The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the second year’s class of its Young Entertainment Professionals (YEP) Program. The announcement came during the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers®(SMPTE®) 2017 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition (SMPTE 2017) last week in Hollywood. Sponsored by the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) and SMPTE, YEP was created to encourage worthy individuals to follow a career in the media content industry by supporting them with connection, mentoring and community. The inaugural YEP class of 2016 recently finished the year-long program and will continue to be involved in HPA and SMPTE activities.
Aspiring YEPs were asked to complete an application outlining their interests in the content creation industry and their career goals and solicit a recommendation from a supervisor. The YEP program was incubated by HPA’s Women in Post YEP Advisory Committee, co-chaired by Kari Grubin and Loren Nielsen. Nielsen commented, “We received an incredible pool of applicants for the program, just as we did last year, matched by a strong outpouring of support from individuals and companies in the community. It has been an honor to spend time with our first class over the past year, and the Women in Post Committee and HPA are delighted to have the opportunity to get acquainted with the new class.”
The 2017 YEP class, 23 young men and women between the ages of 21 and 35, hail from states across the US and abroad. They hold responsible creative and technical posts at studios, facilities, and tech companies, and in some cases are accomplished individuals from outside of the industry.
The 2017 YEP Class
Adam Haracz, Alee Caldwell, Andrea Wolanin, Ben Narich, Cheryl Lee, Chris Visser, Clarence Deng, David Whitten, Drew Law, Elliot Hartley, Ethar El-Katatney, Jaclyn Pytlarz, Jiayi Wang, Leah Winter, Lina Sanchez, Lindsey Townley, Masahiko Fox, Michael Scotti, Molly Speacht, Sana Saeed, Stephanie Haas, Stephen Castro, Tomas Del Razo Perez
The first day for the 2017 YEP class included a mentoring lunch with the YEP Committee members, HPA President Seth Hallen, SMPTE-HPA Executive Director Barbara Lange and SMPTE President Matthew Goldman. As part of the YEP program, the class spent a day at the SMPTE ATC. Over lunch, YEP participants split into mentored roundtables led by industry leaders from studios, major vendors and manufacturers. As part of a larger HPA mentorship initiative, mentors will have an ongoing relationship with the class.
Kari Grubin, co-chair of the WIP YEP committee, commented “As the pace of technological change accelerates, young professionals face the challenge of developing a career without the clearly defined paths that previous generations have been able to follow. YEP helps them develop mentorship relationships with individuals who have built successful careers. We believe that the connections that are fostered by the YEP program will be an invaluable step in the professional development of the class.”
In closing the day, Hallen noted “It’s a real two-way street. We offer connection and experts and access. In return, the mentors and HPA are given invaluable insight into the next generation of our industry. They are smart, inventive and have shown us so much. We’re all excited to begin the next class.”
For further information, visit http://hpaonline.com.
About the Hollywood Professional Association
Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) serves the professional community of businesses and individuals who provide expertise, support, tools and the infrastructure for the creation and finishing of motion pictures, television, commercials, digital media and other dynamic media content. Through their partnership with the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE®), the leaderin the advancement of the art, science and craft of the image, sound, and metadata ecosystem, theHPA continues to extend its support of the community it represents. Information about the HPA is available at www.hpaonline.com.
About the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE®)
For the past 100 years, the people of the Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers (SMPTE, pronounced “simp-tee”) have sorted out the details of many significant advances in entertainment technology, from the introduction of “talkies” and color television to HD and UHD (4K, 8K) TV. Since its founding in 1916, the Society has earned an Oscar® and multiple Emmy® Awards for its work in advancing moving-imagery education and engineering across the communications, technology, media, and entertainment industries. The Society has developed thousands of standards, recommended practices, and engineering guidelines, more than 800 of which are currently in force.
SMPTE’s global membership today includes 7,000 members, who are motion-imaging executives, engineers, creative and technology professionals, researchers, scientists, educators, and students. A partnership with the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA®) connects SMPTE and its membership with the professional community of businesses and individuals who provide the expertise, support, tools, and infrastructure for the creation and finishing of motion pictures, television programs, commercials, digital media, and other dynamic media content. Information on joining SMPTE is available at http://www.smpte.org/join.
