Tribeca Film Festival - it's a Wrap!

The Art Institute and The Tribeca Film Festival

For the last seven years, The Art Institute of New York City has been actively involved in this world-class festival. Our students filmed the procedings, while Tribeca Kids Access, a group of elementary and middle school students from the neighborhood conducted the interviews.

Under the experienced leadership of Project Manager/alumnus Len Carter, who taught a production seminar in advance of the festival for the students, and with the invaluable support of Digital Filmmaking Department Chair Eve Okupniak, a team of 21 students filmed virtually all events taking place during the festival week (April 21 – May 2).

During this time, they also had the highly educational experience of editing the footage under a tight deadline to fullfil the “client’s” requirements.

The crew, dressed in black tee shirts with Ai logos, sported (large) press credentials, and thus had access to the assigned red carpet events. They filmed premiers, seminars and the Family Festival Street Fair, providing the edited footage to Tribeca officials as quickly as possible. This sometimes entailed editing late into the night, and on two weekends at both ends of the festival.
As in previous years, the Tribeca team provided media outlets such as WNBC with both print and video content to use in their coverage of the festival.

Participants gained valuable experience, not in just the real world, but in the world of international entertainment; the footage will be invaluable for their reels. Most students cite the opportunity to work with the festival as a highlight of their program. A special promotional DVD was created for Admissions use. This connection makes the school unique in the Art Institutes system.

According to Peter Downing, Creative Director & Producer of the Festival, "We would never have had such great coverage of those opportunities if it weren't for the camera crews and the personnel from The Art Institute of New York City. I think the students from The Art Institute did an extraordinary job... It was terrific to have a professional come back in and lead that team and make things run so incredibly smoothly..."

In addition to Peter Downing’s praise, many students credit Project Manager Len Carter with making their experience extremely valuable.

Sheniqua Lewis: “It was not only a pleasure working with Len, but the experience has taught me so much about the business and working for a real production company. Len made sure that we were well prepared and also professional and responsible. I hope to work on the festival next year, espeically if Len will be involved.”

Dalin Rowell: “Tribeca was an experience that taught me much more than I have learned in an 11 week class, and I think Len is the reason behind that.”

Kristina Siska: “I think our schools involvement in the film festival is a great privilege.”
Chris Conaway: “I found being part of the Tribeca Film Festival to be an awesome and very rewarding experience. I truly learned a lot from this hands-on opportunity. I felt that Len’s guidance was worth more than his weight in gold.”

Adam Forman: “Working on TFF is a serious privilege. I got an experience of the real world, as opposed to student projects.”

AiNYC is extremely proud of all Tribeca team members. We look forward to participation in the festival next year.

Frank Ramos
Nikhil Joglekar
Kristina Siska
Laquetta Lewis
Michael Simon
Sheniqua Lewis
Jared Frost
Jonathan Felix
Jennifer Hahn
Anthony Leslie
Kelley O'Brian
Ace Bouchard
Jose M Alvarado
Marcus Vazquez
Chris Conaway
Sergio Camargo
Dalin Rowell
Adam Forman