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Home » New City Effort on Training for Film and TV Production Work

New City Effort on Training for Film and TV Production Work

Law & Order's Anthony Anderson with Mayor Bloomberg on the set. Photo credit: The Mayor's office

A press conference on the set of Law & Order the longest running TV show in history (okay, it’s tied with Gunsmoke at 20 years) debuted a plan to train women, minorities, and struggling New Yorkers for jobs in film and TV production.

Of course It’s just part of a politician’s nature to take to center stage when it’s time to announce a new jobs training program, and Mayor Bloomberg did just that. Well, you couldn’t get him away from the podium actually, as he introduced a series of short talks by those involved. Set in one of the court rooms of Silver Screen Studios at Chelsea Piers, the ‘Made in NY’ Production Crafts Training Program, it seems, had the requisite send-off. (You can read more about it here.)

The stage got pretty crowded, with nine others jammed in front of L&O’s faux courtroom set as the mayor held forth at the rostrum. Those taking part included MOFTB commissioner Katherine Oliver, Katy Finch (Production Director for the trial period of the new program, to be managed by Brooklyn Workforce Innovations), John Ford (president of IATSE’s Studio Mechanics Local 52), representatives from International Cinematographers Guild Local 600, and actor Anthony Anderson from the TV series, who obviously didn’t have far to go to attend.

Guest instructors will teach other skills such as operation in the grip department. All participating trainees will be provided with

The idea? Provide grip training, e.g. rigging and dolly operation, to “persons of color, women, veterans and economically struggling New Yorkers”. At the end of the yearlong course, a year of job placement assistance is promised.

A pretty tall order, and just 10 or so slots for the first year, but of course this is just the sort of effort a city government can take on, but have rarely bothered about in the past under other administrations. Score one for Bloomberg, who seems energized on the issue; perhaps he’s embracing entrepreneur-in-chief for his last term as an antidote to the lackluster response by the electorate revealed in the last election.

City council president Christine Quinn couldn’t attend, but it was made known the council pushed for this new effort after a 2006 study–the Mayor’s Task Force on Diversity in Film, Television and Commercial Production–found few women and minorities in the city’s prosperous if tightly controlled unions.

While commissioner Oliver spotted the program as part of “ongoing efforts to encourage diversity in the local entertainment workforce”, it also takes on a wider aspect as part of various initiatives to bolster the city’s role in media production and management.

I had a chance to get a question in, and it resulted in a bit of a curious response. Addressing it to union head John Ford, I asked if such a program didn’t amount to slicing the piece of film-and-video production into smaller sections—wouldn’t his union membership be less than thrilled at the prospect?

The gist of Ford’s response was that the folks in his union—the main one all this new crowd would attempt to join–were on such a high level of competency as to make the chances of anyone from this new group getting in anytime soon pretty slim. Hmmm. Didn’t that sound like the same old closed union?

Okay, he didn’t say all that so directly. But it was telling that the Mayor immediately jumped in to elaborate, saying that that the employment situation wouldn’t stay the same, for he was there to “grow that slice” of the entertainment pie/dollar/whatever that the city garners.

Remembering my early days in production and hearing how difficult it was to break into any of the craft unions, let’s see if the new effort can bring about some welcome change.

About Dan Ochiva

New York City-based journalist and NYCPPNEWS founder Dan Ochiva writes and consults on film, video, and digital media technology.

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Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

NJ – Governor Murphy signs $14B Incentive Program Bill – the NJ Economic Recovery Act of 2020

 Film tax credits — amending existing programs to include provisions for so-called New Jersey film partners and New Jersey film-lease partners and allowing an additional $200 million of tax credits annually over 13 years.

Click this link if you want to read the full article on the Lexology site. http://bit.ly/35NtDx6

Film Commish announces date for production restart

In her December 18, 2020 news update, MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo announced that the Film Office is now accepting permit applications for production activity that begins on July 27th.

She also announced awards now (Awkwafina) and more. To read all of the Film Commish’s bloggy sort of news column, click here.

Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

If you want to start production, here’s the latest news from the Mayor’s Office

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Nikon to Stop Making Cameras in Japan

Nikon has fallen on hard times as of late as its camera sales have cratered, and now there’s a new indicator of how dire its financial situation is: the company is reportedly pulling the plug on making cameras in Japan after over 70 years of doing so.

To read the full article on Petapixel’s site, click here.

NVIDIA Uses AI to Slash Bandwidth on Video Calls

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

 

 

 

Union Health Plan Dodges Film Workers’ Suit Over Virus Relief

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Russo Brothers Received Close to $50 Million From Saudi Bank

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.

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