Courtney Bitting was wearing a sleeveless black dress covered with a blanket as she stood in front of a microphone on the stage of a closed nightclub.

The temperature outside Sunday was 16 degrees and the air was so cold inside you could see your breath. Ms. Bitting shivered as she waited for the next take of "The Piano Story."

"Art is pain," she said.

Art also is a collaborative event, as all movies are, even short ones.

This one is being made by Andrew Batista, 24, of Seven Fields, who has the unique position of being an artist in residence at New Perspective, a local audio and video production company that is better known for its work making corporate training films.

Mark Fallone, vice president of New Perspective, had wanted to have an artist in residence at the company for some time, but never took it further than the idea.

That was until this year when he interviewed Mr. Batista for a job at New Perspective. Mr. Fallone and company President Chuck Zvirman didn't hire him, however.

On Sunday, the guy they did hire, Mike Hough, who had experience making commercials at KDKA-TV, was behind the camera being directed by Mr. Batista.

"Someday we're going to be able to say 'We knew him when. ...' " Mr. Fallone said as Mr. Batista put the finishing touches on the first shot of the day.

The set was the upstairs barroom of Sassy Marie's, which closed in August. The building had been home to the James Street Tavern in a previous incarnation. The air looked as it used to, before the state smoking ban went into effect. The smoke, however, was not from cigarettes; instead, it was the product of a smoke machine fanned around the room to give the place atmosphere. The music came from an iPod as Ms. Bitting mouthed the words -- while trying not to breathe so that the vapor would neither be seen by the camera nor would it fog the chrome on the microphone in front of her.

Her sheer black dress, sparkling jewelry and up-do was more reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn than of Sarah Palin.

The shots, as seen on the monitor Mr. Batista was using, were beautiful.

Mr. Zvirman said when he met Mr. Batista, he was looking for a camera operator.

"All of a sudden, into our world comes Andrew. We couldn't hire him because we found someone more qualified," he said. But they were impressed nonetheless. "We said we have got to find another way of working with this kid, he is just so talented."

Thus began the Filmmaker in Residence program, for which they created a logo with flames and called it "Fire" because it was much cooler than calling it "Fir" and having a picture of a tree.

The program is designed to give a young filmmaker both guidance and equipment. Mr. Batista has the full use of the company's production facilities. He also has access to seasoned professionals off of whom he can bounce ideas.

The crew members at the shoot on Sunday were all working on their own time, many of them employees at New Perspective. All of them jazzed, if a little chilled, by the chance to work on a creative project when so often they shoot training films.

The Strip District-based company, with 26 employees and revenues that Mr. Zvirman put at $3.6 million, works for local corporations such as Alcoa, U.S. Steel and Giant Eagle. Its most famous production is the city scenes of the pierogie races that are shown at PNC Park.

"We're all here to support the program and because it provides a unique opportunity that our day-to-day business clients don't provide us," Mr. Zvirman said.

"Spring and summer, year after year, we see all of these amazing kids come through," Mr. Fallone said, talking about the company internship program in which each intern has a chance to make a promotional video for a local nonprofit.

Then he met Mr. Batista. "I thought, 'We're not going to let this kid get away from us.' "

Both Mr. Zvirman and Mr. Fallone were taken by Mr. Batista's idea. "The Piano Story" is a short film about a piano player portrayed by CMU senior Tristan Farmer, 23, of Peachtree, Ga.

There is no dialogue, just music.

Mr. Farmer's character plays the music that drifts from his open window to provide a background for his neighborhood. He gets a job cleaning a club where he hears Ms. Bitting's character sing -- ironically for the day it was shot -- about love in springtime. The man falls in love and stops playing the piano, which has a deleterious effect on the neighborhood. She breaks his heart and he rediscovers the piano he has always loved.

The shooting of the movie has taken eight days. The production will take longer.

The program has gone so well that Mr. Fallone and Mr. Zvirman want to do it again next year, starting in January when the applications materials will be available on the New Perspective Web site.

"I think Mark's a wonderful mentor for the young people we have in the business," Mr. Zvirman said.

Next year, Mr. Fallone said, his breath visible as he talked, he wants to offer the program in the late spring or summer.