Tisch Special Programs

Zam Salim's 10-minute film Laid Off, above,has had nearly half a million hits on YouTube, the sort of following that can impress producers. Photograph: Public Domain

From The Guardian:

Long before Bill Edwards settled into his current job as a graphic designer at the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in Wigston, Leicestershire, he harboured a dream of becoming an animator. At school in Plymouth, where he grew up, he was the best at drawing in his class. "It was the one thing I was good at," the 38-year-old recalls. "The only thing I was good at." But when he attempted to set his drawings in motion, he hit a brick wall.

"A friend and I in Plymouth did a 10-second animation that took about two days to do. Then, during my degree course at the University of Derby, I tried some hand-drawn cel animation. I did a five-second piece and it took a lifetime. My feeling then was: 'Jesus, I'm interested in this but I don't really have the patience.'"

Edwards dropped out of university and worked in a warehouse at Rolls-Royce for five years. It was only when he got his graphic design career on track, by learning the requisite software in evening classes, that animation became a realistic option: "In the past decade or so, with digital technology becoming more available, it has begun to match my patience and tolerance levels. Now I can animate a lot more quickly than I could have done 15 or 20 years ago."

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The following entry from Tisch School of the Arts film instructor Jeff Scher's blog on the New York Times perfectly captures that singular feeling of going back to school. Next week, we welcome our students back to NYU and Tisch for the start of what hopes to be another great year, but the campus is already abuzz with eager students in various orientation activities.

Welcome back!

Watch his film Summer Retreat.

From Havana Times:

HAVANA TIMES, August 22 (IPS) - His blog taught him to share apprehensions with people who think differently, to humanize and to become humanized, to benefit from the most heated controversies, and - especially - to demonstrate that one must not consider themselves the sole possessor of truth, but only someone desperately in search of it.

“I don’t know who I am; a résumé is only a display of one’s ego in 80 lines. I only know that ‘I blog, therefore I exist,” was all that Cuban intellectual Juan Antonio García Borrero had to say in the introduction to his web log Cine Cubano: La Pupila Insomne (Cuban Cinema: The Insomniac Pupil), a site that has fulfilled its original aim of fomenting a “culture of controversy.”

The idea came out of the electronic debate that occurred in the wake of a January 6, 2007 broadcast on Cuban state television that praised the “contributions” to Cuban culture made by Luis Pavón, an official tied to the censorship of cultural works, artists and intellectuals in the 1970s.

The site seeks to speak about Cuban cinema with a comprehensive look that includes not only the official line but also alternative viewpoints, as well as ones from abroad. It seeks to recover the story from the inside and out, from those who live in Cuba, but also from those who for decades have worked in the most divergent of countries.

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It's the start of a new season, a new semester and soon, a new decade. So get ready for a barrage of best of the decade/year lists. Pitchfork has a jump start with P2K, an entire series listing the best in music from the 2000s. They recently posted their take on the top 50 music videos of the decade. It's an interesting selection, and well worth checking out.

See the entire list here.

Below is Fionn Regan "Be Good or Be Gone," coming in at number 42 on the list.

Robin Epstein, who teaches Writing the TV Sitcom in the Tisch Open Arts Curriculum, will release a new book titled "So Sue Me, Jackass!" on September 29. The book is co-authored with her sister Amy Epstein Feldman and is "a surprising and entertaining collection of factual and funny Q&As that combines engaging wit and sensible legal advice," according to the book description on amazon.com. Learn more about the book on her website.

Robin is also in the early stages of producing a radio call-in show based on the book and is taking suggested questions via email.

Robin has written for publications including The New York Times, Marie Claire, Real Simple, Glamour and Teen People magazines and is a contributor to NPR’s This American Life.

New York University Tisch School of the Arts offers a summer program in Amsterdam exposing students to a range of approaches to live performance and the creation of original work. But for those of you who can't wait until next summer and want to experience experimental theatre now, check out the New Island Festival at Governors Island.

The event offers a variety of performances and installations, including an improv comedy group, a silent disco, and dinner of stamppot, a hearty potato dish, and klapstuk, a veal stew, while dancers perform on your 400-foot-long wooden table.

Photo courtesy of Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times.

Inspiration for the festival comes from two similar events in the Netherlands: the Terschellings Oerol Festival, which takes place on Terschelling, an island in the north, each June; and De Parade, a traveling festival that moves around the country in summer. Read more and see a slide show at The New York Times.

Tribeca All Access (TAA) supports directors and screenwriters from traditionally under-represented communities in the film industry by serving as a year round networking and career development forum that provides access to industry representatives looking for new projects in development. Each year , a diverse group of emerging and established filmmakers are selected from an open call for submissions to participate in a series of workshops and panels, before pitching their narrative scripts or documentary works-in progress in a series of one-on-one business meetings with industry executives during the Tribeca Film Festival.

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Rosanne Limoncelli, Director of Production for Film & New Media at Tisch School of the Arts, has released a new book titled "Teaching Filmmaking: Empowering Students Through Visual Storytelling." More information about the book can be found here.

Rosanne teaches Fundamentals of Filmmaking: A Digital Workshop in the Tisch Open Arts Curriculum and is involved in the summer Filmmaker's Workshop for high school students.

Tisch is sponsoring the Democracy Video Challenge. Your challenge: to create a video short that completes the phrase "Democracy is…" Your prize: An all-expense-paid trip to Washington, New York and Hollywood to attend gala screenings of the winning videos, gain exposure to the U.S. film and television industry and meet with creative talent, democracy advocates and government leaders.

More here

Tisch Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell has been named a member of President Obama's Arts Committee.

From The New York Times' Art Beat

President Obama has announced three new members to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, the committee said on Wednesday. The three new appointees are George Stevens Jr., the founding chief executive of the American Film Institute and producer of the Kennedy Center Honors; Margo Lion, the theater producer whose Broadway credits include “Hairspray,” “Angels in America” and “Jelly’s Last Jam”; and Mary Schmidt Campbell, the chairwoman of the New York State Council on the Arts and dean of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Mr. Stevens and Ms. Lion will serve as co-chairs of the committee, which works with federal cultural agencies and in the private and public sectors to further the White House’s cultural objectives, and Ms. Campbell will serve as vice chairwoman. The appointments are effective immediately.

Read more about Dean Campbell

It's two weeks into the fall semester. Students studying in Dublin with New York University Tisch School of the Arts are nestled nicely in their new home in the Temple Bar district of Dublin. Aside from their studies, students are hitting the town and exploring all things Irish.

Where did they go? What did they see? Here's a peak into their life in Dublin so far:

Took a trip to the Powerscourt Waterfall and Gardens. Check out the photos on Facebook.

Ate a traditional Irish lunch at The Boxty House.

Stepped into the historical walking tour of Dublin guided by history teacher Tommy Graham.

Attended Brian Friel's 'Faith Healer' at the Gate Theatre and Beckett's 'Act without Words II' at the Fringe Theatre Festival. (The show is directed by Sarah Jane Scaife, director of the the Tisch summer study abroad course Acting Contemporary Irish Playwrights and is acted by Bryan Burroughs, director of the Tisch Summer High School Acting Workshop in Dublin.)

Winners of the 61st Emmy Awards, held at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles last night, had its share of New York University Tisch School of the Arts alumni. The winners are:

CREATIVE EMMY AWARD WINNERS
Outstanding Art Direction for Variety, Music or Nonfiction Programming 2008 MTV Video Music Awards • MTV
Star Theodos Kahn '99/'02 (BFA/MFA, Design)

Outstanding Art Direction For A Multi-Camera Series
How I Met Your Mother • ShelterIsland • Not A Father's Day • CBS • 20th Century Fox Television
Stephan G. Olson '87 (MFA, Design), Production Designer

Outstanding Art Direction For A Miniseries Or Movie
Grey Gardens • HBO • Specialty Films and Locomotive in association with HBO Films
Kalina Ivanov '83/'89 (BFA/MFA, F&TV/Design), Production Designer

Outstanding Single‐Camera Picture Editing For A Miniseries Or A Movie
Taking Chance • HBO • Motion Picture Corporation of American and Civil Dawn Pictures in association with HBO Films
Brian A. Kates '94 (BFA, F&TV), Editor

Outstanding Short Form Picture Editing
Stand Up To Cancer • ABC/CBS/NBC • Laura Ziskin Productions & Seligman Entertainment Inc.
Andy Grieve '00 (BFA, F&TV), Editor

Outstanding Sound Editing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special
Generation Kill • The Cradle Of Civilization • HBO • Company Pictures and Blown Deadline Productions in association with HBO Films
Jennifer Ralston, MPSE '95 (BFA, F&TV), Supervising ADR Editor

Outstanding Cinematography For Nonfiction Programming
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations • Laos • Travel Channel • Zero Point Zero Production, Inc.
Todd Liebler '85 (BFA, F&TV), Camera

Outstanding Writing For Nonfiction Programming
Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired • HBO • Milwood Pictures, Graceful Pictures, BBC, Antidote Films in association with HBO Documentary Films and ThinkFilm
Joe Bini '86 (BFA, F&TV), Writer

Outstanding Reality Program
Intervention • A&E • Produced by GRB Entertainment for A&E Network
Jeff Grogan '96 (BFA, DDW), Supervising Producer

PRIMETIME EMMY AWARD WINNERS
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series
30 Rock • NBC • Broadway Video, Little Stranger, Inc. in association with Universal
Media Studios
Alec Baldwin ’94 (BFA, Drama)
Jack Donaghy

Photo courtesy of The New York Times.

Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Series
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart • Comedy Central • Central Productions, LLC
Steve Bodow ’95 (MPS, ITP)
Head Writer

David Javerbaum ’95 (MFA, MTW)
Writer

Elliott Kalan ’03 (BFA, DDW)
Writer

Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart • Comedy Central • Central Productions, LLC
David Javerbaum ’95 (MFA, MTW)
Writer

On Wednesday, September 24 several alumni of the Tisch Special Programs study abroad program in Havana, Cuba had the opportunity to reunite with a very special visitor to New York.

Helmo Hernandez, President of the Ludwig Foundation in Havana, is in town for the month and the event was a chance for alumni of the program to reconnect and reminisce with Helmo and fellow alumni. Helmo is an art historian and specialist in visual arts, theatre, and cultural policy and development; curator and critic. He teaches classes to our students at the foundation which serves as a hub for young artists who study, display their work, and network there.

The Office of Special Programs hosted the event here on the 12th floor of 721 Broadway and all who attended were thrilled to get a chance to meet with their Cuban mentor and discuss the unique country's life and art and their time in the program.

You can read more about the Ludwig Foundation here and about the study abroad program in Havana here.

Ian James, Adjunct Professor, Spring at Tisch, Tisch Summer Program, seven time Emmy winner, discusses the experience of the beginning writer and the value of the writer in the world.

Tisch Alum Antonio Campos' Afterschool is set to open October 1st in Theaters and On-Demand via IFC Films. You can watch the trailer for this provocative film below. Go to IFC Films site for more information about Afterschool.

Tisch Alum Cédric Klapisch's Paris is currently playing in Theaters and On-Demand via IFC Films. You can watch the trailer below. Go to IFC Films site for more information about Paris.

Tisch Special Programs is hosting an open house this Thursday in the Riese Family Common Room at 721 Broadway. Join Us!

Tisch School of the Arts has performing and cinematic arts programs for all NYU students. All NYU undergraduate and graduate students are invited to learn more about cross-registration courses, minors, and study abroad opportunities for non-majors. Fall, spring, and summer opportunities are available.

Check out photos and videos produced by students, get help with your application, and enjoy light refreshments!

For more information about Tisch Special Programs, call 212-998-1517 or visit http://specialprograms.tisch.nyu.edu/page/home.html.