentorship, and MAYBE a direct referral for your first (or next) $30,000, $50,000 or $100,000 unscripted editing gig in LA.
My team and I are launching a new, in-person series of live instruction on weekly editing projects where motivated, smart attendees (like you) take on the same projects at the same time and interact with each other’s edits in the process.
Here’s what you get with the Power Edit Academy:
• Five in-person sessions here in LA. I have prepared 5 weekly sessions of live instruction to take place in the Greater LA area on the very top ideas and frameworks that have shaped my TV editing career from its beginning to this very day. They have been hand picked from my own studies in communication theory, picture editing, music composition and performance, and applied psychology over the last 32 years. (That’s what happens when you start playing piano at the age of 4.)
• Weekly assignments put ideas into play immediately. Attendees at these weekly sessions will be jumping into action on weekly assignments on specific editing projects that bring these ideas to life – ideas that can be transferred into any project you do in the future.
• Editorial shadow boxing: real learning through a relaxed atmosphere. If you check out my credit list on IMDB, you’ll see I’ve cut over 60 episodes of a show called UFC Countdown, an hour-long promotional show for MMA (mixed martial arts) fighters in the UFC, the NFL of the MMA world. All these fighters constantly train under varying levels of stress, usually rising in pressure as their fight approaches. But the thing they all do constantly is shadow boxing – repeatedly going through the actual physical actions of their art in a low-stress situation where they don’t need to worry about getting demolished in front of millions of people.
That’s what the Power Edit Academy is – a low stress, uplifting environment that lets you shadow box your edit without a rabid producer all up in your face… “You’re not doing it right!! Are you done yet?! FASTER!!” None of that here.
• Accountability through reasonable deadlines. We’ve all thought, “Someday I’m gonna sit down and cut that one cool project.” And someday never comes… because we have nobody holding us accountable, and there’s no deadline. Here, you will have both: actual motivation to make the projects happen because you’ll have a specific project to take on, plus a reasonable but real deadline for everyone to screen their cuts the next week. Deadlines force action. (Huge life lesson, by the way.)
• Loads of the one thing that we virtually never get to see anywhere else: the PERSPECTIVE of how someone else cuts the exact same projects we’re cutting. Seeing alternate versions of the same project is a huge, huge way to expand our understanding of what is possible on any given piece. But it virtually never happens anywhere – because we’re all sitting in our edit bay by ourselves, and nobody hires multiple editors to cut the same thing. At least not on purpose. Here though, that’s the whole point. Everyone gets to see what everyone else cuts, and everyone benefits.
• The collective experience of the group, led by a highly experienced, constantly working leader. Any person who ends up in this group will already have a foundation of knowledge and experience, and I would be insulting the group if I acted as if I have all the answers to everything. The group will have much to offer to its members, just as I do.
Here are some of the ideas we will discuss and practice:
• Direction of attention. How to force your viewers to pay attention where and when you want them to.
• Arcs and structure. Knowing the workings of story is critical to effectively shaping it.
• Shaping of energy and tension. Particularly through visual pacing and music.
• Music. Selection, placement, and intra-cue editing. General music theory for the non-musician editor.
• Comedy. How it works, and how to get more of it in your cuts. Execs LOVE anyone who can “find the funny.”
• Other niche-specific ideas: potentially including the timing of promos and cold opens, creative compositing and keying, etc. We’re definitely open to group feedback on this.
• Plus lots of discussion of career skills: care and feeding of producers, psychological positioning as the editor, etc.
These kind of creatively driven, in-person group mentoring sessions simply do not exist anywhere else that I know of.
But they need to! The passing on of Skills, Mentorship, and Network is mission critical for you to GET MORE EDITING JOBS that PAY MORE MONEY.
Oh, and about that “getting more jobs” thing:
How about access to my exclusive private referral network?
Over the last couple years, I have been actively developing relationships with executives and post supervisors around Los Angeles for the purpose of playing talent scout. Edit matchmaker if you will.
And I’m pretty good at it.
I have successfully, repeatedly introduced and referred fellow editors to new jobs and new companies. I have made successful referrals both for fun little $300 jobs, and for full-on $50,000 editing gigs for actual shows on actual networks.
I’d like to do it even more, maybe for you. Maybe.
Here’s the kicker: my private referral network only is offered to people who are worthy of being referred. As in, I need to know that you are a decent human being, and you have the Skills to get the job done in a way that will uphold MY reputation.
Those who challenge themselves to grow as an editor through these Academy sessions, and PROVE that they are worthy of being part of my private referral network…
Those people jump to the top of my list of folks to hook up with the next gig.
The Power Edit Academy is definitely not for everyone.
Are you qualified to apply?
Much of what I do in my writing and teaching is geared towards being broadly applicable to lots of people in lots of different editorial situations. The Power Edit’s YouTube channel, for example, is downright goofy and sophomoric at times. The Academy, on the other hand, is very narrow and specific in its focus. This is serious interaction for serious individuals who match up with these qualifications:
• Access to gear. You must have access to a reasonably advanced editing system and hard drive during the week to complete your assignments on your own time. It can be any standard NLE you prefer.
• Confident pushing the buttons. You must already have strong knowledge of your editing platform, preferably the Avid. We will be focusing on creative concepts, not button pushing. Knowing how to use the tools is foundational, and you gotta be all over that if you want to move into the higher-paying levels of TV editing.
• Paychecks. You must already be earning or have already earned paychecks from an actual professional post-production gig. It can be as a Post PA, Coordinator, AE, or Editor, or something within the general post world. If you’ve done private client work, it needs to be something beyond favors for a buddy.
• Decent person, no whining. You must be a decent human being who knows how to face challenges without pissing and moaning about life. Or how lame your producers are, or how much your coverage sucks. If you really need to complain about these things, do it while going to lunch with your co-workers (which I stopped doing years ago). But leave that out of the Academy. Life is too short.
Only FIVE people will be admitted to the Academy.
That’s it. A select group of FIVE people who are serious about expanding their Skills, for the chance to expand their professional Network… maybe even to book their first (or next) $30,000, $50,000, or even $100,000 editing gig here in Los Angeles.
When the spots are gone, they’re gone. Keep reading to find out how to apply for yours.
Flexible scheduling
Since we are all here in Los Angeles, and the group is as purposely small as it is, we will set a schedule for the sessions based around times that work for everyone.
What would it be worth to YOU to not only grow as an editorial artist, but to have the chance to get hooked up with $30,000, $50,000, or $100,000 editing jobs?
As I said, I’m booked constantly with editing work with deadlines that are often LESS than reasonable. Plus I have a family and I’m building a business.
My time is limited, and it is the one thing I can never get back. In short, my time is precious, and I protect it fiercely.
But here’s one of the things about which I am the most passionate: passing on the knowledge of powerful communication to people who are worthy of that knowledge, and of my time.
If you’re looking for free instruction, go to ThePowerEdit.com or The Power Edit on FB. As of this writing, they’re free.
The Power Edit Academy is not free, and I’m not interested in dealing with folks who want it to be.
Think of it this way: if you bought $5,000 of publicly traded stock that a year later was worth $5,500, would that be a good deal?
Most people would say yes, a 10% annual return is decent.
Say you came across a magic box that when you put $5,000 into it, it spit out a check for $50,000?
That would be kind of amazing.
Well, that’s not this. This is better.
One introduction from the right person can turn into over $500,000. That’s half a million dollars. I have personally earned more than that from one company over the last years… and it was because one colleague made one introduction for me to a new post supervisor.
And I had the availability for the gig… and the Skills to back it up such that they kept booking me over, and over, and over.
What would that kind of opportunity be worth to you?
For now, I’m offering you the opportunity to apply for one of the five positions in the Power Edit Academy for $1,997.
If you are a strong candidate and would benefit from multiple payments, we can discuss that, though you’ll get the best value from the single payment.
Absolutely ZERO risk to you: an unbelievable refund policy.
To show you how serious I am about getting the right people into the Power Edit Academy, here’s our company policy:
Payments will be handled securely through PayPal, and you have the right to a 100% refund at any time… even up to the last session. You can literally request a refund after ALL FIVE SESSIONS, and you’ll get every penny back, promptly and respectfully.
So as you can see, the pressure is all on me to build a solid group, deliver high-quality content, and create an environment that encourages you to grow as an artist.
Your responsibility: play full out. Engage fully with the materials and with the group, and see the benefits in your editing, and maybe even your bank account.
Otherwise financially, 100% of the risk is squarely on me and my team.
Here’s how to apply for one of FIVE positions in the Power Edit Academy:
Send an email IMMEDIATELY to my assistant, Carla, to this address:
CMorris[at-sign]ResolveEntertainment.com
with the subject line ”Academy Application.” In the email, briefly explain your professional experience and why you feel you are an excellent candidate for the Academy, along with any questions you might have. If you wish to discuss multiple payments, please mention that too.
We will review all applications and respond appropriately.
So at this point you have two choices…
Choice number one: you can keep doing what you’re doing.
Maybe you’re doing ok… and maybe you’re not. Maybe a job ends and you have another gig lined up… and maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re far too familiar with that sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach when a job ends and you don’t have anything lined up? And you send out emails to people saying “Hey, I’m available, let me know if you hear anything…” and all you hear are crickets?
Meanwhile, with no work in sight, the bills keep piling up. Rent. The mortgage. Utilities. Health insurance (maybe). You name it. If you have the right Skills and Network, it doesn’t have to happen to you.
Maybe you’re already working, but you feel stuck. You know you’re capable of more, but you don’t know how to get there. You could stay there, but you know you’re selling yourself short.
Worse, maybe you’re stuck on a job that drives you nuts, with people you can’t stand, but you stay there because you need the money. If you’re there, I’m telling you, it doesn’t have to be that way. I haven’t put up with a truly horrible gig in YEARS, and neither should you.
But maybe you’re comfortable, and you can stay where you are, getting the results you’ve always gotten.
Or, choice number two: you can step up when an absolutely unheard-of opportunity presents itself.
Check out our refund policy again. You have ZERO to lose, and everything to gain – the expansion of your professional and creative Skills, the expansion of your Professional Network, and the very real potential for getting hooked up with BIG FAT CHECKS from production companies hungry for excellent editorial artists.
If this makes sense to you, and you feel that you’re an excellent fit for the Power Edit Academy, then write that email RIGHT NOW.
When the spots are filled, that’s it. So send your email to CMorris[at-sign]ResolveEntertainment.com, and I look forward to meeting you in person very soon.
To your storytelling success,
Jeff Bartsch
PS – Only 5 highly qualified applicants will be admitted to the Power Edit Academy for the chance to expand your editorial Skills and your Professional Network, and maybe to be the next person I hook up with a multi-thousand dollar gig. I’ve done it repeatedly for established editors, and I recently recommended a junior editor who ended up booking a union gig for a major 3-letter network. That was a $60,000 recommendation. How much would you be willing to pay for a $60,000 hook-up? For right now, we’re charging $1,997 pending our acceptance of your application. If money is tight, we’re open to discussing multiple payments.
If you feel you’re an excellent fit for the qualifications listed above, then email my assistant, Carla, at CMorris[at-sign]ResolveEntertainment.com, subject line “Academy Application,” and tell us why you feel you’re a good fit. But do it now, because there are only 5 spots.
PPS – If you’re already working, what would it be worth to take your Skills to the next level where you’re the obvious choice for any and every gig? And if you already know people who hire you for gigs, how many people are “enough” to have in your Professional Network? I’ll give you a hint: the answer is “always, always more.”
PPPS – Here are some closing thoughts from executives who have repeatedly hired me:
When I want to captivate and wow an audience, I turn to Jeff. And if you are serious about telling stories that resonate powerfully with your audience, I recommend you do the same.
– Jan Landis, 8-time EMMY-winning Television Producer, TV Guide Network/Dr. Phil/ABC
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I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Jeff the past several years, and I think that any editors who get the opportunity to learn from him should leap at the chance.
– Frank Sinton, Executive Producer/COO A. Smith & Co. Productions, Former VP Programming FOX Sports Net, Former VP Programming Disney Channel
PPPPS – Opportunity here. Knock knock.
WHILE THIS OPPORTUNITY IS CURRENTLY CLOSED, WE ARE ACCEPTING WAITING LIST APPLICATIONS FOR THE NEXT LA ACADEMY AND THE UPCOMING VIRTUAL ACADEMY.