loved collaborative writing, and how much better a script can be made by writing in this way.” Oliva, along with cohort classmates Bryan Pauquette and Jordan Freiman (also Class of 2014), enjoyed the teamwork aspect so much they formed Covert Bacon, a digital media company that produces comedic web series and other digital video content, including a TVWS commercial available on the website tvwritersstuio.com. In less than two years they have built a network of filmmakers, actors, producers, and writers and produced six episodic web series, two of which were honored as official selections at the 2015 Los Angeles Web Festival and HollyWeb Festival. Together for the full two-year arc of the TVWS program, the cohorts form close working relationships and have many opportunities to pursue projects outside of the coursework that an individual writer couldn’t accomplish alone. “If you want to shoot a video or a web series you have a built-in group of people who will give up their time because they believe in your project and have your back,” said Joanna McKee, a TVWS first-year.
Access Hollywood “TVWS doesn’t do traditional lectures and homework,” said alumnus Bryan Pauquette ’14, “it puts you right in the fire. Diving right into it really expedites the learning curve.” In addition to teaching a specialty no one else is offering in a uniquely experiential way, students also have unparalleled access to the world of professional television and film production. Students report to work in the TVWS writers room at Steiner Studios, the largest film and television production studio complex outside of Hollywood.
28
SPRING 2015 | LIU MAGAZINE
“This program broke open a part of New York that I didn’t know was accessible to me,” said Aidan Daley-Hines ’13. “Being able to go to work at Steiner Studios every day was a type of access I didn’t imagine for myself.” Instead of lectures and homework, Steinberg calls upon his bulging rolodex of friends in the industry—many of whom he gave their start—to offer advice, mentorship, insight, and a look behind the scenes of major television productions, including a recent video conference with Executive Producer Warren Littlefield from the North Dakota set of the Emmy Award-winning FX drama, Fargo. “This program is about learning how to be a professional in this business. So I bring in people like Tom Purcell, who was an executive producer on The Colbert Report and is going with Stephen to CBS, and he says to them, ‘You want a job? here’s what you have to do,’ and gives them an assignment to write an opening segment for the show. We also had the head of development for Amazon Studios, Joe Lewis, who developed Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle, to talk to them about new opportunities in online streaming,” said Steinberg. About the common myth that you have to go to Los Angeles to make it in the TV and film industry, Steinberg admits a lot of his friends and former students do go to Hollywood, but, he said, “if you stay in New York you’ll become a better writer.” “Here you are assaulted, buffeted by what New York is—the energy, the pulse of it. L.A. is a nice place, comfortable, but it has no pulse. It doesn’t give you inspiration. Most of the ideas out there are not impassioned, but about money—studios are only making films with the word ‘Man’ in them. Even just
the street life here—there’s no bumping into each other in L.A. There’s no grit. You have to have abrasion to make pearls.”
Script, Shoot, Sell During the second year of TVWS the Cohort operates as a production team, each taking on roles with the mission of designing, casting, staging, and shooting a professional trailer or “sizzle-reel” of their pilot script. In January 2014, Steinberg’s friend Jonathan Frakes, best known for his role as Commander William T. Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation, directed the Cohort II script “OSS,” a World War II spy drama. The TVWS students utilized the historical architecture of the LIU Post campus as their setting and transformed Lorber Hall into an active set to shoot their script. Gina Massaro, an LIU Post alumna who received a B.F.A. in Film in 2012 before earning an M.F.A. in Writing and Producing for Television from LIU Brooklyn in 2014, (in interviews with The Pioneer and Newsday during production of “OSS”), said that the experience of producing the pilot exposed them to what it’s like to work on a real set. “During production and pre-production I learned a lot of skills, especially in casting, dealing with agents, managers, auditions, booking talent, running sessions,” she said. Frakes told Newsday that working with the TVWS cohort was a “fabulous experience.” He said it reminded him the kind of experience that he had when he first started in the industry. “Everyone’s energized, everyone’s excited,” Frakes said. And that’s exactly what Steinberg hoped for. “This has been an incredible life. I want to pass it on.”