Page 326 – NYFA

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.

Earth Day Photography Contest

With Earth Day approaching this upcoming April 22nd, the New York Film Academy Photography School in LA would love to share student photography that best captures our precious planet. Given NYFA‘s locations all around the world, we’re anxious to see various parts of the globe from each and every one of your distinctive point of views.

We will be sharing the best photos on NYFA social media including Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram, providing exposure for your work. We will, of course, credit the photographer and plug whatever portfolio you wish to share.

This competition is open from now until April 16th. Please be as creative as possible and send as many photos as you’d like.

Send all photos to [email protected] with your name, location and title of the photo if you have one. We look forward to your entries!

Happy Earth Day!

LOOKING AT BLACK INEQUALITY IN FILM: AN INFOGRAPHIC

2013 was a landmark year in Black film with such box office smashes as The Best Man Holiday and Lee Daniel’s The Butler and critical darlings like 12 Years A Slave and Fruitvale Station making a significant mark on mainstream culture. After a decade in which black cinema has been limited to just a few established filmmakers, there appears to be real momentum in Hollywood towards encouraging new and daring voices in Black film, as epitomized by 12 Years a Slave’s Academy Award for Best Picture last month.

However, this is not the first time that audiences have embraced a variety of diverse and accomplished Black films, only for Hollywood studios to turn their attention back to more mainstream fare. In an attempt to place this current renaissance in Black Hollywood in a greater historical context, the New York Film Academy has put together a comprehensive infographic to detail 100 years of Black cinema while looking at more recent data to see how Black filmmakers and performers have been represented and employed over the past six years.

In defining “Black Film,” we are referring to films in which the story centers around lead characters who are of African descent. By putting together this infographic on the state of Black inequality in Hollywood, our goal is to present a series of talking points to initiate a discussion on the role of African Americans in Hollywood and what performers, filmmakers, and audience members can do to promote real equality in Hollywood.

Military Veteran Student Lands Associate Producer Job at Imaginary Forces

Paquita Hughes, who completed the One-Year Filmmaking and Photography programs at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, was recently hired at Imaginary Forces, a creative studio and production company that focuses on major film and TV productions.

“I was one of 15 veterans selected to interview for 8 companies through the AICP (Association of Independent & Commercial Producers),” said Hughes. “We each had five minutes to pass our resume to the company representatives and give our 30 second commercial. I was the only veteran hired ON THE SPOT, in less than five minutes, as an Associate Producer for the company Imaginary Forces.”

Founded in 1996, Imaginary Forces is a creative studio and full service production company specializing in creating and developing content for commercial advertising, digital and interactive platforms, feature films and film marketing, television, architectural spaces and global brands.

Their body of award winning work includes the EMMY winning main titles for Mad Men, as well as the celebrated opening sequences for Boardwalk Empire, The Pacific and Nurse Jackie.

The production company has created hundreds of main titles and content for films like Transformers, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, 500 Days Of Summer, Terminator Salvation, Seven, and Minority Report.

In the commercial world, Imaginary Forces has directed and produced spots for Pepsi, Microsoft, Scion, Chrysler and Google through agencies like ATTIK, JWT, TBWAChiatDay, and The Richards Group. They have also created brand identity for networks such as USA Network, Lifetime, Discovery and Hallmark Channel, and experience design for MoMA, Lincoln Center, The Oscars and Victoria’s Secret.

Imaginary Forces is comprised of over 70 artists and creative professionals: directors, designers, writers, animators, editors, and producers. Their studios are located in both Los Angeles and New York City.

Not only that, Paquita’s short film about sexual assault in the military (all female crew) titled Breaking The Silence, which she directed for the 48hr Film Contest last year, was selected for the GI Film Festival in Washington, DC!

Big congrats to Paquita on her recent successes!

VP of Universal Cable Productions Visits NYFA LA

New York Film Academy Los Angeles students were treated to a private screening of the season three premiere of the USA Network drama Suits this past Thursday followed by a Q&A with Ellen Rand, the Vice President of Programming at Universal Cable Productions (UCP), moderated by Tova Laiter. Ellen has developed and been point executive on scripted projects for USA Network shows such as Suits, Covert Affairs, Royal Pains and the new comedy Playing House set to premiere in April. She joined the NBCU Family in 2002 as Creative Coordinator at the Syfy Network in LA and then moved to NYC in 2004 to work for the Chairman of NBCU Cable Entertainent Group, Bonnie Hammer. Previously, Rand was at Trilogy Entertainment and worked on the series The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, and the NBC remake of Carrie.

Ellen majored in journalism at the University of Wisconsin. After college she worked in local news, however the light interest pieces they produced did not satisfy her thirst for hard-hitting content. A friend of a friend of a friend of Ellen’s knew about a Production Assistant position on a TV show and she got her an interview. When she showed up wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase the producers were amused by how dressed up she was for a PA position. The entertainment world was foreign to Ellen and she didn’t know the proper attire for the entry-level position. They told her she got the job, but to wear jeans and sneakers the next day. And this is how Ellen Rand’s career in the industry began.

In her position now as VP of UCP, Ellen wears multiple hats and takes on many responsibilities. Her average day will consist of fielding potential new TV shows, giving notes on episodes in development and dailies from shows in production, and working with the Networks she produces for to fulfill their needs. She also oversees the budgets for all the studio’s shows in production. Budgeting a show is an intricate process that involves balancing below and above the line costs, amortization (costs spent on capital that can be reused throughout the show’s season or run), and special costs for each episode like salaries for guest starts. The budget for any particular episode is never finished until after the show’s season is wrapped. Her job also involves devising marketing strategies for the TV shows she oversees. In this day and age, an audience has so much content to pick from that if they are not constantly bombarded with advertising from outlets like social media, they will forget about your show.

Ellen hires and works with many writers on her shows. Whereas the old rule of thumb for aspiring writers was to write spec episodes for existing shows, Ellen recommends writing original material when attempting to be hired as a TV show staff writer. She believes original material helps her better detect a writer’s voice and discern their strengths—whether it is character, dialogue, story structure, etc.

The best tip Ellen gave students was to “follow your passion”—to find out what inspires you and what the voices and scenarios you love telling are. If you love what you do, you’ll do your best work and it won’t feel like work. Ellen clearly loves her job as indicated by the high level of enthusiasm with which she speaks about it. Well… with such an interesting spectrum of creative responsibilities, who wouldn’t love their job? Ellen Rand is a good example to all of us of what working hard and following your dreams can do for you.

Broadcast Journalism Grad to Host Summer 2015 Fashion Coverage

Acclaimed model Marcelle Bittar has achieved much in the world of high fashion. She’s been featured on the cover of numerous magazines, both here in the United States as well as in her native Brazil. She could have gone anywhere in the world to learn television reporting skills. She chose to attend the New York Film Academy‘s Broadcast Journalism School.

As a student in the Evening Broadcast Journalism Workshop, she shot, wrote, reported and edited her own stories. For her final project, she created a stunning video portrait of model Maria Borges. Here is a link to that stylish, insightful story.

MARIA BORGES from Marcelle Bittar.

Now, Brazilian fashion magazine Glamurama reports Marcelle will be hosting fashion coverage for Glitz, the Time Warner-owned satellite and cable channel in Brazil. Among her assignments is reporting on the Summer 2015 fashion shows in São Paulo and Rio. It’s especially gratifying that magazine cites the New York Film Academy as the source of Marcelle’s journalism training.

Parabéns (Congratulations) Marcelle!

NYFA Los Angeles Filmmaking Grad Launches Online Casting Website

MFA Filmmaking graduate, Mohamed Koaik, from New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, has recently launched an online casting website Talent MENA for the Middle East & North African region (MENA). It is the first of its kind. Unlike other casting websites in the area, where filmmakers, casting directors or content creators in general can only cast for talent on those sites and use other means to find crew, specially for low budget productions, Talent MENA allows users to list his or her project for talent casting calls and also list crew jobs under the same project.

Mohamed started the site after leaving NYFA and relocating back to Dubai in 2012. “Since the launch, we have been getting a lot of positive feedback from the industry,” says Koaik. “Back in December, we set up a booth at the Dubai International Film Festival to educate the public and promote the business module. In this short period (less than a year), we have over 1,200 subscribers and it’s growing everyday!”

Below is a tutorial video on how to use the site.

Organ Vida Photography Festival Now Open for Submissions

Here is an interesting opportunity for New York Film Academy photography students. The International festival of photography Organ Vida, which is set to launch its sixth edition this year, has initiated the annual contest for contemporary photography on the theme reflections. The contest will be open from March 30, 2014 to May 25, 2014, and the finalists will take part in a grand exhibition which serves as the centerpiece of the Organ Vida festival. Lauba – people and art house will be the central festival location and the exhibition venue. Unlike the previous week-long editions, this year’s exhibition will be open for two weeks.

A particularly strong jury consisting of six eminent names from the local and international photography scene will choose the best projects. The jury will include leading Dutch educator Corinne Noordenbos, award-winning Swedish photographer and former member of the prestigious world photography agency Magnum Kent Klich, Financial Times Weekend Magazine photo editor Emma Bowkett, prominent British photographer George Georgiou, photographer and professor at New York’s International Center of Photography Irina Rozovsky and award winning local photographer and filmmaker Ana Opalić.

The theme of this year’s sixth edition of International festival of photography Organ Vida is reflections. The theme encompasses the field of artistic documentary photography and will be problematized within the festival program. Reflections are a significant source of knowledge, cognition and understanding of oneself and the world. Since the world we live in today is facing tremendous changes along with ethical and economic challenges, we want to inspire photographers to face them and reflect upon them through the medium of photography. You can read more about the festival theme here.

The jury will announce the finalists in early July – ten finalists and five commended authors will display their works at the final exhibition during the festival week, and will be published in the festival catalogue.

Complete biographies of the jury members can be found here. The application can be found on the Organ Vida website www.organvida.com

Organ Vida is an annual international festival of contemporary photography which has been promoting and researching modern photography disciplines in Croatia and on the international scene since its foundation in 2009. The platform through which Organ Vida connects artists, institutions, associations and collectives spans over 80 countries. So far, we have had over 150 artists showcase their work. Aside from a grand exhibition of the festival finalists, the festival also includes lectures, conferences, panels, artist talks, creative workshops, associate presentations and concerts.

NYFA Abu Dhabi Grad’s ‘Stepping Out’ Wins 2 Awards at LA Indie Film Festival

Stepping Out, a short film directed by our former Ukrainian student Nataliya Padilla, just received two awards: Best Actress and Best Director at the LA Indie Film Festival.

The film has also been accepted in the Short Film Corner at Cannes Film Festival.

The film tells a story about “A young woman takes an emotional journey when she is forced to spend a day in old person skin.”

Nataliya has studied her first year in Filmmaking at New York Film Academy Abu Dhabi, and moved to the NYFA Los Angeles campus to complete her Masters in Fine Art in Filmmaking.

Congratulations to Nataliya and looking forward to see more awards!