"The Digital Media Center for the Arts at Yale was my first real exposure to filmmaking. It provided the resources and support that I needed to take projects from conception to completion, while still giving me enough creative room to experiment and discover my own methods in a collaborative, consequence-free environment. Looking back, the hours spent at the DMCA were the beginnings of my movie making career. The DMCA is an invaluable resource for any student who wants to exercise their artistic muscles and put study into practice."
Tom Toro currently resides in New York City, where he studies Film Production at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Tom graduated from Yale in 2004 with a degree in Film Studies after logging countless hours at the DMCA shooting, editing, re-shooting and re-editing footage for his various projects. Since graduating from Yale Tom has written and directed three short films and authored three feature length screenplays, while also collaborating on numerous film projects including a feature length documentary shot in Cairo, Egypt during the summer of 2005. Tom was also the cinematographer for the film Moonshine, which premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival as the media darling for low-budget filmmaking.
The skills that he cultivated at the DMCA have greatly contributed to the success of his projects. Some of these are listed below.
Dichotomy - official selection at the 2002 Ivy League Film Festival
A woman's morning shower takes her on a half-conscious journey through the realm between dreams and waking life. Short, experimental, completed at the DMCA.
Devolving - winner, Best Drama, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay and nominated for Best Actress, Best Editing and Best Cinematography at the Sundeis Film Festival.
A teenage girl's unexpected pregnancy and her doctor's failing marriage intersect in this short surrealist drama. Completed at the DMCA.
Dishwater - official selection of Comcast's Best Student Shorts series
A man overcome by household chores must assume an alter ego to do the dishes. But the dirt and grime soon take on a character of their own... Completed at the DMCA.
Weights and Measures - official selection at the Brooklyn International, Winnipeg International, Leeds International, Filmstock International, Jacksonville International and DC Independent Film Festivals, among many others. Winner of the Grand Festival Special Recognition AVID Award at the Berkeley Film and Video Festival.
A building inspector brought to investigate a Japanese restaurant becomes embroiled in a blackmail plot by the owner and his wife. Completed at NYU Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film Department.
Zabbaleen (working title) - I was the principle sound recordist and second unit cinematographer for a feature length documentary in Egypt, following the life of a Coptic Christian family in Moquatim - the city of the garbage collectors on the outskirts of Cairo.
Squiggles - post-production. I wrote and directed a short science fiction/dark comedy about an alien stranded in Manhattan and trying to raise money to fix his broken spaceship by performing observational humor in night clubs. Scheduled for festival release in summer 2006.
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