The New York Film Academy's Musical Theatre and Film Conservatory has announced new awards and screenings of two original movie musical short films.
Lifeless #BeingKindaDeadSortaSucks is already making a splash with its Award of Excellence at Indie Fest and is an official selection for many festivals including Big Apple Film Festival, Terror Film Festival, Rumschpringe Int'l Film Festival, and Thriller! Chiller! Film Festival. Everybody Dies Film Festival, which will also feature the film in October, had this to say about Lifeless, "...a short film that's a healthy dose of GLEE with a dusting of DEATH BECOMES HER and a sprinkling of DAWN OF THE DEAD and a dash of HEATHERS."
"About three years ago, I was invited to create an innovative training program for musical theatre and film at the New York Film Academy and insisted that it must be a holistic approach to fabulous acting training for both stage and screen," said Musical Theatre and Film Conservatory Chair,
VP Boyle. "I also felt that with the success of behemoths like Moulin Rouge, Chicago, Smash and Glee that we were seeing a wonderful new interest in the musical film genre. Why not develop a program where we would create original movie musicals in an experimental lab specifically tailored to our talented group of rising stars? It became very clear when
Andrew Gerle-winner of 4 Richard Rogers Awards, the Kleban Award and a
Jonathan Larson Award-decided to collaborate on this project that we were far from any typical academic scenario, but rather in the realm of an independent musical short film. Our motto for everything was 'perfect is boring' and so we explored urban themes that were truly relevant to actual twenty-somethings living/surviving in New York City."
VP Boyle, Chair of the program and the writer/director for both movie musicals was interviewed regarding the collaborative process. "We are often asked if these are student films. The answer is no. They are independent short films produced by New York Film Academy for actors preparing to launch their professional career after two years of intensive training by Broadway's best." He adds, "The crew, the creative team and the production is top notch so that we have experienced amazing success while launching some very promising new talent. Ask any writer of a stage musical how crazy you have to be to take on the collaborative task of creating a new musical- you can quadruple it for an original musical film. As a filmmaker, I can't imagine a better experiment in love."
Last year's New York Film Academy production, It Is What It Is, did just that. The original concept, written and directed by
VP Boyle, explores the lives of seven young New Yorkers during a twenty-four hour period of near misses, tattered relationships and crumbling dreams. The film has already won numerous awards, including three awards at the New York International Independent Film Festival for Best Direction Feature Comedy, Best Musical Short, and Best Ensemble Cast Feature Comedy. The film also took home a Special Jury Prize at the 2012 Mexico Film Festival, and was an Honorable Mention at the Los Angeles Movie Awards in 2011.
It Is What It Is can be seen for one more week on New England Film Festival's website at: http://newenglandfilm.com/festival/2012/itiswhatitis.
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