By GREGORY ZELLER //
Suffolk County Community College is helping attorneys in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office make their case.
Seven SCCC Radio and Television Production interns are producing training videos for District Attorney Tim Sini’s staff, lending a hand with scripting, cinematography and post-production editing.
The interns – who’ve already traveled to the Cromarty Court Complex in Riverhead to record the first of several training videos – represent “a win-win for our office and for the participants in the RTV program,” according to Sini.
“Being able to have these training materials available to ADAs on-demand at all times is an invaluable tool,” the district attorney said. “We are grateful to SCCC for making that possible.”
Professor of Radio and Television Production Gayle Sheridan, the RTV program’s assistant academic chairwoman, said the opportunity to produce the training videos represents an invaluable learning experience for her students, incorporating “real-life planning, shooting and editing experience.”
Gayle Sheridan: Lights, cameras, experience.
“Students learned how to combine those skills to produce an effective instructional tool,” Sheridan noted. “Using a multicamera approach gave students the chance to see and experience what the possibilities are, as well as the complexities of a field production.”
“The DA’s team are the content experts,” the professor added. “We are the skilled production team.”
The interns also had a chance to work with “talent” from outside the RTV program – attorneys acting out parts in the videoplays – adding another valuable professional layer.
Intern Laura Adams, a camera operator and post-production editor on the four-camera shoot, called it “an amazing production experience for RTV students.”
“Throughout our involvement, we were able to apply our skills, collaborate with talent and gain an invaluable understanding of our chosen field of study,” Adams said in a statement.
The DA’s office – comprised of more than 300 prosecutors, investigators and support staff – will use the completed instructional videos for what Sini called “top in class training.”
“When new prosecutors join our office, they undergo three weeks of training right off the bat,” the district attorney noted. “Even the most seasoned members of our team participate in the office’s rigorous ongoing training program every single year, on top of their busy schedules.”
