Page 350 – NYFA

The Square Premieres at Sundance

Congratulations to Mohamed Hamdy, New York Film Academy Documentary graduate and Cinematographer of the much anticipated, The Square, which premiered at The Sundance Film Festival! The Square, a new film by Jehane Noujaim, looks at the hard realities faced day-to-day by people working to build Egypt’s new democracy. Catapulting us into the action spread across 2011 and 2012, the film provides a kaleidoscopic, visceral experience of the struggle. Cairo’s Tahrir Square is the heart and soul of the film, which follows several young activists. Armed with values, determination, music, humor, an abundance of social media, and sheer obstinacy, they know that the thorny path to democracy only began with Hosni Mubarek’s fall. The life-and-death struggle between the people and the power of the state is still playing out.

In February 2011, Egyptian, particularly young one, showed the world the way people demanding change can drive an entire nation to transformation. The result was a profound movement toward democracy that is still evolving across the Arab world.

Hamdy shot over 500 hours of the Tahir Square revolution as he lived it, and ended up the Cinematographer of Jehane Noujaim’s new documentary made from inside the Tahir Square revolution by young Egyptians who were (and still are) part of it.

“Aside from Hamdy’s excellent cinematography, my favorite thing about The Square is that it is about and by people who lived it – and are still living – the revolution,” said NYFA Documentary Chair, Andrea Swift. “Hearing their voices, rather than that of third party reporters, makes this the most immediate and important accounting of the one seminal events of our century. Not to mention, it’s the best.”

NYFA Instructor Shooting for Disney on the Slopes

Award-winning cinematographer (and NYFA instructor) Suki Medencevic is currently shooting a highly-anticipated snowboarding film for Disney. Though details are quite hush-hush, we know there is some big-name talent attached to the project. Suki is teaming up with director Paul Hoen and shooting on location in Utah.

Originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Suki Medencevic has shot numerous features, documentaries, and commercials around the world, working with talent including Tom Hanks, Billy Crystal, Lauren Bacall, and Janet Leigh. He began teaching courses in cinematography at New York Film Academy’s Los Angeles campus last year. As he says, “Being a teacher means that you have to be well informed about the latest in the camera art and technology. The most exciting thing about teaching is to be able to share my own knowledge with the students and make them understand the power of the visual storytelling.”

After wrapping the film for Disney, Suki has two features in development that are scheduled to shoot later this year, with veteran actor Ed Begley Jr. attached.

Scholarship Opportunity with NCAC Film Contest

New York Film Academy will be providing a workshop scholarship to the winner of the National Coalition Against Censorship YFEN film contest. Post your favorite video to your Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, or other social media and tell your friends and family to vote!

Voting is easy. Log into your Gmail, Google or YouTube account and click “Like” on your favorite video on their Film Contest homepage.

The semifinalist video with the most “Likes” will be declared the People’s Choice winner and the creator will be awarded a Certificate of Free Expression Excellence from NCAC. The deadline for casting votes is February 15 at 5 p.m. EST.

While audiences choose their favorite, a stellar panel of judges, including New York Film Academy’s Co-Chair of Filmmaking, Michael Sandoval, will be hard at work selecting the Grand Prize, Second place, and Third place winners, to be announced sometime in February.

So, submit your video now. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Photo Chosen to Represent NYFA Photography

Walking around the streets of New York, you may have noticed our new photography ad. Its intention was to capture one’s attention and indeed it has. In fact, it even caught New York Film Academy Acting graduate, Andreas Holm-Hansen completely off guard. Andreas, a Denmark native, resides in Los Angeles now, but his friends have been spotting his face all over the city. “People have been complementing me and sending pictures of themselves next to the ad, which is pretty cool.”

The photo was chosen from at least 300 student photos by Senior Faculty at New York Film Academy. The winning photo was shot by NYFA Photography graduate, Guillermo Berna. “The Idea came from a dream I had a long time ago, before I even thought of studying at NYFA,” said Berna. “It was something I was trying to do, but wasn’t really achieving the effect I wanted. I love water, it’s the most refreshing element on Earth. It’s been used forever as a filter of life – as a basic energy supply. It produces an incredible lighting effect when reflected on. It’s been used to show a split second moment – a sensation of time paused by many other photographers. It just gives the feeling I was looking for. Nowadays, digital cameras are a photographer’s playground, so you never worry about negative expenses and time lost. You just need to shoot and have perfect control of the lighting.”

Guillermo shot the photo using a Canon 7D with a 24mm, 120mm 3.5 Nikon zoom. All manual. “Focus had to be checked at every click.” There were a lot of post production trimming elements that went into creating the final product: exposure, colors, light and vignetting filters. Believe it or not, no Photoshop, just light room corrections. “I was never afraid to ask friends and teachers. I listened carefully to everyone’s tips.”

Guillermo lives and works in Brazil. He’s thrilled to hear that his simple digital file can now be seen by thousands of people on a daily basis. However, like Andreas, Guillermo has not been able to see the ad with his own eyes. Since moving to L.A., Andreas has been in Pink’s music video Blow Me (One Last Kiss) and will be playing an American soldier in Iron Man 3. Much of Andreas’ time now revolves around auditioning and photo shoots.

If you spot Guillermo’s photo of Andreas, Tweet us @NYFA and tell us where you are!

Acting Grad on a Roll: True Blood, Grey’s & Californication

Since landing the Lifetime film William & Kate, New York Film Academy Acting Conservatory graduate, Camilla Luddington, has been on a major roll. She starred in an entire season of Showtime’s Californication as Lizzie, joined the cast of Grey’s Anatomy as Dr. Jo Wilson, and has been on six episodes of HBO’s True Blood. Not only that, Camilla has been tapped to play Lara Croft in the newest incarnation of the Tomb Raider video game franchise.

“I was in the first ever one year acting class at the New York Film Academy in 2003 and I am so thankful for the experience,” said Camilla.

Camilla initially lost out on a role in ABC’s pilot, Gilded Lilys. However, while she was promoting Tomb Raider at Comic Con San Diego, she heard ABC was looking for a new doctor on Grey’s. “I was asked to come read for it with six other girls, and then heard maybe two days later the role was mine. I think meeting Shonda Rhymes [at ABC] during that pilot season helped though. I think as an actor sometimes you focus on the immediate (aka not getting that role) but you never know what opportunities can come back around, or how one role can actually lead to the casting of another. As was the case for Grey’s Anatomy.”

[UPDATE]

Check out our most recent interview with Camilla Luddington where she talks about her role on Grey’s Anatomy, what it was like to play Lara Croft in Tomb Raider and her upcoming film The Pact II.

Finding Luck With ‘The Lucky One’

Filmmaker Bala Balakrishnan graduated from New York Film Academy in 2010. Shortly after graduation, he wrote, produced, and directed a short film called The Lucky One. It made the festival rounds in 2012, and proved to be a hit, winning 8 awards in competitions across the nation.

Bala works as a software engineer during the day. Like many people with day jobs, he decided an Evening Filmmaking program would work best with his busy schedule. “I was always interested in film,” says Bala. “After I had my second kid, I said, ‘I don’t want to be sitting in front of a computer all the time.’ It was my childhood desire to tell stories. I said, ‘Okay, I’ll go take a class.’ I invested and it paid off.”

He began commuting to New York Film Academy’s Los Angeles campus from nearby Orange County. As he puts it, “You start from the beginning, and get hands-on experience.” The Evening Filmmaking program covers writing, directing, cinematography, and editing – all the building blocks for getting started in filmmaking.

After graduation, Bala decided to start work on a short film. Working around his day job, he wrote a story about a young boy whose parents would rather spend time on their iPhones than taking care of their child. Like many filmmakers these days, he turned to Indiegogo to fund his 18-minute short film. Bala started production in the summer of 2011, working with a number of his New York Film Academy classmates.

Since its completion, The Lucky One has played numerous festivals across the nation, and just won its eighth award last week at the California Film Awards. Bala Balakrishnan is currently working with a screenwriter for a feature length action thriller, in addition to two other feature length scripts.

Nollywood Star Gives Back

After her successful debut as writer, director and producer of the award-winning film “Through the Glass,” A-List Nollywood actress Stephanie Okereke-Linus, a graduate of the New York Film Academy film school, is working on a new film-making project, titled “Dry,” that will further her mission of helping victims of vesico vaginal fistula (VVF). The feature film is the latest in Okereke-Linus’ myriad endeavors, which also include international acclaim as a model, style icon, and winner of the 2008 Beyond the Tears Humanitarian Award for her work against rape and VVF. VVF are holes resulting from a breakdown between the vaginal wall and the bladder or rectum, usually caused by days of a baby struggling to fit through the birth canal. In “Dry,” Okereke-Linus tells the story of two young girls trying to survive in a world of rejection and hopelessness brought on by their condition.

The film will raise funds to pay for VVF surgery and rehabilitation, and after its premiere, a mobile movie theatre will take it to African villages and towns, particularly those where VVF patients reside. Okereke-Linus has earned a reputation as Africa’s foremost actress, especially in Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry, which The New York Times reported to be the world’s third largest. In 2002, she became a household name in Nigeria for her performance in the movie “Emotional Crack,” which earned eight awards. Okereke-Linus herself won the 2003 Reel Awards for Best Actress English and Best Actress. The movie was screened at New York City’s 2004 African Film Festival.

Since then, Okereke-Linus has starred in more than 100 films. In 2006, she won the Afro-Hollywood Award and the Film Makers USA Award for Excellence, followed by the Miriam Makeba Award for Excellence in 2007. “Through the Glass” premiered in October 2008 at the Pacific Design Center in Hollywood, Calif. and won the Recognition Award from the California Legislature and the city of Carson. It opened in theaters across Nigeria in 2009 and was the country’s first film to gross over 10 million naira in its first week. The movie was nominated for African Academy Movie Award as Best Screen Play. In 2010, the film premiered in Switzerland, the first Nigerian movie to open in a Swiss cinema, and it also had a market screening at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010.

In 2010, Okereke-Linus was featured in the CNN documentary “50 years of Nigerian Independence.” That same year, she joined Hollywood A-list star Meryl Streep, for an exclusive stage reading of the play “Seven” at the Hudson Theatre in New York City as part of the Women in the World Conference, opened by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Okereke-Linus has been nominated three times for the prestigious Africa Movie Academy Awards. She was awarded Nigeria’s fourth highest award, Member of the Order of the Federal Republic. She also serves as a brand ambassador for LG Super 3D Smart Phone, Kanekalon, recently winning the Eloy award for brand ambassador of 2012 and a brand icon for numerous Nigerian fashion designers.

Power of Introverts

Imagine a viral video taking off without the assistance of precious kittens or babies. Well, leave it up to a New York Film Academy graduate to accomplish that feat. 2011 Directing grad, Daniel Lomas’ video Power of Introverts has racked up over 1 million hits in just under two weeks. Lomas narrates and illustrates the video, which is based on the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain. The video breaks down the contrasting personality types of extroverts and introverts, while exploring some of the negative connotations that aren’t neeccissarily true about introverts. According to Lomas, “The film industry is, in my opinion, a quite extroverted industry and I had a hard time fitting in.”

As to why Lomas thinks his video is so popular, he says, “I think there are a lot of people that feel like they don’t fit in and think there’s something wrong with them.” Clearly that’s not the case. Be sure to look out for more episodes, which Lomas is currently working on now!

Which personality best categorizes you: Introvert or Extrovert? Tweet us @NYFA to let us know!

Art Imitates Life for Horror Film Director

Screenwriting Chair Eric Conner with 'Smiley' Director Michael Gallagher at New York Film Academy — Screenwriting Chair Eric Conner with ‘Smiley’ Director Michael Gallagher

Director Michael Gallagher attended summer camps at New York Film Academy’s Universal Studios campus 3 times as a youngster. He started making short films, music videos, and documentaries while in high school. Since then, he has started a wildly popular web series called Totally Sketch, which has over 850,000 subscribers on YouTube.

During a recent guest speaker event at New York Film Academy, Gallagher shared his recently-released horror film, Smiley, which was released in theaters nationwide. He described how his experience with internet shorts helped prepare him for his first feature length film. “Most of the sketches I shoot are like little scenes,” he said. “It was like 110 sketches in a row.” Working with a tight budget, the indie film was shot in just 15 days, and the filmmakers were shooting as many as 8 pages of the script per day. But as Gallagher puts it, “Horror movies fit the low budget. You can do a lot more with a little.”

Gallagher cast friends and actors with large YouTube followings to help build buzz around the film. To date, the trailer has racked up over 21 million views on YouTube. At just 23 years old, his first feature length film was about to be released in AMC theaters across the nation. Things were going well until users of the website 4Chan got wind of the film’s plot.

Gallagher said he was going for authenticity when he decided to make 4Chan users the villains of his film. In an interview with Huffington Post, he said, “I anticipated a minor backlash of people leaving harassing comments online.” But he didn’t anticipate the website’s users posting his home address, his personal information, and leaving dozens of death threats on his cell.

After interviews with the TODAY Show, Inside Edition, Variety, Paste (and the FBI), 4Chan users realized they were only giving him free publicity. Just as the movie was released in theaters nationwide, the threats disappeared.

Much to 4Chan’s chagrin, we’re happy to report the Smiley DVD is now available for pre-order.