Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini and Suffolk County Community College (“SCCC”) have announced an innovative partnership in which interns in the college’s Radio and Television Production program will produce a series of training videos that will be accessible online to prosecutors in the District Attorney’s Office.
“Here in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, we invest heavily in top-class training for members of our team,” District Attorney Sini said. “When new prosecutors join our Office, they undergo three weeks of training right off the bat, and 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. Being able to have these training materials available to ADAs on-demand at all times is an invaluable tool, and we are grateful to SCCC for making that possible.
“This was certainly a win-win for our Office and for the participants in the RTV program,” District Attorney Sini said. “I thank SCCC for their continued partnership and look forward to expanding this program in the future.”
RTV Professor and Assistant Academic Chair Gayle Sheridan said the opportunity is a natural fit for the students, who traveled to the Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Court Complex in Riverhead to shoot the first of several training videos for the District Attorney’s Office. Sheridan said that working with the district attorney’s team was an invaluable learning opportunity for RTV student interns because it was a “real life planning, shooting and editing experience.”
“The DA’s team are the content experts, and we are the skilled production team. Students learned how to combine those skills to produce an effective instructional tool,” Sheridan said. “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. Dealing with ‘talent’ outside the RTV program gave students a chance to see what that was like too.”
Students in the RTV program joined members of the District Attorney’s Office on June 25 to film a mock trial training presentation conducted by Deputy Trial Division Chief Brendan Ahern; Appeals & Training Bureau Chief Glenn Green; Training Coordinator Al Croce, of the Appeals & Training Bureau; Assistant District Attorney Maggie Bopp, of the Vehicular Crime Bureau; and paralegal Dayle Austin, of the Appeals & Training Bureau.
The students worked through scripts and script revisions as well as blocking movements. They will now also learn how to do postproduction multicamera editing, which is an important skill for when RTV students are competing for jobs, according to Sheridan.
Laura Adams, 39 of Nesconset, a camera operator and post production editor on the technically challenging four-camera shoot said the experience was both rewarding and invaluable.
“The partnership between Suffolk County Community College and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office provided 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.
Student Interns:
- Laura Adams, Nesconset
- Rob Scioscia, Mastic
- Melina Williams, Centereach
- Dylan Strickland, Medford
- Henry Yanza, East Patchogue
- Justin Rivera, Commack
- Zachary Rodrigues, Lake Ronkonkoma