Page 90 – NYFA

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Producing Students Shoot Webseries ‘Over Coffee’

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Producing students headed across the river to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to produce two episodes of Over Coffee, a new webseries featuring women in most of its prominent roles both on- and off-camera.

Over Coffee, by New York-based screenwriter Nefertiti Warren, tells the story of three contemporary urban women, sharing their trials and tribulations. The production was shot by a current NYFA Cinematography student, and directed by recent NYFA Filmmaking graduate Ellinor Skeppström.

Production was held in Greenpoint, a neighborhood of Brooklyn located on the East River, where one of New York’s largest production communities has evolved over the past decade as studios both small and large have set up shop in the area.

The webseries is the fourth project produced by NYFA Producing students as part of their 1-Year Conservatory studies. Previously, they honed their craft producing short films, reality television sizzle reels, and commercials.

“It was a new experience for me,” says NYFA Producing student Emilia D’Agata, “because I had never worked on a webseries. It was very nice to work all together as producers and deal with a screenwriter, director, and cast who are all women. I hope that in the future we can continue to work on this project. It was an amazing experience.”

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NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY (NYFA) WELCOMES GOLDEN GLOBE WINNER & ‘CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND’ STAR RACHEL BLOOM

Fits of laughter echoed in and out of the theater at New York Film Academy (NYFA) on Wednesday, August 21, where Rachel Bloom, the Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated writer, producer, and co-creator of the CW’s hit series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, was welcomed by NYFA. Bloom spoke with students in an event at NYFA’s Los Angeles campus, moderated by Tova Laiter, Director of the NYFA Q&A Series.

Rachel Bloom is best known as the star of the CW musical dramedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which she co-created and executive produced alongside Aline Brosh McKenna. For her lead role in the series, Bloom won Best Actress in a TV Series – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards, and TCA Awards. She is also a four-time Emmy nominee for both the songwriting of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend as well as her work writing on the Adult Swim sketch series Robot Chicken.

Bloom also wrote and performed in Yes: It’s Really Us Singing: The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Concert Special!, which aired after the series finale on the CW, and recently voiced the role of Batgirl in Batman VS. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Bloom will next be featured in The Angry Birds Movie 2 opposite Jason Sudeikis as well as Trolls 2: Trolls World Tour with Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake.

Laiter opened up the Q&A by asking Bloom how the idea for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend came about. “I had been doing comedic music videos on my YouTube channel for quite some time,” answered Bloom. “Apparently, Aline saw them and I got an email from her saying she wants to meet with me to discuss a potential musical television show with CBS. It came out of the blue.” Suddenly, the musical comedy ideas that Rachel had pitched and been turned down had become alive and viable.

In regards to developing the skills necessary to be discovered, Bloom stated, “I have to believe that hard work and honing your craft work out and pan out, but you can’t necessarily do it for that end goal because that’s just luck and there’s a lot of factors.” She added, “You have to love the craft and you have to love the work.”

Bloom continued on by advising students to “hone the process first and make connections in organic ways, but get good at your work first and then see what happens.”

The Q&A then opened up to NYFA students. Bloom was asked how she and her team defined the line between homage and satire of musical theatre on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Bloom replied, “It’s a very inexact science and a lot of it was gut and emotion. A lot of it came from my own un-ironic love of musical theatre and learning comedy and realizing that a lot of musical theatre is goofy and embarrassing, but still loving it. It’s just mostly instinctive.”

The Q&A concluded with Bloom being asked how she approaches writing and portraying characters with mental health issues without turning them into caricatures. Bloom articulated the importance of “coming at it from a first-person perspective and coming at it with empathy.”

New York Film Academy would like to thank writer, performer, and Golden Globe winner Rachel Bloom for sharing her expertise with our students!

These guests are not faculty and do not teach at NYFA, but they have appeared to share their stories and experience with our students. As guest speakers are scheduled based on their availability, NYFA cannot guarantee whether a guest speaker will visit during a student’s attendance or who that guest speaker may be. This guest speaker forum is not part of any NYFA curriculum and attendance at guest speaker events is purely voluntary. Students should be aware that guest speaker events do not represent a job opportunity nor are they intended to provide industry connections.

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Hosts Creators Society Panel on Animation Careers

Last month, New York Film Academy (NYFA) hosted the Creators Society monthly meeting and panel discussion. The Creators Society is a group of passionate, like-minded members of the animation community who work in the fields of film, TV, commercials, visual effects, VR/AR, and gaming. The topic for August’s panel was “Freelance Vs. Big Studios: Navigating a Career in Animation.”

Artists, producers, and animators from DreamWorks, Warner Brothers, Disney, and more came to NYFA to mingle and share their advice with Creator Society members and students of the NYFA 3D & Visual Effects Animation department.

The panelists included:

Melody Severns: Severns started her career interning at Film Roman and moved into the role of layout artist on The Simpsons (both the show and movie). She’s worked in production management on Monster High, Transformers: Robots in Disguise, and DC Superhero Girls. She is also the founder and head of Girls Drawin’ Girls, an art organization dedicated to promoting the work female artists in the animation industry.

Daniel “Hashi” Hashimoto: Hashi worked for DreamWorks Animation’s visual development team. Since 2014, Hashi has been using his VFX skills to turn the playtime of his young son, James, into the viral webseries Action Movie Kid, which has over a million followers across social media. He’s partnered with Disney, LucasFilm, Warner Brothers, Target, and Toys ‘R’ Us in commercial campaigns, and is now a Senior Content Creator at Red Giant, creating their series Cheap Tricks. Hashi still consults for animation studios on upcoming feature film projects and is developing new and fun ideas with his writing partners.

Liz Climo: Climo has worked in animation as a writer, storyboard artist, layout artist, and animator on shows like The Simpsons and Harvey Beaks, as well as The Simpsons Movie. She is also the writer and illustrator of the Rory the Dinosaur series of children’s books, as well as You Don’t Want A Unicorn, Lobster is the Best Medicine, and other titles.

Students and alumni attending the event had a wonderful time listening to the panelists. Here are just some of the responses from the attendees:

“My first Creator Society event was an extremely pleasant, eye-opening experience. To have the chance to mingle with artists in the industry, make connections, and listen to their stories and experiences is invaluable.

“One of the things I took from this event was that as an artist, you don’t have to be good at everything. Most of the people I spoke with—along with the event’s speakers—weren’t jack-of-all-trades types but were instead exceptionally good at something that made them artistically unique, which (along with luck and the right connections) is what helps you get a job in the industry.”

-Hilmar Loftsson, BFA 3D & VFX Animation Student

“They talked about how to stand out as a woman in the animation industry—to which they talked about making yourself be seen and occupying space. Like not sitting in a corner where no one sees you, but instead take your space and make yourself be noticed and not be overshadowed by the men. Which, in a way, I think it can be applied to recent hires in the sense of voicing their opinions and not being afraid to give suggestions that might help the overall project.”
-Juan Gordillo, BFA 3D & VFX Animation Student

“The event with the Creator Society was the first of its kind for NYFA, and a successful one at it. The panel was divided between professionals who work at bigger companies and ones that are self-employed and work as freelance. It was very interesting and helpful to hear the collected thoughts of these brilliant panelists, on the differences between working at a studio for others and being your own boss.

“They talked about what traits artists should have when working at bigger studios, what to expect, and the division between creativity and technicality at these two different settings. The four professional panelists were also very fun to listen to. They were serious with their answers and opinions, yet in a joking and funny way that made the event more casual and fun than a boring Q&A session. Students and visitors responded positively to the event, and many wanted to talk to the panelists afterwards.”
-Gayatri Ankam, 1-Year 3D & VFX Animation Alumni

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New York Film Academy (NYFA) Broadcast Journalism – End of Summer Update

While there are sure to be some warm days ahead, by and large summer is pretty much over here in New York. Looking back over the past few months, NYFA Broadcast Journalism graduates have been exceptionally busy.

Two major earthquakes in Southern California had Karen Hua of KGET in Bakersfield putting in long days—and equally long nights. It was a situation where people depended on TV news reporters to provide them with accurate, up-to-date information. When it comes to natural disasters, it can sometimes be a matter of life and death.

NYFA grad Celina Liv Danielsen is North America bureau producer for TV2 in Denmark. She was asked to explain how the President of the United States had announced a desire to “buy” Greenland from Denmark, a massive island that Denmark doesn’t “own.” President Trump cancelled a trip to Denmark after his “offer” was rejected.

One of the secrets in our craft is how there are “news” jobs that don’t involve working at TV stations. Take Bruna Bloch, one of our alums in Brazil. She is now the digital media producer for a company called Hub Coworking. She wrote: “I will be responsible for their social media and content :)”

Broadcast Journalism grad Miraj Haq, who lives and works in Pakistan, recently posted: “This is the good news I have been meaning to tell all of you. I have signed my first drama with Hum Tv/MD Productions.” That’s right, he is poised to become a TV drama star. This follows making the official presidential campaign biography for the current President of Pakistan, and establishing himself as a popular video blogger (vlogger).

NYFA alum Emilie Olsson is a radio news anchor in Stockholm. She recently wrote an episode of Svenska Mordhistorier, a podcast that probes famous (and not-so-famous) Swedish murder cases. She: “Written script for this episode of the podcast Swedish Mordhistorier! Please go into the link and listen!” It’s another example of how the lines between different nonfiction genres have blurred. In fact, these days any project you create really has to be designed for cross-platform distribution.

Regular readers of the Broadcast Journalism Update might remember that I am one of the producers of an independent feature film called Invisible Love. Shot in Vietnam, with post-production in China, over the past couple weeks we have been doing ADR sessions here in New York. NYFA Acting for Film grad Kazy Tauginas plays a leading role. I portray a minor character. It’s a period piece, set in 1930’s French Indochina. We are looking towards a Spring 2020 release.

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Welcomes Golden Globe Winner & ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ Star Rachel Bloom

New York Film Academy (NYFA) welcomed Rachel Bloom, the Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated writer, producer, and co-creator of the CW’s hit series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, on Wednesday, August 21. Bloom spoke with students in an event at NYFA’s Burbank-based campus, moderated by Tova Laiter, Director of the NYFA Q&A Series.

Rachel Bloom is most widely known as the star of the CW musical dramedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which she co-created and executive produced with Aline Brosh McKenna. For her lead role in the series, Bloom won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Series – Musical or Comedy, as well as winning at the Critics’ Choice Awards, and TCA Awards. She is also a four-time Emmy nominee for both Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and the Adult Swim sketch series Robot Chicken, which she wrote for.

Bloom also wrote and performed in Yes: It’s Really Us Singing: The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Concert Special!, which aired after the series finale on the CW, and recently voiced the role of Batgirl in Batman VS. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Bloom will be featured next in The Angry Birds Movie 2 opposite Jason Sudeikis as well as Trolls 2: Trolls World Tour with Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake.

Tova Laiter began the Q&A by asking Bloom how the idea for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend came about. “I had been doing comedic music videos on my YouTube channel for quite some time,” replied Bloom. “Apparently, Aline saw them and I got an email from her saying she wants to meet with me to discuss a potential musical television show with CBS. It came out of the blue.” Suddenly, the musical comedy ideas that Rachel had pitched and been turned down had become alive and viable.

As for developing the skills necessary to be discovered, Bloom told the enthusiastic crowd, “I have to believe that hard work and honing your craft work out and pan out, but you can’t necessarily do it for that end goal because that’s just luck and there’s a lot of factors.” She added, “You have to love the craft and you have to love the work.”

Bloom continued on by advising students to “hone the process first and make connections in organic ways, but get good at your work first and then see what happens.”

The Q&A then opened up to NYFA students. Bloom was asked how she and her team defined the line between homage and satire of musical theatre on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Bloom answered, “It’s a very inexact science and a lot of it was gut and emotion. A lot of it came from my own un-ironic love of musical theatre and learning comedy and realizing that a lot of musical theatre is goofy and embarrassing, but still loving it. It’s just mostly instinctive.”

The Q&A ended with Bloom being asked how she approaches writing and portraying characters with mental health issues without turning them into caricatures. Bloom articulated the importance of “coming at it from a first-person perspective and coming at it with empathy.”

New York Film Academy would like to thank writer, performer, and Golden Globe winner Rachel Bloom for sharing her expertise with our students!

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Check out the full conversation with Rachel Bloom, below.

New York Film Academy Australia Welcomes Academy Award Winner Ben Osmo to Gold Coast Campus

On Thursday, August 22, New York Film Academy Australia (NYFA-AU) hosted a master class with former NYFA-AU instructor and Academy Award winner Ben Osmo.

Osmo, a sound recordist and mixer, is known for his work on films including Dead Calm (1989), Strictly Ballroom (1991), Alien: Covenant (2017), and Peter Rabbit (2018). His work on 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road earned him the Oscar for Best Achievement in Sound Mixing at the 88th Academy Awards, which he shared with Chris Jenkins and Gregg Rudloff.

Speaking at length with NYFA-AU students at the Gold Coast campus in an intimate setting, Osmo shared the knowledge he gained over a career of almost 30 years in the sound industry and that includes an Oscar and 13 other award wins and nine nominations.

Osmo began the master class by sharing his journey working on Mad Max: Fury Road, telling NYFA-AU students: “To be a good filmmaker, it’s good to know all the phases of filmmaking, and sound—it’s one of the important ones. You can’t get good sound unless you get cooperation from all the film crew, we are all in it together, and to succeed we need each other.”

Students listened intently as Osmo talked about the importance of how sound can make or break a film, and how to be flexible with film crews. He also shared some personal experiences both technical and related to the profession.

“The master class with Ben Osmo was insightful, inspiring, and gave an incredible perspective into the importance of sound for our students,” says Patrick Ryan, NYFA-AU Deputy Chair of Filmmaking.

New York Film Academy Australia thanks former NYFA-AU instructor and Academy Award winner Ben Osmo for taking the time to share his expertise and experiences with our NYFA-AU students!

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New York Film Academy (NYFA) Screenwriting Alum Shahad Ameen Debuts Feature Film at Venice Film Festival

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Screenwriting alum Shahad Ameen recently debuted her first feature film at this year’s Venice Film Festival (VFF). The film, a stark black-and-white drama filled with magical realism, was written and directed by Ameen.

Scales (Sayidat Al Bahr in Arabic), tells the story of Hayat, a young girl who lives in a poor fishing village where every family must give one daughter to mysterious sea creatures who inhabit the nearby waters, who in turn are also hunted by the men of the village. Saved by her father, Hayat is banished from her village and branded a curse.

“I want the audience to relate to the main themes of the film: life and women’s roles within it,” Ameen tells Women and Hollywood in a thoughtful interview. “Although the film is set in the Arab world, this is a universal story that everyone can relate to.”

Ameen originally hails from Saudi Arabia and studied the 1-Year Screenwriting conservatory program at NYFA’s New York campus in 2012. “I taught Shahad in 2012 and back then she was always the hardest worker in the room,” says NYFA-NY Chair of Screenwriting Randall Dottin. “Her stories consistently reflected the rare alchemy of rigor, complexity, and innovation along with a healthy dose of compassion for her characters.”

Ameen’s film is a milestone for Arab cinema, as it is the first narrative Arab film to premiere at the Venice Film Festival, one of the three major international film festivals in the world, along with Cannes and Berlin. Scales premiered as part of the fest’s Critics Week, and screened in competition for the Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Debut Film.

NYFA-NY Screenwriting Chair Randall Dottin was thrilled to hear the news about Ameen’s presence at Venice. “On behalf of New York Film Academy Screenwriting Department, I’d like to wish Shahad all the best as she competes with her debut feature film Scales in Critics Week at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. After reading Scales years before Shahad went into production, I’m excited to see her incredibly unique and powerful story on the big screen.”

New York Film Academy Los Angeles (NYFA-LA) Cinematography Students Shoot Crane Video

Earlier this semester, Cinematography students from New York Film Academy (NYFA) were able to shoot footage with a large, professional crane. The shoot took place on a beautiful sunny day in a park new our Burbank-based campus, and was overseen by NYFA-LA Chair of Cinematography Anthony B. Richmond, ASC, BSC, the BAFTA-winning director of photography whose credits include Don’t Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Sandlot, Legally Blonde, and Sympathy for the Devil.

The students were able to work hands-on with the crane, getting cool, sweeping aerial shots that they could see from below on a monitor. Learning by doing and working hands-on with the same state-of-the-art equipment used by Hollywood better prepares students for work in the professional industry, and is a core value of NYFA’s educational principles.

Check out some photos from the crane video set here:

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VENICE FILM FESTIVAL: NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY PARTNERS WITH GIORNATE DEGLI AUTORI

New York Film Academy (NYFA) is partnering with Giornata degli Autori to hold an all-day event at the Venice Film Festival on September 4, 2019.

Giornata degli Autori is a parallel section of the Venice Film Festival modeled on “Directors’ Fortnight” at Cannes Film Festival. Giornate showcases high quality cinema that has a special focus on innovation, research, originality, and independence.

As part of the event Craig Caton (E.T., Ghostbusters, Jurassic Park), Chair of NYFA’s 3D Animation & Visual Effects department, will present two Master Classes on the basics of motion capture technology and a real-time interactive facial recognition demonstration with volunteers from the audience. The first Master Class will be exclusive to the jurors of the Giornata degli Autori, while the second will be open to festival-goers and the press. Following the second Master Class, NYFA will showcase three selected student shorts from NYFA’s most recent crop of students that are representative of the quality that NYFA students produce throughout the course of their studies: Scout by Alex Cvetkov (Slovenia, Italy), 8 by Gabriele Fabbro (United States, Italy), and Two Weeks in Laredo by Adrianne Lundy (United States).

Of NYFA’s participation, New York Film Academy Florence Director Diana Santi said, “On behalf of NYFA, I can say that we are excited to present our educational method and a selection of student shorts to the audience of Giornata degli Autori at the Venice Film Festival 2019. Our mission has always been to train students to be industry-ready through our hands-on, learn-by-doing philosophy that gives students access to cutting-edge equipment and internationally acclaimed instructors such as Craig Caton. We also offer students the support to take the first steps in the industry as professionals.”

On partnering with NYFA, Giorgio Gosetti, Giornata degli Autori Director, shared, “Inside the huge Hollywood machine, there are skills that give form to ideas that would otherwise be impossible to portray on screen. We wanted to highlight this aspect of filmmaking to reveal the authorship that goes beyond the script, and the place where inspiration and technique meet, the result being those film classics we all adore. Inviting Craig Caton means creating a space for film education, in the form of an entertaining, dynamic class on spaceships, dinosaurs and imaginary creatures turned real, with Caton as our guide.”

As part of the Venice Film Festival, NYFA Screenwriting alum Shahad Ameen will also be screening her film Scales (Sayidat Al Bahr in Arabic) which tells the story of Hayat, a young girl who lives in a poor fishing village in which every family must give one daughter to the sea creatures who inhabit the nearby waters. This is not only a great individual success as the film is in competition for the Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Debut Film, it’s also a great milestone for Arab cinema as it will be the first narrative Arab film to premiere in Venice.