Each term, the graduating Film Production class participates in the VFS 48 Hour Film challenge. Teams have a mere weekend to create a short film from start to finish; films often star current Acting students, are sometimes written by Writing students, and now involve Makeup for Film & Television students as well.
Pictured are current Makeup students Sarah Jordan, Ana Hibbert, and Aeni Domme, with awards they won (acknowledging their makeup contributions) at the completion of the festival. All three women had a blast during their manic weekend, and Aeni walked us through the experience – and shared some of her pictures!
Tell us a bit about the Film program’s recurring 48 Hour Film Festival.
The contest was actually the 10th round. It’s basically to make a film within 48 hours – to write the story, including all required sounds, images, props, and locations, shoot it, and edit it before 5pm Sunday. It sounded very ambitious!
And how did Makeup students get involved?
Our Program Manager, Laura, was asked for 3 makeup artists to fill out the film crews. This was the first time Makeup was included in the festival. An email from Laura was then sent out for anyone interested – Sarah immediately responded while her roommate, Ana, was a little hesitant but signed on as well. It took some persuasion from both of them for me to commit (the deal was I could stay over at their house, as I live near Burnaby and would be out of the way for any of the film crews).
We then went to a large interdepartmental meeting of all the people involved and were assigned to each team accordingly. Props, sound bites, locations, and images to be featured in each film were drawn. Afterwards, teams began to banter about storylines and how to include different elements.
Directors and writers were excited to have us on and hoped we could do many different things for them within the time allowed – such as certain MUFX, tattoos, distressing, character makeups, corrective makeups, etc.
So, how did it go?
We caught up with Ashfaq to discuss his experience at VFS, his own background in film and television production to learn what brought him to Canada, and what it’s been like to work on the hectic schedule of delivering a new episode every week. When looking at all your footage, when did you decide you should have Priyanka narrate her family story?
Foundation Visual Art & Design student Jordan Clarke has already hit it big, in a way, by posting his Term 4 Discovery Project – self-directed work meant to allow students to explore their individual artistic abilities – to video site Vimeo. It’s called Human Movement, and it’s garnered an outpouring of positive comments, selection as a Vimeo staff pick, and even a mention in Wired‘s Listening Post blog, where writer Eliot Van Buskirk praised it for mixing breakdancing with the moody Canadian indie icon Caribou. See it for yourself: Jordan, who is also one of the dancers shown in the film, tells us, “I decided to mix this form of dance with a music style that it’s not usually associated with – lo-fi, down-tempo, indie. I also decided to play it backwards to really show off how unusually the body does move. The point was to associate two very different styles to show off the beauty of human motion, or movement.” Internet success might be fleeting, but it’s no less satisfying. “It’s definitely been extremely encouraging knowing that people other than myself like my work and understand the point I was trying to get across,” Jordan says. “I feel a lot more a part of the internet film community and have been re-inspired to work on my next project.”
Riding high on some serious attention in both Spain and Brazil, Zack Mathew‘s understated and hilarious Digital Character Animation film The Switch has hit the coveted seven-figure mark on YouTube! It crossed the million-view threshold this afternoon. Congrats, Zack!
He also had the advantage of not one but two years at VFS, getting his footing in Foundation Visual Art & Design before jumping to the 3D program. Matt, who mostly grew up in Washington State, was introduced to 3D art in high school, and his interest was piqued. He wanted to work in games: “Telling stories, building worlds… 3D felt like an ideal way in,” he says. But Matt’s road to the industry had some detours, including a big one to Washington State University. “I majored in computer science at university. My dad thought that was a more solid foundation than an art degree,” he says. “Programmers work on games, so program I did. I worked for a few software companies and owned a web development company for awhile after graduation, but I never got my foot into the games industry.” Of course, the story doesn’t end there, or we wouldn’t be telling you any of this. When we heard from Matt, he’d been on the job less than a week. In his own words: What ultimately led you to VFS and the Foundation program? Inside my head, you’ll find a swirling mixture of left-brained, order and right-brained, creative chaos. Software engineering, system administration, and all of the other technical hats I’d tried on didn’t satisfy the whole of my brain. I needed more of an artistic outlet. I left the web development company I’d started and began looking for art schools. In all my searches, I was most consistently impressed by the work coming out of VFS. The 3D program was my end goal, but Foundation seemed like a better starting point. 3D itself is just another tool. Knowing a modeling package doesn’t necessarily make you an artist. I wanted to make sure that I had a solid grasp on the fundamentals before I tackled 3D.
It’s the typography lesson that just won’t die! Typographics, the celebrated Term 4 infographic by Digital Design grads Ryan Uhrich and Boca, is a finalist for a 2008 Yahoo! Video Award. It’s up for Best Animated Video, and the competition is fierce, so show Boca and Ryan your support by clicking the button below and voting! Voting’s only open until Friday, March 21!
Peter talked about his long career as an actor in the UK, and how that has informed his sensibilities and process as a filmmaker. He also generously broke down several scenes from both Sliding Doors and Dangerous Parking. Current Film student Angela Harvey called Peter’s talk “awesome”. She writes, “One of his primary points was that the actor is the single most important element in everything we shoot. Lighting, composition, production design, etc. are all for naught if the actor doesn’t deliver. Part of me is tempted to chalk that up to his own background as an actor, but at the same time, it’s absolutely true. There’s no denying that. Peter spent pretty much the whole evening giving us nuggets of knowledge like that. And they were all from very practical, real-life scenarios.” Thank you for visiting, Peter, not just for your knowledge, but for being so candid. You’ve left many a student inspired.
This February, not one but three VFS Writing folks achieved standings in the prestigious Scriptapalooza TV competition! They are: Ellen Boyd (graduate) – Placed 3rd overall in the 1 Hour TV Category for her Supernatural spec “Lycanthropy” Tihemme Gagnon (graduate) – Semifinalist in the Pilot Category for her pilot script The Last Gate Every contest placing has a positive impact on a screenwriter’s career (they often lead to calls from producers and managers) — but Ellen’s placing is particularly impressive… especially since she’s only been out of school for six months. Ellen says, “Placing third in this contest confirmed that maybe I’m not a half-bad writer! With renewed energy and confidence, I am plunging forward with my aspirations and hope to someday pay the bills with the money I make from my writing.” We’re sure you’ll meet that goal, Ellen! You’re well on your way. Congrats to all.
Zeros 2 Heroes’ current initiative – a partnership with Canadian funding body Telefilm – is a contest called Canada Comic Creation Nation (CCCN), which gives writers a chance to pitch their ideas for comics, and puts those pitches to a popular vote. Winners are named weekly, and the lucky few are paired with artists and editors to produce a digital version of their 22-page creation. Well, before CCCN got underway Z2H needed a test case, a “beta writer,” and they were lucky enough to find Foundation Visual Art & Design graduate and TA Morgan Jeske. Production on Morgan’s book, Gustav Hayes, is making huge strides, and it’s been exciting to watch it take shape. You can follow some of Gustav‘s progress by way of its editor, Robert Parizek, over at Z2H’s “corporate” blog as well as Morgan’s own posts on the main Z2H site, but we wanted to catch up with Morgan ourselves – and settle that Prairies vs. West Coast, Wampa vs. Sasquatch debate once and for all. Maybe you can start by telling us a bit about yourself and your background. Hi there, Morgan Jeske is the handle I go by, avid reader of comic books and lover of the mechanics of the medium. About three years ago I moved to Vancouver to not be in Manitoba anymore, because—really, it’s like Hoth over there for the better part of the year, except there’s no Tauntauns. Currently, I am in the midst of writing several comic projects, some of which I intend to draw as well. What did you study at VFS? In the summer of 2006, I graduated from the Foundation Program, more specifically, the Animation stream. How do you think your time in Foundation has influenced the artist-slash-writer you are today? The program definitely gave me a big push forward creatively. I came to the program pretty raw, as far as my creative process and understanding just what the hell that actually was. After I was done, I could sort of parse out everything I did, dissect the way I work and reassemble the way I operate as an artist/writer. It also helped me realize what I did not want to do, so a greater sense of direction was gained as well. How did you get involved in Zeros 2 Heroes? How did Gustav Hayes come to be? It was sort of a lab rat type situation, in that I was part of the Beta book portion of CCCN, which was a series of books that would test out the editorial process for the contest proper.
Even better, its three creators – Nicolas Alexander, Yaniv Fridman, and Amber MacKay are going to be at the Open House to talk a little about their VFS experience so far, and field questions from the audience! That’s along with a stellar lineup that includes grads and a demo of the program’s own multi-touch display. Nicolas on the sudden success of his team’s project: “We are receiving good feedbacks from all over the place and we are really glad that people like it and wants to see it. It surely raises the expectations and the challenges for the projects to come…” You’ll hear much more at the Open House. The details: Digital Design Open House Register for this Open House at openhouse@vfs.com or 604.631.3590.
Embracing Canada
About a month ago we told you about a new ongoing webTV series on Radio Canada International called Embracing Canada that is currently being filmed and produced by VFS Film Production graduate Ashfaq Khan and his production company Cinetel. Ashfaq’s documentary follows the Singh family as they leave their home in Mumbai to start a new life in Vancouver. The series is on its sixth episode and has already garnered attention from viewers around the world who are tuning in every week to find out how the family is adapting.
In a documentary, you generally have a structure in mind, but it changes as you shoot your subjects as new things come out. This series is a collaborative production between Cinetel and RCI. I was the only one from Canada when shooting was being done in India. When I came back I showed this footage to our team both from Cinetel and RCI. We all sat together and unanimously agreed that Priyanka’s POV was the best way to put our first episode as it would be captivating for the audience to watch a little girl telling the story.
Continue reading
Body Moving
The Switch Hits a Mil
Matt Turner Goes Zombie
3D Animation & Visual Effects grad Matt Turner has the job he wanted, working as an environment artist at Seattle game developer Zombie Studios.Typographics Up for Yahoo! Award
Peter Howitt’s VFS Talk
Peter Howitt, director of the films Sliding Doors, Antitrust, Laws of Attraction, and the recent Dangerous Parking, spoke to a rapt audience of VFS Film Production students last night.Scriptapalooza’s Fab Three
Joyce Thierry (instructor) – Quarterfinalist in the Pilot Category for her pilot script Johnny and EmmaHow 2 Go from Zero 2 Hero
Zeros 2 Heroes, the social comics site founded by Writing grad Matt Toner, has been awfully good to VFS. It’s had a hand in the careers of two other Writing grads, Scott Lew and Jeff Campbell. In the latter case, it led to a chance to help revive Rainmaker Animation’s popular ReBoot franchise.Bridesmaids Get More Love
Well, with the Digital Design Open House happening this week (Thursday, March 13th) we couldn’t have asked for better timing. As we mentioned, A Brief Guide About Bridesmaids, the Term 3 motion design project by a trio of Digital Design students, is doing the rounds on design blogs, and the kicker came late last week, when it got a mention on Motionographer.com – truly the Holy Grail of the motion graphics set!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
6pm – 8pm
VFS Café
390 West Hastings St.
(Corner of Homer & Hastings)