Harlemites and film enthusiasts all over are being given a special opportunity by the Harlem Commonwealth Council Inc. (HCC).

The 125th Street-based nonprofit specializing in raising digital literacy within the Harlem community says that it is excited to announce the first ever Harlem-based six-week course strictly dedicated to developing film industry-ready production assistants. The course will place a high focus on how to use digital media tools and top software programs such as Final Cut X and Adobe Photoshop, as well as how to achieve a proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.

The program is so popular that HCC says that after only a two-week advertising and marketing effort, it collected nearly 200 applications for only 20 seats. “Our students were given a strict production assistant boot camp, where they learned real world, practical job training. Our students learn firsthand how to generate and understand production paperwork, set terminology and protocol, crew departments and functions, film industry resume and job preparation, hands-on training with radios, cameras and microphones,” said HCC in a statement.

“Our students experience an honest understanding of the film industry career path, as well as honing in on office and digital media skills that will further allow them to achieve true job readiness skills.”

With its new Macintosh lab, HCC says that it is proud that it is one of the only community centers that has a SMART Board that it utilizes for all computer classes.

‘We use our SMART Board to teach our students how to navigate through today’s top film industry software,” HCC said. “Our students use their exposure to Final Cut X to express themselves and their experiences as Harlem community members by learning how to create their own movies.”

According to the program description, the course allows students to learn the nuts and bolts of making a film from prep to post-production. They are given an extensive look at film history and development, production assistant procedures and storyboarding, and they also learn office production assistants tasks such as building film budgets in Microsoft Excel.

HCC says that the underlining theme throughout its program is that students are given the sole task of finding a job and defining their job skills. “We provide opportunities for job research, mentorships and resume workshops,” said HCC. “Additionally, we provide film industry internships and have successfully placed all graduates of our first class. With the onset of job decline, we are extremely happy we are creating jobs for our Harlem community members in the industry of film and television.”

HCC emphasized that it has a truly unique program and said, “We are proud to announce we have successfully completed our first term and have our first graduating class of 2013.”

The first graduation date for the course was Dec. 4. The organization hosted a graduation ceremony and festival at its Harlem address, at 361 W. 125th St.

For more information about the Work Now Employment Program – Production Assistant Program, contact Alex Betancourt at 212-749-2000, email abetancourt@harlemcommonwealth.org or visit www.harlemcommonwealth.org.