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Egg Harbor Township, N.J. - Students in Jimmy Chairman’s Video Production course spent the morning at in Egg Harbor Township scouting, setting up audio equipment and filming video and interviews with staff who have turned the farm into a community.   

Cookie Till ‘83 is a co-founder of A Meaningful Purpose at Reed’s Farm, which is a nonprofit focused on regenerative agriculture and sustainable living. The farm includes greenhouses, a barnyard, gardens, a kitchen, a café, a market store and countless stories.  

Chairman, an instructor of Communication Studies, saw an opportunity for both his students and the farm to help each other.   

“Reed’s Farm is a canvas for the students to create art and stories,” said Chairman, who added a service-learning component to his course that results in short films telling compelling stories that raise awareness about the farm’s mission.   

The goal is to increase the footprint of the , provide staff with social media content and ultimately to spread awareness about sustainability.   

The class is divided into teams with a camera operator, audio tech, producer, editor and publicist.   

“I tell them sometimes I’m going to treat them like production assistants or employees and not students. They all wear different hats because they’re small teams, and I’m trying to teach them about production on a budget,” he said.   

He teaches the class through a lens of branded content and advertising. One of his lectures on media economics teaches students how to make money in a constantly evolving industry.  

Before he started teaching at ��˾�������� almost four years ago, Chairman worked for E! Entertainment Television where he interviewed more than 10,000 celebrities including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Tom Brady, George Clooney, Tom Cruise and Jay-Z.  

He never received solid advice in his twenties, so he’s made it his mission to help the next generation of aspiring filmmakers. “I want to show the students how they can make a living doing this,” he said.  

Joel Castro-Reyes, a Communication Studies major who served in the Air Force, has loved movies since he was a kid. He took the course to get involved in the filmmaking process. In addition to learning camera operation and how to create good lighting scenarios, he’s learned that “presentation is everything.”  

Chairman dove into his role as executive producer of the Reed’s Farm YouTube series asking, “What’s in bloom?”  

He joined one group on a location scout for spring blossoms. He quickly pointed to the sun angle and started discussing lighting.  

When a gust of wind rustled the weeping willow vines, he mentioned the greenhouse as a controllable environment to avoid audio issues.    

Another group met and interviewed Reed’s Farm Compost Manager Dave Lockwood inside the greenhouse.  

Lockwood discovered his green thumb at ��˾��������, where he started the community garden, located alongside Housing 3 and Parking Lot 7. He still remembers how the garden grew into a community.  

“It was the third week we were out in the garden, and someone in a freshman dorm put up a picture that said ‘Send us food,’” he recalled.  

“We didn’t have anything growing yet, so our response was: Come help,” he said.  

He fell in love with gardening at ��˾��������, and Reed’s Farm gave him the opportunity to turn his passion into a career.  

The students interviewed Lockwood to better understand the importance of sustainability.  

“People are starting to recognize that a carrot isn’t just a carrot. It depends on how it’s grown. You can go to your local grocery store and get a carrot, but it might not be the same carrot that we produced here using regenerative processes,” he told the students.  

After editing their content captured at the farm, the students will premiere their films in class. 

Alana Schnorrbusch, a Communication Studies major, was “a little iffy” with operating cameras before taking the class but has gotten comfortable with practice. She took the class to enhance her editing skills too.  

Ava Faretra, a Communication Studies major, said “the class has helped me with interviewing, and not just being behind the scenes, but being on camera and knowing how to talk with people.”  

“It’s been really fun,” she added.  

Story and photos by Susan Allen