Edgemont and Woodland students launch local TV program
The show, airing on a public-access channel, will tackle wide-ranging subjects
BY DEBORAH SKOLNIK
On November 27th a new TV show premiered, one destined to be an instant hit—at least around here. Produced by the all-new Greenburgh Student News Network (GSNN), a group of enterprising, media-savvy area youths, the program aired on Public Access Cablevision Fios Channel 34th and YouTube.
The first episode of the series, "GSNN Visits the Historic Greenville Cemetery," focuses on the burial ground located behind Edgemont High School and stretching nearly to Central Avenue. (You may glimpse it behind the shopping center in which Salon 421 is situated.) Edgemont junior Blake Feinstein directed the segment and filled the role of executive producer; his classmate, junior Ryan Im, and Woodlands sophomore Armita Mojazza served as reporters and co-producers.
Edgemont junior Blake Feinstein, director and executive producer of the Greenburgh Student News Network’s first episode.
Feinstein was inspired to organize the GSNN after he created a publicity video for the Greenburgh Diaper Dash, an event held last September in which children ages 2 and under participated in a just-for-fun race. “I have always been interested in filmmaking and journalism. I figured I wanted to use some of what I had learned and expand my skills while helping the community…it led to the idea of producing a public-access TV show that would feature local news and affairs,” Feinstein explained. He credits Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner with helping turn his vision into reality. “He was able to support me once he knew that we had a clear vision for the show, so it wasn’t too difficult to get the public access TV going,” Feinstein says.
For the series’s debut, GSNN members interviewed the cemetery’s volunteer groundskeeper and historian, who discussed local history including the stories of the Underhill and Seely families. Students also spoke with local Cub Scout leader Nick Stableski, whose scouts were helping to clean the grounds. It was an episode that helped to satisfy Feinstein’s own curiosity about the burial ground. “I’ve walked past it a lot, whether I’m walking to or from home,” he said. “I find it fascinating that it’s hidden between a strip mall and a school.” The final edit of the spot, which clocked in at 18 minutes,“ came together pretty well,” he opined.
Local expert shares lore Aad Zeeuw, the cemetery’s volunteer groundskeeper and historian, told tales of some of Scarsdale and Edgemont’s most storied families.
The production values for the segment are high, and so it might surprise viewers to learn that the first episode was filmed on an IPhone with an add-onn microphone. Feinstein then used iMovie software to streamline the footage. “I wasn’t trying to go for something very cinematic and complex,” he said. This inaugural effort was a learning experience. “There were a lot of moving parts,” Feinstein said. “I had to make sure the crew was there on the date we filmed. I think in the future, it would sometime be good doing an episode that is more at a studio.”
That is exactly the setting in which episode two, an interview with Scarsdale Historical Society Vice President Jordan Copeland, was created. “Mostly, the segment covers local history about racism and housing discrimination, and it covers [Jordan’s] story as well—what it means to be a village historian, and what he does in regards to that.” Yet don’t expect the GSNN productions to be exlusively about history: “We want this show to have a wider range,” Feinstein says. “In the future we might do something about crime or AI, or things like that.”
Speaking of the future, Feinstein and the other members of GSNN have high hopes for the show going forward. I really like where our first episode went, and we can expand on that, highlighting the student voice—interests and concerns. We hopefully can improve civil discourse have episodes that are more current, discussing things that people want to hear about.”