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www.lycoming.eduT H E CO L L E G E
ycoming film and video students will put their creations
on the line against the work of other Pennsylvania
students in Lycoming’s eighth annual Film and Video
Festival, which will be held on April 7 from 7:00-9:00 p.m.
The juried competition has four categories-narrative,
documentary, animation and experimental-and is open to
college film and video students, who are invited to submit
their pieces from across the state. Prizes are awarded in each
category, and the best film by a Lycoming student will receive
the Tom Woodruff Jr. Grand Jury Prize, a cash prize that comes
with a striking sculpture of a film reel created by Academy
Award-winner Tom Woodruff, Jr. ’80. Woodruff, a special
effects artist and actor, worked on “Terminator,” “Aliens”
and other well-known films. He and his wife Tami ’81, both
Lycoming College graduates, are also sponsors of the event. The
evening’s festivities will be held at the historic Williamsport
Community Arts Center, and is free and open to the public.
Lycoming’s Department of Communication’s Digital
Media Program (DCOM), produces the festival each spring
to showcase student work and share it with the community.
“We get a lot of people from the greater Williamsport area who
come out to see the films and support the students,” said Leah
Bedrosian Peterson, associate professor of digital media and
DCOM director. “The fact that we have an Academy-Award
winning artist from Williamsport involved is also a big deal.”
Bedrosian Peterson, whose own artwork focuses on historical
and contemporary identity, is a master of several media, as
comfortable with a pencil creating stunningly photorealist
drawings as she is behind a viewfinder. She and her colleagues
have crafted a curriculum and approach that provides practical
experience while nurturing students’ artistic and conceptual
development. “One of the great things about the program here
is that it isn’t specialized on a singular focus of becoming a
director or editor. The students can make all different kinds of
work and learn all elements of the filmmaking process. They
are encouraged to develop their own voice, and we foster that.”
A recent alumna, Christina Moliterno ’14, just had her senior
project, an animated film called ‘The Island Dwellers,’ admitted
to the 2015 Aesthetica Short Film Festival in England.
On the pragmatic side, students begin shooting footage
almost immediately. “From the time they are freshman until
they are seniors, they are involved in the entire process. They
don’t have to wait until their last semester to make a 15-minute
film,” said Bedrosian Peterson. The DCOM stockroom and
lab are stocked with up-to-date equipment and software that
students need to create professional-quality productions. “We
just got a 4k Blackmagic cinema camera,” the next generation
in high definition, “and the students here are working with
the digital equipment that is identical to what they will use
professionally, so they are already on top of it. We have students
graduate and apply for jobs in New York and other major cities.
The companies call and say they can’t believe how much our
students stand out, even compared to students from Columbia,
Yale or NYU. Our graduates are beating them out because they
know how to do everything and they are really motivated.”
With a video camera on every smartphone, and every
aspect of human experience-from the tawdry to the tragic-
now being recorded, manipulated and shared, being film-
and video-literate is a must for those who aspire to being
comprehensive communicators. “Every year we get a good
number students from other disciplines, particularly business
majors, coming in to take DCOM classes,” said Bedrosian
Peterson. “Many of them anticipate that at some point they
will need to put together a short video work, either for a
commercial or to promote their enterprise in some way. The
moving image is now ubiquitous.”
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BY CHRIS QUIRK
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