{"id":1174370,"date":"2024-07-01T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/?p=1174370"},"modified":"2024-06-28T11:12:31","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T18:12:31","slug":"full-sail-university-grad-directs-for-hit-tv-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/full-sail-university-grad-directs-for-hit-tv-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Sail University Grad Directs for Hit TV Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nina Lopez-Corrado has a lot to celebrate. Since graduating from Full Sail University in 2007, she\u2019s served as a producing director and guest director on shows like The Mentalist, Supernatural<\/em>, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.<\/em>, A Million Little Things<\/em>, Perry Mason<\/em>, and The Nevers<\/em>. Those achievements recently earned Nina a spot in Full Sail\u2019s Hall of Fame<\/a>, and she\u2019s got more exciting work on the way: She\u2019s directing an episode for the second season of HBO\u2019s Emmy-winning series, The Last of Us<\/em>.  Nina\u2019s passion for television and commitment to learning the ins and outs of production helped her earn her current list of credits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up, Nina loved watching TV. The length of the narrative spoke to her (\u201cI spent 24 hours a season with these characters, I felt very emotionally attached to them\u201d), so she decided to pursue a college education that focused on TV. Studying film and television<\/a> at Full Sail helped her find her creative voice and learn the fundamentals of production. After graduation, Nina moved to Los Angeles and became the assistant to producing director Chris Long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaining Experience on Set<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2007, Nina was working with Chris on FX\u2019s Dirt<\/em> where she filled in for additional roles on set and gained new production knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhenever Chris was directing, I was tasked to keep production going,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I started going to all of the department meetings and going on all the [location] scouts, I was in post with the editors working on the cuts, and while I was working on cuts, we were finding all the pieces that we were missing, whether it was a drive-by or an insert or whatever it was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nina followed Chris to The Mentalist<\/em>, where she \u201clearned television from the bottom up\u201d over the course of 150 episodes. She carefully observed the show\u2019s directors, worked in editing, oversaw color timing, checked out the final mix of every episode, and more. By season four she was a producer, and in season seven she directed her first episode of television, \u201cByzantium.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her time on The Mentalist<\/em>, Nina also directed a short film and was accepted into the Warner Bros. Television Directors\u2019 Workshop. She guest directed several episodes of Supernatural<\/em> and earned director and producing director credits on A Million Little Things<\/em>. Finally, her dream network came knocking: HBO reached out to her about directing episodes of The Nevers<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working with HBO<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy whole entire career, my goal has always been to work at HBO. It\u2019s like the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me of television, you know, they always had the best shows when I was growing up,\u201d Nina says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting her foot in the door by directing a couple episodes of The Nevers<\/em> led to more opportunities with HBO. The network executives brought her on to direct for crime drama Perry Mason<\/em>, and eventually Nina got the call for her next big opportunity: directing for The Last of Us<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI met with [the producers for The Last of Us<\/em>] and it seemed like a really good meeting, but everyone wanted to do The Last of Us<\/em>, so I didn’t have high hopes. A few weeks go by. I made my peace with it. It wasn’t going to happen. Then out of the blue, I get a call from my managers, and they’re like, \u2018The Last of Us<\/em> just called and they want you to do an episode for them,\u2019\u201d Nina shares. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo now I’m going to head up there to direct an episode, and it’s like a dream come true, you know? It’s just this groundbreaking video game that’s been turned into a really amazing television show with really great actors. And I get to be part of it. It\u2019s another milestone hit [in my career].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nina\u2019s achieved many of the professional goals she dreamed of when she first entered the industry, but she still has more work to do: She\u2019d like to direct an entire television series and make a feature film. In the meantime, Nina is celebrating her recent induction into her alma mater\u2019s Hall of Fame and emphasizing the importance of hard work to future generations of industry professionals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want [Full Sail] students to know that I shouldn\u2019t be standing here right now,\u201d Nina said during Full Sail\u2019s Hall of Fame induction ceremony. \u201cNo one in their right mind would have gone to one of my classes, pointed at me, and said \u2018That one right there. She\u2019ll be successful.\u2019 But I just kept on working, I kept on dreaming, I kept on pushing forward. And with a lot of hard work and a ton of luck, I am where I am today.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nina Lopez-Corrado has a lot to celebrate. Since graduating from Full Sail University in 2007, she\u2019s served as a producing","protected":false},"author":1838,"featured_media":1174383,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_comments":false,"cm_data":"","cpt_newsletter_id":0,"tpd_coauthor":[],"tpd_feed_delay":[],"is_tpd_lists_single_post":false,"tpd_featured_posts_arr":"","tpd_franchise_content":"","hide_featured_img_single_post":false,"msn_featured_video":[],"_msn_custom_title":"","tpd_featured_video":[],"tpd_sponsored_post_logo":"","tpd_sponsored_post_logo_link":"","tpd_sponsored_post_logo_width":0,"tpd_sponsored_enable_nofollow":true,"tpd_disable_incontent_ads":false,"tpd_disable_right_rail_ads":false,"tpd_disable_after_content_ads":false,"tpd_disable_header_ads":false,"tpd_disable_sticky_footer_ads":false,"tpd_disable_video_ads":false,"tpd_disable_outbrain":false,"tpd_affiliate_disclaimer":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[41706],"tags":[],"coauthor":[],"feeds":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1174370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-film-schools"},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Nina_Lopez_Corrado-HOF14-7935-1-428x241.jpg","fimg_url_thumb":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Nina_Lopez_Corrado-HOF14-7935-1-428x241.jpg","fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Nina_Lopez_Corrado-HOF14-7935-1-788x444.jpg","author_name":"Abby Stassen","author_avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99d924c67ddaa62d9f44788c3a59e8c9d60adc75fb0584bf801d66db10c83d13?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/author\/abby-stassen\/","coauthors":[],"primary_category":{"term_id":41706,"name":"Film Schools","slug":"film-schools","taxonomy":"category","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/category\/film-schools\/"},"featured_img_medium":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Nina_Lopez_Corrado-HOF14-7935-1-788x444.jpg","post_categories":["Film Schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1838"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1174370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1174383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1174370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1174370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1174370"},{"taxonomy":"coauthor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthor?post=1174370"},{"taxonomy":"feeds","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feeds?post=1174370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}