The list includes Film Production grad John Lenic, as one of the producers of Best Dramatic Series nominee Stargate Universe, and Acting grad Benjamin Arthur for Best Individual Performance in a Comedy Program for the lead role in the series Less Than Kind.
Filmgrad Trevor Cameronis up for two awards – Best Direction in an Animated Program or Series and Best Writing in a Children’s or Youth Program or Series – for his work on Wapos Bay. Finally, 3D grad Clint Butler is a co-nominee for Best Direction in an Animated Program or Series, and a trio of grads are on the Gemini-nominated team for Best Visual Effects – once again, for Stargate Universe.
(Are you a VFS grad who’s up for a Gemini and don’t see your name in the list? Leave a comment! We’d love to hear from you.)
Congratulations to all! The awards will be handed out in November – we’ll be watching!
Best Dramatic Series
Stargate Universe - John Lenic (plus 3 others)
Best Individual Performance in a Comedy Program or Series Benjamin Arthur – Less Than Kind
Best Direction in an Animated Program or Series
Trevor Cameron – Wapos Bay
Clint Butler (plus 1 other) - Hot Wheels Battle Force 5
Best Visual Effects
Alec McClymont, Craig Vandenbiggelaar, Andrew Karr (plus 7 others) – Stargate Universe
Best Writing in a Children’s or Youth Program or Series
Trevor Cameron – Wapos Bay
If you’re not familiar with the NFB – Canada’s public film producer and distributor – you should be. For 70 years, the NFB has supported some of the most important talent in the country, and it’s a big part of the Canadian cultural landscape. Films produced with the NFB’s support have been nominated for dozens of Oscars, winning several, spanning documentary and dramatic features and shorts, and animated films.
Paul, who graduated from VFS in 2003, counts among his most recent successes Summerhood, directed by fellow VFS grad Jacob Medjuck. You can read more about it here.
“As an independent filmmaker I’ve enjoyed a strong relationship with the NFB Atlantic Centre, and I look forward to building on this and to working with the area’s filmmakers and artists to produce vital, meaningful stories from the Maritimes,” said McNeill.
Many of us watched as Andy Rimer — better known as his colourful and energetic entertainer persona, “Spandy Andy” – auditioned once again for So You Think You Can Dance Canada this week. CTV’s website quoted him as saying “I want to be the superhero of positivity” before jumping on stage for a fun but odd popping routine.
To those who might be wondering who this Vancouver oddball is, and where he gets his energy from, a team of Film Production students has found the answer.
Led by Director Courtney Barton and Producer AJ McCreadie, they recently created a short documentary on the dancing phenomenon, titled Tight, Bright & Fearless. In it, Rimer and his brother talk about the beginnings of the “Spandy Andy” persona and how he thinks the world needs more positivity and celebration.
In May, we announced a cool offshoot of our partnership with 5 Alarm Music, America’s largest independent production music library for film, television, radio, and commercials. 5 Alarm sponsored a scholarship to our Film Production Summer Intensive, which would give one winner the chance to spend five days inside the program. We asked you to create an original 55-second (or less) film that creatively incorporated 5 moods or emotions.
The winner is Jesús Bobadilla of Mexico for his submission, Feelm. Jesús will be joining us here at VFS on August 9, 2010 – we’re looking forward to welcoming him to Vancouver and our Film Production campus!
“I would like to congratulate Jesús on his first-person film narrative depicting human emotions,” says Cassie Lord, 5 Alarm Music General Manager and Executive Producer. “The short film displays a skillful use of dramatic tension and release with the soundtrack highlighing the roller coaster of emotions within the relationship. We at 5 Alarm wish Jesús and all aspiring film students the best in their creative journeys and artistic endeavours!”
And now, for your viewing enjoyment, here’s Feelm:
The historic Pantages Theatre in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is no more.
It was the oldest remaining vaudeville theatre in Western Canada, fallen into complete disrepair – even then, you could see the building’s former beauty. But as this early July article in the Vancouver Sun explains, restoration efforts have been called off. The Pantages can’t be salvaged.
No Light at Midnightcaptures that hope, before time and neglect sealed the Pantages’ fate for good. This excellent documentary by VFS Film Production students – including Director Jay Macmillan and Producer Cullen Jones – now serves as an elegy of sorts, a moment in time when the non-profit Pantages Theatre Society was still fighting to restore the theatre and save this part of Vancouver’s history.
Right now, something amazing is happening on the VFS Entertainment Business Management campus: a groundbreaking, truly unprecedented cross-discipline project that’s tapping the expertise of students and alumni from programs across VFS. Visual effects artists, actors, makeup artists, designers… they’re all bringing their talents to bear on a project guided by EBM students.
It’s called The Interactive Lovecraft, affectionately known by the internal codename Project Space Squid, and it’s bringing new life to the work of legendary sci-fi/horror writer HP Lovecraft, whose tales of insanity, monsters, cults, and impossibly old gods, are hugely influential to this day.
Teams of VFS students and alumni are creating a cutting-edge transmedia interactive magazine experience for the tablet marketplace, and laying the foundations of a model that future students will be able to experience with other public domain work as part of the Entertainment Business Management program. The end result – incorporating text, video, and games – will include adaptations of five seminal Lovecraft stories: The Call of C’Thulhu, Dagon, The Dunwich Horror, The Rats in the Walls, and The Music of Erich Zann.
Here is an excellent teaser video they’ve put together, explaining the project’s development and showing a lot of the progress so far.
The Interactive Lovecraft will be available to the public in the fall, and, in the spirit of public domain and open source, all proceeds from its sales will go to the Wikimedia Foundation.
In the meantime, the students and grads are keeping an active development blog, where you can find all the latest and get real insight into what goes into creating a project of this magnitude.
The project is about uncovering the most exceptional talent working in video today: the talent that inspires us, challenges us, surprises us, and changes the world.
In short, it’s about celebrating an entire medium and its power.
Developed by YouTube and the Guggenheim Museum in collaboration with HP, YouTube Play hopes to attract innovative, original, and surprising videos from around the world, regardless of genre, technique, background, or budget. This global online initiative is not a search for what’s “now,” but a search for what’s next.
YouTube Play is looking for submissions – including animation, motion graphics, narrative and non-narrative films, music videos, or something entirely new – of under 10 minutes in length that were created within the last two years. Up to 20 videos will be chosen to be presented at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, as well as Berlin, Venice, and Bilbao.
The deadline to submit is coming fast – July 31, 2010. Find out more, read the guidelines, and submit your work now at youtube.com/play.
The third film in the massively popular Twilight series, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, gets released wide tomorrow. Fans of the series are, of course, over the moon – and we’re pretty happy too. Eclipse filmed in Vancouver – meaning lots of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart sightings at local restaurants – and features all kinds of homegrown talent, including over two dozen VFS alumni.
Our friends at Image Engine – you’ll remember their stellar work on District 9 – were responsible for many of the visual effects shots in the film, so our 3D Animation & Visual Effects program is represented in big numbers, beginning with Image Engine Visual Effects Executive Producer Shawn Walsh and Lighting Lead Robert Bourgeault.
Film Production grads were among the crew on set, including Key Grip Tony Whiteside, Camera Assistant Carrie Wilson, and Camera Department day player Michelle Ortt.
Makeup Design for Film & Television was represented by grads Michael Nickiforek (Prosthetics and Fake Body Fabrication) in the lab and Amy St. Jean (First Assistant Makeup Artist) on set. (Makeup Design Advisory Board member and sometimes-instructor Charles Porlier was in charge of the whole Makeup Department on the film, his first feature back from a short sabbatical.)
And finally, many VFS grads from programs like Film Production and Entertainment Business Management, worked as Production Assistants on Eclipse, keeping things running smoothly.
That’s all based off of very preliminary credits, so we’re probably missing a few VFS grads. Nevertheless, 25 is a darn impressive number, and we’re very proud of our grads giving Twi-hards the moviegoing experience they’ve been waiting for!
Stay tuned for more Twilight insights this week!
Our running list of VFS grads on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse includes:
3D Animation & Visual Effects
Shawn Walsh, Visual Effects Executive Producer
Robert Bourgeault, Lighting Lead
Derek Stevenson, Matchmove Lead
Brian Harder, Creature Rigger
Geeta Basantani, Senior Compositor
Ryan Nickell, Previz Animator
Freddy Chavez Olmos, Visual Effects Compositor
Veronica Marino, Matte Painter/Compositor
Jacob Miller, Lighting Artist
Julianna Kolakis, Character Texture Artist
Ori Ben-Shabat, Compositor
Bernhard Kimbacher, Compositor
Samson Sing Wun Wong, Compositor/Matchmove Artist
Farhad Mohasseb, Rotoscope Artist
Pedram Daraeizadeh, Render Wrangler
Makeup Design for Film & Television
Michael Nickiforek, Prosthetics and Fake Body Fabrication
Amy St. Jean, First Assistant Makeup Artist
Film Production
Cabral Rock, Visual Effects Line Producer
Tony Whiteside, Key Grip: Second Unit
Carrie Wilson, Assistant Camera
Michelle Ortt, Day Player: Camera Department
Last year, two Film Production grads – Angela Buhr and Mohamed A. Soliman – travelled to Uganda with OA Projects, with the support and sponsorship of VFS. They were there to document the organization’s efforts to help heal war-affected northern Uganda through the power of community-building and soccer. And with the World Cup in full swing – hosted, for the first time ever, on African soil – the game’s ability to lift up and unify an entire continent has never been more keenly felt.
“We’re very proud of this documentary, which proves that film can make a change in people’s lives and we’re very thankful for all the support VFS has given us,” Angela tells us.
“It’s awesome for the story about David to be recognized by such a meaningful audience,” says OA Projects Founder and Director Gavin Hollett. “Not only does it acknowledge the importance of a youth-focused rebuilding process in northern Uganda, it also rewards our presentation of a positive, local perspective on the situation in northern Uganda.”
“In David, we simply tell a true, accurate, and meaningful story about a boy who has experienced terrible things during a conflict but is now involved in locally-driven peacebuilding activities that are having a positive impact on him.”
As we posted last week, The Hurt Locker‘s Academy Award-winning Sound Mixer Ray Beckettis at VFS all week starting today, where he’ll be meeting with students and sharing his experiences. We are, in a word, excited. We’re so glad our students will have the chance to learn from him.
But if you’re not a student, what does it all mean for you? Well, we’ve found some time in his busy schedule to sit down for a video interview – and we want your questions! Wondering about how he got his start? The life of a sound mixer? His experiences on The Hurt Locker? Where he keeps his Oscar?
Ask away, either right here in the comments, or on Facebook or Twitter! We’ll compile them and he’ll answer on camera! You only have until Wednesday to submit, though, so don’t take too much time to think up some good ones!
Not sure what these are?
Nominees for the 2010 Gemini Awards were announced this week, and a number of VFS grads made the cut! The Geminis are Canada’s top TV awards, and this year’s nominations include alumni of Film Production, Acting for Film & Television, and 3D Animation & Visual Effects.
The third film in the massively popular Twilight series, 
Last year, two 