When Anthony Truncale ’26 arrived on campus at Pingry as a freshman, it was as a budding lawyer. A well-organized, highly driven, three-sport athlete, he split his time freshman year between soccer, wrestling, and lacrosse. You could be forgiven for thinking you had this intensely driven would-be attorney all figured out, because that’s how he presented himself, except, occasionally, when he would sheepishly mention his interest in film. During his admissions process, he talked about academics and sports, but on his application, he wrote about something else entirely. “One of my favorite anecdotes about Tony is that he never talked about filmmaking in the beginning,” says former Director of Enrollment Management Edwin Núñez, “but in the privacy of the application process, he wrote a lot about filmmaking.” Anthony was a different kid back then, and filmmaking seemed like a far off, impractical notion, nothing more than a hobby he developed a passion for when he was home for hours on end during COVID-19.

“It never seemed like a viable career option,” he admits.

Perhaps Anthony would still be telling himself that today, while prepping for college and then law school, if it weren’t for a flyer advertising a new Spring Intensive during his freshman year that caught his attention: The Reel Pingry.

***

“I remember when Rebecca, Edwin, and I were starting our first Spring Intensive,” recalls Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Emily Cooke. They held an informational meeting about it and waited patiently for interested students to show up. “We were put in the farthest classroom away from anything, the farthest wing,” she recalls with a laugh.”You would really have to be trying to find us.”

They waited. And waited.

“No student showed up except Anthony,” she says.

“He had some trepidation and some hesitancy around even admitting that filmmaking was something he was interested in,” she says. “He told me when he applied to Pingry he wanted to be an attorney, and I remember him wandering into the info session and saying ‘I’m kind of into filmmaking.’ But he was a little sheepish about it.”

Afterward, feeling a little insecure over their Spring Intensive prospects, the normally coolly detached Ms. Cooke sent Anthony an overly enthusiastic email:

Thanks for coming! Hope you sign up - and tell your friends to as well! Spread the word.

Ms. Cooke

That first Spring Intensive, which produced the award-winning film School Is Banned, became an eye-opening experience for Anthony. “He was just sort of a quiet kid in the class, but you could tell he was like a sponge, just soaking up everything,” says Ms. Cooke. The creative powerhouse that was The Film Guys often meant a chaotic shoot, one that could be a heady mix of stressful and fun. Once the bell rang at 2:45 p.m., students would head out for a much-deserved break. But not Anthony. “He would stay as late as possible,” says Ms. Cooke. “He would be waiting to see if Rob [Bahou of The Film Guys] needed help with anything else, or to just geek out on camera stuff. He wanted to just soak it all up…. He stayed late at every opportunity. We had overnight filming, and he just wanted to be a part of every second of it.”

The sheer force of will that he applied to lacrosse and once hoped to apply to becoming a lawyer now had a new outlet: filmmaking. “I dove into it,” Anthony says. “I don’t do anything in life halfway. I don’t do anything un-seriously. Everything is either all in or not, which is sometimes a problem,” he adds, somewhat self conscious. “But I took it extremely seriously. I was like, ‘I am going to learn everything I need to learn about this.’”

Later that summer, Anthony worked as a Pingry camp counselor, and frequently stopped by Ms. Cooke’s office to see drafts of the film as they were edited, and to show her clips of his own short films.

During one such chat, Ms. Cooke asked if he’d like to help with a video project. It was a behind-the-scenes recap of Media Day, an all day event where the athletic teams are photographed. “So, again, I took it so insanely extra serious,” he says. “I showed up with all my stuff and prepared for a week with all the shots I was going to get. I spent eight hours there filming every single team that came through. And then, the next day, I spent eight hours editing it and putting it all together and I sent it over immediately.” He poured so much energy into it he made himself sick. “I had a fever and had to miss school on Monday,” he says. “But I was like, ‘I need to put all of my effort into this. This is my chance to show that I take this seriously.’ And it worked because Ms. Cooke was like, ‘Wow, this is really good.’ And that was when I was officially offered the internship.”

His internship came with his own cubicle in the Office of Institutional Advancement suite. When he started his sophomore year, he would stop by his desk in between classes and tests, part student of The Pingry School but also part professional, too, making videos for social media, and then videos for the Admissions team, and, soon enough, popular Ring the Bell videos that led to an increase in donations.

Ms. Cooke noticed a change in Anthony. “I think, through those classes and his work with this department, he realized ‘Oh, this is actually a career path. This is something people value. There’s space for this in the world that I didn’t know existed.”

***

Sophomores are not supposed to attend Career Day. “But Anthony being Anthony,” says Ms. Cooke with a smile, “he looked at the roster and said, ‘Oh my gosh. This film producer is going to be here. I have to meet him.’” Chris Bender ’89 would be on campus, and Anthony was not about to miss him. “So we sort of orchestrated with the Upper School Office that Anthony needed to photograph it,” she says. This gave Anthony the opportunity to sit in on Mr. Bender’s Career Day panel, and afterward he talked to him about his interest in filmmaking. They exchanged emails and Mr. Bender encouraged Anthony to keep in touch.

When the Spring Intensives arrived his sophomore year, he was not, unfortunately, allowed to attend another Reel Pingry, as students were not allowed to take the same course twice. So he signed up for another class and spent all his free time during lunch and after the bell stopping in to see The Film Guys and learn what he could, even when it meant he would be late to lacrosse practice. “Any free moment he would come to our space,” says Mr. Bahou. “And as soon as he’d come into the space, we’d put him on the camera.”

That summer, he continued his hard-charging approach to his internship, finishing up projects at a rapid pace. Ms. Cooke, barely able to keep up, sent him off to Pottersville one day to take nature photos. “Maybe this will be good for him,” she recalls thinking. “Maybe he can just relax.” So Anthony went off to Pottersville, and what he came back with stunned Ms. Cooke.

“He came back with, like, National Geographic–style photos,” she marvels. A photo of a caterpillar became Ms. Cooke’s computer background. “There was no other purpose for them,” she admits, other than to encourage Anthony to slow down. “But his personality is just always in pursuit of something. And always trying. I can’t keep up with the amount of work he will get through.”

***

Journalist and producer David Gelber ’59 came to campus for the John Hanly Lecture on Ethics and Morality while Anthony was a junior, and Head of School Tim Lear made sure to mention the Communications intern with a talent for filmmaking. Shortly after, Anthony found himself interning as a production assistant on a documentary shoot for Mr. Gelber, first at Columbia University, and then again months later in Boston, where he flew directly from a lacrosse tournament in Florida. The days started at 6:00 a.m., but Anthony enjoyed the opportunity. “The kid is really talented,” says Mr. Gelber.

His schedule was busier than ever, but he kept producing impressive work for the OIA office. That February, he received a polite email from a freshman who was interested in filmmaking. Chris Birrittella ’28 calls his then-email “awkward”, but it was clear he was looking for a mentor: If you have any opportunities for me to get involved this spring, I’d love to help out in any way I can.

Ms. Courtney: Have you ever gotten an email like that before?

Anthony Truncale: Not really.

Ms. Courtney: But you’ve sent emails like that before.

Anthony Truncale: I have sent emails like that before, yeah. So it’s kind of weird to be on the flip side.

The Spring Intensives were fast approaching, and this time, there was a determination to make sure Anthony would be a part of it. “Filmmaking is his passion,” says Mr. Bahou urgently. “It’s obvious.” They had to find a way around a rigid school policy. “So the third year, we decided we would put in our contract that Anthony has to be our student contributor to the Spring Intensive film. I considered it of paramount importance that he would be there.” Mr. Bahou was not simply being a good mentor, though—he valued Anthony’s work. “He’s got a great talent and eye,” he observes.

While The Film Guys played hardball with their contract, Anthony sent an email to Upper School Director Dr. Reid Cottingham, pleading his case:

Hi Dr. Cottingham,

I hope you are doing well and enjoying the beginning of spring. I’m writing you to make a request that I normally wouldn’t make, but I feel quite passionately that I should. As you know, I took the spring intensive with The Film Guys during my freshman year which disqualifies me from taking it again. However, this being my final year of spring intensives and the last year The Film Guys will be coming to Pingry, I wanted to ask if an exception could be made. I understand the rule about not repeating courses, and I agree with it being in place to push kids to explore new things and areas outside of their comfort zone, but I want to at least present my reasoning for an exception. 

As evidenced by the three or four times in the last few weeks when I’ve said hello to you holding a camera in my other hand, filmmaking is an art I enjoy and am constantly practicing…

An exception was made. “We really had to fight to make this happen,” says Mr. Bahou with some relief, “but it was worth it.”

Freshman Chris Birrittella signed up for it, too, and Anthony took him under his wing to help him learn the craft. He started to train Chris to be his replacement, telling Ms. Cooke, “I’m not going to be here forever obviously, and we’re kind of running out of time to find someone to replace me.” But training his replacement meant that he was, admittedly, tough on him. “I have a standard of what my work is here. And when I leave, I want that to be continued.”

Anthony, who cycled through four different cubicles during his internship, is hardly at his desk anymore. “Now it’s Chris’s,” he says simply.

***

Things are coming together for him. When he went to visit a film school in California, he had lunch with Mr. Bender, who gave him career advice and praised Anthony’s short films. After years of networking, he’s finally got several paid clients for the marketing videos he creates. He’s committed as a lacrosse recruit to Vassar, where he plans to study film. He’s even got his own intern.

But is he satisfied?

Anthony is stumped by the question. “I don’t know,” he says. “That’s a weird emotion for me.”

His recent marketing video for Admissions has caught a lot of attention. Centered around the notion that at Pingry, “you might just surprise yourself”, it has set the theme for admission events this season. The video was no doubt personal.

“I definitely do relate to surprising myself,” he says. “This is not somewhere I thought I would be. I thought when I was applying to schools, I would be looking for film clubs and film classes and I always thought it would be a very instructional path for me where I would learn from someone, do things, they’d give me feedback, and we’d move on to the next thing. I didn’t think it would be this mutual relationship that I’ve created here…. I’m doing things that actually matter. So, yeah. I definitely have surprised myself.”

He’s certain that he’s grown. “It was difficult to work on my social and professional life at the same time because I was trying to invent myself in both ways,” he says. When it’s pointed out to him that most kids his age are not working on their social and professional lives because most don’t yet have professional lives, he just smiles.

He may not yet be satisfied, but he is certainly grateful. “Without all of these people being open to granting me opportunities, I would still be where I was freshman year—still trying to figure things out.”

And while he trains his replacement, he’s making sure Chris figures it out, too. “He’s tough, but not in a bad way,” Chris explains with a smile. “I think he has high expectations for himself and the things he creates. I think he has high expectations for me…. He is a fantastic mentor.”

He is not in the OIA office as much this year. Instead, Chris is coming and going in between classes, carrying with him camera equipment, and popping his head into Ms. Cooke’s office. She’s grateful that Anthony took the time to train a promising intern. And she’s hopeful about Anthony’s future.

“He’s brilliant. I have no doubt he’s going to be successful,” she says, perhaps mulling over the intensity with which he approaches everything he does. Nothing halfway. Nothing un-seriously. You just might surprise yourself. It’s a theme, an aspiration, and a high school life he’s lived fully. 

Ms. Cooke doesn’t worry about his future success. She just wants him to get comfortable with that ‘weird emotion’ of being satisfied along the way. “Remember to be a kid and slow down,” she says.

“Take some nature photos.”

***

To contact the author: Sara Courtney

First photo: Chris Birrittella '28

Third photo: Natalie Gonzalez

Caterpillar photo: Anthony Truncale '26