It is either the most ambitious project in the history of mankind, or a brilliant reality television production that has an elaborate hoax at the heart of its marketing plan.
Dutch nonprofit company, Mars One, announced Monday that they have narrowed down 100 final candidates — out of a pull of more than 200,000 — to compete for a chance to get a one-way ticket to Mars.
The field of 50 men and 50 women will be narrowed down to 24 travelers. And viewers will be able to see the process via a reality television show.
As per Norbert Kraft, Mars One’s chief medical officer, finalists were narrowed down to the final 100 based on who is most dedicated to the cause, not necessarily who has skills or knowledge most suitable for the trip.
The organization has said the goal is to colonize Mars by sending six teams of four travelers every two years beginning in 2024. And although technology is likely to progress somewhat by then, Mars One has set the lofty goal of colonizing Mars with the technology we already have available.
That seems like a bit of a stretch, as only about half of unmanned missions have successfully made it to the red planet. And if a successful landing were to be made, experts estimate that the travelers would only be able to survive for 68 days with current technology, essentially making this a suicide mission.
The trip would also require an enormous amount of funding. Although Mars One hopes to extract some of that from the reality show they are planning to produce, it would only earn a tiny fraction of the billions and billions of dollars the trip would require.
Whether an actual trip will come to fruition is yet to be seen. We are still a decade away from the planned mission (which has already been moved back once). But one thing is for certain: even without an actual mission launch, we are sure to get a lot of entertainment hoping that this seemingly Sci-Fi story comes true.
The Writer’s Guild of America—Hollywood’s most prominent union for screenwriters—announced the winners of their annual award ceremony this weekend, in one of the final award shows of the year before the Oscars wrap up the season. The night puts the spotlight solely on writers, with nominees and awards chosen by other writers, and could be a hint to what expect for next week’s Academy Award winners in Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay.
The awards cover categories from film and television, as well as documentary, radio and even video games, though the winners can only be guild members. Here is a complete list of the winners:
Film
Original Screenplay: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Screenplay by Wes Anderson; Story by Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness; Fox Searchlight
Adapted Screenplay: The Imitation Game, Written by Graham Moore; Based on the book Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges
Drama Series: True Detective, Written by Nic Pizzolatto; HBO
Comedy Series: Louie, Written by Pamela Adlon, Louis C.K.; FX
New Series: True Detective, Written by Nic Pizzolatto; HBO
Episodic Drama: “The Last Call” (The Good Wife), Written by Robert King & Michelle King; CBS
Episodic Comedy: “So Did the Fat Lady” (Louie), Written by Louis C.K.; FX
Long Form Original: Deliverance Creek, Written by Melissa Carter; Lifetime
Long Form Adapted: Olive Kitteridge, Teleplay by Jane Anderson, Based on the novel by Elizabeth Strout; HBO
Short Form New Media—Original: “Episode 113: Rachel” (High Maintenance), Written by Katja Blichfeld & Ben Sinclair
Animation: “Brick Like Me” (The Simpsons), Written by Brian Kelley; Fox
Comedy/Variety (Including Talk)—Series: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Writers: Kevin Avery, Tim Carvell, Dan Gurewitch, Geoff Haggerty, Jeff Maurer, John Oliver, Scott Sherman, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, Juli Weiner; HBO
Comedy/Variety—Music, Awards, Tributes—Specials: 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards, Written by Barry Adelman; Special Material by Alex Baze, Dave Boone, Robert Carlock, Tina Fey, Jon Macks, Sam Means, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, Mike Shoemaker; NBC
Quiz And Audience Participation: Hollywood Game Night, Head Writer: Grant Taylor; Writers: Alex Chauvin, Ann Slichter; NBC
Daytime Drama: General Hospital, Written by Ron Carlivati, Anna Theresa Cascio, Suzanne Flynn, Kate Hall, Elizabeth Korte, Daniel James O’Connor, Elizabeth Page, Katherine Schock, Scott Sickles, Chris Van Etten; ABC
Children’s Script—Episodic And Specials: “Haunted Heartthrob” (Haunted Hathaways), Written by Bob Smiley; Nickelodeon
Documentary Script—Current Events: “United States of Secrets: The Program (Part One)” (Frontline); PBS; Written by Michael Kirk & Mike Wiser; PBS
Documentary Script—Other Than Current Events: “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis” (Frontline), Written by Michael Kirk & Mike Wiser; PBS
TV News Script—Regularly Scheduled, Bulletin, Or Breaking Report: “Nelson Mandela: A Man Who Changed the World” (World News with Diane Sawyer), Written by Dave Bloch, Lisa Ferri, Diane Sawyer; ABC News
TV News Script—Analysis, Feature, Or Commentary: “Nowhere to Go” (60 Minutes), Written by Oriana Zill de Granados, Scott Pelley, Michael Rey; CBS
Radio Winners
Radio Documentary: “Three Shots Rang Out: The JFK Assassination 50 Years Later,” Written by Darren Reynolds; ABC News Radio
Radio News Script—Regularly Scheduled, Bulletin, Or Breaking Report: “World News This Week,” Written by Andrew Evans; ABC News Radio
Radio News Script—Analysis Feature, Or Commentary: “Civil Rights at 50,” Written by Jane Tillman Irving; WCBS Radio
Promotional Writing Winner
On-Air Promotion (Television, New Media, Or Radio): “How I Met Your Mother,” Written by Dan Greenberger; CBS
Video Game Winner
Outstanding Achievement In Video Game Writing: The Last of Us: Left Behind, Written by Neil Druckmann; Sony Computer Entertainment
Hope to win a WGA award one day? Check out our screenwriting school programs here.
On January 13, 2015, composer Daniel Wohl sat down with New York Film Academy’s Business of Screenwriting class to offer up his unique perspective on how he broke into the entertainment business as a composer, and what he looks for when he’s designing the music for his film projects.
“I didn’t go to school for film composing, I just went for composing generally,” Wohl explained. That he did…Wohl holds a BFA from Bard College, an MFA from the University of Michigan, and is in the process of getting his Doctorate in Music Composition from Yale University, an honor awarded to only a few musicians a year. His academic background in music theory and technique is vast.
“I knew I wanted to make my own albums,” Wohl stated, “but I always have had a strong interest in writing music for film, TV and other forms of entertainment and being a part of the storytelling process. It’s something I’ve really grown to love.”
Wohl’s 2013 debut album, the New Amsterdam Records’ Corps Exquis, a multi-media, chamber and electronics project created in conjunction with the TRANSIT new music ensemble and a collective of New York-based video artists, was hailed by the New York Times, Pitchfork and many others, and earned Wohl a coveted spot on NPR’s Top 100 Songs of the Year.
Wohl also makes a living off commissions and music grants, of which he’s been awarded many. “In some ways, the music world is sort of the reverse of the visual arts world. Someone will commission you to write a piece, and then you get to make something, and it can be whatever you want it to be. In film, where, if you’re hired by a director, producers or studio execs, they have a real say over what your music turns out to be. The music world isn’t like that as much. That’s one of the freeing things about the professional music community, they really trust their artists and let them — encourage them really — to do their best work as they see it.”
More recently, Wohl has become involved in the world of film composing, working on some impressive projects. He was the composer on The Color of Time, starring Mila Kunis, and Jessica Chastain, a poetic road trip through Pulitzer-Prize winning C.K. Williams’ life. He also composed the music for the surreal drama Elixir, a film by Brodie Higgs, which recently premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, and The Fly Room, which was an official selection at the 2014 Woodstock Film Festival.
Wohl explained that he’s basically “the third to last person to work on the film.” “It’s a close collaboration with the director. You usually have about six weeks to write the music. Sometimes, the director will give you a ‘temp track’, so you know sort of the tone they’re going for, but it’s really about figuring out what the director wants. All directors know what they don’t want and what they don’t like, but not all know what they want — until they hear it,” Wohl explained. “It’s part of my work to help get them there.”
“The Color of Time”
Wohl will often watch an early cut of the movie and/or read the script when he’s preparing to craft the musical tracks that will become the melodic pulse of the film.”The story and the music are intricately linked.” Wohl played selections from the recent films he scored, allowing the students to see some of his finished products.
“Music definitely helps tell the story, and cue the audience into how to feel. Sometimes, it can save a scene, and deliver meaning that really isn’t obvious without the music. I definitely look for those moments of emotional catharsis and shift in the storytelling, so that the music works with the story seamlessly.” Wohl explained how on some projects the director might want a musical theme for each main character, and how his background in musical composition really helps generally. “Films, like music, have a real rhythm, and you definitely have to listen for that. Even if you’re not an expert on a given style — say jazz — you may still have to write something in that style to go with intrinsic rhythm and mood of the scene.”
Wohl has received support from grants including New Music USA, Meet the Composer/Commissioning Music USA, the American Composers Forum / Jerome Foundation, C.A.P, the Barlow Endowment, MET Life Creative Connections, and the Brooklyn Arts Council, amongst many others.
His music has been heard at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Webster Hall, Dia Beacon, Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, Mass MoCA, Disney Hall’s REDCAT, the Chelsea Art Museum, MoMA, Arsenal de Metz (France), Warhol Museum, as well as over media outlets such as NPR, PBS, WQXR, CANAL +, TFI and FRANCE 2.
Wohl is also passionate about bringing music to younger artists and has taught courses in composition, orchestration, and theory at Sarah Lawrence College and at Yale, and — in addition to NYFA — has given talks at NYU, Brooklyn College, Juilliard (evening division), and Amherst College.
More info on Daniel Wohl can be found at his website www.danielwohlmusic.com. Born and raised outside Paris, France, Daniel Wohl currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.
In the modern political climate, it’s almost impossible for any politician—let alone President—to have universal approval ratings. But the movies, as always, are different. Not only do Hollywood films cast the best looking and most charismatic actors for the cinematic White House, but they also typically put them in situations where their strong leadership will make them larger-than-life heroes. After all, when you get an A-list star to play the President in your movie, you’re not going to waste him on a slew of budget balancing scenes. You’re going to let him kick some butt. Here are the five cinematic Presidents who we’d elect in a landslide.
Harrison Ford
By the 1997 release of Air Force One, Harrison Ford was already an elder statesman of Hollywood, an action hero for the past three decades. Like Professor Indiana Jones, Ford’s President Marshall was a smart, strong academic behind the podium with a butt-kicking badass laying just beneath the surface. After his plane gets hijacked by Gary Oldman’s terrorist gang, Ford doesn’t rely on his Secret Service—he dispatches them himself, one by one. There’s nothing better than a President willing to reach to across the aisle and slap his opponent silly.
Morgan Freeman
Henry Fonda was an actor everyone could trust and made for a solid President in the 1979 disaster film Meteor. For Deep Impact, an updated film with a very similar plot, Morgan Freeman was the perfect choice for the 90s, an actor with both a deep gravitas and trusting nature. You could believe people could believe Morgan Freeman would protect them, even from a giant comet. After 1998, when Freeman nailed the part as President, the only bigger role he could possibly take on was God. And so he did, in 2003’s Bruce Almighty, and nailed that too.
Bill Pullman
At first glance choosing Bill Pullman, a talented actor who never quite made the A-list, even after playing an honest-to-God prince in Spaceballs, might have been an odd choice for the producers of Independence Day. However, considering President James Whitmore was a young, unproven leader who many wondered aloud if he could lead the country after an alien invasion, the casting made perfect sense. Not only did Pullman’s President personally lead his citizens into battle, he could also make great off-the-cuff speeches, and apparently take a punch from Jeff Goldblum if necessary.
Mary McDonnell
Okay, so Mary McDonnell never played the President of the United States, but she did play the President of the Twelve Colonies in the made-for-TV movie and subsequent remake series, Battlestar Galactica. And if you’re looking for actresses portraying women Presidents, you pretty much have to look at TV or outer space, because the number of Hollywood female Presidents is shockingly close to zero. So while we wait, impatiently, for Hollywood screenwriters to get with the times, McDonnell’s President Roslin is a great example of what a talented actress can do with the role. After becoming President by default (as Secretary of Education, she was the highest-ranking executive still alive after the decimation of the entire human race) she leads humanity’s last survivors to a new planet, dealing daily with unstoppable killer robots and day-to-day partisan politics that even the Apocalypse can’t slow down.
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert was such a charismatic, beloved TV pundit that many of his fans (aptly nicknamed the Colbert Nation) wished he would enter politics and call politicians out on their shenanigans where it really mattered. He indulged them a little, getting a not-insignificant ranking in the polls when he ran in the South Carolina Republican Presidential Primary. However, after ending his groundbreaking Colbert Report last fall, he decided to fill David Letterman’s shoes in Late Night rather than Barack Obama’s in the White House. We’ll have to settle then for his animated role as the President in Monsters vs. Aliens, a Commander-in-Chief who looks a lot like Colbert, sounds a lot like Colbert, and makes us laugh a lot like Colbert. Hopefully, though, the real Colbert would be a little better with handling alien invasions. Guess we’ll never get to know.
Interested in writing the next great cinematic President for your favorite actor or actress? Check out our screenwriting program here.
Since taking over the league, Commissioner Adam Silver has been open to experimenting with new ways to expand the NBA. One way is to embrace new technologies; more specifically, virtual reality.
It has been rumored for months that the NBA would be the first sports league to introduce virtual reality streams of its events. And during this past weekend’s All-Star festivities in New York, the rumors came closer to becoming a reality.
Although not a live stream, the three point contest, dunk contest, and actual All-Star Game were all filmed with special virtual reality cameras.
The footage will only be available for users of the Samsung Gear VR headset (powered by Oculus Rift) which is only compatible with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. While that limits the amount of people with access to the footage, it should be a great test case for bringing fans court-side through virtual reality.
This could open the doors for virtual reality implementation elsewhere. While it could obviously be used for other leagues and different sporting events, the possibilities are endless.
It’s not too much of a stretch to think that it could change the face of filmmaking. For example, a documentary filmed with the use of virtual reality could give the audience a whole different experience than a simple narration.
We are still in the early days of experimenting with this type of media, but this is a huge step towards making it more mainstream.
Last night, NBC and Lorne Michaels managed to manifest the highest population density of celebrities, musicians and comedians into one studio. That studio was 8H, and it was for the 40th anniversary of the iconic sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live.
Fans had the opportunity to see old sketches reprised, such as Dan Aykroyd’s Bassamatic, Celebrity Jeopardy, Wayne’s World and countless others. The event included appearances by a star-studded list of celebrities and former hosts like Robert De Niro, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin…the list goes on and on. To put it simply, it was like heaven on Earth for SNL fans.
While being captivated by television history, we recognized some New York Film Academy friends and family.
Former guest speaker, Molly Shannon, surprised fans with her socially awkward, Catholic school girl character, Mary Katherine Gallagher. Performing in front of some of the most well known and respected entertainers in the world, Mary became very nervous and began smelling her armpits…like this. Though, soon after, she proclaimed that she was still a Superstar!
Actress & SNL alum, Molly Shannon at a NYFA Guest Speaker Event
You may have also noticed another former guest speaker and Master Class Filmmaking Instructor James Signorelli. The SNL 40 show paid tribute to Signorelli by giving him his own unique SNL-style graphic during the broadcast. Signorelli has been a part of the show since 1976, having been the film segment producer for more than 400 episodes. He’s considered the king of ad parodies. If you’re thinking of a popular SNL commercial parody right now, James likely produced it.
Looking back at many of the classic comedy sketches from the early 1980s, you may recall the famous “Synchronized Swimming” sketch with Harry Shearer and Martin Short, or the classic “Assassination of Buckwheat” with Eddie Murphy. What you may or may not know is Claude Kerven, the New York Film Academy in New York City’s Chair of Filmmaking, directed these short comedy films along with many others.
The New York Film Academy is proud to have connections to the long-standing, ground-breaking show, SNL. Here’s to another 40 years!
This weekend, Emmanuel Lubezki picked up the American Society of Cinematographers Award for Best Feature Cinematography for his work on the Alejandro G. Iñárritu film, Birdman. Lubezki also made history, tying the record of most ASC wins with Conrad L. Hall, with an impressive four victories in the category. Lubezki won previously for shooting the Alfonso Cuaron films Gravity and Children of Men as well as the Terence Malick film The Tree of Life.
Like Gravity, Birdman features long takes that are not just tricky for actors but for cinematographers who must carefully choreograph and execute the shots. Birdman seamlessly edits the long takes to give the impression the film is one extended shot for the entire feature.
The win gives more momentum to Birdman as it heads into the final stretch of the Oscar season. Many consider Birdman a close second favorite to Boyhood, with the competition hard to predict outright. With the ASC win, Lubezki has a solid chance at scoring the Oscar for Best Cinematography, though he faces tough competition from the other contenders, with Ida, Mr. Turner, Unbroken and The Grand Budapest Hotel competing in the category.
Among the other ASC awards given out, Boardwalk Empire’s Jonathan Freeman beat out presumed favorite Game of Thrones for the television prize, and Barbra Streisand accepted the annual Governors Award.
If you dream of maybe winning the ASC Award one day, check out our cinematography school programs here.
The 10th Annual Final Draft Awards were held last night by Final Draft Inc. in the back lot of Paramount Studios. The awards, organized by the screenwriting software company, recognizes excellence in screenwriting for film and television.
For film, the award for best original screenplay went to Birdman, which also took home awards at SAG, DGA, and PGA. Gone Girl also took home an award for best adapted screenplay.
On the television side of things, The Big Bang Theory nabbed the award for best television comedy. True Detective edged out Downton Abbey, Fargo, Game of Thrones, and House of Cards for best television drama.
The awards are decided through a vote by the thousands of users of the Final Draft software.
Also announced during the evening were the awards for the Big Break Screenwriting Contest. The contest is meant to highlight talented, aspiring screenwriters that have yet to be discovered.
To help them along in their screenwriting careers, finalists of the awards received a share of over $80,000 in cash and prizes.
The New York Film Academy is also showing their support for the contestants. For the first time ever, we have partnered with Final Draft to provide the New York Film Academy Fellowship in Writing for Film & Television.
The fellowship will be a 12-week master class held at our Los Angeles campus. We look forward to the attendees expanding their skills at The Academy and setting themselves up for a brighter future in the industry!
For some people, Friday the 13th is a day to stay clear of ladders, keep umbrellas outside, and avoid mirrors and black cats at all costs. For others, it means marathons of one of horror’s most famous faces: Jason Voorhees. Who would’ve thought machetes, hockey masks, and dozens and dozens of stupid teenagers would make such a great cinematic combination? Since the original Friday the 13th in 1980, the Jason series has spawned nine sequels, one TV series (and another in development), a crossover, and a reboot. If you’ve only got time to watch five Friday the 13th movies tonight, here are the five best you could choose:
1. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
It seems quaint now that the producers of the Jason series thought Friday the 13th Part 4 would be their last movie. After all, could they really expect audiences to watch the same movie over and over every couple of years? (The answer is yes, yes they could.) Considered the best of the series, The Final Chapter distills the series to its fundamentals and executes them (pun intended) flawlessly. It also includes a pre-George McFly Crispin Glover, the “death” of Jason Voorhees, and a haunting final scene where Corey Feldman alters his appearance to appeal to Jason’s inner child.
2. Freddy vs. Jason
The final shot of Jason Goes to Hell showed Freddy Krueger’s claws reach out of the soil and pull Jason’s mask down with him. It was originally intended as a joke, but fans took it very seriously and demanded a crossover film. In 2003 they got it, a slick, nonstop horror that wasn’t afraid to make fun of itself. Combining the dream elements of Freddy’s Nightmare on Elm Street series brought Jason to strange new places, including a look into his subconscious. It also ended with an all-out war between the horror titans, something no Jason fan should miss.
3. Friday the 13th
The one that started it all, 1980’s Friday the 13th introduced us to the idea of teenagers at a summer camp getting picked off one by one. It also introduced us to Kevin Bacon, but didn’t give us enough time to get to know him. While its sequels may have honed the series strengths, the original has possibly the best climax, with a now-infamous plot twist and a haunting scene in the middle of a lake that can still harvest nightmares.
4. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Jason may have been finally killed at the end of Final Chapter and replaced by a lackluster copycat killer in Part V, but it was Part VI that introduced the supernatural, super-strength unstoppable killing machine most people associate with the character. Jason’s body is dug up and struck by lightning, granting him immortality. It’s not just Jason that is infused with more energy though, as Part VI is bigger than all of its predecessors, involving shoot-outs and car chases. Unable to be killed, the film ends with Jason chained to the bottom of Crystal Lake, staring off and waiting for the next sequel.
5. Friday the 13th Part 2
The first sequel in the series, Part 2 introduces an adult Jason Voorhees for the first time, dispatching a new crop of teenagers. The kills were already leaps and bounds more creative than the previous film, showing the series was willing to learn and grow. It’s also remarkable for being the last film before Jason finds his iconic hockey mask. Wearing a sack over his head with just one eyehole, Jason resembles the Dark Knight series’ Scarecrow, but is just as haunting as with the hockey mask, if not more.
Honorable Mentions:
While Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan and Jason X, which takes place on a spaceship in the far future, are not good movies, they are inherently watchable, playing with Jason’s already pop culture status in fun ways. Both are worth watching. Other weaker films worthy of note are Part VII, where Jason fights a telekinetic psychic; Part V, featuring a copycat killer; Part III, where Jason first finds his hockey mask and also takes an axe to the face, and The Final Friday, where Jason is ambushed by the FBI and finally goes to Hell. So, pretty much all of them are worth a watch, except of course the Michael Bay-produced reboot from 2009. Which isn’t that terrible, really… So, yeah, just watch them all. It’s safer than walking under any ladders today.
Want to make your own horror film franchise one day? Check out our filmmaking program here. After all, Saturday the 14th is still available…
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On January 13, 2015, composer Daniel Wohl sat down with New York Film Academy’s Business of 
