Each month we will showcase a City agency employee or an industry specialist who helps to facilitate production in New York City. December 1, 2005 - Michelle Byrd started her career in publishing and fundraising, but broke into the film business fifteen years ago by working as a production assistant on films during evenings and weekends. She landed her first position in the industry as assistant to the Executive Director of Independent Feature Project (IFP), and after a career spanning positions in membership and programs, she is now herself the Executive Director of the Organization. Headquartered in New York, the Independent Feature Project (IFP) has since 1979 nurtured our City’s creative community and strengthened the independent film industry through education, networking, exhibition and recognition opportunities among its rich member base. As Executive Director of the Organization, Ms. Byrd’s responsibilities include shaping programs, fundraising, building industry relationships and moving long-term projects forward. During her tenure as Executive Director, Ms. Byrd is most proud of broadening the scope of the annual Gotham Awards and building the IFP’s annual market, the only US market which focuses on films in development. At the market, the IFP annually facilitates more than 1,500 meetings, in which “Made in NY” projects such as Maria Full of Grace and Mad Hot Ballroom have been facilitated. Due to restructuring over the past year, IFP’s office is now officially headquartered out of New York. Recently, the NYC Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting and NYC Small Business Services collaborated with IFP to create a workforce training program which provides productions with funds to offset the costs of training crew members. Ms. Byrd’s advice to those looking to break into the film business is to do what she did – intern or volunteer within the industry, especially for industry organizations. “It’s really important to plug yourself into organizations,” she said. “Once you do that, you network, start to advance and find other work. The New York community is small enough that you can get to know a lot of people very quickly.” And, for Ms. Byrd, New York is an ideal city for working in this industry. “The unique niche which New York holds is the capital of independent filmmaking, and, on a practical level, this helps filmmakers make low budget films,” she said. “New York is a hospitable environment both for the making and showing of independent films. Producers have options to work on both large studio projects and smaller independent projects, really expanding their credits.” Click here for more information on the workforce training program Click here for more information on the IFP More Industry Stars design by    The City of New York Mayor's Office of Film Theatre & Broadcasting 1697 Broadway Suite 602, New York, New York 10019.
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