New Facility Will Further Enhance SCM’s Robust Program in Filmmaking

Professors from the SCM film program are ecstatic about the area’s move into the newly opened SCM facility.  Students can now experience the seamless integration of a top-notch film faculty and some of the industry’s most advanced production and post-production facilities. The result will be an enhanced student learning experience in a competitive industry that demands superior talent and skills.

Anthony Pemberton, an associate professor in the film area, talked about some of the new features the building provides for professionals, as himself, as well as the students, “We are excited to have more space in the studios, the new set that we share with Television, and also all of the post-production rooms.”

Associate Professor Lise Raven is equally effusive, ‘’The new facility offers current and future students the opportunity to work in a state-of-the-art setting that is equipped with the very latest technology.  They’ll get a chance to interface with professors in an environment that will help foster mentorship and collaboration.’’

Roberta Friedman, an associate professor, provides another perspective.  ‘’It makes bringing in guests so much more exciting and rewarding.  We have a home we can be proud of.  We can bring in industry professionals and expose students to as much industry wisdom and knowledge as possible.  We’re pushing the state of the art envelope and giving it to the students.  And, equally important, the new facility will put us on a par with film schools such as NYU and Brooklyn College.’’

Some of the new technologies and production facilities in the new facility include a 4K studio, a presentation hall, media labs, active learning classrooms, a multi-platform news lab and public spaces. Students not only take full of advantage of the updated technologies, but they also have adopted the new facility as their main shooting location, Pemberton explained. “They’re shooting all the time everywhere in the building.”

One of Pemberton’s favorite pieces of equipment is the high powered LED lights. He says, “I love that students are not going to blow fuses with these new innovations.” Also, in addition to providing the students with the most substantial equipment, SCM sets itself apart from other universities not only with its sheer size, but with incredible comforts, such as couches and lounge chairs, plenty of isolated cubicles in which students can work alone, as well as mediated team rooms which are more conducive to group work.  And, one can’t overlook the east facing wall of windows, which offers a breathtaking view of the Manhattan skyline.

Pemberton ties together everything the faculty feel about the new facility — the gorgeous facility, relaxed atmosphere, the campus’ proximity to New York City, and the resources that the school provides such as, equipment rentals, internships, actors, crews, and so on, all guided by the expert hands of a gifted faculty, will inevitably lift the School of Communication and Media film program into elite status.

“The incoming students get better almost every year and that is very promising,” Pemberton adds. “They’re very diverse and this is reflected in the films they create. I love also the way that competition between students takes a back seat to the support they give each other and the learning that results  from collaboration.”

Current exciting projects that Pemberton is currently working on with his 24 undergraduate students are 10-minute films with actors that students have found through the Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting at Montclair State University or via the online casting platform, Backstage.

“Every week in this Directing Workshop Class, we invite casting directors, acting coaches, and older actors to come in and rehearse within a group. Students tell me about every weekend they are spending on each other’s sets creating these films. The productions are at a very high quality, most of them shooting in 4k using the RED, or Sony cameras,” Pemberton explained.

Pemberton, Friedman and Raven envision the film program in the future going beyond the new production technologies, “I see us having a grand support system as our alumni grow and work in the industry.”