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SVA BFA Film
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RESOURCES & FACILITIES

SVA Film offers “hands-on” learning. We have the most equipment per student of all the East Coast film schools, and generous access to it. In film, the best way to learn is by doing—and you will be in production from your very first class.

All freshmen work with the Black Magic 6k Pro and are given a hard drive to store their footage. A new digitized system gives students access to all equipment (Arri Amira 4k, Sony PXW-FS7, Panasonic AU-EVA1). We have two state-of the-art editing labs, which feature the leading postproduction applications: Adobe Premiere, Avid Media Composer and Apple Final Cut. Our production staff—many filmmakers themselves—stays current of the changing technologies in production and postproduction to assure that our students are working with cameras, sound and other production equipment used in professional studios. We have two state-of the-art editing labs, which feature the leading postproduction applications: Adobe Premiere, Avid Media Composer and Apple Final Cut. These labs offer top-of-the-line Macintosh computers for students to bring their projects to professional standards. We also have a new Finishing Suite, a 24/7 student facility that supports 5.1 mixing, color grading and up to 8K editing. Our Audio Postproduction Facility is equipped with Avid Pro Tools HD stations, a wide range of microphones and 55,000 soundtracks to choose from. It also features a glassed-in isolation booth that is utilized for everything from voice over to Foley work to instrumental recordings.

The Finishing Suite is a 24/7 student facility that supports 5.1 mixing, color grading and up to 8K editing.

Workstation Spec Sheet:

iMac Pro with an 18 core 2.3GHz Xeon processor, 128GB DDR4 RAM, AMD Vega 64 GPU with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD

Apple Thunderbolt 2.5K display as a secondary display to the left of the iMac Pro.

Flanders Scientific DM250 color grading 10bit OLED monitor sits to the right of the iMac Pro.

Avid S3 Pro Tools Control Surface designed for creating 5.1 mixes in the room.

Blackmagic Design Mini Console for DaVinci Resolve.

77 inch LG C8 OLED 4K TV
5.1Genelec 8040 speakers are all wall mounted and there is a 12-inch subwoofer directly in front of the TV.

SPL Surround Monitor Controller is used to control the volume and audio channels.

SVA Film has its own state of the art audio post-production facility.  The key is its versatility – you can do everything from recording music for scores, Foley (sound effects) and ADR (dubbing) – right up through your final mix. In the industry, each one of these functions would happen in its own specialized place. This is what makes SVA’s facility unique – you can do it all. Our team strives to stay completely up-to-date, attending all of the industry conventions and launches, and maintaining great relationships with New York’s best professionals, to give you all the software and hardware you would see in the industry.

The Audio Post-Production Facility consists of 7 state of the art audio workstations connected to a shared 32 TB EVO Server.

Each station is equipped with the following audio hardware:

Mac Pro Computers: 12 Core Processor/16 GB Ram/1TB SDDs
2 Apple 27″ LED Cinema Displays
Avid HD I/O 16X16 Analogue Audio Interface
Avid Artist Mix Control Surface

M-Audio Axiom 49 MIDI Controller
Avid Pro Tools HDX Core Card
Aja KONA 1 Video Interface
Dangerous Music Source Monitor Controller
PreSonus HP4 Headphone Amplifier
Genelec 8030A Audio MonitorsEach station is equipped with the following audio software:Avid Pro Tools Ultimate
Avid Complete Plug-in Bundle
Soundminer Sound Effect Database (over 35k sfx available)
Reason 11 by Reason Studios
Ableton Live 10
Apple Logic Studio
Propellerheads Recycle
Waves Platinum Plug-In Bundle
Izotope RX 7 Audio Repair Suite
FabFilter Essentials Bundle
Audio Ease Altiverb 7
MICROPHONES AND PREAMPS: A wide array of microphones is available, ranging from the Shure SM57 to the Neumann U87. Students also get hands-on experience with popular high-end microphone preamplifiers from manufacturers like Vintech, Millennia and Avalon.
ISOLATION BOOTHS: The facility is also equipped with two isolation booths. The first is a large, custom constructed, fully isolated, floating sound booth by IAC Acoustics. The booth is utilized for everything from Voice Over and Foley work to recording music. A four-piece Pearl drum kit and a guitar amplifier are available inside. The second is a smaller, semi-isolated space by VocalBooth. It is best suited for ADR and Voice Over work.
AVAILABILITY: Outside of audio classes, students are encouraged to take advantage of lab time each week. There are also facility “overnights” in the later part of the spring semester extending access during the hours of 10pm to 4am on weeknights.

Specs and information of the Film editing Facility Non-linear editing systems: Our 3rd floor facility houses 22 individual iMac 8-core workstations and 4 iMac Pro 18-core workstations to accommodate our students’ classes and project needs.

Software:

Non-Linear programs supported include Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Final Cut Pro X, MovieMagic Budgeting and Scheduling software, DaVinci Resolve Studio 15 Color Correction software and Avid Media Composer 2020, as well as supplemental programs such as Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, and Adobe Media Encoder.

Hardware:

Each editing station consists of: two Apple Thunderbolt 27” Widescreen LED Monitors. The Teaching stations within the classroom have in addition to the above equipment, 1  123” wide projector and 1 printer.

While no food or drink is permitted near the stations, we have a designated area in the facility for students to consume their food and drinks.

COMPUTER SPECS: The Final Cut Pro Lab is equipped with 18 computers for student use. Specifications:

  • Processor: 2.7 GHz 12-Core Intel Xeon E5
  • Memory: 64GB 1867MHz DDR3 (4 x 16GB)
  • Storage capacity: 1TB SSD
  • Graphics card: Dual AMD FirePro D700 with 6GB of GDDR5 each
  • Each station has two 27 inch Thunderbolt LED flat-screen monitors

STORAGE & NETWORK: XSAN & Xserve: In the Final Cut Pro Lab, every computer is connected to a network and server. Instead of loading software and/or footage onto each computer individually (which takes days) the XSAN will allow administration to load elements onto every computer in a matter of hours. SPECIALTY HARDWARE:

  • (1) Promise A-Class SAN with 96TB of shared storage space for thesis films
  • (1) 50 inch Flanders Scientific Broadcast Monitor
  • (1) Tangent Element Control Surface
  • (7) JVC Broadcast HD monitors used for professional grade color correction
  • (18) Belkin Thunderbolt Docks mounted on every desk
  • (18) 8 Channel Headphone Amplifier on each station
  • (20) Promise Sanlink2 Adapters with 8Gb Fiber Optic connections
  • (7) Final Cut Pro X specialty keyboards
  • (5) 24 inch Flanders OLED Broadcast Color Grading Monitors

SOFTWARE: Final Cut Pro X (10.2.2): A 64-bit application, FCP X incorporates elements from Final Cut Pro 7 and Avid, and has changed the way we approach nonlinear editing. Motion 5: The latest version of Motion provides similar functions to Adobe After Effects, and works very well in conjunction with FCP X. Compressor 4: If a file is too large for the Internet or burning to a DVD or Blu-ray disc, Compressor can export the file in a different codec, size or frame rate. Adobe Premiere Pro: Adobe’s powerful non-linear editor with build in Lumetri Color panel and Morph cut transitions. After Effects: This powerful, professional compositing tool is used for motion graphics and green-screen footage, as well as detailed keyframe projects in both 2D and 3D environments. Adobe Photoshop: Whether it’s removing a hair from a single frame of film, doing background touch ups, or creating titles and credits, Photoshop is a professional tool for modifying specific frames or photographs. Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 11: The Emmy Award-winning color grading application has all the creative tools you need to work on everything from indie films to the largest Hollywood blockbusters. Logic Pro X: Includes a massive collection of instruments, effects, and loops, providing a complete toolkit to create amazing-sounding music and features great tools for sound mixing. Redcine-X Pro: REDCINE-X PRO provides an advanced coloring toolset, integrated timeline, and post effects collection in a professional, flexible environment for your 4K, 5K or 6K .R3D files. Boris Soundbite: Boris Soundbite quickly and accurately finds any word or phrase spoken in recorded media. Video editors can instantly play all occurrences of a spoken phrase in their media, then insert the perfect take into their FCP project, organize clips around keywords, and even find replacement words for problematic audio. 7toX: Brings your Final Cut Pro (7 or 6) XML forward to Final Cut Pro X so you can use Apple’s powerful new professional editing tools to update or finish your older projects. XtoPro Audio Convert: X2Pro integrates Final Cut Pro X into professional audio workflows, converting the exported Final Cut Pro X XML into an AAF file, which Avid Pro Tools can open as a session, delivering seamless integration between the two applications. Sync-N-Link: Eliminate the time-consuming chore of manually synchronizing dailies by batch processing an Event of unsynchronized clips exported from Final Cut Pro X via timecode. Producer’s Best Friend: Creates a formatted .xls spreadsheet report (for Numbers, Excel etc.) about the video clips, audio clips, markers, keywords, effects and transitions in FCPX. SliceX: Instant shape tracking powered by mocha’s Academy Award winning planar tracking engine. Just draw a shape and press track. TrackX: TrackX Powered by Mocha lets you track text or graphics to follow background motion directly in FCP X. Neatvideo Denoiser: Neat Video is a video filter designed to reduce visible noise and grain in video footage produced by digital video cameras. Hawaiki Color: Hawaiki Color is a fully featured FCP X grading tool built around a unique 3-Way color wheel professional interface.

The SVA Theatre is the cultural center of New York’s artistically vibrant Chelsea neighborhood. It reflects the high standards of the School of Visual Arts and serves the college, the arts and entertainment industries, and the New York community at large as a stage for the presentation of noteworthy artistic work.

A world-class, state-of-the-art facility specializing in the projected image, as well as seminars, lectures, festivals, premieres, and other presentations. Opened in 2009 after being re-envisioned by celebrated designer Milton Glaser, the venue hosts public and private events year round, and its elegant lobby and two theatres (seating 479 and 266 respectively) are available for a wide variety of uses.

SVA BFA Film students receive a 50% discount on Pond5. Click here to learn more about Pond5.