New York Film Academy screenwriting and filmmaking alumna Jaclyn S. Powell adventured through previous careers as a ski instructor and a paralegal before making the decision to return to school at the New York Film Academy to pursue her dream of writing. Recently, Powell’s short film script “The Last Shred of Daylight” was selected as a finalist this summer at the New York Film & TV Festival, and went on to win the award for Best Short Script. We had a chance to catch up with Jaclyn to hear about her time at the festival, her time at NYFA, and how she approaches her screenplays.

NYFA: First can you tell us a little bit about your background and what brought you to the New York Film Academy?

JP: After college I enjoyed a fun career as a ski instructor at Deer Valley Utah, then went back to school and got an associate degree as a paralegal in Las Vegas, Nevada, where I had attended college as an English major. As a paralegal in Las Vegas for the law firm representing the police department, I handled some of the exciting cases that the show CSI was made of, one of which I would like to turn into a psychological thriller script…

I moved to Puerto Rico and took the job of litigation/trial coordinator for a large law firm … As the economy crashed and work slowed down in Puerto Rico, I realized I was missing a creative outlet and I started taking photographs and drawing again, to stimulate my creativity. That led to short story writing and I got the idea for a book, a conspiracy thriller, “Kill Switch.” When I outlined the plot for one of the attorneys he said: forget a book, turn that into a movie.

…After doing an internet search, I found the New York Film Academy and was just in time for the 8-week intensive, the last screenwriting group at the Union Square facility. (Heart of my hearts! I’m sure I was there in a past life!) After the screenwriting class ended I joined a writing group, but drifted into Improv at UCB and struggled with disappointment about not getting “Kill Switch” on the market and my screenwriting not going anywhere. I decided I would be a better screenwriter if I understood more about how films are made, so I took NYFA’s filmmaking program — and that’s where I fell in love with films, filmmaking, and screenwriting. To take a vision you see in your mind and be able to convey it on screen, there’s nothing that equals that feeling.

NYFA: What was your inspiration for your short script “The Last Shred of Daylight”?

JP: “The Last Shred of Daylight” came out of a short story I wrote for a three-minute fiction contest. The prompt was: when one door closes, another one opens. It stems from that moment of despair when you think all is lost and can’t see beyond your present moment of misery. As I repeated the words of the prompt to myself, I heard the voice of the narrator saying those words and the first few sentences of the story in a slow, southern drawl, and story began to write itself.

NYFA: Can you tell us a little about the process of becoming a finalist at the New York Film & TV Festival?

JP: Jameson Whiskey had a contest and Maggie Gyllenhaal stars in the winner’s screenplay. I heard about that a day or two before the end of the contest and in four hours had changed the story to a six page script, the maximum page limit. I had the date of the contest wrong and missed it by a day! I wanted to find out if my writing was worth pursuing, and entered the script into a couple of other festivals.

Cinequest wrote back that they really liked the script, said that it reminded them of John Grisholm’s “A Painted House,” but that the ending was too deus ex machina. I agreed with their assessment and reworked the script several times until everyone I shared it with liked it and, more importantly, I liked it. I entered the new script into a few festivals and that’s when I started making the finals, with the NY Film and TV Festival being my first win.

NYFA: You had the chance to attend the festival where your script was a finalist — what was that experience like?

JP: When I first got the notice that I was a finalist in the NY Film and TV Festival I was so surprised I thought it wasn’t real. I’ve seen the lists of finalists in some contests and they number in the dozens, but here I was in the top five for short scripts. Then a week later I got the notice that I was a finalist in the AT&T and Warner Brothers screenplay contest and realized that maybe it was all real. That’s when I decided to attend the festival.

I was skeptical all the way to the festival until I met the winners of the other categories and they were from Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, Maine. It was a small festival which gave me the benefit of meeting all the other writers and hearing their stories and it was an honor to be among such dedicated writers.

NYFA: Would you say your time at NYFA was at all useful in preparing you for your experience with the New York Film & TV Festival?

JP: At the table read for my final filmmaking script, “Storme the Toad Crusher” as well as the table read for “The Last Shred of Daylight,” the feedback I was getting from the actors is that they like my writing because they understand what I expect from the character. I think the training I got from NYFA in filmmaking — directing actors, lighting, editing and cinematography — combined to help me make a script that is both readable and easy to visualize.

…I wouldn’t be in this position at all if it weren’t for my wonderful time as a NYFA student. And I sure am an avid advocate for the school!

NYFA: What advice would you give to your fellow screenwriters who are looking to create festival-worthy scripts?

JP: I would advise fellow screenwriters who want to enter festivals to focus on short scripts, share your work with other writers and actors for feedback, and be open to revisions. I would also suggest caution when entering festivals, and look for those that offer feedback. And I would definitely recommend taking filmmaking and making a few films to get an idea of what’s possible and what’s not possible for a short script.

The New York Film Academy would like to thank Jaclyn S. Powell for taking the time to share a bit of her story with the NYFA community. “The Last Shred of Daylight” begins production in September, and you can follow the fim on IMDB and GoFundMe.

The New York Film Academy would like to thank Jaclyn S. Powell for taking the time to share a bit of her story with our community.

From South Africa to New York to the Madrid International Film Festival to promote “Life After Her,” it’s been a busy year for NYFA Acting for Film alumna Esther Van Zyl — and she shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. Since co-writing and creating “Life After Her” with fellow NYFA alumnus Guilherme Festa, Van Zyl has been been juggling travel with production and acting work (including two upcoming episodes on Netflix’s “Killer Instincts with Chris Hansen”).

We had a chance to catch up with busy alumna to hear some of her insights on life after NYFA, from producing original work to inhabiting characters.

Life After Her – Trailer Legendado from Gui Festa on Vimeo.

NYFA: First, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what brought you to New York Film Academy?

EVZ: I grew up in a small fishing town called Gordon’s Bay about an hour outside Cape Town, South Africa. I discovered performing in preschool, when I sang my first solo, “Silent Night,” as a four-year-old in a Christmas revue. I became addicted, and did everything I could to be onstage … By 5th grade I was writing, directing and starring in my own plays.

I had always, since those childhood days, had this very vivid dream of moving to New York to become a world-class actress in film and theatre. I’ve also always wanted to study in a New York acting school … I first did a BA in Dramatic Arts and Psychology at Stellenbosch University, where I trained primarily in theatre, and towards the end of my last year I heard that the world-famous New York Film Academy were hosting auditions in Cape Town — and offering talent-based scholarships.

I jumped at the chance, and heard very soon afterwards that I had received a scholarship to do the conservatory 1-Year Acting for Film Program. Three months later (on 21 January 2015) I was on a plane to New York, and I started in their class of winter 2015. The whole thing was quite literally a dream come true.

NYFA: Do you have a favorite NYFA moment from your time studying with us?

EVZ: There are so many. I was very lucky to be placed in the most fantastic class I could have asked for — by the end of the first week, we already felt like a close-knit family. Our class was Winter A, and we very cheekily called ourselves “The A-Team.”  We also had fantastic teachers, and I have moments from each class that will always stick with me, especially ones that turned out to be personal acting breakthroughs for me that I recall on set/stage to this day.

One such moment that really stands out was in an Acting for Film class with Zachary Spicer. It was a day we were filming scenes, and I was dreading mine — it was a monologue by a slightly unhinged writer who gets thrown out of a café because she can’t stop talking to herself. I had no idea how to play the character, or the scene…

I remember calling Zach over and saying to him, “I don’t think I can do it, Zach. I feel totally out of control.” And he said, “Well, how do you think your character feels?”

And that’s when I realized that acting wasn’t about doing something, “performing” a set of behaviors a certain way — it was more about truly letting go and allowing yourself to exist exactly as you are in a moment, not caring about what it looks like. Being in control of being out of control. I did the scene and told Zach afterwards, “I don’t even know what I just did. I feel like it was just a mess, it can’t possibly be good.” He told me to watch it back and tell me if I still felt that way. Punch-line to the story: that’s the only scene I filmed at NYFA that is in my current acting reel. You can see it online, here.

NYFA: Coming from South Africa, what surprised you most about studying at NYFA in the U.S.?

EVZ: The very international diversity of the student body. In my class, we were four South Africans, two Brits, four Brazilians, one Scotswoman, two Swedes, one Canadian and only one New Yorker. The other classes, including the other programs — directing, writing, photography, musical theatre — were the same.

And what I loved about the structure of the system at NYFA was the cross-pollination between these programs. The directing students cast the acting students in their films, and actors could team up with photographers to build their mutual portfolios, etc. This in-built pre-industry networking was actually what I feel helped me get the material I needed to prepare me for the industry once I left school …

Also, the film that I co-wrote and starred in that is this year doing so well at festivals, “Life After Her,” started out as a passion project for me and one of the directing students I started working with regularly, Guilherme Festa. It became his final film project, and we filmed it the week after I graduated from NYFA.

NYFA: What advice can you offer to fellow international students preparing to study at NYFA?

EVZ: Make the most of the time you have at NYFA to build your network within the school. The students studying acting, directing, writing, cinematography alongside you will also enter the industry alongside you as professionals, and you will most likely work with them. If you’ve built strong relationships, that’s the beginning of your oh-so-important network in your career.

NYFA: Your film “Life After Her” features an emotionally intense story and was accepted to some major festivals. Can you tell us a bit about that experience?

EVZ: It took eight days to shoot the 28-minute short film, which was done in locations all over New York and Brooklyn, ranging from Coney Island to Central Park. We all got very little sleep, sometimes shooting until late into the night and having very early call-times. The exhaustion made things harder, but funnily that actually helped me — most of the time — to drop into the emotional spaces the story required. When I’m that tired, I care less, and that usually makes me feel freer and more spontaneous. We also had the most amazing gift of an acting coach on set: Anna Cianculli, one of the best teachers I had at NYFA (she taught Meisner), who became a mentor to me …

It was one of the most intense and challenging weeks of my life. But it was also one of the best weeks of my life. Playing the lead character in a film I had helped write the story for, shooting with an incredible crew (Gui had arranged to bring a professional crew he knew and trusted to work with on the film from Brazil) in my City of Dreams.

One of the most poignant moments for me was standing on the edge of the water at Brooklyn Bridge Park at sunset, filming the scene where Rachel scatters her best friend’s ashes into the East River and dances off into the sunset with her new boyfriend. I remember looking at the New York skyline and thinking, “You’ve made it. This is the dream. You’re actually living it.” And I don’t think you get to feel that kind of high unless you are prepared to go through the really scratchy, difficult, chaos-moments, so a part of me feels strangely but truly grateful for the rough parts as well.

NYFA: What advice can you give to our acting students for preparing for intense roles, and intense festival tours?

EVZ: “You can never spend enough time thinking about your character,” Rachelle Greeff, a wonderful South African playwright, once told me during rehearsals for a play back home. And I think that’s what really made me secure in this role, at the end of the day … It also helped me to stop trying to think of Rachel as “transforming into someone else” — but rather, trying to find my own essence in her life story — what would “Esther” be like in Rachel’s set of life circumstances? I believe that way of thinking can help make one’s performance more personalized and authentic.

[The film’s director, Gui Festa] has attended more of the 2017 festivals than I have (I think “Life After Her” has screened at 7 so far), and he was at Cannes Short Film Corner with it before it went to the Madrid International Film Festival, which is where I went, as I’d been invited to the awards night with a nomination for “Best Actress in a Short Film” (and as a co-writer with Guilherme Festa and Anna Cianculli for “Best Original Script”).

Being at an international film festival of that caliber was an incredible experience. You meet so many surprisingly like-minded creatives from all over the world and get to inspire one another and build your network of potential future working relationships. The whole thing is quite tiring, and you have to make sure you plan your sleep hours in between the schedule of films you want to see, as well as sight-seeing, and then still have some stamina left for all the parties! I wished afterwards that I had planned better in advance so that I could have had a better balance of everything. I was quite exhausted afterwards, so my first week back in New York I spent knocked out in bed!

NYFA: Would you say your time at NYFA was at all useful in preparing for your current work?

EVZ: My time at NYFA taught me so much. Not just about acting as a craft, but also the actor’s lifestyle, which can be the more difficult part. I had never had any experience in film acting before NYFA, and being in such an intense course where you are acting on screen and watching yourself back more days than not really stimulated me to grow and hone my on-camera technique quickly. And funnily enough, my best teachers were the ones that started teaching me how to let go of my ideas about techniques and all the work I thought had to go into acting; on camera, it’s all about being very real and present, working with whatever is happening with you at that moment. It totally transformed my entire way of thinking about acting, and the lessons I learnt there — many of them very profound life lessons — are the ones I know I draw from in auditions, on sets, whenever I work.

NYFA: Can you tell us about any upcoming projects you’re working on?

My experience with “Life After Her,” which I co-wrote and was very involved in developing in the early stages especially, and the success it is garnering, has shown me how possible and wonderful it is to create your own work. So one of my main focuses right now is writing and developing a few upcoming projects with other amazing filmmaking folk I’ve grown to know and love working with, to produce film content — short films, short series, leading up to bigger projects like features. My dream is to be developing and producing beautiful, well-told stories with a trusted team of like-minded creatives and good-hearted people. It’s amazing to get to act in someone else’s stories, but there is something extra special and fulfilling about getting to bring your own stories and visions to life.

NYFA: Is there anything I missed you’d like to talk about?

Some of the other work I’ve been doing since graduating from NYFA has included working with a theatre company called BrickaBrack, of which I became one of the core ensemble members of the New York branch soon after graduating. We got together once a week to “jam” and workshop productions, which we performed in the city. One of our plays, “On the Flip Side,” was part of the HERE Arts Festival in 2016. I had recurring appearances as a variety of characters on a comedy web series, “Neem’s Themes,” which has won several awards at major international film festivals this year. I also appeared on two episodes of the third season of the Netflix series, “Killer Instincts with Chris Hansen.” I believe it is set to come out in October 2017.

I spent some time in South Africa at the beginning of this year and tried my hand at producing: I was the lead producer on a popular reality TV show, “Sê Net Ja” (“Just Say Yes”) about romantic partners proposing to their significant others in dramatic and unforgettable ways. It was a lot of fun, but very challenging, and I quickly realized I could never be a producer full-time: acting is simply my core passion. I also started dabbling in voice-over work, and for a while I was voicing the lead character on a Bollywood TV Show, dubbing English over the Hindi text for international audiences. I loved it, and hope to start doing more voice-work here in New York soon as well.

The New York Film Academy would like to than Esther Van Zyl for taking the time to share a bit of her story with the NYFA community.