Facilities & Resources
Film, Video, New Media, and Animation Facilities and Resources
The Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation offers a wide breadth of programming, facilities, and top-of-the-line equipment.
Screenings and Video Libraries
Conversations at the Edge
Conversations at the Edge is a dynamic series of screenings, performances, and talks by groundbreaking media artists.
Gene Siskel Film Center
The Gene Siskel Film Center presents approximately 1,500 screenings and 100 guest artist appearances every year to more than 65,000 film enthusiasts at its unique, sophisticated, modern facilities at 164 North State Street.
Video Data Bank
Founded at SAIC in 1976 at the inception of the media arts movement, Video Data Bank (VDB) is a leading resource in the United States for video by and about contemporary artists. The VDB’s collection has grown to include the work of more than 600 artists and 6,000 video art titles. VDB is dedicated to fostering awareness and scholarship of the history and contemporary practice of video and media art through its distribution, education, and preservation programs.
Available Equipment
Within the Film, Video, New Media, and Animation department, you will have access to our production studios and the following equipment and facilities:
- RED camera package
- Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro G2 4.6k cameras
- Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6k Pro cameras
- Sony PXW-Z100 cameras
- Sony Alpha a7S II cameras
- Canon 5D Mark III cameras
- Insta 360 Camera & Nikon 360 Camera
- Arriflex S & SR2 16 & Super 16mm motion picture cameras and accessories
- Bolex 16 & Super 16mm motion picture cameras and accessories
- Sound Devices and Zoom audio recorders
- Neumann, Sennheiser, AT, and EV microphones
- Vocal Booth (sound booth)
- ProTools 5.1 surround sound mix suite
- Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro editing systems
- 2 advanced editing labs with M1 Ultra Mac Studios
- 1 advanced CG lab with Alienware Area 51 R5 PC computers
- 2 CG Suites with Alienware Area 51 R5 PC computers
- Sandin Image Processor analog video synthesis system
- Analog to ProRes file transfer and transcoding room
- Advanced HD editing suites with M1 Ultra Mac Studios
- Advanced animation digital suites with Wacom displays
- 2 puppet animation studios
- Steenbeck flatbed editing machines
- JK and Oxberry optical printers
- Mobile Dragon Stop Motion Animation carts
- 2 shooting studios including a Green screen cyclorama studio
- Variety of portable lighting kits
- 16mm and Super 8 HD telecine suite
- 2 installation studios
- 52 seat Flaxman screening theater
Render Farm
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s commitment to integrating innovative technology with creative exploration is exemplified in its state-of-the-art render farm. This cutting-edge facility is an integral component of the Film, Video, New Media, and Animation department's experimental animation curriculum, offering students the opportunity to harness industry-grade tools to bring their conceptual and artistic 3D visions to life.
SAIC’s render farm facilitates the production of more than 120 student-generated short films annually and has the capacity to render over 4.7 million frames of animation each year. It boasts a robust infrastructure that features a combination of AMD EPYC and Intel Xeon Gold processors, comprising more than 2,000 cores and delivering an impressive 86.897 TFLOP of computing power.
NoonLover by Wanlin Xia
NoonLover by Wanlin Xia
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Dahee Lee @daheelee3dee
Dahee Lee @daheelee3dee
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Shed by Songyi Park
Shed by Songyi Park
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The Flow by Wenwen Zhu
The Flow by Wenwen Zhu
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Into the Cotovese by DJ Coto
Into the Cotovese by DJ Coto
