Production

Speaker:

Ms. Allyse Manoff Steinberg

Manager of Content Mastering at NBC Universal

Bio

Allyse Manoff Steinberg is originally from Northbrook, Illinois and graduated from The Ohio State University in 1994. She moved to Los Angeles 3 weeks after college graduation with $2000 and no job. She started off in visual effects at Digital Domain working on films such as The Fifth Element and Titanic. After years in visual effects at many facilities, she transitioned to producing Digital Intermediates at Technicolor: The Tale of Despereaux, ParaNorman and The Normal Heart were just a few of the many films. Currently she is the Manager of Content Mastering at NBC Universal. Allyse is the mother of two fantastic children, a 6th grader at MCMS and a 2nd grader at Oak Hills.

Ms. Steinberg's Background

Shot her first movie at age 11 and took video production classes in high school.
Graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in film, photography, cinema and minor in Yiddish.
Chose Ohio State over Iowa since she had relatives nearby and wanted a huge university where she would have the opportunity to meet many new friends.
Moved to L.A. at age 22 since she wanted to work in the movie/entertainment industry.
Mattress and 10-year old car were her college graduation gifts.
Has been in the post production field for 25 years
1st job was answering phones for a visual effects company (job that she got through a temp agency)
Worked in visual effects (on Titanic, Fifth Element) for a long time
Pivoted to digital intermediates (color corrections) for Dolby Laboratories
Technical and organization skills led to her current job as Manager of Content Mastering at NBCUniversal

Workday

In lots of meetings from 8:30am-5pm with team members--some are in L.A., some in Denver, some on the East Coast.
There is a pattern to her day (early morning meeting and end of day meeting)
Some colleagues are Universal employees and others work for different vendors.
Current theatrical projects: News of the World, Back to the Future, & others.
Allyse and her team members make sure that the movie looks correct and is technically correct.
Regular connections with both of her managers and Division Senior VP.
Likes being a Manager with helping her team to become their best self.
Industry is evolving, especially with tmore streaming of movies now
Technology is always changing.
NBCUniversal is a company with opportunities for employees to continue to grow.

Most Momentous Experiences of Her Career & Future Goals:

Held an Oscar for a movie that won one
Took a class in Producer's Guild which made her realize how much she had progressed in her career
Would like to be in The Academy one day
Important to focus on the small goals and huge goals

Advice

Career Advice for OPHS Students:

Meeting one person can lead to meeting another person. All about leveraging connections.
Every person you meet is part of your career path.
Every challenge is a good thing.
There's a learning experience in everything you do and with every mistake you make. Even if it's hard, you're learning from it.
Take every experience in.
Each person you meet is part of your journey.
Network as much as possible.
You'll never know your next experience.
A bad experience can be a good thing since you'll know what NOT to do in the future.
Not everything is easy.
Take it one day at a time.
People think this kind of work is glamorous, but it's still work.
For internships, go to the NBCUniversal website.

Advice to High School Self:

I wasn't very patient then, but am more patient now
I would have kept trying new things.
iPhones would have made shooting a movie easier than the 16mm cameras I had
In college, I was so busy figuring out how to be on my own. I wish I had done more film production in college
Know as much about film history as possible
Know as many technical skills as you can
Get hands-on experience with production
Use a camera, shoot, edit, put it together
Keep growing and learning