2011 Retrospective: Looking Back on an Amazing Year
How to Successfully Release an ios Game
Student Project Wins at Hollywood Festival
Visit OOMPH
The Killer Script: Assassin Story Hits the Big Screen
Ori Ben-Shabat, the 3D Animation & Visual Effects graduate who made the fan-favourite Piece of Mind at VFS, hooked up with Toronto-based Spy Films, was honoured with a Shark Advertising Award, then released the uber-moody Byaskfop (phew!), has a new one out.
It’s called Boxed, and its simplicity is utterly charming. Hit the link and check it out!
We’ve revamped the Sound Design homepage on VFS.com to make it easier to navigate through the information about the program’s many areas of study.
To give our web guests a preview of the program, we have a whole section that highlights What You Will Learn during your one year in Sound Design. For example, we have a section that explains what Foley Sound means. In our section on Production Sound, we’ve included our video interview with Jeremy Bowker, who handles this role at Skywalker Sound, thanks to what he learned at VFS. There’s a section that deals with the unique Game Audio component of Sound, and another section that shows you the different kinds of Sound Editing roles you’ll learn over the course of the year.
Looking through these sections, you’ll see quickly that the focus here is on creating pitch-perfect sounds film, television, online, and video games. That means, everything from a musical score to editing the dialogue to creating spectacular sound effects.
Let us know what you think!
Film Production grad Cole Stamm, the cinematographer on the VFS student film Hail Mary, has been nominated for a Canadian Society of Cinematographers Award in the Student Cinematography category. The ceremony is tomorrow – good luck, Cole!
Nicky Forsman likes a challenge. She followed her year in Foundation at VFS with another in Entertainment Business Management, and now, in addition to working in Program Development & Production at Vancouver’s Shavick Entertainment, she’s tackling the monumental job of producing an independent feature called The Coming.
You might remember it – we’ve touched base with the production a few times. It’s written and directed by Film grad and Foundation instructor Chad Costen and Nicky estimates that 90% of the crew were friends and colleagues from VFS.
Nicky’s Foundation experience mirrors that of many other students. It’s not just a way to lay the groundwork for continuing on in another VFS program – it’s a place to experiment, to try disciplines on for size, and to discover career paths they might never have found otherwise.
When it was over, she had a revelation: “After working on a variety of indie shows in varying capacities and after having many many conversations with Foundation TA [now instructor] Chad Costen, I realized what was really lacking from our local independent scene – young aspiring producers,” she says. “I saw an opportunity to grow in the industry, outside of the creative, but I had no idea how.”
If you’ve been missing the ongoing Cold Reading Series hosted by the Writing department, you’ve been missing out. Don’t miss out this time… and don’t be fooled by the April 1st date. It’s really happening, honest! Come check out VFS student scripts being read live by local actors, including VFS Acting students and grads.
VFS Cold Read Series
Tuesday, April 1st
The VFS Café – 390 West Hastings
Doors 5:30pm, Casting 6:00pm
Show Starts 6:30pm
Writers: Send your short scripts or excerpts to vfscoldread@gmail.com by Friday, March 27th.
Actors: Be in the Café by 6:00pm to be cast.
You can also join the VFS Cold Read Group on Facebook. Never miss another Cold Read night again!
VFS is once again going on the road to meet tomorrow’s artists, designers, and filmmakers. If you live in a city in Western Canada, this is your chance to attend a Roadshow event. You’ll learn about the school and its programs and see some amazing student work in person.
And for the first time ever, we’re sending the Admissions experts! You can make a one-on-one appointment with a VFS Admissions Advisor right in your city. Meet the people who see thousands of applications each year — you’ll receive direct feedback and advice on your application and portfolio.
(These appointments are limited, so don’t be left out — make one right away!)
The Western Canada Roadshow stops at Prince George, Kelowna, Victoria, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary and Edmonton.
3D Animation & Visual Effects grad Antonio Mossucca already had stories to tell before coming to VFS – floods in Bangladesh, the Pope in Cuba, crisis in Jerusalem… His work as a cameraman took him all over the world to see firsthand what the rest of us watch on the nightly news.
But while he was jetting around the globe, what he really wanted to do was satisfy a long-standing curiosity about 3D. After 12 years as a cameraman, he quit his job and flew to Vancouver. He graduated from VFS in 2005, and is now working for London’s Jellyfish Pictures.
With Jellyfish, he was a big part of the team responsible for the visual effects on the BBC 6-part documentary series Fight for Life, an inside look at the human body’s ongoing struggle to make it in an unforgiving world. Antonio’s finest achievement on the production? He modeled and rigged a human baby.
The work done by Jellyfish has been roundly acclaimed, including an award for Best Digital Effects from the Royal Television Society and a coveted Visual Effects Society (VES) Award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series – a huge honour for anyone in the industry. We got in touch with Antonio to hear more about the project – and his own fascinating career. Read on, and be sure to check out the gallery at the bottom of the post.
You’ve definitely done a lot of different things, before VFS and after. What drew you to 3D in the first place?
I was always fascinated by visual effects even before 3D came out. I used to draw and create characters. When 3D came out, that was a great surprise and challenge.
Having a traditional background, I didn’t really know anything about computers. I bought my first computer in 2000, which opened up an entire new world for me. I found the 3D medium perfect to merge my two biggest passions: creating characters and using a camera to film them like they were real people. It was kind of a dream come true.
Your VFS news wire is working overtime today. Word dropped this week that Vadim Turchin, a 3D Animation & Visual Effects grad from way back in Class 21, has signed on with NY/LA commercial masterminds Brand New School as CG Supervisor at their New York office!
Digital Design student (and Foundation grad) Tyler Egeto has just been profiled as “Design Student of the Month” on CanUX, Microsoft’s Canadian user experience blog. They’ve interviewed him, too – he talks about what he’s up to and what he’s hoping to do after graduating. It’s also well worth checking out Tyler’s own blog, where you can follow his projects as he explores user interaction at VFS.
Drillbit Taylor, the new Owen Wilson comedy, comes out tomorrow — and our very own Robert Grieve, Head of Sound Design for Visual Media, was Sound Designer on the film. Bob has, of course, worked on a ton of prestigious films in the past, including Children of a Lesser God and The Big Chill. But lately, he’s been doing a lot of work on blockbuster comedies like Walk Hard and another huge Owen Wilson hit, Zoolander.
We asked Bob for some thoughts about his work on the new flick. Bob says, “I always enjoy working on a good comedy, but this one is a cut above. Drillbit Taylor is aimed at the target audience and it really delivers. It’s not just a straight ahead comedy, but has a lot of heart. The original story is by John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Home Alone, and on and on), the script is by Judd Apatow, (Walk Hard, Superbad, Knocked Up, and on and on), it was directed by Steve Brill. And we shouldn’t forget Owen Wilson as the star. This all adds up to fun right out of the chute. I’ve worked with all these guys before with the exception of Steve Brill, and it’s always been a blast.”
“For anyone who likes Owen Wilson, you’re in for a treat. In real life I have to say that Owen Wilson is one of the nicest actors or individuals that I’ve ever met. He always fully cooperates with everything we have to do in ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement) and most actors are not too fond of that process.”
“Another really nice thing about this movie is that the studio was 100% behind the project, and everyone was in high spirits throughout.”
Sounds like a truly fun experience! For anyone wanting to follow Bob’s professional career, be sure to keep tabs on his website – it’s full of behind-the-sounds info.