A coalition of leading trade and professional groups have formed a non-profit organization to provide mentoring services to young people seeking behind-the-scenes careers in the media and entertainment industry. The Entertainment Industry Professionals Mentoring Alliance, or EIPMA, plans to nurture the industry’s next generation of talent by offering expert guidance to high school and college students, military veterans and others seeking to launch their careers, and by hosting job fairs, panel discussions and other public events.
EIPMA’s focus is to help young people get started on career paths in an array of craft and technology roles involved in entertainment media production. Its member organizations include groups associated with sound and picture editing, visual effects, recording, engineering and technology development. Among them are American Cinema Editors (ACE), Audio Engineering Society Los Angeles (AES), Avid, Cinema Audio Society (CAS), Hollywood Professional Association (HPA), Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE), the Recording Academy and SoundGirls.
“The future of the entertainment industry depends on the continuous influx of bright, young talent,” said Bernard Weiser, an award-winning supervising sound editor who is EIPMA’s elected president. “Our members have accumulated a lifetime of knowledge, experience and insights across a diversity of specialized crafts and vocations, and they are eager to share their expertise with young people who want to follow in their footsteps.”
EIPMA plans to partner with high schools and universities to increase student awareness for career opportunities in the entertainment industry. The organization will host job fairs, provide speakers and sponsor panel discussions. It will also connect schools with mentors with specialized expertise to help improve media-related educational programs and attune them with current industry practices and employment needs. Mentors will also serve as guest lecturers and advisers for student projects.
Additionally, EIPMA will provide individual mentoring to students at or near college graduation, military veterans and others ready to embark on industry careers. “Our mentors will help young people navigate the often-daunting transition from the classroom to the professional work environment,” Weiser explained. “We also plan to offer company tours and shadowing opportunities so that students can experience firsthand how work is carried out in professional environments.”
EIPMA will host an open house for educators this fall at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. Details will be posted to the group’s website here.
Mark Zuckerberg faces deposition in AI copyright lawsuit from Sarah Silverman and other authors
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be deposed as part of a lawsuit brought by authors including comedian Sarah Silverman accusing the company of copyright infringement to train its artificial intelligence technology.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Hixson rejected Meta's bid to bar the deposition of Zuckerberg in a decision Tuesday, saying there is sufficient evidence to show he is the "principal decision maker" for the company's AI platforms.
Meta had argued that Zuckerberg doesn't have unique knowledge of the company's AI operations and that the same information could be obtained from depositions with other employees.
The authors have "submitted evidence of his specific involvement in the company's AI initiatives," as well as his "direct supervision of Meta's AI products," Hixson wrote in a Tuesday ruling.
The class action lawsuit was filed last year in California federal court. The authors accuse Meta of illegally downloading digital copies of their books and using them โ without consent or compensation โ to train its AI platforms.
Also this week, prominent attorney David Boies joined the case on behalf of Silverman and the group of other plaintiffs that includes writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Boies is best known for representing Al Gore in the 2000 disputed election against George W. Bush.
The case against Meta is one of a set of similar lawsuits in San Francisco and New York against other AI chatbot developers including Anthropic, Microsoft and ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
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