Join us for five Wednesday evenings from 6-7:30 pm this Winter Quarter as we’re joined by established Hollywood industry professionals who will take students through five major stages of a film’s lifecycle: from writing the script, to producing and packaging it, directing, acquisitions, and marketing. Hosted by Entertainment Executive and FMS alum Paul Davidson, and FMS professor Fatimah Tobing Rony, this series of seminars will give students the opportunity to learn how a Hollywood film is made and the jobs required to do so.
On January 31st, Producer Natalie Qasabian will be discussing producing, developing, and packaging a feature film!
About Natalie Qasabian:
Natalie Qasabian is an Armenian-American film producer based in Los Angeles. In 2018, Natalie produced SEARCHING, a thriller starring John Cho which was acquired by Sony at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to gross $75M at the box office. Natalie has also produced three films for the Duplass Brothers, including DUCK BUTTER directed by Miguel Arteta. Recently Natalie produced RUN, a thriller starring Sarah Paulson for Lionsgate which was released on Hulu and broke the record for most most-watched original film on the platform. Currently, she’s working on a TV on a series based on the novel THE FUTURE IS YOURS, and most recently she produced the sequel to SEARCHING, titled MISSING for Sony with her frequent collaborators Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian. In 2021 Natalie was awarded the Sundance Institute Amazon Studios Producers Award for narrative feature film. She earned a bachelor’s degree from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and an MBA from Pepperdine University.
About our Co-Host:
An alum of UCI’s Film Studies, Paul Davidson is an Entertainment executive who has over twenty years working in Film and TV development, production, acquisition, distribution and marketing. Most recently, Davidson led IDW Entertainment’s TV & Film division, producing series like Netflix’s Locke & Key, Apple TV+’s Surfside Girls and CBC’s Essex County. Prior to that, Davidson ran The Orchard’s film and TV division, growing the company into a robust independent film distribution studio. Under his leadership, The Orchard netted multiple Oscar nominations (Life, Animated, and Cartel Land) and released well-known favorites like What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, American Animals, The Overnight, and more. Prior to The Orchard, Paul ran Microsoft’s global digital entertainment service — Xbox Video. Paul is also the author of four books, including Company of Foos (2023), The Small Stuff (2022), Consumer Joe, and The Lost Blogs.
Open to Film and Media Studies students, alums, professors, and staff.