The Film Editor
Like any experienced professional in the film industry, Will Giuseffi ’20 wears many hats. He’s a digital cinema and filmmaking major, having worked on last year’s award-winning PaceDocs film, Hawaii: Living on the Edge in Paradise. That’s what initially drew him to the Pleasantville Campus. “I chose Pace because not only does it have a spectacular film program, but also [for] the social environment. Pace has many options such as school clubs, a close-knit community, and [access] to everything that’s around Pleasantville and White Plains.”
Originally, however, Giuseffi had his sights set on majoring in business. “Math was my strong suit,” he said, a strength that would help him a great deal when he switched to the arts. “The industry usually puts the priority of money in front of creative decisions, [and] that makes business a very important and knowledgeable skill for filmmaking.” But it was his passion for “creating something from the end of a whole process” that truly set him on the path toward a career in film. He has a love of assembling snippets of video and reshaping them into a cohesive whole—a very useful skill, and one that has served him well in his time at Pace.
That passion came in handy when Giuseffi worked as an editor on PaceDocs’ latest documentary film, Hawaii: Living on the Edge in Paradise. Led by Professor Maria Luskay, EdD, PaceDocs is an award-winning Media, Communications, and Visual Arts production course that allows students to film and produce their own documentary on location. “The experience is mind-blowing,” Giuseffi enthused. “Every student had a part in almost every roll that went into this film.”
It was quite the demanding project, considering Giuseffi was also juggling a full load of 18 credits that semester. And yet, he had nothing but positive things to say about the experience. “[It] was an eye-opener into a completely different culture. [We] interacted not only with the land but the people as well, and it gave an emotional [depth] to the meaning of paradise in Hawaii.” He told us, “That experience has shaped my expectations for the hard work ahead in my field of study, including all the fun that it rewards.”
Not one to sit idle, Giuseffi also went on to land one of Pace’s most coveted summer-funded internships at Arc Stages, a theater arts center in the Pleasantville area, and it brought up old memories of when he attended a theater camp as a child. “Coming back years later on the other side of things, I got to experience more of what actually goes into planning and staging a play,” Giuseffi explained. He assisted with the production of six different shows across six groups of actors—quite the feat for a summer season!
“Seeing how things are run from the administrative end of a theater camp has given me more respect for the craft as well as more insight [into] how plays are really put together,” he said. And his team certainly appreciated his help—they started calling him “Will-tern,” a fun little nickname that speaks to the home theaters can so often become.
It’s that sense of home and belonging that Giuseffi struggled to find in the early days of his college career, however. “I never really found a group of students at Pace that I felt close to,” he confessed, speaking specifically about his sophomore year. Then he met Mitchell Lew ’19, the past president of Alpha Chi Epsilon (AXE). “I never wanted to join Greek Life when I entered college,” Giuseffi explained, and yet, he agreed to meet the fraternity at Lew’s urging. “I got to know all of the brothers and spent a few nights spending time with them. I pledged [that] same semester. My only regret is that I didn’t meet them sooner.”
Giuseffi also trains in martial arts, not to mention he’s an Eagle Scout—two activities that pair well, in his opinion. “[It] helps me grow my leadership abilities,” he said. We’re excited to see what he works on next!