Fusion Film Festival

Celebrating women in TV, Film & New Media

News & Updates

JOIN THE PARTY! – Mark Your Calendars for Friday 9/26 7p.m.

joinstaffnow_recruitmentparty_COVERPHOTO

You’re Invited!

Eat. Network. Join the Staff. And have a grand time.

RSVP HERE

Who are we? We’re the premiere student-run organization that celebrates women in film, tv, & new media. We do THREE big things:

  1. Put on the annual 3-day Fusion Film Festival (February 26-28th, 2015) with advance screenings, writer/producer/director/DP panels, & a kick-ass Student Film Competition.
  2. Host monthly events like our Coffee With Series (intimate convo with artists & execs), cool workshops, and advanced screenings.
  3. Promote submissions to our Student Competition (industry professionals judge the films, and then there’s a big screening and awards ceremony at the Festival).

There are 2 Tiers of FUSION Membership:

  1. FUSION STAFF: work within a department (Programming, Marketing, Design, Sponsorship, Event Management, PR, Web Design, Editorial, Finance) and make this Festival happen.
    (a year-round position. applications coming soon).
  2. FESTIVAL VOLUNTEER: work the Festival in February and get priority to Fusion’s monthly events.

Come out and let us tell you more about what we do & why we do it FRIDAY SEPT. 26th at 7 p.m. in the Riese Lounge, 1st Floor, 721 Broadway (Tisch).

All good things,
Lucy, Natalie, & Nicole
Co-Directors
Fusion Film Festival

p.s. did we mention we’re an Allied Partner of the Sundance Institute Women’s Initiative? Casual.

HELLION: In select theaters and on demand

Writer/director Kat Candler’s Hellion paints the powerful portrait of a family on the brink of dissolution set against the haunting backdrop of the refineries of Southeast Texas.

Obsessed with heavy metal, dirt bike racing and partaking in the occasional act of vandalism with his band of delinquents, the behavior of 13-year-old Jacob Wilson (Josh Wiggins) has begun to raise concerns around town, especially when it starts to involve his younger brother Wes (Deke Garner). While the boys’ father Hollis (Aaron Paul) loves his sons, he is still reeling from the loss of their mother, spending more time drowning his sorrows at the local bar and working on his damaged beach house than being an active parent.

When the local authorities catch wind of the increasingly volatile situation, Wes is taken into custody by his Aunt Pam (Juliette Lewis), leaving Jacob and Hollis to fend for themselves. In Wes’ absence, Jacob becomes increasingly obsessed with two things: winning a local motocross championship and getting his brother back.

With a scorching central performance by Wiggins and heart-wrenchingly raw turns by Paul and Lewis, Hellion is impossible to shake. Executive Produced by Jeff Nichols (Mud) and Sarah Green (The Tree of Life).

Click the image below to watch the trailer:

Blog_Hellion_trailer

“Hellion is an exceptionally authentic feature from writer/director Kat Candler, based on her lauded short film that screened at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Fueled by a commanding performance from Aaron Paul as Hollis, robust support from Juliette Lewis and Deke Garner, and a star-making turn by Josh Wiggins as Jacob, Hellion is as disturbing as it is powerful.” – D.C.

“Lyrical doesn’t have to be quiet and atonal. With Hellion, Kat Candler proves heavy metal works too… Hellion is beautiful and harrowing. [Wiggins] is a revelation, reminiscent of a teenage Leonardo DiCaprio in his breakout role in This Boy’s Life.”– Lindsey Bahr, Entertainment Weekly

“An artful exploration of small-town America’s working poor that packs a real emotional punch.”– Scott Foundas, Variety

First Fusion 2014 Winner Announced – Media Services Honors Katelyn Rebelo with “Rising Star Award”

There is truly some amazing work being done by the freshmen at NYU and each year we at Fusion partner with Media Services to recognize a female film student whose stunning work in these intro level classes foreshadows an inspiring and innovative career. Media Services graciously honors this student each year with some amazing software to help put such a career in motion, including Showbiz Budgeting & Actualization and Showbiz Producer. This top-of-the-line software from Media Services applies seamlessly to both big-budget, independent, and student projects, making it the perfect fit for students with big plans on the horizon as well as personal projects they want to bring to life.

This year Fusion and Media Services bestow this amazing prize and honor on Katelyn Rebelo for her breathtaking, and even delightfully unnerving, piece Sort. As a rising freshman Katelyn has already found a unique voice and style that has driven her to create hauntingly beautiful work whilst stripped down to the bare basics of photographs and some needle and thread.

Come see Katelyn’s amazing work and her acceptance of this magnificent achievement at Fusion’s Student Showcase and Award Ceremony on Saturday, March 8th at 6:30PM at the Cantor Film Center. Click HERE for more information on Media Services and their line of Showbiz Software.

By Danielle Massie

To The Moon and Back With More: Emma Thatcher, 2013 Docs-In-The-Works Finalist Completes Feature

Fusion Film Festival is often the starting grounds for future projects and Emma Thatcher’s experience has been a prime example of that. She was a finalist in the 2012 documentary pitch category and has just completed the film she pitched, To the Moon. A recent Tisch graduate, this documentary is Emma’s first feature film.

To the Moon follows 18 college students and graduates biking from San Francisco, CA to Amherst, MA to visit various cooperative businesses. Emma says that “on one level, it is a film about cooperation, sustainability and adventure,” but her and her team did not want it to become an educational film about co-ops; instead, they focused more on their individual subjects and their personal, emotional journeys. Their goal of this film is to initiate conversations and “highlight the importance of dedication and innovation to demonstrate change in action,” especially in this era of active blogging and in the midst of college-aged uncertainty.

Emma had a very unique Fusion experience. The semester her pitch was part of the festival, she was actually studying abroad. She had her producers pitch the film and relied on them to relay any feedback the pitch received. Despite the distance and consequent obstacles, Emma still felt “very drawn to [Fusion’s] mission” and “welcomed by all involved” in the festival. She acknowledges the importance of community in the art world and the festival is great source of that, both within NYU and beyond. Naturally, connecting with Fusion again stems from her wanting “to share the final product with the people who provided so much advice and support.” And Fusion is equally glad to celebrate To the Moon with Emma.

Currently, Emma is working with two of her Tisch peers, Nino Chichua and Anita Gou, at a film collective the three founded. They created Open Harbor Pictures with a mission to make international documentaries. Their next project, “Alcohol,” is a look at how alcohol is consumed around the world and will explore its political, social, and emotional charges.

Learn more about Emma’s documentary HERE and follow her film collective’s work HERE. Support more documentaries that may become realities by attending this year’s Docs-In-The-Works on Friday, March 7th at 3 pm in Tisch Theatre 006.

By Amanda Saiewitz

“Comedians in Cars Getting Wired”: More Amazing Prizes From Our Sponsors at Gotham Sound

We at Fusion are very excited to inform contestants, festival enthusiasts, and fellow Fusionites alike of more amazing news from our sponsors – Gotham Sound has teamed up with the festival again to sponsor some incredible prizes. The company has generously offered five $200 certificates with a donation value of $1,000.

Gotham Sound and Communications, Inc. is the ideal one-stop audio shopping and service experience. The company’s services range from equipment rental to equipment repair. In addition to its up-to-date stock and talented technicians, Gotham’s knowledgeable staff is on hand to provide insightful advice. Whether a major studio film or a student project, Gotham Sound and Communications, Inc. is dedicated to providing reliable, expert support. Check out this real-life scenario, straight from the Gotham blogs, to see just how Gotham tools can aid you in resourceful filmmaking:

“Suppose you have a certain high profile talent who has a kooky idea for a show. He wants to take classic cars, pick ­up other high profile talent, drive them around the city (stopping at various locations), treat them to coffee, and drive them back home – all while seamlessly recording their entire conversation, without having a sound person present in the car as it zips around New York.

What would you do?

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

This is exactly the scenario presented to Gotham when director Jojo Pennebaker called us in 2012 about Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. The stipulations were that it had to be seamless, it had to be unobtrusive, and there had to be total coverage – with no retakes. Lucky for us, Zaxcom wireless provide a unique feature set that allowed us to accomplish exactly this.”

Read more on how Gotham met the challenge of the in-car-mike on Gotham’s blog.

For Fusion winners, Gotham is an incredibly useful tool in creating independent projects. The rental inventory is diverse enough for any sized project and budget, from an Intermediate Narrative production to a first feature. Getting an independent project underway can be difficult, but the support of Gotham and their technical wizards can make the entire process a great deal easier, just like they did for Jerry Seinfeld.

Be sure to attend the Student Showcase and Award Ceremony at Cantor Film Center on Saturday, March 8th at 7pm to find out who will win this great prize.

By Amanda Saiewitz

Last Call for 2014 Submissions (Ending the 30th at Midnight) & New Amazing Prizes Courtesy of VideoBlocks and GraphicStock!

As Fusion submissions for the 2014 festival enters its final countdown don’t miss out on the amazing opportunity to join the Fusion community (not to mention the chance to win some fantastic prizes). VideoBlocks and GraphicStock have generously offered a one year unlimited download membership to VideoBlocks.com worth almost $1000 as well as a one year unlimited subscription to GraphicStock.com worth $500!

VideoBlocks has provided stunning, award-winning stock footage to every major network and cable channel, as well as to independent and student filmmakers, for over 10 years. They stand today as the industry’s top choice for royalty free motion backgrounds, production music, sound effects, After Effects templates and stock footage. Their proud partner, GraphicStock, provides unlimited downloads to royalty free graphics, images, icons, buttons, textures, and backgrounds, perfect for launching the site of a web-series or film start-up campaign. GraphicStock has provided over 2,928,000 graphic downloads to date.

Submit today and embrace the opportunity to have your work celebrated amongst your peers, your mentors, as well as industry legends while launching your career with life-long connections and creatively prolific prizes!

By Danielle Massie

Fusion Alums Lauren Ciaravalli and Misha Green Attend Sundance Institute’s Women In Film Finance Forum

On November 12th, 2013 the Sundance Institute held a one-day finance forum in Los Angeles with their allied partners of the Women in Films Initiative to give accomplished female writers, directors, and producers an overview of current film financing models. Through extensive panels on what investors search for in today’s market, case-studies on film financing successes, and training on how to garner confidence while raising money for a film, Sundance and WIF sought to challenge what they uncovered in their startling 2012 case study. The study, authored by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, analyzed over 30,000 data points over 11 years and concluded that independent narrative films rely almost entirely on a male-operated structure, female-helmed projects are perceived to lack commercial viability, and women are often viewed as lacking conviction when requesting film financing. The forum set out whole-heartedly to challenge these findings and the reflections and speeches given at the event by Ciaravalli and Green show the great strides female filmmakers are making in producing their own films and festivals at an early level.

Misha Green directed three well-received short films during her time at NYU Tisch and won the Fusion Film Festival competition for her short screenplay In Between Days. Misha went on the produce In Between Days as a digital short for Nylon Magazine, sign with CAA, and write and produce for multiple hit television series, including “Sons of Anarchy” and “Heroes.” Misha is currently working on adapting Colleen Curran’s “Whores on the Hill” as her directorial debut.

Lauren Ciaravalli graduated from Tisch just last year and was one of the co-directors of the Fusion Film Festival as well as a winner for her Sight & Sound film, Mrs. Sheridan, her short screenplay, Tryouts, and her TV pilot script, The Hilltop. She recently created and sold the dramedy web-series Max + Max for PetParents TV and completed her second short film, Dream Date.  Lauren now lives in Los Angeles as she begins her career in scripted television as an assistant at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment.

As a strong leader and participant in the festival, Lauren presented the mission and methods of Fusion to celebrate both the accomplishments of women in the film industry and foster collaboration of the sexes before the forum. Lauren thanked many of the female industry mavens in the room, particularly those from our mentors at the Nantucket Film Festival for supporting the growth of Fusion in our efforts to honor everything the Women in Films Initiative stands for.

By Danielle Massie

Fusion: A Proud Partner of Sundance Film Festival’s Women Filmmakers Initiative

Though undeniable strides have been made in the last 50 years in the realm of women’s rights, the film and television industry has unfortunately lagged behind. The Fusion Film Festival has teamed up with other film festivals and institutions to remedy this lag. There were a total of 3,879 feature films submitted to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Of those, a meager 16.9% listed female directors. Keri Putnam, the Executive Director of the Sundance Institute was quoted as saying “…What we’ve already found is that if statistics tell us a story, the story being told about women filmmakers today needs work.”

To combat this gender discrepancy, the Sundance Institute and Women in Film have partnered up in the hopes of promoting secure careers in the film field for women. The Women Filmmakers Initiative was thus born.

In getting The Women Filmmakers Initiative on its feet, the Sundance Institute collaborated with USC Annenberg by jointly researching the prevalence of women in the film industry. The Initiative has aligned with many other innovative partners such as the AFI Conservatory, Athena Film Festival, Paley Center for Media, PGA, and Women Make Movies among others. The chief aim for The Women Filmmakers Initiative in garnering information was to determine just what the first areas of concern to be addressed should be. In the end, four main goals for the 2012 year were stated as primary areas of focus: Mentorship, Finance Education, Training, and Access and Raising Awareness, and Facilitating Collaboration.

Women in Film and the Sundance Initiative hosted a one-day Forum on November 12, 2013 to provide female writers, directors, and producers in the film industry with current film financing models, information on what investors are seeking, and information on examples of properly financed films. The conference also provided information about how to have more confidence necessary when fundraising for a film project. Fusion’s Allied Partner status to the Initiative granted Fusion the opportunity to send a filmmaker/fellow to attend the Forum. Tisch UGFTV alum Misha Green attended in this position. Additionally Lauren Ciaravalli, a previous Fusion co-director, attended the Forum in the role of spokesperson and spoke about Fusion’s history at the Paley Center for New Media in Los Angeles.

As a part of The Women Filmmakers Initiative, various schools of status within the entertainment realms have been named Allied Partners of this initiative. As NYU’s very own Fusion Film Festival continues to grow, it has had the honor of being named an Allied Partner as another step towards gender equality in the film industry. Putnam has been quoted saying, “Sundance Institute has long believed in the value of diverse storytellers contributing to a vibrant culture.” Undoubtedly, this Mentorship Program is just another step closer to achieving the ultimate goal of diverse vibrancy in storytelling culture.

By Elizabeth Groth

Jen Danielson of SNL’s Above Average to Judge New Web-Series Category

With the deadline for Fusion submissions fast approaching (January 30th to be exact) the team has some exciting news to share about our newest category: Jen Danielson, Head of Content for SNL’s web-series platform Above Average, will be judging the web-series category. Starting out as a young up-and-coming associate producer for SNL’s Broadway Video and becoming an associate producer on both 30 Rock and Mean Girls, Danielson continues to carve out a bold position for female comedians and innovators by guiding the development of multiple female-driven web-series.

Requirements for submitting a series to Fusion include creation or co-creation by a woman, meaning a female show runner, head writer, cinematographer, or director. This new category reflects the rise of the web series as a successful and popular mode of filmmaking. And Fusion is not the only organization recognizing its significance; the Producer’s Guild of America created an Outstanding Digital Series award in 2011, which still continues to welcome all creative web series.

Fusions’ new category comes in the wake of successful work being done by women filmmakers and artists on the web. The online hit “Broad City” is a shining example of this; Comedy Central picked up a 10-episode run of the scripted comedy starring Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer. The web series turned television show counts Amy Poehler among its producers. The unique work by women is evident in many other web series, too. Check out Elaine Carroll’s “Very Mary Kate,” Sasheer Zamata and Nicole Byer’s “Pursuit of Sexiness,” and a slew of others. Female created/co-created series are taking over the online platform of filmmaking—and that’s a good thing!

Participants can submit up to three entries per category and can submit to as many categories as desired. Applications and more submission details can be found HERE. Finalists for all categories will be announced on February 17th.

Categories in this year’s film festival also include Animation, Docs-in-the-Works, Undergraduate Film, Graduate Film, Undergraduate Short Screenplay, Graduate Short Screenplay, Undergraduate Feature Screenplay, Graduate Feature Screenplay, Rising Star (for freshmen only), Sight and Sound, and Web Series. Rules and necessary information can be found within the applications.

By Amanda Saiewitz

Final Draft 9 Announced as Prize for Fusion’s Screenwriting Competition Categories

Thanks to the amazing generosity of Final Draft, Fusion is proud to announce that Final Draft 9 will be included in the prize packages for the Undergraduate and Graduate short and feature categories.

Final Draft 9 is the number-one selling screenwriting software in the world and a favorite of James Cameron, JJ Abrams, and Aaron Sorkin. Final Draft consistently sets the industry standard for screenwriting, offering the preferred file format of the Writers Guild of America West Online Script Registration. The software offers over 100 templates for formatting screenplays, teleplays, and stage plays and can create identical script versions on all Macintosh, Windows, and Final Draft Writer® app for iPad formats.

Smooth, well-crafted software can elevate your art and can even be considered art itself, Final Draft 9 proudly receiving the Primetime Engineering Emmy® Award in 2013. Click HERE for more information on Final Draft.

Release your passion and creativity into words and SUBMIT to Fusion Film Festival before the fast-approaching January 30th deadline for a chance to let your stories flow freely through Final Draft 9.

By Danielle Massie/span>