• panel discussions with casts and creative teams of current television series
• documentary screenings (and discussions with filmmakers and film subjects)
• author appearances and book signings
• one-on-one interviews
• discussions covering specific topics in media (usually featuring clips from our collection)

I’m half of a two-person public programs department at our New York location. My role is to

• help create and develop ideas for events (this will work, this won’t, here’s how we could frame this concept)
• get in touch with the right people to make them happen (writing compelling proposals and pitches, tons of phone calls and emails to publicists)
• manage all the logistics (being the point person for internal staff and external partners, writing up schedules and timelines and memos)
• execute the events on-site (brief the participants, get them where they need to be at the right time, give cues to start and wrap up the program, an entire evening of troubleshooting despite all the planning in the world)

This site features some of my favorite events from the past four years. Recently I’ve enjoyed producing what we’ve been dubbing “fan events” and “viewing parties,” which focus less on “ooh, there’s a celebrity in the room” and more on creating a fun sense of community among TV fans.

For a painstakingly detailed description of my work, please see this page and this page.

I also tweet, mostly about work, @katefarina.

Education Coordinator and Managing Editor, The Art Directors Club

ADC is an organization for professionals in design and advertising (that umbrella covers illustrators, photographers, interactive designers, packaging designer…basically anything in the realm of commercial art).

Managing ADC’s education programs allowed me to work with some of the top creatives in New York. One of the goals is to expose talented students to “real” careers in art and design, when they might otherwise be discouraged from pursuing that path.

• Saturday Career Workshops for NYC public high school students interested in careers in the arts.
• National Student Portfolio Reviews, featuring the “top 100″ students graduating from design and advertising programs in the United States.
• ADC Scholarships. I solicited donations, coordinated outreach to art and design colleges, and managed the selection process.

Educator, Museum of the Moving Image

Between my sophomore and junior years of college, I interned in the film department at Museum of the Moving Image. Being a film major and loving museums, this was pretty much my favorite place ever. I got to spend days researching Gary Cooper, Mel Brooks, and Jennifer Jason Leigh (yep, the screening series were pretty wide-ranging). It was a really fun summer, and cemented my academic interest in film history. 

In 2004, I was studying fashion marketing at Parsons and looking for a part-time job. Moving Image was hiring educators and since I had classroom teaching experience and a film background, it was a great fit for me.

The wonderful thing about Moving Image is that it’s not just artifacts behind glass (although there are plenty of very old film cameras and costumes). The interactive exhibits are designed to show you how moving images work and how films are put together. There’s a learn-by-doing approach that people really enjoy.

Educators give tours and demonstrations to school groups and the general public. The demos include stop-motion animation, sound editing, film editing, and more. Oh and there’s a huge video game exhibit on the first floor.

The idea started with a screening of the highly-anticipated Buffy Reunion panel at Paleyfest in 2008. Knowing that East Coast fans desperately wanted to see what transpired, I convinced my boss to let me do a screening…which then turned into a screening of the panel + sing-along to “Once More with Feeling.”

Knowing that we’re always striving to do programs focusing on “new media,” I proposed an event celebrating “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” Working with some wonderful veterans of previous Buffy-theme sing-alongs, we produced the first-ever officially sanctioned East Coast “Dr. Horrible” sing-along. Yes, Joss himself signed off on it. We had props and costumes and everything.

Next, we tapped into another hard-core fan base: Lost. You can read more about both of our Lost events, here and here.

At the height of the vampire craze, I worked with two of my colleagues in our education department to produce an event debating and celebrating all things vampire on television. (We threw in Twilight for good measure.)

This year, we’ve thrown really fun parties for the World Cup finals, the Royal Wedding, and the season finales of American Idol and Glee.

Fern Mallis with the winners of our bridesmaid dress competition

They rose before dawn. Over 200 well-wishers from New York, wanting to experience the royal wedding with a group of like-minded anglophiles.

This awesome woman bravely embraced the spirit of our bridesmaid's dress competition

Our festivities were sponsored by BBC America. We encouraged our guests to don bridesmaids dresses, hats, and fascinators as they posed on the red carpet next our custom royal family cut-outs.

We broadcast the ceremony in HD with a live feed from BBC America. The lighting in the theater was turned low, to play up the big-screen experience.

Never have so many New Yorkers paid so much allegiance to Britain.

The attendees munched on proper British snacks: tea, crumpets, tiny sandwiches with cucumber slices.  We toasted the new couple with Champagne Bollinger.

Guests reacted strongly to our Prince Harry stand-up.

Wales was also represented with a Whiskey tasting and a harpist.

Champagne Bollinger was the official champagne of the Royal Wedding and donated plenty of bottles for a toast in our lobby

We invited two high school singing groups (Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan and Wilton High School, in Wilton CT) to perform a few songs before the live feed kicked in. Since the schools had very different (but equally awesome) musical styles, it was a fun contrast.

After their performances, TV Guide Magazine Editor-in-Chief Debra Birnbaum began her hosting duties,  soliciting opinions from the crowd, and stumping fans with American Idol trivia.

While the karaoke superstars did this, I played karaoke machine DJ with the world's biggest remote. All in a day's work.

During the commercial breaks, particularly brave audience members took to the stage for American Idol-style karaoke performances. Seriously, some of them rivaled Scotty.

After several rounds of difficult trivia, the grand prize, a huge signed poster featuring the whole Glee cast, was given to a very deserving fan.

Our local FOX affiliate was on hand to capture some the excitement. These fans definitely had a moment in the spotlight.

Future Lea Micheles.

April 1, 2008 (yep – April Fool’s Day)

I consider myself a comedy nerd, but I really like to go to straight to the source when I’m looking for new programs. In 2007, I reached out to L.A. comedy-insider and friend, the hilarious Alex Fernie, to see if he had any ideas for a sketch comedy event here at the Paley Center. He had a suggestion: Paul Scheer. Hilarious guy, super nice, and part of MTV’s Human Giant, which was about to launch a new season.

When I presented the Human Giant idea to my colleagues, they were dubious. Could this relatively small MTV show even sell-out the theater? I assured them that these guys were going to be huge. (And just a few years later, take a look at their IMDB profiles.)

Cast and creative team of Human Giant. And assorted hecklers. Jon Glaser is holding one of William Paley's Emmys.

They were great to work with. They came in for a meeting with us and had some really fun ideas, incorporating elements of their live shows (including sketches) and messing with the panel discussion format.

How this was different from your average panel discussion

• They came out doing a sketch. With t-shirt guns. Which they shot at the audience.
• Comedy friends were planted in the audience. They improvised insane questions and comments throughout the panel discussion, without breaking character.
• Moderator Eugene Mirman brought his own comedic sensibility to the discussion.

It was really exciting to produce something a little different and welcome a young, funny audience to the Paley Center.

Side note: I thought our president was going to have a heart attack when the guys picked up William S. Paley’s Emmys, brought them down to the theater, and used them as props.

Rob Huebel, Aziz Ansari, and Paul Scheer at "Human Giant Live!"

Bringing The Good Wife to the Paley Center was a project that began as soon as we learned the series would film in NYC.

It’s never easy arranging for an entire cast to make themselves available for an evening event, particularly when they’re shooting.  Thankfully, the terrific staff at CBS helped us make this happen.

The night would later become rather infamous, as a late-arriving Christine Baranski accidentally let a major spoiler slip.  But in my humble opinion, great events are memorable because of those spontaneous moments.

Although I almost never ask our guests to sign things for me (with the notable exception of our standard release forms), I meant to bring my boyfriend’s Sports Night DVDs for Josh Charles to sign. Alas, I forgot them at home, and ended up awkwardly explaining to Josh, as I escorted him to the exit, that my boyfriend has a “bro crush” on him. Being the nice guy he is, he offered to sign his DVDs if I sent them to my CBS contact. Haven’t taken him up on that yet, but maybe someday!

This seminar is now available to watch as part of The Good Wife Season 1 DVD set. Some intrepid soul apparently ripped it to YouTube in 4 parts. The Good Wife at The Paley Center (2010)

Coverage and Press

EW – Popwatch
Mediate – Panel Nerds

To add some fun to our red carpet, our creative services team created life-size stand-ups of Hollywood stars. Our guests posed with Brad and Angie in front of photographers and camera crews.

We built on the success of our 2010 Oscars event, securing the services of host Kevin Maher, and his team of experts and pundits. They kept the crowd engaged during the commercial breaks with commentary, trivia, instant polls, and dramatic readings of tweets.

New Doctor, Matt Smith

April 12, 2010

From the website:

A new era of the legendary BAFTA-winning series, Doctor Who, begins April 17 on BBC America. The iconic series, television’s longest-running science fiction program, follows the adventures of the Doctor, the mysterious traveler who, with his human companions, journeys throughout all of time and space, facing a variety of foes and righting wrongs. This latest series from BAFTA-winning writer Steven Moffat sees Matt Smith’s debut as the new, Eleventh incarnation of the famous Time Lord alongside a new travelling companion, the enigmatic Amy Pond (Karen Gillan). Together they explore sixteenth century Venice, France during the 1890s, and the United Kingdom in the far future, now an entire nation floating in space. The Paley Center is delighted to welcome Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and executive producer and lifelong Who-fan Steven Moffat for a screening of the premiere episode and to discuss the newly rebooted series.

Karen Gillam, Steven Moffat, and Matt Smith from Doctor Who at the Paley Center for Media - NY

Since I started at The Paley Center, I’d wanted to do something around Doctor Who.  For the past three years, I’d been telling my co-workers about the series’ extremely passionate fan base, but I don’t think they understood the full extent…until this event.

I saw a great opportunity when BBC America announced release dates for the new season.  It was a case of good timing — they were bringing the cast to NYC, and we were able to schedule a great event.

We introduced a theater full of new people to the Paley Center (and sold many, many memberships).

It was an entertaining panel discussion. Matt Smith had some big shoes to fill, but he was extremely nice and well-spoken (despite the frenzy surrounding him).

I got to meet some really amazing fans at the reception afterward (generously thrown by BBC America). It was very cool to see people of all ages and backgrounds connecting through one series.  Overall, a wonderful night.

Coverage

WSJ.com Speakeasy

Newsarama

Inner Toob

Every year, ADC welcomes the nation’s top design and advertising students for a massive portfolio review. Recruiters and creatives are invited to give feedback and scout out the top talent.

As Education Coordinator, I worked with art and design schools to invite their most promising students, and then worked with top design and ad firms to recruit professionals to review the student portfolios.

Working with an awesome designer at the firm TAXI, we sent out this invite: