The Best of the Bronx, a series of one-minute videos
promoting the borough that Lehman College calls home, won an
Emmy Award in the Best Public Service Announcement category this
year. The ten videos, funded by a grant from the Mayor’s Office for
Media and Entertainment, were written, produced, recorded, and edited
by Lehman College students at the College’s Multimedia Center. The
series aired on NYC-TV and was also featured on the backseat screens
in New York taxicabs, as well as CUNY-TV and BronxNet.
“The student’s response to this project and the feedback from the
Mayor’s Office and NYC-TV—as well as this Emmy—is a testament to
the fact that this was a success on all levels,” said Jerold Barnard, the
director of the Multimedia Center/Lehman Studios, who served as
Executive Producer on the series. Guided by the staff of the Multimedia
Center—including Brendan McGibney, who produced the video series—
as well as the contributions of Lehman faculty and outside professionals,
the project had two major goals: to educate the students in all aspects
of professional production and to produce the highest quality product
for broadcast. “This was both a successful academic and professional
project,” said McGibney.
The Best of the Bronx highlighted well-known areas of the Bronx
such as Arthur Avenue and City Island, in addition to other sites such as
Woodlawn Cemetery and Andrew Freedman Home, which now serves
as a multipurpose arts and cultural center. “The Bronx is an amazing
place and there is so much here, so many cultural attractions that
people just don’t known about,” says Deidre Pettipiece, the dean of the
Lehman School of Arts and Humanities, who also served as an executive
producer of the series. “So we were happy to do our part to help
promote the borough.”
36
Lehman Today/Spring 2015