On Friday, April 23rd, 2010, guest speaker Chris Conley of Gravity Tank spoke to students as a part of Tribeca Flashpoint’s Jumpstart speaker series. 2011 Recording Arts student Andrew Shabat shares his reflections.

“Today, Tribeca Flashpoint students had the opportunity to gather and learn some valuable lessons from entrepreneur, Chris Conley, Co-founder of Gravity Tank.

“Using multiple mediums of presentation, Conley passionately weaved his way through the process of creative innovation in an economic driven society. Looking past his humorous use of an effective multi-media presentation, Conley’s enthusiasm for the creative process proved most note-worthy.

“He made an extremely poignant remark about the difference between ideas and actual product. Many times, for those of us in creative fields, we become consumed in conceptualizing rather than taking the initiative to produce a tangible realization of that idea. Often times, it is not until we have that product staring back at us that we can take the next steps to propel the idea forward. It is at this point that others have a medium beyond just thought, that true collaboration can effectively begin.

“He expressed the need to openly listen to our collaborators so that we can begin to assess the realization of our concepts. Whether these ideas hold economic or social value, nothing can be implemented without the understanding and acceptance of those around us.”

On Monday THUNK, Northwestern University’s premiere a cappella group, visited Tribeca Flashpoint to conduct a recording session with a Recording Arts Studio II Class.

THUNK’s talented young musicians collaborated with our second year recording students to produce 4 tracks for their new album; including covers of Wake Up Call by Maroon 5 and I’m Yours by Jason Mraz. Sales of this album will help to fund THUNK’s bi-annual musical outreach tour to Cape Town, South Africa.

(Video: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=572607542755)

THUNK has travelled the world and recorded their music in many professional studios. They were extremely impressed by Tribeca Flashpoint, not only with the state-of-the-art studio and equipment but also with the professionalism and passion of our student engineers.

On Sunday, April 25th, 2o1o, Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy welcomed actor and Evanston, IL native Jeremy Piven for a PSA shoot to benefit Malaria No More.

Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy congratulates Recording Arts faculty Miguel Kertsman on the release of his new album, Time? What’s Time? A labor of love over 10 years in the making, Time? What’s Time? features collaborations with other artists on three different continents recording in Los Angeles, New York, Vienna, Brazil and Florida’s “Space Coast.”

Upon the album’s release, Mr. Kertsman reflected upon the ways in which the atmosphere and talent at Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy helped to make Time? What’s Time? come together.

“At Flashpoint, not just in one city, but within literally one building, there is so much great energy and potential for collaboration, I found myself engaging with colleagues / friends, and organically orientating the record’s final development to a new direction on its packaging, presentation, and companion content; changing the original plans. I feel very fortunate to have collaborated with [Game & Interactive Media student] Heath Marks, [Film & Broadcast faculty] Killian Heilsberg, [Film & Broadcast student] Ted Wilkinson, [Recording Arts faculty] Bernie Mack, and [Game & Interactive Media faculty] Alan Reck on those final project aspects.

“Words don’t describe how genuinely appreciative I am, and how inspiring it has been working with them, and for that Flashpoint is to be thanked. Needless to say (but I do anyway) [Tribeca Flashpoint] is a fantastic fertile ground for artistic synergies, and cool things to happen, as we all experience practically on a daily basis.”

The physical record, when purchased from www.miguelkertsmanmusic.com, comes with a companion computer game, “Coniclysm” by ZoopTek (a creation of Game & Interactive Media faculty Alan Reck), 8 panels of original images by Tribeca Flashpoint student Heath Marks, a complete booklet, lyrics, and a digital wallpaper gallery of album artwork. The album is also available on Amazon.com, iTunes.com, and at various retail outlets.

• Purchase Miguel Kertsman’s Time? What’s Time? with bonus content
• Watch the music video: “The Calling” from Time? What’s Time?, by Tribeca Flashpoint student Ted Wilkinson

Via The Chicago Tribune

By Mark Caro, Tribune reporter
1:33 p.m. CDT, April 13, 2010

Tribeca is the name of a Lower Manhattan neighborhood, film festival, institute and production company, and now it has a strong Chicago association as well.

That’s because the company founded by actor Robert De Niro, his producing partner Jane Rosenthal and her investor husband Craig Hatkoff has taken a 50 percent interest in the Loop-based two-year digital media vocational school Flashpoint: The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences. The school now will be known as the Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy as it opens a virtual pipeline between the 75,000-square-foot Clark Street facility and Tribeca’s New York headquarters.

“It really means amazing opportunities for our students,” Flashpoint president/CEO Howard Tullman said, noting that his school was “looking for a strategic partner as much as an investor.”

“It’s state of the art,” Rosenthal said of Flashpoint. “It’s really an amazing place. It just happened to be the right fit for what we were looking for.”

Tribeca has been in expansion mode of late, overseeing not only the Tribeca Film Festival (launched in 2002 and running Apr. 21-May 2 this year) but also a virtual version of the festival, a cinema, a production facility and an institute involved in community outreach and education. Rosenthal said her company has worked with middle-school and high-school students before, but Flashpoint represents the first such partnership with an institution for more advanced students.

Built out in a high-rise kitty corner to Daley Plaza, Flashpoint welcomed its first students in September 2007 and has seen its enrollment grow from 110 students to the current 450, Flashpoint Dean Paula Froehle said.

“What Howard has pulled together in a very short period of time, it’s almost hard to believe,” Hatkoff said.

The school takes a contrasting approach to the film program at nearby Columbia College, which offers a traditional four-year liberal arts degree. Flashpoint is a two-year immersive program designed to prepare students, college age or older, for work in the digital media world.

Local-based filmmaker Harold Ramis has close ties to Columbia College, and also appears in Flashpoint’s promotional materials. He said he still values a four-year liberal arts education, but he’s also impressed with Flashpoint.

“It’s a really cool facility,” Ramis said. Calling Tribeca an institution that “does things right,” he added, “I can’t imagine this is a moneymaking enterprise for them, but as a pipeline for talent and well-trained students, it’s probably a good thing.”

To Rosenthal and Hatkoff, the partnership is less about bringing Flashpoint students into the Tribeca fold than boosting an industry in a state of wild flux.

“I’ve been in the industry for over 25 years, and I’ve never seen the industry change more,” Rosenthal said. “The jobs and the skills (needed) are changing dramatically, and you need to stay forward thinking. The students that do come out of this program will help us keep our industry healthy.”

Hatkoff cited a question posed by a Gates Foundation report: “How do we prepare students for jobs that don’t yet exist?” Flashpoint, Hatkoff said, is poised to do just that.

Tullman said he envisions Tribeca Flashpoint students getting involved in various aspects of the film festival, such as working with filmmakers and helping them develop marketing materials and trailers. (Flashpoint students already have done such work on projects such as “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” distributed by Chicago’s Music Box Films.)

Rosenthal said the specifics of the interplay have yet to be determined. “It’s too soon to say what students at Tribeca Flashpoint will be doing at Tribeca,” she said. “If students have the opportunity to work at Tribeca and if we have the opportunity to work with students, that will be fantastic.”

mcaro@tribune.com

Flashpoint Academy President and CEO Howard Tullman touches on topics ranging from the origins of Flashpoint to admissions requirements to Flashpoint’s first graduating class.

Click HERE for video.

Flashpoint Academy proudly congratulates first year Game & Interactive Media Development student Emily Greenquist on her selection as one of the Illinois Technology Foundation’s 50 for the Future, honoring Illinois’ most promising technology students.