Page 299 – NYFA

Original Superhero Series Coming To Snapchat

In late 2013 Snapchat refused a buyout offer of $3 billion from Facebook, expecting they can do bigger and better. They are not saddled with trying to prove that they can be profitable. And they are going about it in some creative ways.

On Tuesday, the social network rolled out a feature called Discover which brings broadcast journalism to the app and allows major news networks to provide video news stories that will disappear of off Snapchat within 24 hours.

Backed by AT&T, they have no announced an original scripted series called SnapperHero. The series will run 12 episodes and have a superhero story line.

What makes this series unique, however, is the crowd-sourcing aspect of the storyline. Users will be able to send in their own “snaps” to form the story. They will be able to impact everything from the powers these heroes possess, to how the story takes shape.

To make this work, AT&T is bringing on social media stars that already have huge followings to star in SnapperHero. This will allow them to gain an instant audience for this series as well as get a large pool of users to get input from for the direction of the show.

As far as the impact this could have on the profitability of Snapchat? That’s still up in the air. AT&T will pay for the production of the series, and Snapchat will host it. But the social network won’t be seeing any profits from this venture.

That being said, it’s going to be interesting to see how Snapchat’s two latest announcements play out. This is a departure from the media that we are used to in the current environment. The series won’t be readily available for instant streaming like it would be on Netflix (24 hours and the episode is gone).

This might just be different enough to work. Or not. Let’s see how it plays out.

Selma Director and Star to Reunite for Hurricane Katrina Film

Selma director Ava DuVernay and the film’s leading actor, David Oyelowo, continue their winning partnership following a recent screening of the film at the White House. The director recently announced that she will be writing, producing, and directing an untitled film about Hurricane Katrina that will star British actor David Oyelowo, making for the pair’s third film together following her breakthrough indie Middle of Nowhere and Oyelowo’s critically-praised turn as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma.

The film will see DuVernay also working with another frequent partner, Participant Media which distributed Middle of Nowhere, for a film reported to circle around a grand love story and intricate murder mystery that takes place during the 2005 hurricane.

In a quote given to The Hollywood Reporter, Participant Media’s Jonathan King praised DuVernay’s ability to infuse epic events with contemporary relevance while DuVernay emphasized her eagerness to re-team with both Participant and Oyelowo. In addition to starring in the film, Oyelowo is also in talks to come on board as a producer on the film.

Check out our 2013 profile of DuVernay in our Gender Inequality infographic to learn more about this fast-rising force in film.

NYFA Welcomes Exec. Producer of Academy Award Nominated ‘Foxcatcher’

The Producing Department’s Industry Speaker program recently hosted John Giura, Executive Producer of Academy Award nominated film Foxcatcher. Students from various New York Film Academy departments participated in a wide ranging conversation and Q&A session moderated by Producing Co-Chair Neal Weisman, covering everything from the genesis of the project though it’s current release. John brought a unique perspective on the film, as he was one of the champion wrestlers participating in the real events portrayed in the movie. Involved in the development of the script from its earliest stages, students discussed the evolution of the story from real life through numerous draft screenplays to the screen. John graciously provided a link to the screenplay in advance of the session, enabling students to fully appreciate his insights to the development process. A discussion on the casting and eventual financing of the film by Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures followed.

John was able to give NYFA students an inside look at the shooting of the movie, as he also served as wrestling consultant. Training actors Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, and Mark Ruffalo, as well as choreographing sequences with director Bennett Miller, provided a close appreciation of the filmmaking techniques employed in the creation of this acclaimed film. John commented on a variety of clips from the movie, and shared some exclusive “behind the scenes” footage that he personally shot on set.

Foxcatcher is currently in theaters nationwide, and has been nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Make Up and Hair. John Giura is currently producing and directing a feature documentary about a high school wrestling team in Oak Park, IL.

Congratulations to Degree Program Graduates at NYFA Los Angeles!

New York Film Academy Los Angeles Filmmaking, Acting, Producing, Screenwriting, Photography and Cinematography students received their MFA, MA, BFA and AFA degrees this past Saturday, January 24th during Commencement Ceremonies held at the Harmony Gold Theater in Hollywood, California. Family and friends of the students attended two afternoon graduations (at 3pm for Acting, Screenwriting, Cinematography & Photography students and 6:30pm for Filmmaking & Producing students) completely filling the 400 seat theater for each. Department chairs Art Helterbran (Filmmaking), Lynda Goodfriend (Acting), Tony Schwartz (Producing), Nunzio DeFilippis (Screenwriting), Bobbi Fabian (Photography), and Michael Pessah (Cinematography), addressed their students, offering their final words of wisdom and best wishes for the future.

Commencement Speakers Randal Kleiser (film director of Grease, Blue Lagoon, White Fang and Flight of the Navigator) and Patrick Rush (casting director of Party of Five, Dawson’s Creek, Supernatural and The O.C.) gave candid and humorous advice for students navigating the Hollywood system. Afterwards students, family and friends celebrated elegantly at the Riot House Restaurant in West Hollywood’s Andaz Hotel. Congratulations to all of NYFA’s 2015 degree program graduates!

Congrats to all of our NYFA LA Graduates:

MFA in Filmmaking

Saud Al-Moghirah
Alessandro Amante

Ramazanova Banu

Carlos Amaral Baptista

Nadir Bennaceur

Isaac Michael Blankenship

Maria Valentina Carmona Corral

Lilia Dalakishvili

Yul Gatewood

Robert James Gould

Ritesh Jeswani

Satoshi Kameoka

Adrenia Shanell Kemp

Alexander G. Tobias

TaoHsiu Wei

Yazhen Zhang

Wangshu Zhao

Mingtao Zhou

Yanjun Zhou

MA in Film & Media Production
Sichen Ai
Hanaa Saleh Alfassi
Obisesan Allen Bobola
Hongyi Cao
Luciana F Capela
Zhuo Chen
Konstantin Frolov
Zalikha Harun
Meghan Mildred Hooper
He Huang
Jiang Jiang
Minghang Jiang
Srinivasa Jonnavithula
Aditya Patwardhan
Nadeen Salam Said
Lisa Schulz
Dimitrios Tranos
Fei Fei Wang
Xurui Wang
Jiaduo Wu
Yining Yan
Liang Zhao
Yucheng Zhao

BFA in Filmmaking
Eskil Brattgjerd
Hang Cheng
Noé Miguel Obregón Escobar
Rachel Karen Gallagher
Georgy Gorshunov
Lu He
Junyao Hu
Joelle Kahn
Oscar Benjamin Lyons
Akshay Pradeep
Hao Zhang
Qihuan Zheng
Tong Zhou
Camila Varela Zolezzi

AFA in Filmmaking
Darío Navarro Anzaldúa
Rory Butcher
Jamie Deacon
Christopher Dyrell Dickerson
Matthew A Escobedo
Shantal Lenya Freedman
Adam Gomez
Michael James Gros
Bruno Paolucci
Christian Smith

MFA in Acting for Film
Cody Lyle Asher
Jovanna Avila
Parvane Baharian
Pamela Oma Belonwu-Ifedi
Lixuan Geng
Jean Hyppolite
Keaton Kaplan
David Grant Kuskie
Tamara Kvashilava
Kevin Chua Peng Liang
Phoebe Ray McHenry
Adam Wayne Ohl
Laura Anna-Katariina Ollikainen
Amir Abdul Rahim
Cesar Ramirez
Kathleen M. Roy
Sally Shepard
Leandro Manuel Vargas Simoza
Jeremy Sykes
Klement Tinaj
Amanda Anne Vannucchi
Nina Ce’Mone Wright
Han Xing
Xinwan Yu

BFA in Acting for Film
Gianlorenzo Albertini
Diana Salazar Arias
Adam El-Manawy
Jonghoon Han
Deniz Kara
John Franklin Karbousky II
Monique Oberholzer
Elena Petrukhina
Randall Julian William Stanley
James Earl Surman Jr
Kris Swinnen

AFA in Acting for Film
Morgan Elese Aiken
Sonia Gonzalez Arrieta
Luis Facci
Maxine Foreman
Amber Greene
Molly Kelly
Sebastian Mayer
James Millot
Candace Rachelle Morris
Shaquann Nesbitt
Nehal Patel
Nicolas Puorro
John Reeve
Arkan Satrio
Jeremy Harris Shechtman
Milbelynn Soto
Megan Leigh Wright

MFA in Producing
Cynara Aziza Cherry-Cary
Yiling Du
Gabriel Amora de Farias
Faustino Felix Figueroa
Xingyu Gao
Alessandra Micol Ghisolfi
Li Guannan
Yingshan Jiang
Omar Ahmed Tariq Murad
Yuki Naito
Charles J. Pass
Mariana Patricia Pineda M.
Lifen Ruan
Chun Shen
Xuewei Yang
Leying Zhang
Qingqing Zhang
Tianhui Zheng

BFA in Producing
Mariana Mendez Alejandre
Aida Mamezhanova
Diego Del Rio Toca

MFA in Screenwriting
Eric J. Arias
Edward E. Arnold
Livia Azzolini
Kevin André Easley Jr.
Michael E Madvedoff
Eshan Parikh
Kalei Sue Pipczynski
Rohan Sunil Thakkar
LeeMar Turner
Rebecca Verdia
Zachary Alan Xanders
Dongjing Yuan

AFA in Screenwriting
Chris Arneson
Samira Elhidmi

MFA in Photography
Casey Landon Asher
Donald Hoffman
Li Sun
Qiang Ye
Lishabai Yi
Qian Zhe

MFA in Cinematography
Loai Ibrahim A Khalifah
Ora Tiffany Littlejohn
Robert McIntosh
Gaofei Zheng

Kristin Wiig and Melissa McCarthy Lead Ghostbusters Reboot

After months of speculating about who would be starring in director Paul Feig’s all-female Ghostbusters reboot, the director himself revealed his future ‘busters in a simple Tweet yesterday that displayed pictures of Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon. The announcement shows Feig, who’s carved out a profitable niche at the box office with his female-led comedies, re-joining with his Bridesmaids star Wiig and McCarthy, who also was in the film alongside the more recent The Heat.

While McCarthy had long been considered a likely lock for the film as Feig had indicated as such, the rest of the cast came as a bit of a surprise in its SNL-heaviness—besides Jones and McKinnon being current members of the show, Wiig is a veteran cast member and McCarthy is a frequent host. What has most surprised industry insiders is that this will be both McKinnon’s and Jones’ first leading roles in a big budget film, showing a strong vote of confidence on behalf of Feig. However, it should be remembered that the original Ghostbusters cast was also packed with SNL cast members such as Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray.

The movie is set to start shooting this summer and although The Holly Reporter indicates that Wiig, Jones, and McKinnon are still in negotiations, the fact that Feig made the announcement himself makes the casting seem all like a done deal.

Producing Students Pitch to the Pro’s

Benny Gao pitches to Director/Exec. Producer Michael Grossman.

Last week, New York Film Academy’s Los Angeles Producing Department held our September, 2013 Advanced Producers Pitch Fest at The Andaz Hotel in West Hollywood. It was a lively and enjoyable night for all who attended. The students pitched in a round-robin format to industry professionals, including veteran producers Tova Laiter, Jim Pasternak, Dana Lustig, veteran television director and executive producer Michael Grossman, and a host of other industry professionals.

Jennifer Zhang pitches to Producer Dana Lustig.

Some details on a few of the industry professionals at the Pitch Fest:

Michael Grossman is a freelance TV director who has worked on shows for all networks, and was an executive producer for Drop-Dead Diva for Storyline Entertainment for 5 seasons.
Roz Jordan is a producer and senior casting director for Freemantle Media.
Will Dickerson is a freelance director who just directed Don’t Look Back for television.
Bob DiNozzi is a freelance producer who produced Flightplan.
David Bartlett is a freelance producer with Provoka films.
Dana Lustig is a freelance producer currently in post-production on a feature film titled The Frontier.

Our industry reps were very impressed with many of the projects that were pitched and offered valuable feedback for our soon-to-be graduating Producers. A good time was had by all!

tova and ben — Tova Laiter hears a pitch from Benny Gao.

Chris Pratt: New Indiana Jones or Wishful Thinking?

It seems that an Indiana Jones revival is inevitable, as Disney bought rights to the franchise in 2013. And now rumors are swirling about who the new Indy might be.

As of right now, it looks like Chris Pratt is the front-runner for the role. However, this is all speculation. Neither Disney nor Pratt’s representatives had anything to comment on the rumors. And Bradley Cooper’s name has also come up in rumors regarding who the new leading man will be.

While the rumors may just be fan-casting at this point, it would seem to be a match made in heaven. Pratt’s comedic prowess would lend itself well to the role. Seeing him in Guardians of the Galaxy showed us that he should have no problem pulling off a scene where he pulls a gun on a sword-wielding enemy:

Pratt has been on a hot streak of late, being the 2^nd highest grossing actor last year. And his involvement in a project like this could revive the legendary franchise, as he has no shortage of adoring fans that are sure to pour into theaters to watch his rendition of the iconic character.

It’s also worth mentioning that Guardians was distributed by Disney. So the studio and leading man have a fairly successful history of working together.

And if you’re having a hard time imagining what Chris Pratt might look like as the archaeologist/adventurer, this image from a DeviantART user from back in August might just do the trick (it might have also been what sparked the fan-casting to begin with).

It’s still too early to tell if there is anything solid behind these rumors. But there’s also enough reason to speculate that this could happen – mostly because everyone wants it to.

It’s Clobberin’ Time – Fantastic Four Reboot Debuts First Trailer

It’s Flame On for the Fantastic Four reboot as 20^th Century Fox has released its first trailer this week. Marvel’s reboot of its original comic book characters comes just a few years since big-budget Fantastic Four, starring Jessica Alba and future-Captain America Chris Evans, and its 2007 sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer.

It’s assumed Fox hit the reset button so quickly because if they don’t produce a movie quick enough, the rights to the comics revert back to Marvel, who could then incorporate the characters into their ever-expanding cinematic Avengers universe. Yet another movie iteration of the Fantastic Four was created by Roger Corman in the 1990s for the very same reason, and is now regarded as one of the worst films ever.

Marvel has been struggling with the rights of their characters for years as several studios have controlled them before Disney gave the comic book company the capital to stand on its own. Currently, Sony still keeps Spider-Man for themselves, preventing Peter Parker from joining Iron Man and the other Avengers. 20^th Century Fox owns the X-Men in addition to the Fantastic Four, so the super-team could conceivably join Hugh Jackman and the cinematic X-Men in future crossover films.

The new, younger Fantastic Four cast includes Kate Mara as the Invisible Woman, Miles Teller as Mr. Fantastic, Michael B. Jordan as The Human Torch, Jamie Bell as The Thing and Toby Kebbell as Doctor Doom. The Avengers 2 and Ant-Man are Marvel’s other blockbusters slated for a summer release, though there could be as many as six Marvel releases in 2016. Still no word on a new Hulk movie yet, though.

AFI | AACTA Awards 2015 Announce First Winners in Sydney

AACTA Luncheon 2015 — AACTA Award First Winners (Image from AACTA Facebook)

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards 2015 are well underway, with the first group of winners being announced on Tuesday 27 January during the 4th AACTA Awards Luncheon at The Star Event Centre, Sydney.

The annual awards commemorate and celebrate Australian film and television achievements and is considered Australia’s equivalent of the Oscars and the BAFTAs.

A strong lineup saw The Broken Shore, Tender, Ukraine is Not a Brothel and Predestination all nominated five times.

Some of the current winners include:

AACTA Award for Best Direction in a Television Light Entertainment or Reality Series WINNER: The Broken Shore (Martin McGrath ACS – ABC)
AACTA Award for Best Cinematography in Television WINNER: The Code (Episode 1 Deborah Peart ASE – ABC)
AACTA Award for Best Short Animation WINNER: Grace Under Water (Anthony Lawrence)
AACTA Award for Best Short Fiction Film WINNER: Florence has Left the Building (Mirrah Foulkes and Alex White)
AACTA Award for Best Cinematography WINNER: Predestination (Ben Nott ACS)

A special congratulations to:

NYFA Australia director mentor, Samantha Lang, for her involvement in the award winning Carlotta. The production was the 2015 winner of ‘AACTA Award for Best Proudction Design in Television’ and ‘AACTA Award for Best Costume Design in Television’.
NYFA Australia lecturer Grant Thompson, for his nomination in the Best Documentary Television Program category, for Taking on the Chocolate Frog.

This is just a small group of the impressive list of winners from the 4^th AACTA Awards Luncheon.

Students of New York Film Academy Australia have also been invited to attend this amazing event, later this week. A selected group of student were excited to have been given access to this unique opportunity, many being inspired by the works of the local nominees and winners. We are sure to see NYFA Australia students on stage in the near future accepting their own accolades. In the meantime, they will enjoy the honor to be amongst the talent and professionals of the Australian film and television industry.

You can find out more details on our New York Film Academy Acting for Film programs on our website. The program is available throughout the United States and at our Sydney and Gold Coast campuses in Australia. Contact us for more details.