Local filmmaker speaks at South H.S.

A half-semester technology class at South High School received advice on how to approach their final projects from Valley Streamer Anthony Natoli, a local songwriter and filmmaker, on Jan. 20.

“You don’t need fancy software, you don’t need great lights,” Natoli told the students in Mayor Ed Fare’s video technology class. “You just need a great idea.”

Natoli, 30, has spent the last year creating a four-part music video series shot entirely on an iPhone, which is what the students’ final project requires. His latest venture, in addition to writing and recording music professionally, is to embrace the challenges of filmmaking on Smartphones in order to improve his skill set and make films that inspire others. He premiered the fourth installment of the series to the class, and explained his process of trying to capture the feeling of each season through music and images.

He encouraged the students to create something that they find meaningful, and to not take the handheld technology they’ve grown up with for granted. “These phones are amazing,” he said. “If Steven Spielberg had this, it would be a different game.”

Fare began teaching the course more than 25 years ago, and in that time, he said, “The evolution has been huge.”

Fare used to wheel a cumbersome cart of electronics into the classroom that included two areas for editing, which students could only use one at a time. “When I look at it now, it was like Fred Flintstone with a piece of granite and a chisel,” he said.

Natoli said that the speed of technology is enabling artists to find an audience for their work like never before. He demonstrated the use of a handheld piece of equipment that steadies his phone’s camera. “The quality, literally within the last couple of years, just hit that point where you’re seeing films winning Sundance that were shot on an iPhone,” he said.

Ten of Fare’s students were named finalists in the annual Nassau County Public Service Announcement Contest, which presents awards in April. Fare said he’s hoping one of his students takes first place this year.

Natoli attended Hewlett High School, which didn’t have a technology course. “I wish we had something like this when I was in high school, because I would’ve been a part of it for sure,” he said.