A team of nine City Tech students won two awards at the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and the Hollywood Professional Alliance Student Film Festival in Hollywood, California, on October 27, which was hosted by SMPTE Standards Director and film director Howard Lukk. Their five-minute film Building for the Future: A City Tech Tale, traced the journey of the College’s 2015 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon student team that built an energy-efficient house during a two-year long international competition.
The team’s film won second place in the Best Portrayal of Entertainment Technology in the Film—Documentary Format category and also won Best Film in Show, an award that is determined by the viewers at the festival.
City Tech students involved in making the film include Jonathan Burcin, Nicholas J. Burt-Miller, Diana V. David, André Gabriel, Jean L. Garcia, Joseph Larsen, Jeffrey N. Lawrence, Anjali Rawat, and Gregory A. Scott. Professor Ryoya Terao, an award-winning documentary filmmaker from City Tech’s Entertainment Technology Department, was the executive producer; Professor Mar Trevino served as the post-production supervisor; and Farisa Ahmed, Entertainment Technology program graduate, worked with the video production crew in the department’s Tech Production course.
“On behalf of all the students who worked on the film, we would really like to thank SMPTE for how well we were treated in Los Angeles. It was a fantastic experience from beginning to end,” said Jonathan Burcin. “We went out there excited about just having a film in the festival and representing City Tech. We had absolutely no idea that we would win anything, much less Best in Show. And it would never have happened without our awesome crew and especially all of the people, including SMPTE members, who donated so generously to our crowd-funding campaign. Thank you all for your support. This is only the beginning of way bigger and better things for us in the future.”
A generous donation from Telestream and the City Tech Foundation helped meet part of student travel expenses. Students also raised funds through GoFundMe.
The SMPTE-HPA Student Film Festival is open to full-time students currently enrolled in an accredited college, university, or film school. This is an international festival, receiving entries from all parts of the world. The festival focuses on technology, so entries are submitted by students who major in an area that emphasizes engineering, science, advanced technologies, or fundamental theories associated with motion imaging, sound, metadata, and workflows consistent with SMPTE’s field of interest.
“I’m glad that we were able to tell the visual story of Team DURA, City Tech’s remarkable Solar Decathlon team. At the same time, our video students gained a valuable experience by participating in the film festival,” said Professor Terao.
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is the worldwide leader in motion-imaging standards and education for the communications, media, entertainment, and technology industries. The Hollywood Professional Alliance is an organization that serves the professional community by providing expertise, support, tools, and the infrastructure for the creation and finishing of motion pictures, television, commercials, and an array of content for a growing number of platforms.
City Tech’s Department of Entertainment Technology has one of the most active SMPTE student chapters on the East coast; the chapter was founded in 2011.