Celina Liv Danielsen
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• New York Film Academy (NYFA) Broadcast Journalism – End of Summer Update

  

  While there are sure to be some warm days ahead, by and large summer is pretty much over here in New York. Looking back over the past few months, NYFA Broadcast Journalism graduates have been exceptionally busy.

  Two major earthquakes in Southern California had Karen Hua of KGET in Bakersfield putting in long days—and equally long nights. It was a situation where people depended on TV news reporters to provide them with accurate, up-to-date information. When it comes to natural disasters, it can sometimes be a matter of life and death.

  
  NYFA grad Celina Liv Danielsen is North America bureau producer for TV2 in Denmark. She was asked to explain how the President of the United States had announced a desire to “buy” Greenland from Denmark, a massive island that Denmark doesn’t “own.” President Trump cancelled a trip to Denmark after his “offer” was rejected.

  
  One of the secrets in our craft is how there are “news” jobs that don’t involve working at TV stations. Take Bruna Bloch, one of our alums in Brazil. She is now the digital media producer for a company called Hub Coworking. She wrote: “I will be responsible for their social media and content :)”

  
  Broadcast Journalism grad Miraj Haq, who lives and works in Pakistan, recently posted: “This is the good news I have been meaning to tell all of you. I have signed my first drama with Hum Tv/MD Productions.” That’s right, he is poised to become a TV drama star. This follows making the official presidential campaign biography for the current President of Pakistan, and establishing himself as a popular video blogger (vlogger).

  
  NYFA alum Emilie Olsson is a radio news anchor in Stockholm. She recently wrote an episode of Svenska Mordhistorier, a podcast that probes famous (and not-so-famous) Swedish murder cases. She: “Written script for this episode of the podcast Swedish Mordhistorier! Please go into the link and listen!” It’s another example of how the lines between different nonfiction genres have blurred. In fact, these days any project you create really has to be designed for cross-platform distribution.

  
  Regular readers of the Broadcast Journalism Update might remember that I am one of the producers of an independent feature film called Invisible Love. Shot in Vietnam, with post-production in China, over the past couple weeks we have been doing ADR sessions here in New York. NYFA Acting for Film grad Kazy Tauginas plays a leading role. I portray a minor character. It’s a period piece, set in 1930’s French Indochina. We are looking towards a Spring 2020 release.

  
  

  
  

  

  September 5, 2019 • Broadcast Journalism, Student & Alumni Spotlights • Views: 444

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• New York Film Academy (NYFA) Broadcast Journalism Alum Celina Liv Danielsen Covers the 2019 Oscars Red Carpet

  

  There is no evening more exciting than when the Academy Awards are handed out. It’s so important that TV networks from around the world send reporters to cover it. This year that included New York Film Academy (NYFA) Broadcast Journalism grad Celina Liv Danielsen. 

  Danielsen was at the Oscars representing Danish network TV2. “One of the more fun Sundays,” she said in an epic understatement. NYFA helped teach her digital production skills. Her fashion sense, however, she likely learned somewhere else.

  Danielsen recently covered the tragic wildfires in California late last year, as well as covering the United Nations for TV2. In September 2018, Danielsen also reported live from the memorial service for the late Senator John McCain.

  

  Meanwhile, down in Brazil—where it is summer—NYFA grad Daniella Gemignani did the first of two weeks of coverage leading up to the Catholic feast of Ash Wednesday. It’s better known as CARNIVAL. Daniella reports for Globo TV in São Paulo.

  

  Meanwhile, NYFA alum Paula Menezes is reporting on Brazilian sports. (You know, things like “futbal.”)  A grad of one of our 8-week Broadcast Journalism workshops, she says she is having the time of her life. She even sent along some visual evidence…

  

  So, we started with the Oscars and that’s how we’ll end. I’d like to thank the Academy… the Beijing Film Academy… for lending me their Academy Award when I visited last September. Giving a lecture at this prestigious school was in itself an honor. But to have the opportunity to hold a genuine Oscar is priceless. Of course, I do have an independent feature film coming out later this year…

  

  

  February 27, 2019 • Broadcast Journalism, Student & Alumni Spotlights • Views: 1086

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• Congratulations New York Film Academy (NYFA) Documentary Filmmaking Instructor Bob Eisenhardt – Editor of Academy Award Winner ‘Free Solo’

  

  The 2019 awards season concluded last night with the 91st Academy Awards, where Oscars were presented to Green Book for Best Picture, and Free Solo for Best Documentary Feature, among many others.

  Free Solo is the critically-acclaimed and visually arresting National Geographic documentary following rock climber Alex Honnold as he attempts to scale El Capitan, arguably the most dangerous climb in the world–without a rope.

  The film was directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, and edited by New York Film Academy (NYFA) Documentary Filmmaking instructor, Bob Eisenhardt.Also a three-time Emmy winner, Eisenhardt was previously nominated by the Academy for Best Short Documentary as Director and Editor of Spaces: The Architecture of Paul Rudolph. He has also edited another two Oscar-nominated films as well as three that were shortlisted.

  Free Solo’s Oscar win follows on the heels of the British Film and Television Academy Award (BAFTA) for Best Documentary. A week before that, the American Cinema Editors awarded Eisenhardt their coveted “Eddie” Award – the highest honor accorded a documentary editor.

  

  NYFA Instructor Bob Eisenhardt with wife, Bonnie Mackay holding the Academy Award

  The NYFA community celebrated other nominations as well—Documentary Department cinematography instructor, Director of Photography, Claudia Raschke, shot RBG, another excellent, high-profile contender in the Best Documentary category. Best Actress nominee Glenn Close and Best Supporting Actor nominee Adam Driver are both previous guest speakers for the Academy. NYFA alum Francesco Panzieri worked as a VFX artist on Avengers: Infinity War, which was nominated for Best Visual Effects. Broadcast Journalism alum Celina Liv Danielsen attended the ceremony, covering the red carpet for Danish network TV-2.

  New York Film Academy congratulates all the winners and nominees of the evening and applauds Documentary Filmmaking instructor Bob Eisenhardt for his exceptional work on Academy Award winner Free Solo!

  

  February 25, 2019 • Documentary Filmmaking, Faculty Highlights, Student & Alumni Spotlights • Views: 255

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• New York Film Academy (NYFA) Broadcast Journalism Alumni Cover California Wildfires 

  As anyone who follows American media knows, stories about President Donald Trump and his administration have monopolized the news for months. But this week, an even bigger story dominated the headlines. Two massive California wildfires, one in the mountains of Northern California and the second in coastal Southern California, have devastated communities and resulted (as of today) in the deaths of more than 50 people. An additional 100+ people are missing.

  News coverage of these tragedies has served an important public service function. And two New York Film Academy (NYFA) Broadcast Journalism school graduates are on the scene, documenting the fires and their aftermath.

  NYFA alum Celina Liv Danielsen, along with photographer Thomas Hass, are there working for the Danish television network DK2. Earlier this week, they visited what remained of a small Northern California town ironically called Paradise. It wasn’t an easy assignment, one which takes an emotional as well as physical toll…

  

  Celina Liv Danielsen

  Karen Hua is also a NYFA graduate. She is reporter with the NBC TV station in the Southern California city of Bakersfield. While not threatened by fire — at least not yet — area residents have experienced the side effects of these blazes for months. Karen wrote earlier this week:

  “The fires in Southern California are relatively close to us in Bakersfield. We’re a 2-hour drive from the Ventura/Malibu area, and we’ve been covering them extensively…

  “Ultimately I’m okay, and everyone in Bakersfield is safe — there aren’t too many trees in our city to spread flames. However, we’ve seen toxic air quality and heat as a result of the fires around the state this year. This summer was terrible with the Carr, Medicino, and Ferguson Fires. There were days when the entire city was advised to stay indoors. But we are fortunate we are all safe.”

  

  Karen Hua

  There are many ways to cover the same story. A digital producer/editor, working at ABC News headquarters in New York, created a powerful story for the ABC late night news program Nightline. The story, distributed over multiple platforms, captured the sheer terror of what is taking place…

  

  Public Television took a somewhat different approach. Friend and former colleague Miles O’Brian was in California shooting material for an upcoming episode of the popular Nova science series. While his focus was on previous wildfires, he and his team found themselves in the middle of a new “mega-fire,” an event so large that it literally creates its own weather. Miles was interviewed  on the PBS NewsHour, for which I once produced.

  

  As commentator Richard Reinhold noted earlier this year in TVNewsCheck, increasingly local TV news reporters are becoming “first responders,” often arriving on the scene of major events at the same time (or even before) police, fire, and emergency medical teams. 

  That’s why it is so important that we get the story right. People will act on the information we give them. We have to make sure it is accurate.

  

  November 16, 2018 • Broadcast Journalism, Student & Alumni Spotlights • Views: 1179

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• Episodic Instagram, Austin Veterans, Copenhagen TV2, and More From New York Film Academy’s Broadcast Journalism School

  

  Digiday posted a fascinating article last week about storytelling in the digital age. The premise was that “publishers” (the online sort) are treating Instagram stories like episodic television. It’s really a brilliant innovation. The way people process information is changing (or should that be “has changed?”). People react less to words and more to images. So how do you take what would otherwise be disjointed arrays of pixels and give them staying power? You tell a story — and episodic television has been telling stories since the dawn of the TV era. By creating basic storylines, that carry over from “episode” to “episode,” you create anticipation, tension, interest and (most importantly) audiences!

  The same is true in nonfiction video too.

  

  NYFA grad Melissa Aleman is back in the Weekly Update again, this time with Col. Jack Jacobs, the chair of the NYFA Veterans Advancement Program. Melissa was the videographer at a special veterans event that NYFA held in Austin, Texas. It is wonderful to see how Melissa is using the skills she learned as a Broadcast Journalism student not just to build a career, but to “give back” as well. Meanwhile, Col. Jack Jacoba is the heart and soul of our veterans’ activities here at NYFA.

  

  So how do you produce news stories in the digital era? Well, you can learn a lot from NYFA grad Celina Liv Danielsen. She works in the news department at TV2, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Look carefully at the picture below — Liv is using three microphones. Two are wireless lavalier mics (see the antennae on the back of the camera?), and one is a mini-shotgun mounted on the front of the camera. Just like she learned to do here at NYFA!

  

  The skills students learn in the NYFA Broadcast Journalism program can be used in a number of different ways. Recently I heard from graduate Karina Gaudereto. She is working for a company called SEVEN PR, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She wrote:

  This is a PR Agency for techlology startups, and I am a press agent for some companies in this area … There is one TV production called Floresta Produções which is a joint venture with Sony Entertainment. They make one of the most famous reality shows here like Lady Night at Multishow, and also UFC, Shark Tank, and shows like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. They called out our help because they want to expand their productions for branded content and TV premium. It’s been cool but tough!

  Here is a screen grab from one of Karina’s student projects. I know for a fact she misses New York … if not the winter weather.

  

  April 23, 2018 • #WomenOfNYFA, Academic Programs, Broadcast Journalism, Community Highlights, Diversity, Entertainment News, Student & Alumni Spotlights • Views: 864

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• New York Film Academy Broadcast Journalism School’s Last Weekly Update of 2017

  

  As this is the final Weekly Update for 2017, I wanted to tell you about what some of the NYFA Broadcast Journalism graduates have been doing recently…

  Celina Liv Danielsen is one of the hardest working people I ever met, and that hard work has apparently paid off. I heard from her last week via Facebook: “I have been working at the Danish television company TV2 for a year now, and I just found out that I’m among (together with a colleague) a nominee for the Best News Story of the Year at the award show ‘TV Prisen 2018.’ I just wanted to thank you and the school for teaching me so much…”

  Congratulations, Celina! Not bad for one year on the job…

   

   

  Meanwhile, more recent alum Melissa Aleman is now working on “Somos Texas,” a series that airs on Azteca TV. And her most recent story has a definite holiday theme: “Don’t miss out on the best location to take your selfie this Christmas! Today I’ll be showing you the place that has more than 4 million Christmas lights! Don’t miss a brand new holiday edition of #SomosTexas only on #azteca.”
  
  

  

  Want to find out about the plot of the next blockbuster film in the Jurassic Park series, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”? NYFA grad Daniella Gemignani interviewed director A.J Bayona for Globo TV in Brazil.

  

  Bryanna Reynolds recently interviewed international entertainment legend Kylie Minogue at the Melbourne premiere of the “Swinging Safari,” which Bryanna describes as “an Australian comedy.”  It’s a coming-of-age film that takes place in the 1970s.

  

  When Elina Mukherjee went to Times Square to report a NYFA student project earlier this year, she had no idea it would turn out to be a job interview for TV Asia USA. Someone from the New Jersey-based programming service saw her doing her stand-up, and he was so impressed he offered her a job as a freelance reporter after she graduated. Her first assignment is the Global Healthcare Summit taking place in India. Then she will be reporting stories from Long Island, which is a suburb of New York City. Congratulations, Elina!

  

  Finally, on a personal note, it was an amazing year. I never dreamed I’d be asked to participate in the international version of a major CCTV cultural history series … and end up as the host. The six-part documentary series is headed to the MIPTV international TV market in Cannes next April.

  

  

  Have a wonderful holiday, whatever tradition(s) you follow, and I’ll be back next year with more news about the NYFA Broadcast Journalism department.

  Until then, stay tuned!

  

  December 18, 2017 • Academic Programs, Broadcast Journalism, Community Highlights, Entertainment Australia, Entertainment News, Faculty Highlights, Student & Alumni Spotlights • Views: 1918

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