Standard Operating Procedure, Graduate Studio & Equipment Bookings
Department of Cinema & Media Arts, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
The CMA Equipment Room staff typically services over 650 bookings in an academic year and growing (430 class assignments, 3 dozen camera/lighting/sound workshops, and production packages for over 190 grad and undergrad films). Each of these bookings requires preparation to put together, check out, check in, and follow-up equipment maintenance
To ensure the necessary equipment is available when needed is based on academic priority to ensure we are able to balance needs with available resources.
To reserve equipment & Cinespace Stage 1 bookings contact:
Stephanie Adamson email: sadamson@yorku.ca
Equipment Room Technicians:
Marcos Arriaga (days)
Gilbert Kwong (evenings/weekends)
For CFT studio bookings contact:
Post-Production: Jon Hedley email: jhedley@yorku.ca
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Maintenance Technician: Claudius Pinto
AMPD Manager, Facilities, Health & Safety and Technical Services: Terry Wright
Equipment Bookings
- Equipment must be booked in person at the Equipment Room counter, at least 48 hours in advance of pick-up — this allows equipment room staff to review your requests with you in person, and suggest alternatives when items aren’t available — also, it saves time in terms of questions about what project or assignment the equipment is for.
- All bookings must include your name, student #, course #/instructor name if it’s a course assignment, or Thesis Title/Supervisor if for your thesis.
- For Course Assignments, Course Instructor must send Stephanie an email confirming their support of the booking at the time of booking.
- For Thesis Workshopping and Thesis Film Shoots, Supervisor must send Stephanie an email confirming their support of the booking.
- Grad Equipment bookings are for Course Assignments (typically 2 per course max), Thesis workshopping (within limits and pending availability) and Thesis production (ideally, in spring/summer months). Equipment cannot be booked for non-York-related projects.
Equipment for Course Assignments & Thesis Workshopping
Typically, an MFA production course (like Documentary, Short Narratives, Process or Hybrid Fiction) requires that grads produce 1-2 assignments, to be made outside of classroom hours: a small exercise (using minimal equipment) and a short (5-7 min) final project (again using minimal equipment). Bookings per assignment can be for up to 3 days, plus 1 day pick-up + 1 day return, pending availability.
Cameras Available for Grad Assignments*
For Grad course assignments in the Fall/Winter terms, and for workshopping scenes/techniques for their thesis films:
- 2 – Black Magic Pocket Cinema 4K kit
- 5 – Panasonic AF 100 Digital Camera
- 1 – Panasonic HPX 250 Digital Camera
- 5 – Canon 7D Digital Camera
- 5 – Black Magic Pocket
- 2 – Go Pro Hero4 Black
- 7 – Bolex Film Camera 16 mm & Super 16mm
- 6 – Super 8 Film Camera
- Black Magic Camera
- plus standard lenses
Example of an acceptable or typical equipment request
(for a course assignment or thesis workshopping shoot, in the summer/fall/winter):
- 1x camera (from above list) + standard lenses
- 1x tripod
- 1x light kit (up to 3 lights)
- 1x set sound (mic, lav kit, recorder)
NB Items such as HD Monitors, doorway dollys, C-stands, large lighting and grip requests, walkie talkies, etc. are reserved for thesis work and will not be available for assignments/workshopping.
*equipment types subject to change
Thesis Film Shoots
The following larger, higher-end camera packages are available to Grads for their thesis shoots (fiction, doc, alt) during the April 1-Aug 31 window of Grad priority, ideally for a single block of up to 5 days (plus 1 day pickup + 1 day return), and in special cases, for a maximum of 2 blocks of up to 5 days each (plus 1 day pickup + 1 day return). DOP must be approved by the Supervisor & GPD. Email Stephanie with their CV and short statement of their training/experience to Stephanie, cc to supervisor and GPD, as well as email approval from supervisor, and a production plan that indicates you have adequate crew, vehicles, production insurance, and well-planned shooting schedule to support these large packages).
- 2 – SRII Film Camera Super 16 mm w/ lenses
- 2 – Sony FS7 4K Camera with zoom lens & optional Canon Prime lens kit
- 2 – Canon C-300 Mark II Camera w/ lenses
For shoots that require more days/longer bookings, Grads can access the new Sony packages.
Studio Bookings
Contact Jon Hedley for CFT studios, and Stephanie Adamson for Cinespace. Production Studios can be booked for up to 2 days at a time for Course Assignments and Thesis Workshopping during Fall/Winter terms, and up to 10 days at a time in April 1-Aug 31 period for thesis shoots. Sound and Online suites can be booked in up to 2 blocks per year of up to 4 consecutive days for each block.
Annual Priority for Access
Sept 1- Dec 31: 4th year BFAs have equipment/studio priority
Jan 1-April 15: 3rd year BFAs have equipment/studio priority
May 1-Aug 31: MFAs have equipment/studio priority
Production Studios
- CFT 115 – 800 sf w black curtains, lighting grid, one room standing set
- CFT 104: – 800 sf w black curtains, lighting grid,
- CFT 130 – 2000 sf w black curtains
- Cinespace (Kipling, shared with rest of AMPD) — 4000 sf studio w/ 2-room standing set; 3000 sf studio w/ motion capture facility, 2 classrooms
Post-Production Studios
- CFT 129 — Mixing/Foley w sound booth, mix board,
- CFT 137A — Mixing w mix board
- CFT 126 L & M: online w/ Avid, Final Cut, Da Vinci
- CFT 109 – Grad Edit corridor (Avid, Final Cut, Adobe Premiere, Pro Tools)