Page 112 – NYFA

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Graphic Design Students Meet with Famed Designer Milton Glaser

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Graphic Design students recently had the opportunity to meet famed graphic designer Milton Glaser and visit his New York studio.

Milton Glaser is an American graphic designer behind one of the most widely recognized logos in the world. In the 1970s he was commissioned to design something that would attract more tourists to New York City, resulting in the iconic “I ♥ New York” logo. His other famous works include logos for the Brooklyn Brewery, Stony Brook University, and the DC Comics logo used between 1977 and 2005.

In 2009, Glaser became the first graphic designer to receive the illustrious National Medal of Arts. That same year a documentary film based on his life, To Inform and Delight: The World of Milton Glaser, released.

NYFA Graphic Design instructor Jee-eun Lee worked with Glaser for many years. The 1-year Conservatory students of NYFA’s Graphic Design school were welcomed by Glaser, got to check out his work first hand, and speak with him on in a small intimate setting.

New York Film Academy thanks legendary and award-winning graphic designer Milton Glaser for welcoming our Graphic Design students and sharing his expertise with them!

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Sun Valley High School and New York Film Academy (NYFA) Give Students the Opportunity to Shoot Films on the Universal Studios Backlot

On March 21, Students from Sun Valley High School were able to attend a filmmaking workshop at the New York Film Academy-Los Angeles (NYFA-LA) that allowed them to produce short films at the highest level over the course of a single day.

NYFA’s hands-on approach gave the students a chance to learn college- and professional-industry level practices on the Universal Studios Backlot, where students of NYFA’s conservatories, workshops, and degree programs also have the opportunity to shoot their films. Over the course of the day, the Sun Valley students were able to shoot, direct, and edit their very own short films.

The students were broken up into teams and worked closely with NYFA instructor Steve Morris to make their films. The students had a great time and were able to enjoy a professional atmosphere created by the NYFA team that will prepare them should they ever enter the industry. The goal of the workshop especially is to inspire them to be creative and believe in themselves as creatives.

New York Film Academy has been partnering with Sun Valley High School for several years. The four-year educational institution is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District and has a goal to “shape young minds to be prepared for tomorrow’s challenges not only in film, but in life and give [their] students the ability to cognitively understand society and allow them the freedom to make choices for their own success.”

Some of the Sun Valley students spoke about their films and their experience making them:

Daniel: “One thing I like working on the backlot of Universal Studios is just seeing everything how it was back then and what it looks like now … Right now we’re working on a comedy film, where a guy is meeting up with his crush and he just has bad luck—he’s trying to get to her but he keeps having bad luck that stops him … They meet up and in the middle of the film she hits her face on a pole and that’s his bad luck happening to her. My favorite thing about working here is being able to have the experience and work with teens like me and just learn the everyday things and I just love it”.

John: “We’re working on a film about a kid—so basically he’s supposed to tie his shoe but he can never tie his shoe because there’s always something distracting him … He ends up seeing the guy who robs him for his shoe and gets his shoes back and that’s basically it. I’m not gonna lie—our shot was a little rough in the beginning because we had some complications, but we worked it out and discussed it and we’re just rolling with it. It’s going pretty good now and we’re almost close to finishing it. What I like most about being on the backlot is the new experience—it’s my first time being here. I’ve never seen a backlot like this before. I always wanted to work in the film industry; personally, I want to be a screenwriter, but I wouldn’t mind acting because it’s pretty cool out here.”

Fernanda: “I’m the director of the short film that we’re filming here on the Universal backlot and our film is basically about a girl that falls in love with this guy and they end up getting pregnant, but the guy doesn’t want the baby so he beats her and becomes really abusive and she has a miscarriage. My favorite thing about the universal backlot is we get to location scout … We don’t have time to procrastinate so everything’s really fast and fun. My favorite scene was the beating scenes because it was so intense and getting the shots and angles for that scene especially was so cool. I feel really confident with my accomplishments.”

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Producing Department Participates in Australian International Screen Forum

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Producing students had the opportunity to attend this year’s Australian International Screen Forum, which included panels moderated by NYFA Producing Chair Neal Weisman and NYFA Producing Film Finance instructor Krysanne Katsoolis.

The Australian International Screen Forum aims to connect Australian film and television artists with the New York-based screen industry, and internationally showcases the work of Australian short filmmakers.

The second annual four-day event was held from March 19 – 22 at Lincoln Center and featured master classes, panel discussions, and workshops with industry veterans, as well as the New York Australian Film Festival, which was open to the public. A new addition to the forum this year was a pitch contest open to Australian and US filmmakers, conducted before a judging panel of industry greats that included Krysanne Katsoolis, who in addition to teaching at NYFA is CEO and President of ViewPark.

Katsoolis also moderated an interesting panel on indie financing strategies, where producers shared case histories and anecdotes about the current state of financing, and what it takes to get projects made in this dynamic landscape.

Marketing Strategies for the Indie Producer was another panel, moderated by NYFA Producing Chair Neal Weisman, which discussed the timeframe for producers to engage with the fundamentals of marketing and distribution, i.e. identifying unique selling points, the target audience, and niche audiences. The panel consisted of speakers Schuyler Weiss (Producer, Piercing, Ghost Team, Head of Production & Development, Baz & Co), Sara Kiener (Head of Distribution, Cinereach), and Keisha Salmon (Director of Communications and Audience Development, American Documentary | POV). There was a consensus amongst the panelists that producers must engage with these concepts early on in the producing process, i.e. development.

The panel also touched on the importance of grassroots support for projects through festivals and outreach campaigns, the role of social impact/action efforts in achieving filmmakers’ objectives, and driving audience development, as well as the nature of target audiences for filmmakers in the festival circuit—very often the first audience for producers and filmmakers is the industry, as in the search for a distribution deal, while film audiences remain the ultimate target.

Also discussed by the panel was the ever-expanding role of social media in contemporary film and television marketing, often being used as a substitute for more traditional (and expensive) tools, i.e. advertising.

Interesting perspectives were expressed by the various participants, including Keisha Salmon, who spoke to the broadcast platform and the role of documentary festivals and outreach campaigns for their product. Sam Kiener spoke about Cinereach, which is a non-profit that finances films, including Beasts of the Southern Wild, and how they liaise with the distributors of their films. Schyuler Weiss spoke from the producing perspective, particularly about festival strategies when and if your film does not get into Sundance.

“All in all, a very comprehensive and stimulating conversation about the dynamic landscape of film and TV marketing today and its impact on producers,” Weisman said after the event.

The Pitch Royale event was a popular, two-round contest, which included Krysanne Katsoolis as a judge. Industry delegates from Australia and the US pitch their film or series projects for one or two minutes to a panel of screen development industry leaders. The judges, who aim to mirror the real world development process, selected the best pitches based on a selective criteria. King Wong, a 1-Year Producing conservatory student, participated in the pitch session with a project close to his heart, and did very well.

The Australian International Screen Forum was an informative, insightful, and fun event, and New York Film Academy looks forward to it again next year!

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Filmmaking Alum Irmak Tasindi Has Great ‘Karma’

Fantasy thriller Karma, the short film by New York Film Academy (NYFA) Filmmaking Alum Irmak Tasindi, has won the Platinum Remi Award at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival. Additionally, it was an Official Selection at the Sunscreen Film Festival and screened at the 17th annual Garden State Film Festival.

The film tells the story of a gifted young boy, Evan, who is haunted by the memories of his past life, and is looking for the ex-wife from this past life in his search for answers. Tasindi wrote and directed the film in New York in 2017.

Tasindi graduated from the 1-year Filmmaking program at NYFA’s New York campus, enrolling in Fall 2016. Karma originally started as her thesis film. “I watched my work progress throughout the 1-year program and I was able to apply all that I have learned in my thesis film, Karma,” Tasindi tells NYFA. “I received tremendous help from my teachers who believed in my work and supported me in various ways. NYFA gave me the basics any filmmaker needs—technical skills, self-confidence, and permission to imagine.”

Tasindi was inspired to make Karma after seeing research studies regarding children who remember past lives as well as similar stories she has heard personally. The film is also a proof of concept for a larger series she hopes to make.

“You make a movie for yourself and you don’t really know how it will be perceived by others,” adds Tasindi. “The story is a rather controversial one, so people who watched it have shown strong reactions to it—they either loved it or they strongly disagreed with it.”

The film received a glowing review from the Utah Film Awards, which called it a “a masterpiece that baffles the mind, packed with mystery and suspense! If you are a fan of mystery films you probably have a sixth sense when a movie has an amazing story and Karma is one of the greats.”

“You can’t buy those words,” says Tasindi of the review. “If I managed to touch one person to write such a review, I must have done something right.”

Tasindi also filmed Pandora’s Box, collaborating with NYFA Cinematography students. She is still working the festival circuit for both films, as well as writing her first feature screenplay.

New York Film Academy congratulates Filmmaking alum Irmak Tasindi on the success of Karma and wishes her the best of luck as her career continues to grow!

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Alumni Show Up Big at Saudi Film Festival

Several alumni of New York Film Academy (NYFA) had their work showcased at this year’s prestigious Saudi Film Festival, including two of the fest’s winners.

The Saudi Film Festival celebrated its fifth year running and opened at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) in Dhahran, kicking off a six-day schedule aimed to discover and nurture talented filmmakers from the Middle East, and help them build connections within the larger film industry.

By the end of the week, multiple NYFA alumni showed off their work, and two came away with prizes. New York Film Academy BFA Filmmaking alum Yasser Hammad won Best Produced Script for Im Death, while 1-Week Workshop alum Mohammed Al Salman’s film Curtain picked up a Best Actress award for its lead. Hammad previously made headlines this year for Roll’em, the feature he wrote that became the first Saudi film to screen in a professional theatre in Jeddah.

Additionally, 2-Day workshop alum Mohammed Barajah’s film was an Official Selection, as well as BFA Filmmaking alum Abdullah Bamjaboor’s film Maryam, alum Musab Alamri’s film Co-Existence, and 1-Week Filmmaking workshop Mansour Assad’s film Soul: Room.

1-Week workshop alum Khalid Fahad’s film The Investor also screened at the festival. Fahad first found filmmaking to be an enjoyable hobby, before attending NYFA and discovering he wanted the art form to be his profession as well.

“As an independent filmmaker I found my course at NYFA very suitable to my needs,” Fahad tells NYFA. “Knowing all film process and managing all crew departments couldn’t be easy without taking NYFA courses—I still use NYFA sheets for doing shot lists, storyboards, breakdown sheets, and more.”

Alumni weren’t the only members of the NYFA community to be a part of this year’s Saudi Film Festival—former NYFA guest speaker Mohammed Al Turki hosted a panelist at this year’s fest.

New York Film Academy congratulates the NYFA alumni showcased at this year’s Saudi Film Festival and looks forward as always to next year’s event!

NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY (NYFA) ALUMNI FILM ‘ROLL’EM’ HAS HISTORIC SCREENING IN JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA

Roll’em, a feature film written, produced, and directed by New York Film Academy (NYFA) students, made history earlier this month by becoming the first Saudi film to screen in a professional theatre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia since the nation lifted its 35-year-long ban on cinemas in 2018.

The film was produced and directed by NYFA MFA Filmmaking alum Abdulelah Alqurashi and written by NYFA BFA Filmmaking alum Yaser Hammad, who also handled the movie’s public relations marketing.

Additionally, several other NYFA graduates worked on the film, including producer Nada Almojadedi (MFA Filmmaking), director of photography Fadi Abuali (BFA Filmmaking), 1st assistant director Ayman Alyousef (BFA Filmmaking), sound recordist Basil Alamri (BFA Filmmaking), and actress Fatima Husein (8-week Filmmaking).

Hammad tells NYFA about the film’s origins: “I began developing the film for “Feature Screenwriting” class as a treatment before developing it further into a screenplay with Abdulelah Alqurashi as the director. We all came to know each other through NYFA even though we all lived in the same city in Saudi Arabia, Jeddah—which is the main element of the film.”

Roll’em is about a recent film graduate who seeks to make a film about Jeddah, a major port city on Saudi’s Red Sea coast. The aspiring Saudi director struggles to make his film work in a culture that’s been deprived of cinema until he meets Farid, a retired cinematographer from the 1970s. Together, the two embark on a emotional and educational journey and re-shape one another’s views on both film and their city of Jeddah.

“As I was learning more and more about filmmaking,” Hammad continues, “I came to realize that it changed my entire worldview, so it was the perfect medium for me to reflect my thought about Jeddah and art. We were learning how to create the film while developing it, getting an inspiration or a different view from class, then turning it into scenes.”

The film stars Khaled Yeslam, Sarah Taibah, and Shaher Al Qurashi. Its premiere at Vox Cinema on March 14 marked the first time in Jeddah since Saudi’s cinema ban was lifted that a Saudi film screened at a commercial theatre, and is hopefully the beginning of a trend for more locally-produced cinema in the region. The 5th Annual Saudi Film Festival, which also features NYFA alumni, opened last weekend with great fanfare as the nation begins to openly welcome the medium back into its culture.

The New York Film Academy congratulates alumni Abdulelah Alqurashi and Yaser Hammad, as well as alumni Nada Almojadedi, Fadi Abuali, Ayman Alyousef, Basil Alamri, and Fatima Husein, on the premiere of Roll’em and wishes them great success in their future endeavors!

Please note: NYFA does not represent that these are typical or guaranteed career outcomes. The success of our graduates in any chosen professional pathway depends on multiple factors, and the achievements of NYFA alumni are the result of their hard work, perseverance, talent and circumstances.

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Florence Alum Acting on Hit Italian Television Series

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Florence Alum Claudia Stecher is putting her acting chops to work on the hit Italian television series, Il silenzio dell’acqua.

Stecher first attended NYFA Florence as a teenager, enrolling in the 4-week Acting for Film camp for teens. Three years later, the Italian-born actress also attended the 2-day Screenwriting workshop at the same location.

Since her hands-on instruction at NYFA Florence, where she learned the basic skills needed for a career in Acting for Film, Stecher has accumulated several credits in films and television series, including Una pallottola nel cuore, Diabolik sono io, and La natura degli angeli.

Her latest role, as Eva, is one of her most high-profile to date. Il silenzio dell’acqua (The Silence of Water) is an acclaimed drama that is similar to the British crime hit Broadchurch. The show follows an investigation into the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl from a small village near Trieste, Italy. The cast includes Ambra Angiolini, Valentina D’agostino, and NYFA alum Giorgio Pasotti.

New York Film Academy congratulates NYFA Florence alum Claudia Stecher on her latest television role and wishes her continued success as her acting career continues to grow in Italy and beyond!

Q&A with New York Film Academy (NYFA) Faculty Matt Kohnen

For New York Film Academy (NYFA) Directing for Cinematographers instructor Matt Kohnen, falling in love with movies was a gradual process. He started in theatre in high school, but eventually turned to writing and directing. His latest feature film effort, The Funeral Guest, a dramedy about a lonely woman who crashes funerals, won Best Director and Best Actress at the LA Indie Film Festival.

Matt took some time to chat with NYFA about his career, his love of science fiction, and a love story that could have only happened at NYFA:

New York Film Academy (NYFA): What kinds of stories did you start off wanting to tell?

Matt Kohnen (MK): I like stories with a touch of the fantastic to them. I’ve always been a fan of sci-fi. Not because of the escapism, but because it allows us to take our own society and its current trajectory. Sort of what Black Mirror does and what the original Blade Runner or Forbidden Planet did back in the day. I still write that stuff, but the reality of independent filmmaking is that the price point of most sci-fi is big.

NYFA: Your films Aaah! Zombies!! and The Funeral Guest center on death and how such an event can bring people together. What is it about the theme of life after death that inspires you?

MK: Funny, I’ve never heard my two features linked in that way. Not sure it’s the “death” issue that links them for me as much as it is the “outsider” parts. Both feature perspectives of people who are on the outside of something looking in. Aaah! Zombies!! began as a funny idea about classic horror, but became more about the characters who were dissatisfied with their current lives. In The Funeral Guest, it’s similar. She’s on the outside of life, looking in on others because she doesn’t have one of her own.

NYFA: Tell us about your latest project.

MK: I’m currently writing a couple new scripts. One of them is very low-budget, the other is trying to swing a bit larger. I’m not in a place to talk about them now, but The Funeral Guest is available on Amazon Prime, soon to be all over.

NYFA: What is your favorite thing about teaching at NYFA?

MK: I love working with my students. I love seeing their eyes open and that “aha” moment that sometimes comes when they realize in class or during shooting what has been lacking in their work up to now, and they make that jump to the next level of the art. It’s extremely rewarding to be a part of that.

Secondarily, I love how international we are, seeing students from such vastly different worlds interacting in a space where they share that one thing they all love. One of my favorite outcomes of this was in an early Cinematography Practicum shoot, a kid from middle-of-nowhere Montana sat next to a young woman from India. Two people who would never have met in any other iteration of the world. They wound up married.

NYFA: What’s your favorite class to teach at NYFA?

MK: Second Semester Cinematography in the MFA. It’s great, because the students have gotten a good base from semester one, and now we start introducing dolly, advanced lighting, and camera, and the ceiling of work we are able to hit raises a lot. I love seeing them rise to the challenge.

NYFA: Is there a piece of advice you give your students as they head toward graduation?

MK: Keep your eyes focused on the horizon, and put one foot in front of the other, every day. Even if it’s only one step, have goals, and know that as hard as it may seem, good work will always be recognized.

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Musical Theatre Alum Daniel Carrasquillo Makes It To Hollywood Week on ‘American Idol’

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Musical Theatre Alum Daniel Carrasquillo made it to Hollywood Week on hit reality competition show American Idol. The show finds the country’s best singers, narrowing the pool from thousands and thousands of auditions until only one performer remains.

Carrasquillo repeatedly advanced to each successive round for the first several episodes of the season, before finally getting cut at the Top 40. This included beating out competitors in the Group Rounds and the infamous individual auditions, where aspiring performers wait for hours in line to be personally judged by a celebrity panel.

This season’s panel included Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie, and pop star Katy Perry. The show has been hosted since its first season in 2002 by Ryan Seacrest. After performing for the esteemed judges, Carrasquillo was given the show’s iconic Golden Ticket and flown to Hollywood for the next round.

While he didn’t have a chance to compete in the later stages of the competition, Carrasquillo was very optimistic about the event and happy for the opportunity to show off his talents on multiple episodes of the incredibly popular television show.

Carrasquillo enrolled at the Professional Conservatory of Musical Theatre at New York Film Academy (PCMT at NYFA) in Fall 2015, where he honed his skills in acting, singing, and dancing from a professional faculty of veteran Broadway, off-Broadway, film, and television performers.

New York Film Academy congratulates PCMT at NYFA alum Daniel Carrasquillo on his Golden Ticket and wishes him the best of success as he continues to perform.