The New York Film Academy was recently a sponsor of the Producers Guild of America 3rd Annual Produced By: New York Conference. Reaching across film, television and new media, the Produced By Conference is an educational forum conducted by acclaimed producers, including numerous Oscar and Emmy Award winners, as well as the next generation of creative entrepreneurs. Held at New York City’s Time Warner Center, a group of NYFA Producing Students, along with Producing Chair Neal Weisman and Producing Admissions Representative Sal Irizarry, participated in panel sessions and guest speaker presentations featuring a wide spectrum of industry professionals.
Those attending heard from producer-actor hyphenates as Tina Fey, Chris Rock, Matt Damon, and the producers of current and upcoming projects like “Jackie,” “Manchester by the Sea,” “Hidden Figures,” “Loving,” “Madame President,” “The Young Pope,” and “Silicon Valley.” Some of the more popular panel topics included: The Future of Producing, It’s Show(runner) Time, TV Today: Embracing the Second Screen, Using A Life To Tell A Story: When Real Life Becomes Fiction, and The Future of Producing.
A special feature of this year’s Conference was the appearance of NYFA Producing instructor Mark Lindsay. His foreign sales experience was highlighted in the Demystifying the Money: Straight Talk About Film Financing panel discussion, led by frequent NYFA Industry Speaker and film finance expert John Hadity.
This is the second Produced By: New York Conference sponsored by NYFA. The Producing Department is one of the few programs in the New York City area whose students are eligible to participate in the PGA East Student Membership Program. This two-year program gives highly- motivated students currently enrolled in a producing-focused degree or certificate program the unique opportunity to become part of their own PGA community by attending regular meetings, creating and supporting events, networking with peers, receiving invitations to PGA events and screenings, and sharing and advancing their knowledge of film (scripted & documentary), television, and new media.