The FTVM program at SBVC has helped guide an alumnus to create a documentary that has made its way to Amazon Prime for viewing. With his new documentary, The Dino: A City in Focus, Daniel Saldaña is bringing San Bernardino to the world. In The Dino, Saldaña, a San Bernardino Valley College alumnus, follows local photographers who use their cameras to capture the city, with both the positives and the negatives.

This fall, he received a Silver Award for Best Producer/Director at the Telly Awards, in the category of student non-broadcast, and now, The Dino is available for people to watch on Amazon Prime. Kevin Lyons, an adjunct professor of film at San Bernardino Valley College, helped guide Saldaña through the film-making process, lending him gear and trying to "stay out of his way as much as I could and letting him take charge of the production."

The project started out as a documentary about photographers, but Lyons said after seeing the rough cut, "I told him there was a story beyond the photographers. I then helped him outline and structure it into a feature documentary with a focus on the city through the eyes of these photographers. Once he had a solid edit I helped him refine it, but through it all he was the driving force."

BVC’s Film, Television, and Media Department lets students check out equipment like cameras, microphones, and lighting, and use facilities and spaces like a podcast studio and color grading suite. "When you provide students with ownership of their work, be it math or film, they are more engaged," Lucas Cuny, assistant professor of Radio, Television, and Film, said.