Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services offers a wide range of assistance and opportunities for technology support, promotional content and educational materials. For Kayla Galang and Will Kurzner, LAITS also helped lay the groundwork for a strong creative partnership on and off campus.
The two met at LAITS in 2013, when they were both undergraduate student employees studying radio-television-film. Twelve years later, the now-couple are known around the department for their talent and dedication to what they do. Galang works as a full-time head producer, and Kurzner is an audio specialist. For both, getting to work with student employees in a position they were in years ago offers a full-circle experience.
“It’s really cool to see the students developing their skills and to hear what they’re up to,” Galang says. “(I learn about) what kinds of classes they’re taking, what they’re learning and what they’re interested in professionally. I can then figure out ways to connect them to that skill.”
Kurzner and Galang dedicate their days to LAITS, where they flex filmmaking muscles in an educational context. Whether producing a film for incoming students at orientation or sound mixing for the video stream of an online class, every day presents a different application of what they love. When not on campus, the two bring their skills together to become a powerful filmmaker-sound designer duo.
It’s the collaboration, conversation and what he draws out of you. He’s also just really funny. I feel like we have a great shared sense of humor.
For Galang, writing and producing short films has always been a deep-rooted passion. Although many of her projects are done outside of her job, LAITS is a space that offers her similar gratification and opportunity.
“I feel like filmmaking has always been almost like second nature to me,” Galang says. “It’s where I can’t see myself doing anything else. That’s why I feel really excited to be here.”
Galang’s writing often revolves around slice-of-life comedy and observation of the day to day, and she employs Kurzner’s creative passion and skill for sound design to bring her visions to life. The strong collaboration between them, she says, further inspires their work and contributes to the success of the films they’ve made. “When You Left Me on That Boulevard” won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and “An Ongoing List of Things Found in the Library Book Drop, Usually Being Used as Bookmarks” had its world premiere at South by Southwest this year.
“I think Will is a very brilliant sound artist and composer, and it’s not just the technical stuff that he does so well,” Galang says. “It’s the collaboration, conversation and what he draws out of you. He’s also just really funny. I feel like we have a great shared sense of humor. He really understands the sense of humor I try to infuse in my work.”
Sound design has become an integral part of how Kurzner understands the world around him. Part of that process, he says, is about sharing the experience with others through the projects he helps put into the world.
“As I’ve been maturing in my career, I feel like I have a talent to let sound be a vehicle for somebody to transport themselves through their own ideas,” Kurzner says. “I feel inspired if I can help somebody discover that in themselves.”
While building his portfolio as a sound designer, musician and film scorer, Kurzner says he values the support and creative challenges he gets from working with Galang.
“I always feel like her feedback is very encouraging but also uncompromising to the vision that she has,” Kurzner says. “She doesn’t ever settle, but she’s also really good at not being a problem client.”
Balancing time between a full-time position and outside creative work, while never easy, is worth it because of the crucial, intersectional lessons learned, they say.
“Both spaces feed each other and support each other,” Galang says. “There’s a lot of creative problem-solving. There’s a lot of running through the motions of different stages of preproduction and making things happen as a producer.”
Using skills strengthened in the workplace, they are always tooling around with their next creative projects and collaborative endeavors. If there’s anything that the unique challenges of working at LAITS have taught them, it’s that interacting with many different people and perspectives is the fuel for quality work.
“I’m thankful for (LAITS) because I have an open mind about how to approach my creative projects,” Kurzner says. “It’s wonderful talking to people and working with others. It really is more of a symbiotic relationship than people realize on the surface.”
