Page 325 – NYFA

ELLEN DEGENERES BRINGS NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY LOS ANGELES STUDENT LIVE ONTO HER SHOW

It is often said in the world of show business, you never know when or where you will be discovered. Such was the case this past Thursday for one of our New York Film Academy Los Angeles Acting students, Petter Egge, who was stopped on the street by a rather clumsy magician. After the magician spills his entire bag of tricks, Petter decides to lend a helping hand, even though he was on his way to acting class at NYFA.

“I was on the street helping him for about five minutes,” said Petter. “After a while, I thought either this guy is really weird or something else is going on.”

As it happens, the magician was merely a producer playing a bit called “Cash for Kindness” on Ellen DeGeneres’ popular daytime NBC television show, Ellen. A crew eventually asked Petter to get in a black car to drive him over to the Warner Bros lot to meet Ellen live on her show. Petter was skeptical at first, even asking a nearby police officer if, in fact, these people were legitimate. After reassurance from the officer, Petter got in the car to see where this crazy day would take him. “You got to take a chance sometimes,” added Petter.

The car whisked him away, going through a back entrance of the famous WB lot. It wasn’t until the studio gates opened, revealing cameras, crew, and of course, Ellen DeGeneres, that Petter realized, this isn’t a dream at all.

As a reward for Petter’s random act of kindness, Ellen brought Petter live onto her show where he was exposed to millions of viewers! Not only that, Ellen gave the young actor $1,000 in cash.

Within hours of Petter’s surreal day, he was already front-page news in his hometown in Norway. “I’ve been bombarded by Norwegian journalists all day,” Petter admitted with a chuckle.

It’s the type of day that could only happen in a movie or, as we’ve seen in this case, while you’re in Los Angeles on your way to the New York Film Academy.

LA Asian Pacific Film Festival

For our New York Film Academy Los Angeles students, be sure to look into the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) beginning May 1- 11, 2014 at the Director’s Guild of America (DGA), CGV Cinemas located in Koreatown, the Tateuchi Democracy Forum at JANM in Little Tokyo, and the historic Art Theatre of Long Beach. Visual Communications proudly celebrates their 30th year as Southern California’s largest and most prestigious film festival of its kind. The LAAPFF launches the celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month through this year’s slate of over 140 films from both Asian Pacific American and Asian international directors from over 20 countries. For three decades, the Festival has presented more than 3,600 films and shorts by Asian American and Asian international artists.

Over the years the LAAPFF has presented many exciting titles, including: the award winning A RIVER CHANGES COURSE, directed by Kalyanee Mam; Gen Cajayon’s THE DEBUT; Justin Lin’s BETTER LUCK TOMORROW; and Lixin Fan’s LAST TRAIN HOME. Asian international artists who have graced past editions of the Film Festival include: Lino Brocka (BAYAN KO); Stanley Kwan (ROUGE); John Woo (BULLET IN THE HEAD); Park Kwang-su (TO THE STARRY ISLAND); Wong Kar-wai (CHUNGKING EXPRESS); Raymond Red (MANILA SKIES); and so many more. This year, a total of 143 films comprising 40 feature-length films and 103 shorts will be showcased throughout the 11-day fest.

The 30th edition of the Film Festival blasts off with the Los Angeles premiere of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival hit TO BE TAKEI, directed by Jennifer Kroot, and produced by Gerry Kim and Mayuran Tiruchelvam. TO BE TAKEI chronicles actor, artist, activist and icon George Takei’s life history with wit, grace and whimsy: from his days on the popular television series STAR TREK, to his civil rights and marriage equality advocacy. TO BE TAKEI received its world premiere at the Sundance film festival, where it quickly became an audience favorite.

“It is exciting and appropriate for our festival to open with TO BE TAKEI,” states Anderson Le, Festival Artistic Director. “For us, he’s been an iconic figure and one of 2 of the first Asian American actors to achieve mainstream stardom in Hollywood. George is not only a pioneer, but also he is also one of the most outspoken and media savvy celebrities working today. The film tells his whole story from his acting to his activism to his amazing personal life, which is now wide open for everyone to see. He is a living legend and kicking off our celebration of 30 years of Asian American filmmakers and artists with his life story will be historic.”

High School Camp Grad ‘Tapped’ For First Feature

New York Film Academy high school summer camp graduate, Allan Ungar’s first feature film, Tapped, has been picked up for distribution by Lionsgate Home Entertainment in the US and VVS Films in Canada.

“Allan made the best films of any camper I’ve ever seen,” said former Teen Camp faculty member and associate producer, Rob Robol.

Tapped stars Michael Biehn (The Terminator, Aliens), UFC supertsars Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, Krzysztof Soszynski, Nick Bateman (Hobo With a Shotgun) and Martin Kove (The Karate Kid). The Canadian Mixed Martial Arts action drama revolves around the life of a disgruntled teenager with a troubled past who enters a MMA tournament to face the man who killed his parents. The film is shooting in London, Ontario and is slated for release in 2014.

The film was produced by Canadian production company Hackybox Pictures and NYFA alum Alex Lebo’s Oriahsphere Entertainment.

NYFA LA Senior Directing Instructor’s ‘Beyond Sight’ to Open at Stella Adler in Hollywood

Senior Directing Instructor at New York Film Academy Los Angeles, Nick Sivakumaran’s play, Beyond Sight, which he co-wrote with Jeremy Aldridge, opens Friday, April 25 at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood and ends on May 25th. The award-winning creative team and dynamic cast includes Theatre By The Blind and Military Veteran artists.

Beyond Sight is the story of Jack Carter, a committed ROTC cadet driven to answer the call of duty in the wake of a catastrophic event. Blinded in Afghanistan, Jack returns home forever changed, forced to face the challenges of reintegrating into society without sight.

The source material for Beyond Sight was taken directly from the production team’s work at CRE Outreach. The program began 2007 to empower military veterans and the visually impaired through the performing arts, including the highly successful Theatre by the Blind program.

“With Beyond Sight we hope to launch a larger discussion about how we treat our veterans – and drive home the point that disabilities do not define us,” says Greg Shane, Artistic Director.

‘Justified’ Star Erica Tazel Surprises Acting Students at NYFA Battery Park

This past Thursday afternoon, the New York Film Academy One-Year Acting students were surprised with a special guest, actress, Erica Tazel. Erica is best known for her role of Deputy U.S. Marshal Rachel Brooks on the hit FX television show, Justified. Moderating the event was Acting Chair, Glynis Rigsby, who was more than delighted to pick the talented young actress’ mind.

While Erica was, for the most part, a working actress coming out of school, she reached a point while living in Los Angeles where she had to make a game changing decision in her life. She was offered a teaching job at Spelman College in Georgia, but wasn’t sure if that would be giving up on her career. After a personal one-on-one with her agent, Erica made the decision to turn down the job, even though it would bring stability to her life. As fate would have it, Erica was called in to audition for a pilot the next day. That pilot was Justified. And not only did she nail the audition, she is now a series regular on the hit show that just wrapped its 5th season.

However, auditions were not always automatic for Erica. “I don’t even call them auditions anymore,” said Tazel. “I call them opportunities.” In a business that requires a thick skin and the ability to accept rejection gracefully, Erica developed several techniques to bring the whole process into a positive light. It was this attitude, in addition to her obvious charm, beauty, and talent, that has enabled Erica to reach her current level of success.

Another interesting anecdote from Erica’s talk was how she told the students that she sat down and watched the entire first season of Justified during the hiatus. She carefully studied her part and the show on a whole. With that, she came up with several suggestions for the writers of the show. Low and behold, her initiative ended up creating an entire episode, devoted to her character and her ideas. Just goes to show the kind of commitment and enthusiasm that is needed to succeed in this industry.

Aside from being a terrific actress and charismatic speaker, Erica is heavily involved with a charity called Get on the Bus. The charity reunites children in California with their mothers and fathers in prison. It is a wonderful cause and something Erica cares very deeply about.

NYFA Los Angeles Grad’s EVER to Premiere at Newport Beach Film Festival

New York Film Academy graduate, Josh Beck’s first feature film, EVER, will have its world premiere at the 2014 Newport Beach Film Festival. EVER is about a young woman struggling to cope with the death of her boyfriend, who winds up forming romantic feelings for her new supportive female friend.

“I knew I wanted to make a feature film long before I started this project, but it wasn’t until sometime in 2011 when I actually realized it was possible to make one with basically no money,” said Beck. “I set out to write a script using settings and locations I knew I already had access to, and I wrote characters for friends of mine that were already talented actors.”

Josh shot the film in 21 days, which were spread out over a few months. The entire project, from writing the script to submitting to festivals, took about two years.

While originally starting out as an actor, attending NYFA Los Angeles’ Acting School, Josh took a liking to directing and set out to create EVER. “I think it’s important to be able to understand the actor mindset, and communication between actors and directors is so vital. One of the main things I learned at NYFA was confidence, which is so important in acting, directing, and life in general.”

Josh intends to continue pursuing directing, admitting he’s working on a new screenplay with scientific elements.

The premiere screening of EVER will be held at Fashion Island 7 (Regal Cinemas) in Newport Beach on Saturday, April 26th at 7:30pm. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

EVER [official trailer] from Josh Beck on Vimeo.

Black Inequality in Film

Simply put, 2013 was a monumental year in Black cinema with hits like Lee Daniel’s The Butler and The Best Man Holiday and critical darlings such as Fruitvale Station and 12 Years A Slave. However, this is hardly the first time that we’ve seen a glut of diverse and accomplished Black filmmakers emerge, only for Hollywood studios to return to putting out the obligatory two to four films per year aimed at African-American audiences. As the filmmaker Ava DuVernay has stated, “The Hollywood machine has selective amnesia. It’s not like we haven’t gone through a season of robust black image makers before.” In the Black Inequality in Film infographic, the New York Film Academy has charted the history of Black film over the past century while analyzing more recent statistics to assess how Black filmmakers and performers have been represented on screen and behind the camera during the last six years. By classifying “Black Film,” we are referring to movies where the plot revolves around lead characters who are of African descent. The purpose of this infographic is to present some talking points to initiate a discussion on the role of African Americans in Hollywood.

Click on the image below to view the entire infographic.

Space Effects Seminar at NYFA LA

To celebrate the Oscar winning work of the ground breaking film Gravity, Co-Chair of the Animation Department at NYFA Los Angeles, Mark Sawicki was invited to give a lecture on Space Effects used throughout cinema history. Mark started with a fond look back at a 1950’s Ray Harryhausen picture 20 million Miles to Earth and outlined rear projection methodology. The next exploration were effects techniques used in the classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey that is still an undisputed milestone in space recreation. Made in the 60s, Kubrick’s masterpiece made clever use of sets, wire work, mirrors and miniatures, along with pioneering motion control techniques. From here Mark skipped forward to Apollo 13, where actual weightlessness was filmed, and then on to From the Earth to the Moon where Mark himself had a roll as Co-Effects Supervisor. Mark outlined how Earth to Moon made use of both miniatures and computer graphics. In conclusion, Mark explained how the amazing effects used in Gravity were based on the tried and true techniques of the past, but executed with current digital precision.

As a special treat, Mark put the students in the drivers seat on the second day by walking them through the step by step process of how one can take clip art from the Internet and create a realistic animation using the same ideas executed in 2001, except with the ease and access of Photoshop and After Effects.

A grand time was had by all!

Action on Film International Film Festival

For all of our student filmmakers, especially those at our New York Film Academy Los Angeles campus, the Action on Film International Film Festival 2014 may be a great home to showcase your next film. It is the festival’s 10th anniversary and encourages filmmakers of all genres to submit their work.

The festival takes place in the beautiful city of Monrovia, California from August 22-30 and offers its winners over $125,000 in prizes!

If you’re interested in submitting your work to AOF Festival or would like more information, CLICK HERE.