Anyone with any connection to VFS knows we’re an international school. Students (and for that matter, instructors) might just as likely be from Lima, Glasgow, Mumbai, or Seoul as anywhere in North America.

But now we’ve got proof that our grads – no matter where they call home, and how far apart they might be – flock together. Exhibit A: dutchTilt. A collective of 3D visual & effects artists that met here at VFS… before classes even began!

Says dutchTilt member Josh Herrig:

“Well, we bonded before school even started. We all met at orientation and hung out nonstop from there. During film theory class I turned to Nick and said, Dutchtilt, that would be a wicked name for a company! I bought the domain name that night.”

Now, as graduates and professionals out there in the industry, the folks at dutchTilt are collaborating on an as-yet-untitled short film, and they’re doing it from all corners of the globe. (Ah, the magic of the digital age…) Here’s who’s doing what:

Story by: dutchTilt
Written & Directed by: Joshua Herrig (3D grad currently at Mr. X Visual Effects, Toronto)
Animation/Visual Effects by: Joshua Herrig, Nick Smalley (3D grad currently at Clear Post, London, UK), Yuta Shimizu (3D grad currently at BlackMountain, Germany) and Carlos Villareal-Kwasek (3D grad freelancing in Ecuador, Poland)
Sound Design by: Jeremy Bowker (Sound grad working at Skywalker Sound, California – more on his story soon!)

So Josh, what happened after graduation?

“We all remained close and some even lived together at one point. Two of us met our girlfriends in Vancouver (both of whom are German and live in Germany!—they were there studying English for a year). We were worried that since we are all from everywhere, with the current state of work permits, we wouldn’t stay in touch… so we started a forum on Yahoo, so we could all post what we are up to. We all knew we would work on something… just a matter of time. Then I got an email from the newly-hired-at-Skywalker Jeremy Bowker, telling me that he enjoyed working on my reel, and that if I ever did another animation to give him a call.

So I pitched the idea to Jeremy that we include the boys… he was all for it. Despite my urging to keep it more democratic, the group voted to have roles… and thus I went from class rep to director of our little project! I just finished writing the first draft of our script. The story has been a group effort.”

To follow this truly international short film, keep an eye on the dutchTilt production diary. (And hey, if you know of other long-distance relationships international collaborations between VFSers, let us know!)

To tide you over while the short’s still in production, here’s dutchTilt’s first-ever collaboration: Josh’s showreel, with visuals by Joshua Herrig and sound by Jeremy Bowker.