Big Shot Documentary to Re-Air on WXXI

Film on RIT photography project to be featured on public television

RIT Big Shot photographers

An encore presentation of the documentary capturing the RIT Big Shot will air Monday on WXXI. The 26th annual nighttime photo was taken last year at The Strong’s National Museum of Play.

An encore presentation of the documentary capturing the Rochester Institute of Technology Big Shot will air on public television.

The RIT Big Shot: Painting with Light, will air on WXXI-TV (channel 21/Time Warner Cable 1011 and 11) at 8 p.m. March 19.

Produced by WXXI and shot in high definition, the film documents the community nighttime photography project that began in 1987 with the first RIT Big Shot at Highland Hospital. Since 1987, the project has grown into a community project and hopscotched around the world, highlighting landmarks including the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden; the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas; Pile Gate in Dubrovnik, Croatia; and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

Using archival footage from a variety of sources, the film tells the stories of all 26 past Big Shots, including the inaugural shoot at Highland Hospital as well as the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, Silver Stadium, Rundel Library, Mount Hope Cemetery and the Ontario County Courthouse.

RIT’s 26th Big Shot took place at The Strong’s National Museum of Play on May 5, 2011, with about 1,000 volunteers. The volunteers, using camera flash units and flashlights, “painted the building with light” as faculty from RIT’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences captured the museum using an open shutter and the technique of timed exposure.

This year, photographers and light painters alike head to Seabreeze Amusement Park on May 3. For more information on RIT’s 27th Big Shot, go to The RIT Big Shot website.


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