Is it a new month already? As we did for May, we thought it would be a good time to look ahead at June’s film, TV, and game release schedules and play a little game of “spot the VFS grad”! Here’s a small slice of what we’re looking forward to this month – the entertainment properties that our alumni from numerous programs have had a hand in.
We’ll give a little more detail for each as the month rolls along!
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Stan Edmonds, Head of Makeup Design, presented Nikki with her well-deserved award, which included a certificate, a personal letter of reference from Stan, a prize pack including top-of-the-line products from MAC and Taut by Leonard Engelman, and a one-year subscription to Make-Up Artist Magazine. “It feels really good to get this award!” Nikki said. “I had such an awesome year and it just feels really gratifying to get some recognition for all the work I did. It makes me feel like I’ve truly found where I fit and what I’m supposed to be doing.” Looking back on her year spent in Makeup Design, Nikki was blown away with how much she was exposed to: “I never thought it would be possible to go to school every day and actually enjoy it. It’s almost unfathomable to think about all the stuff that I’ve done and learned this year. I met some really amazing people and had a lot of fun just doing what I’m passionate about. I mean, what could be better than spending a whole day sculpting or creating a character or getting covered in blood? I liked that I could tell people that I spent the day making severed hands or turning someone into a monster. It’s the hardest I’ve ever worked and it’s been amazing.” Congratulations, Nikki!
VFS Digital Design students Ehab Kamal, Ana Mendez, and Sencer Yalcin took some time out of their busy schedules last term to create a fun side project — a “smile-lapse” of 250 smiles from around VFS. Featuring an audio track from VFS’s official partner 5 Alarm Music, this project has been getting a lot of attention; the student team was recently approached by The Great Wall of Oakland to feature this piece on a 100-foot by 100-foot outdoor screen at their next monthly showcase of digital art. “What we tried to do with this video was play with the concept that 1 second in an animation has 30 frames,” explains Ehab. “Every time you watch a video or animation, these 30 frames per second show you how the animation flows. So, we created the time lapse of a smile where each frame shows you a completely different person. The eye can only grasp so much, therefore you can feel the smile more than you can see it.” “Every time you watch this video, you will see a different person smiling at you.” Check out “Smilelapse” for yourself on our YouTube channel or view it below.
At the time, his screenplay “Hanna” was attracting a lot of attention from Hollywood gatekeepers like the management company Circle of Confusion and the William Morris Agency. The script then landed in the enviable top 10 of the Black List — “an industry popularity contest of the most liked screenplays,” Seth explained back in 2007. Hanna has now taken a giant step toward meeting its reported release date target of April 8, 2011. IMDB lists numerous shooting locations throughout Europe, and big-name stars such as Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana have added their talents to the La Femme Nikita-inspired tale of a 14-year-old assassin (played by Saoirse Ronan) who is sent out on a killing mission by her ex-CIA operative father. Even with a big name director like Joe Wright (Atonement), there are many industry hoops Hanna must still jump through to make its way to theatres, but considering these positive developments — and all of our crossed fingers — we’ll all hopefully be lining up to see it next spring! Congrats, Seth!
Want to win a scholarship for the hottest seat this summer? We’re happy to announce that VFS’s official partner, 5 Alarm Music, is giving budding filmmakers a chance to win a scholarship (valued at $1,285) for a seat in the Film Production Summer Intensive at Vancouver Film School, running from August 9-13. For 5 days, you’ll experience special workshops and demonstrations inside the VFS Film Production program and take a project from script to screen. Under the guidance of our faculty of industry professionals, you’ll work with performers, operate HD cameras, edit, and much more! How to Enter Create a 55-second (or less) film that creatively incorporates 5 moods or emotions. Once completed, upload your short to any video-sharing site like YouTube, Vimeo, or Daily Motion and submit the link to us through the form posted on vfs.com/5alarmsummer. You’ve got until 11:59 PM (PDT) on June 13 to send us your submission, so visit vfs.com/5alarmsummer now for full competition details!
The buzz for MNR was a bit of a slow burn, but what we saw at Game Design Expo 2010 was enough to get us salivating – incredibly refined (and fun!) customization tools and a kart racer that does its genre justice. IGN gave it 9 out of 10, with the reviewer writing, “For my money, this is one of the best handling kart racers on the market and it’s definitely got the genre cornered in terms of online options.” Oh, and “I really can’t stress how brilliant all of this creation stuff is.” Good game play? Check. Great customization? Check. We have more to look forward to from upstart UFG, too – lots more grads worked on the developer’s second title, True Crime, slated for release later this year!
A recent addition to the TIME 100 list of Most Influential People, Blomkamp talked about his secretive new feature film project, the possibility of a District 9 sequel, and the challenges his home country of South Africa is currently facing. Watch the full interview on CBC’s video player site.
With the 2010 Game Design Expo wrapped and Women in Games scholarship applicants eagerly anticipating the announcement of this year’s winner, we were happy to come across this in-depth interview Women in Games Vancouver produced with last year’s winner, Shannon Lee – who is now a Game Design student. Check out all three parts and stay tuned to the VFS Blog in the coming weeks for the results of the 2010 Game Design Expo scholarship competitions. Click here to learn more about the one-year Game Design program at VFS. Part One: Part Two: Part Three:
Yes, it’s time for the fourth Shrek movie, Shrek Forever After - or maybe it’s Shrek: The Final Chapter. The marketing is a little confusing on that point. Will our hero escape the weird alternate dimension in which he’s trapped? Time will tell… but probably. All we know for sure right now is a few of the VFS grads who were behind the scenes on Dreamworks’ latest. One is a Digital Character Animation grad by the name of Javier “Goosh” Solsona, a Character TD on the film and a bit of an expert on the subject of rigging. Next, there’s 3D Animation & Visual Effects grad Tom Piedmont, a Rotoscoper on the film. And last but not least, Digital Design grad Cesar Alejandro Montero Orozco, chalking up his first credit as Surfacing Artist at Dreamworks. We interviewed Cesar a little over a year ago (back when this film had another title entirely!) when he was bubbling over with excitement over landing his dream job. It’s great to finally see his work on the big screen! Click here for our May preview of coming attractions featuring VFS grads!
Producer Barbara Stoll (Rules of Engagement, Roseanne) shared her wealth of knowledge of the television industry with students currently taking the “Business of Entertainment” class lead by Head of Department Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin. Barbara explained line producing as a constant challenge in finding ways to save money on a production, drawing upon stories from her 30 years of experience in the business. By anticipating the scope of the production and the limitations of the budget, the line producer generally knows what can and can’t be done. And sometimes, as Barbara has demonstrated, they make the impossible happen. Find out more about EBM’s Advisory Board here.
Makeup Achievement Award Winner: April 2010
We’re happy to announce Nikki Simpson is the winner of the April 2010 Makeup Achievement Award. She joins some pretty talented company of award recipients, each one chosen from a graduating Makeup Design for Film & Television class to recognize their outstanding work throughout their year at VFS.
Digital Design Students Feature 250 VFS Smiles
Writing Grad’s ‘Hanna’ Locked and Loaded
It’s been almost three years since Writing for Film & Television grad Seth Lochhead wrote this guest post on the VFS Blog.Win a Seat in VFS’s Film Production Summer Intensive
ModNation Racers Turbo Boosts Onto Scene
Today’s release of ModNation Racers (PS3) is a particularly exciting one for us. For one, the kart racer is the first title from Vancouver developer United Front Games, which has been a major supporter of VFS graduates from a number of programs. For another, it promises insane user tools for building karts, characters, and tracks as the second title under the “Play, Create, Share” banner – and appears to totally deliver.
VFS alumni abound on the title, including Game Design grads Brennan Massicotte (Artist) and Nick Letizia (Game Designer). You might remember Brennan from our multi-part “Careers in Bloom” series and Nick from the behind-the-scenes vid we posted in March. Also, there are Sound Design for Visual Media grads Toby Hulse (Sound Designer) and Allan Levy (Sound Designer), along with Digital Character Animation grad Eric Gabas (Senior Environment Artist), and Digital Design‘s Seth Powell (Presentation Artist).3D Grad Neill Blomkamp Interviewed on CBC’s The Hour
3D Animation & Visual Effects grad Neill Blomkamp made an appearance earlier this week on an episode of CBC’s The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos.Interview with ’09 Women in Games Scholarship Winner
Shrek Forever After
Not a Shrek goes by without a VFS grad somewhere in there.Line Producer Barbara Stoll Visits EBM
One of Entertainment Business Management‘s Advisory Board members recently took a break from TV series production in LA to visit VFS.