The second semester here at La Salle is underway, and the Center for Cinematic Arts looks to build on last semester’s success and expand our presence on campus and among our local communities. Our weekly news show, The Lancer Beat, continues, as well as our pre-production stages of this year’s feature film Ice Cream. We have added several students to our news coverage team, so look out for some of the latest additions to our crew on this season’s The Lancer Beat. Ice Cream is slated to start production in March, and currently, the creative team is wrapping script writing, storyboarding, casting, and location scouting. In line with the theme of our film, Unity, we are enlisting the help of multiple departments throughout the arts here at La Salle to assist with the planning stages. Most recently, we have had some of our drama students help with casting and script writing, including Allyson Copeland ‘25, who is not only the head of the casting team but also the lead role in our film.

Regarding some of our curriculum this semester, I am strongly pushing for our kids to use and start mastering some of the equipment in our center. We have been blessed with quite complicated pieces of equipment, and my goal is to make sure all students participating in the center know what to use, how to use it, and why we use it. This process started with the camera bodies and lights we have in the studio. The Canon EOS R, EOS R5, and EOS C70 are all cameras on our inventory list that each student has used and will hopefully master after their four years in the program. Currently, students are learning the intricacies of controlling exposure, aperture, and shutter speed manually, as well as playing with white balance and autofocus priorities. One overarching theme that I am continually stressing is knowing the “why” just as well as knowing the “how.” Understanding the technical aspect of production equipment is the first level. I hope for my students to go a step further and think about their creative visions and how they can utilize our technology in their own customized way to enhance their storytelling.

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By: Akinty Carter