Theresa Lang Center for Producing Enhances Video Technology

(New York, NY) – Communication arts students at Marymount Manhattan College (MMC) will now have the capability to refine their multimedia projects with the help of new technology. 

The communication arts department recently received a $5,000 grant from the New York State Education Department. The money was used to purchase specialized high-definition video equipment for The Theresa Lang Center for Producing, which is located in MMC’s Nugent Building. 

The new equipment augments the state-of-the-art technology available to MMC students learning about digital filmmaking, sound design and producing for the Internet. The equipment will be used in many communication arts classes, including Web Video Activism, a new class offered in the spring semester. 

“A key aspect of student learning is the screening of work for critique,” said Professor of Communication Arts Alister Sanderson, Ph.D. “Thanks to the grant, students now have a state-of the-art, high-definition screening system that does justice to the compositional details of their creative video, and opens it up for appreciation and discussion.” 

The College’s communication arts department has grown dramatically since the Theresa Lang Center’s inception, demonstrating its central role in the curriculum and its impact on the College. Today, there are more than 450 communication arts majors. These students require the availability of the latest technology in the Theresa Lang Center in order to gain the skills necessary for successful careers in their chosen field. 

“The establishment of The Theresa Lang Center for Producing in 1997 has allowed us to go from teaching a single production course to a curriculum with dozens of sections in digital film-making, sound design, and the internet-focused ‘new media,’” said Sanderson, who has been teaching at MMC for 20 years. “The department has also reinvented itself in the areas of critical media studies and strategic and promotional communications so that our students can continue to draw on the very best of recent advances in communications theory, research, and practice.” 

Students enrolled in the Web Video Activism course, taught by Assistant Professor of Communication Arts Giovanna Chesler, M.F.A., will participate in MMC’s Service Learning Program. In the program, students apply classroom knowledge to help nonprofit organizations advance their missions. Chesler’s students will create promotional videos for the organizations’ Web sites. The class will assist four nonprofits in the spring semester: Network for Peace, Eviction Intervention Services, Survivorship A to Z, and the Harlem Center for Education. 

“The class, Web Video Activism, creates an opportunity for the professionalism of our video production students as they work in partnership with a community organization to co-produce Web videos which serve the mission of the community organization,” Chesler said. “In some cases, students produce videos that are documentaries about the organization, while in others, they make instructional videos directed at the client base of the nonprofit. These videos will be broadcast online through community partner Web sites. This is a course that brings together the three areas of our communication arts curriculum (creative media, media studies, and promotional and professional communication) and gives students an experiential learning opportunity beyond the classroom.” 

The Web Video Activism course will be offered in the spring. Chelser also teaches Intermediate Video wherein students produce public service announcements that will be accessible online. 

“With these short pieces, students learn how to produce social issue video intended for a viral video response,” Chesler said. 

For more information about The Theresa Lang Center for Producing, visithttp://www.mmm.edu/study/resources/centerforproducing.html

Marymount Manhattan College is an urban, independent, liberal arts college. The mission of the College is to educate a socially and economically diverse student body by fostering intellectual achievement and personal growth and by providing opportunities for career development.

Published: February 19, 2010