In September, when for many it was time to get into that ‘Back to School’ frame of mind (something we enjoy several times a year at VFS, mind you, and not just in the fall!), a Global BC news crew set up inside our Burrard Street campus and checked in on many of our programs throughout their newscast. (Behind-the-scenes photos here!)
Now we can share a few of those segments! Below, you’ll see Head of Digital Design Amber Bezahler alongside graduate Ana Mendez, then Head of Acting for Film & Television Bill Marchant with alum Will Vaughan, and finally Head of Entertainment Business Management Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin with current student Nadeem Siddiqui. Enjoy!
Update! Here are the remaining interviews – covering Digital Character Animation, Game Design, Makeup Design for Film & Television, Sound Design for Visual Media, and more!
Update: Check out two of the segments right here! It’s coming up on Halloween weekend, and while most of us make last-minute adjustments to our costumes, it’s time for Makeup Design for Film & Television to really shine! TV viewers in BC will have several chances to tune in tomorrow, Friday, October 29, to see our talented Makeup Design students do their thing! Breakfast Television on Citytv (6am) Urban Rush (5pm, 7pm, and 11pm) CTV News (6pm)
Death Wish, his latest short film, had its world premiere last weekend at Indie Memphis Film Festival. Tomorrow evening, it gets its Canadian debut at the Vancouver Short Film Festival as part of the Pro Shorts schedule. We last wrote about Chad in 2008, as he was finishing and then screening his sci-fi feature film The Coming. And, like that film, Death Wish‘s crew features alumni from all over VFS, representing seven one-year VFS programs and including especially big contingents from Film, Foundation, 3D Animation & Visual Effects, and Makeup Design for Film & Television. Here’s an old-ish but no less awesome timelapse of miniature construction for Death Wish, then a very long list of very talented crew after the jump!
Industry Speaker Day – Saturday, January 22 We’re happy to announce our lineup for Industry Speaker Day, opening with a presentation called, appropriately, “How to Design a Hit Game for the iPhone”, by the makers of all-time bestseller Angry Birds, and closing with a talk by Blizzard Entertainment about World of Warcraft. The day features 10 presentations in all, from the leading minds behind titles like Dead Space 2, Halo Waypoint, Max Payne 3, and Tron: Evolution, as well as PlayStation Move and Microsoft Kinect. We’ve got more announcements in store, too. It’s our fifth year, and we’re celebrating – big time. Whether you’re a game industry professional, an aspiring game designer, or just someone with a passion for the work that goes into making games, there’s something for everyone at the event. Tickets for Industry Speaker Day go on sale November 1. Get yours at gamedesignexpo.com. Game Design Open House – Sunday, January 23 And that’s not all – on Sunday, we’ll be throwing open the doors to our Game Design program for a day-long Open House, where you can play student games, meet faculty and grads, and be the first to get all the details on the 2011 Women in Games Scholarship! Open House registration is open now!
From web series to indie features to high-profile network TV, Kingslea Bueltel has a full dance card to say the least. The Texas-based Film Production alum, who graduated in late ’08, assisted on the feature Rising Stars, which got its theatrical release last week, and worked on Doonby under DP Peter Field (Hot Fuzz, Tomb Raider). Then she spent her summer as director of photography on Throwing Stones, a web-based horror series. Now she’s working as an assistant camera (AC) on The Good Guys, the Fox series from Burn Notice creator Matt Nix, starring Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks. Kingslea was kind enough to make time in her hectic schedule to catch us up on her growing filmography. The Good Guys – how’s that been going? Kingslea: Camera assisting on The Good Guys is a total fantasy job. Awesome people, a lot of laughs on set, and tons of fun, crazy action scenes. This is my first television series and it’s so cool to be able to tune in each week and know that I play a small part in creating something seen by so many people. The show is set in Dallas and it’s great to see my hometown featured on a network series. Good Guys creator and executive producer Matt Nix is also the mind behind the very popular Burn Notice. I’ve been a fan of that show for some time and I was so stoked when the Dallas Film Commission broke the news last year that his latest project would be coming to Dallas. It’s a privilege to be a member of the crew and a fan at the same time. Our leads, Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks, have phenomenal chemistry and comedic timing and I never miss an episode. My friends and family all really love the show and that makes it even more meaningful to me, knowing that they’re all getting to see and enjoy what I do. I work a lot of the 2nd Unit shoots and we do so many fun stunt and special effects sequences. It’s an incredible feeling to be so excited about going to work each day. Blowing up buildings or tearing down the street shooting a car chase is a pretty rad way to earn a living. Kingslea: Rising Stars is a musically-driven story about a group of kids competing to make a hit music video on a reality show. It’s a family-friendly film that features some great pop music – one of the songs from the film, “It’s You”, performed by Jesse Payo and Leon Thomas III, has been released as a viral video cut from the movie as part of the promotional campaign. [See it here] We shot Rising Stars in August of ’09 over 18 days. The movie was made on a very low budget, but we had amazing talent – Fisher Stevens, Barry Corbin, and Canadian actor/musician Kyle Riabko to name just a few – and a small but extremely gifted, accomplished, predominantly Texan crew. It was a two-camera shoot led by fantastic Ft. Worth-based DP Ron Gonzalez, and I was the ‘A’ camera 1st AC. Our art department was comprised of several awesome graduate students from AFI and they did a killer job. We filmed at the University of Texas at Arlington, writer/director Dan Millican’s alma mater, and they were incredibly gracious hosts. All of these elements came together as a finished film that we’re all proud of and it looks like it cost ten times what was actually spent. Kingslea: No, it’s not at all strange to get hyped for something I worked on a year ago. You just expect feature films to take awhile to get from script to screen and I haven’t forgotten the challenges of the shoot or the fun we had on set. I feel that way about everything I work on; it’s always exciting for me when a film is released or gets a festival screening or when a music video or television show makes it to air. We do what we do for the sole purpose of that work being seen and finding an audience – regardless of the time it takes to deliver it. I am thrilled every time I have the chance to share something with my friends and family who have supported me throughout the beginnings of my career in what can be a tough industry. I’ve been lucky enough to have been involved with a lot of great projects in the year since Rising Stars wrapped, but that’s definitely a special show for me. I made some wonderful friends and many of us still work together regularly. Rising Stars was my first time to work for Ron Gonzalez, and I’ve been assisting for him ever since. My little film family from Rising Stars and I are all excited about the movie making it to theatres and a group of us are planning a trip to go see it together. We’ll probably take over a whole row of seats and be singing along with all the songs that were stuck in our heads during the shoot, and I’m sure there will be tons of memories that come back to us as we watch. I’m definitely looking forward to it! And on Doonby, you got to work with Peter Field. How was that? Kingslea: Doonby is a project that I’m truly grateful to have been a part of. The cast and crew were among the best I’ve encountered and Smithville, Texas – the town where we filmed – was a fabulous, hospitable place to shoot. Working for Peter Field was a dream. He’s such an accomplished filmmaker and he’s tremendously kind, patient and knowledgeable. I’ve found that many DPs in the US have come to be cinematographers by way of gaffing and lighting design; it’s apparently more common for DPs in the UK to have come up through the camera department, and it was very instructive for me to work for a DP with years of experience as an AC. He taught me so many amazing little tips and tricks that I’ve since permanently incorporated into my own approach to the job. Peter’s past credits include several films in the James Bond franchise, Hot Fuzz, and Tomb Raider – he has tons of experience shooting huge action sequences – and we got to do a couple of fun, exciting scenes with action and special effects on Doonby. It was an awesome opportunity to expand my own skill set under the guidance of a DP with such an incredible body of work. Kingslea: Throwing Stones is a smart teen slasher rooted in the ‘Broken Window’ theory of socioeconomic decay. It’s sort of a blood-soaked twist on The Breakfast Club. I’m a huge horror fan and I share a love for the genre with Throwing Stones creators Bart Van Bemmel and Jason Wheeler. Earlier in the year, I worked as an AC on their horror short Virgin Mary Christmas, and we discovered our mutual passion for scary movies. When they offered me the DP position on Stones, I jumped at the chance to work with them again. Bart and Jason definitely understand the genre, and the way that they wanted to tell this story presented an attractive challenge. We shot five short episodes in three days at a high school in Carrolton, Texas. The cast is comprised of some of the most talented young actors imaginable and we put them through some serious emotional and physical paces. The actors gave us so much that we wanted to really highlight the raw emotion coming from these characters. One of our goals was to take a massive, almost empty high school campus and make it feel like a claustrophobic trap. The look and feel is manic and gritty, lots of handheld camera work, and we are all really happy with the way it’s coming together so far. We are currently in post-production, but plan to roll out Season 1 soon. Bart and Jason are doing something really creative by posting student video yearbook clips on the show’s website that will give viewers some backstory about Blair High School and lead up to our first episode. I think it’s a fantastic way to set up the series and introduce the audience to the characters. Several of the top horror websites – Fangoria, Dread Central, and Shock Till You Drop to name a few, have been so supportive in covering the project. Bart and Jason have done an outstanding job of connecting with the horror community early on and I have high hopes that Throwing Stones will do well and return for additional seasons. We do too! Thanks, Kingslea, for taking the time to talk about these projects. We’ll be looking out for the debut of Throwing Stones along with horror fans everywhere.
Listen to the sounds of Fable III and you’ll hear some noticeable contributions made by three Sound Design for Visual Media grads – Robbie Elias, Noa Lothian, and Kyle Fraser – out of the Microsoft Game Studios SoundLab. “Noa and I both got a chance to do creature design for two creatures in the game.” Robbie explains of the trio’s work as sound designers. “In one case, we used our own voice mixed with animal vocals and heavy processing to create an original design for each set of vocals.” Kyle, meanwhile, cut particle effects like magic shields and electricity. Most of Robbie’s time on Fable III involved being in the Foley room, capturing details for in-game animations – everything from cloth to kisses to footsteps to body falls. And then came the dogs. Robbie recorded eight of them for the sounds of the game’s canine companion. “Funny story about this,” Robbie says. “I almost got attacked by one of the dogs. His name was Butch, and he was one of the meanest dogs I have ever encountered. If you put your hand near him when he had a treat he would literally make the sound of a demon from hell.” “One of the best recording sessions I have ever been a part of.” Robbie Almost Dies (MP3) (WAV) “We used eight microphones for each dog,” he says, “which in included a 4-mic array setup (two 8040s, 416, and a MKH 40) around each dog, a stereo hand held MS rig, MKH 30 and 40, and a stereo ‘distant’ setup.” But what about those singing chickens? Noa got to design some short songs for the game, including this one. “The chicken song was mostly Noa and myself ‘bawking’ the melody of the song in a VO room,” Robbie says. ”Then Noa layered in some real chickens to make it sound authentic.”
This summer, we blogged about branding presentations by a group of students who were in their fourth of six terms in Digital Design. Today, we bring you a guest post from Instructor Maria Kennedy that sheds light on presentations by students in Branding 1, one term earlier in their year at VFS. Guest Post by Maria Kennedy Everyone appreciates having more food options in the neighbourhood where they work, learn, or live - and that was exactly the challenge given to Branding 1 students as their term assignment. The students responded with genuine excitement – it was a chance to create something that they themselves would be attracted to. Name, food options, style of delivery, packaging, and design had to be considered, and research had to be done with the target group to gain insights into the possibilities. And what were the results? How about Token Sushi, from Chris de la Rocha, a place where you can select reasonably priced sushi from a conveyor belt, with the design evoking early 8-bit video game style. Michael Meng came up with the idea of a place that international students could find home-cooked noodles that would remind them of home. Taking a cue from his Chinese name “le”, which also means happy, he came up with Le Noodle, a place that comes off as modern, clean, with just the right amount of authenticity, and would surely attract a wide audience. Cherie Korol suggested a place that you can go to and order healthy sandwiches made with your choice of ingredients. Sandwich by design would be the kind of place that looks as good as it sounds, a modern, fun place to go and eat healthy. Each student made an eight-minute presentation to “the client”, showing their research, findings, logo concept, and application to collateral, stationery, delivery vehicle, and staff uniforms. When they move on to Branding 2, students will have a chance to refine their ideas and get them ready for potential investors. Congratulations to this class for a mouth-watering experience that has left us dreaming of what could be! Maria Kennedy, who has over 20 years’ experience as a designer and creative director, teaches Branding in VFS Digital Design. Through her company, Seed Ideas, she has worked with a long list of top clients.
Riese, the sci-fi webseries created by Foundation Visual Art & Design grad Ryan Copple, is continuing its ascent in the online world. After drawing in almost 1.5 million upload views on the series’ YouTube channel, Copple and his partners have made a distribution deal with the digital division of American cable television channel, Syfy. Starting tomorrow (Tuesday, October 26), Riese will be relaunched as Riese: Kingdom Falling. 10 newly-edited episodes will be broadcast within the U.S. (not in Canada yet, unfortunately) on Syfy.com/Riese on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The steampunk-infused world and its storylines have been enhanced, and Amanda Tapping (of Sanctuary fame) will now feature as the series’ narrator. Riese: Kingdom Falling will also be available via Sony’s PS3, Microsoft’s Xbox, and Amazon. “We’ve thrilled to be relaunching Riese: Kingdom Falling on Syfy.com, as it will give it so much exposure to its target audience,” Ryan says. “And, if it does well, we’ll be keen to start looking into television development.” “Personally, I still can’t get over what an amazing journey it’s been. It was almost one year ago that we first released the episodes on YouTube. I had always hoped that the show would get viewed, but this has been a dream come true, and a real testament that independent producers can succeed.” We’re extremely proud of Ryan’s continued success, and that of his fellow VFSers connected to this project: Acting grad Emilie Ullerup, Writing grads Alyssa Ciccarelli and Miguel Valdez Lopez, Acting Instructor Bart Anderson, and Entertainment Business Management Instructor (and Riese Producer/Director) Nicholas Humphries. Those in the U.S. can visit Syfy.com/Riese Tuesdays and Thursdays to see all 10 episodes! Follow Riese on Twitter to get up-to-date announcements: @riesetheseries
The work of VFS Film Production grads will feature heavily in two different documentary programs – 8 films, in total! We’re proud to have the following student-created work screened in the Heart of the City Festival‘s 7th year: No Light at Midnight directed by Jay Macmillan Isaac Carter will be attending the screening of his documentary and was kind enough to offer his thoughts on the festival. “The Heart of the City festival, to me, represents and celebrates the diversity that Vancouver (and Canada) is so proud of,” Isaac says. Can you tell us about your film, The Laughing Drum? “When I first came to VFS last year we were introduced to the filmmaking process through the documentary course [taught by Instructor Cari Green]. My peers came up with a variety of fascinating topics ranging from mysteries to psychic phenomenon. How I came up with The Laughing Drum is actually quite a personal story, something people don’t just ‘get’ when they watch the film.” “A decade later, I came across their studio in Vancouver while searching for a Taiko drumming group to do a film on. As research and interviews developed, I was amazed at the wealth of information available. Uzume Taiko is the first Canadian Taiko group. They are not only known nationally but they have also performed overseas as well. The name ‘Uzume Taiko’ is refers to the goddess of laughter, and is part of an ancient Japanese legend that is used to inform the audience how the Taiko drum came to be the cultural piece it is today. We tell (and show!) you the legend in the documentary.” You can catch The Laughing Drum in the film showcase on Thursday, October 28, alongside a number of films listed above. More of these films will screen on Saturday, November 6. Congrats to all the grads whose work will be celebrated!
Super Meat Boy, a 2D platformer that distills all the good stuff of the genre’s golden age (and then adds meat) hit Xbox Live Arcade last week. The reviews for this indie upstart? Through the roof. Here’s a taste, from Eurogamer: “Super Meat Boy starts out as just another indie game that revels in driving you crazy, but you end up crazy in love.” Says Destructoid: “First there was Donkey Kong, then came Mario, Mega Man, and Sonic. Now we have Meat Boy. The world’s newest 2D platforming legend has arrived.” It’s one of the best-reviewed games of the year, easily. Why do we care? Well, we’re gamers. But we’re also psyched that Super Meat Boy features the work of Sound Design for Visual Media grad Jordan Fehr, who was responsible for the game’s sound effects! Super Meat Boy will be ultimately become available via WiiWare, and also PC/Mac. For now, get thee to XBLA!
Makeup’s Spooky Work Will Be Televised
Early risers can catch the handiwork of VFS students on BT – they’ll be behind the scenes, doing makeup applications on the on-camera personalities.
During the day, Stan and a group of students will be dropping by the Urban Rush studio. Check out the evening broadcast on Shaw TV!
We’re really looking forward to this one! A crew will be at our state-of-the-art Franklin Street fabrication and application facilities during the evening news broadcast. Tune in and you’ll see weathercaster Marke Driesschen made up as a wolfman by VFS students, meet Head of Makeup Design Stan Edmonds, and more!
Foundation Instructor, Film Grad’s ‘Death Wish’ Creeping Up on Screens
At the end of the day, writer/Director (and Film Production alum and Foundation Visual Art & Design instructor) Chad Costen is all about tapping into a sprawling VFS network.Game Design Expo 2011 to Feature Rovio, Blizzard
From Angry Birds to World of Warcraft – and everything in between – that’s what ticketholders at Game Design Expo 2011, hosted by the Game Design program here at VFS, can look forward to January 22-23, 2011!On Horror Web Series, Fox’s ‘Good Guys’, and Never Becoming Jaded
Call her Assistant Camera, call her Director of Photography – and definitely call her busy.
You’re obviously really busy, but one of the projects you worked on a while ago, Rising Stars, is seeing the inside of theatres this month. What can you tell us about it?
You’ve worked on so many things since then – is it strange to get hyped for it now that it’s gotten a limited release?
Then, this summer, you were busy doing things like Throwing Stones – what was that experience like? The horror genre seems like an interesting change of pace for a DP.Behind the Sounds of Fable III: From Chicken Singalongs to Very Angry Dogs
Before reading this story, turn your speakers on and listen to the song above. Trust us. We’ll get back to it in a minute.Digital Design Students Develop New Eatery Options
Instructor, Digital Design 
The brief was simple – a client with great space, looking to open an affordable alternative food place, looking for brand ideas that would allow them to attract students from nearby campuses, especially VFS.
Tiffins from Salim Hassan brings authentic Indian food, in brightly coloured tiffins, to your door by bike delivery.
Riese: Kingdom Falling to Air on Syfy.com
In the Heart of the City
The artistic vibrancy of Vancouver’s urban community, specifically work that reflects “the culture, heritage, and distinct character” of the Downtown Eastside, will be celebrated in a series of film, music, and dance showcases from Wednesday, October 27 through Sunday, November 7.
The Laughing Drum directed by Isaac Carter
Under Construction directed by Alexios Spyropoulos
The Richest Place directed by Anand Raghavan
Strays directed by Nick Kelly
70,000 directed by Mo Soliman
Dark Angel directed by Ryan Atimoyoo
Potluck Café directed by Cedric Malayi
“When I was growing up in a rural town in BC’s interior, I watched a performance by Uzume Taiko (Laughing Drum) in elementary school. I remember being awestruck by the resonance of the drums and the energy that they put into their music!”The Sound of (Super) Meat
