Made in New York Media Center kickoff party: Unite/Create

A strong presence of filmmakers turned out at the kickoff party for the Made in NY Media Center, a project of IFP and NYCEDC. The party was called Unite/Create and was billed as a new monthly meetup for IFP and media center members. Technically Brooklyn was there as a member organization in the coworking space.

In what follows, we have some photos and profiles of people we met as well as a few photos from inside the space.

Katy Yudin recently moved back to Brooklyn, where she grew up, from Amsterdam, where she has been working for Submarine Channel. She has ideas for a documentary on the sharing economy, which led us into a conversation about the plus’s and minus’s of Air BnB‘s efforts to protect its interests in New York State.

Terence Nance is a director and writer working with MVMT, with which he made his new film, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty. The film is in theatrical release in France and the UK now and getting digital distribution here. You can see a preview in the link.

He was there with Chanelle Pearson, who Technically Brooklyn didn’t get to talk to much, but Nance tells us to look forward to her webseries on queer black women in Brooklyn.

Helen O’Reilly speaks with an Irish lilt because she came to Brooklyn from the Emerald Isle after selling her talent search firm there and deciding to pursue a complete career shift in screenwriting. She joined IFP this week and decided to come to the party. She’s already shot the trailer for her Irish Comedy.

Heidi Hysell told us that her “entire career she has worked in entertainment technology in the storytelling realm.” That’s what she’s really passionate about. The story she would not tell us is the startup that she joined the Made in NY Media Center to develop, but she is working on one. She also consults with other startups on their own projects.

If you stop by the center you are likely to see her there. She also lives in the Dumbo neighborhood, so it’s an easy commute.

John Murphy answered a question for us we have always wondered about: what’s the different between a Director of Photography and a Cinematographer? Murphy tells us that it’s nothing to speak of. That’s what he is. Both. Or the same. He lives in Windsor Terrace and ran the shooting for a horror feature called Summit that is in its final stages now.

Steven Arvanites is a screenwriter who created an organization for New York City screenwriters. He’s teaching classes in screenwriting out of the center and just completed a film fellowship. He told us that when he came to join the center, he hadn’t been to Dumbo in 15 years and couldn’t believe how much it had changed.

Here are a few more photos from inside the media center, which is almost always animated with interesting projections on its 360 degree viewing screens at the center of the space.