Say what you like about the explosion-fueled racing mayhem that is The Fast and the Furious franchise–Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes–but it’s something of a major accomplishment to reach the fifth version of anything and have it be the “best of the bunch.”
Of course, if a movie has flying cars, wanton destruction, and a general disregard for physics, chances are VFS 3D Animation & Visual Effects grads helped make it happen. At least six of them lent their talents to the production:
James McPhail – Effects Technical Director
Ryan Lim – Concept and Creature Modeler
Teh-wei Yeh – Lighting Technical Director
Diego Piccinato – Digital Compositor
Rommel Shamoun – Compositor
Anthony Di Ninno – Animator
Congratulations!
Soon, Richard began working in the writers’ room of a hit network sitcom, breaking through the gates in a very tough field. This is the kind of gig that typically kicks off a career in writing for television. Can you tell us a bit about what you’ve been working on since you got to LA? Richard: I was fortunate enough by the grace of God to land a job as a writer’s PA on the CBS sitcom, Rules of Engagement, within a month of arriving in LA. Everyone on the show is super great to work with. I have learned a ton about how TV is made, and have made some really great contacts as well. I have zero complaints. How did you get this gig? Richard: As much as I’d love to solely credit my awesomeness and charm, I owe a lot to Michael Baser. Barbara Stoll, the line producer on Rules is Michael’s wife [and also an Advisory Board Member for Entertainment Business Management]. He agreed to give me her contact information and suggested I try to meet with her. I contacted Barbara, and she graciously agreed to meet with me (making it very clear that she had no jobs available). We met for around an hour, and at the end of the meeting she told me, “I’d like to see if I can work something out.” For the life of me I can’t remember what I did in that meeting, because I’d do it everywhere I go. I made sure I kept in touch with her and I started working on Rules a week or two later. What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned since graduating from the Writing program? Richard: I’m going to cheat on this one, because there have been two things that I have really learned to live by since leaving school. One: Say yes to EVERYTHING. I’m not advocating going all Jim Carrey and being crazy, but if they ask you to stay late, say yes. If they ask you to come early, say yes. If they ask you “can you do ______”, say yes. Saying yes and being positive/pleasant has opened up a lot of doors for me. People don’t mind helping/reading/meeting someone nearly as much (they’ll even be glad to) if you are a pleasant person to be around. This should not be the only reason to do extra stuff, but you get the idea. Two: Believe in yourself. Faith in God and faith in myself have brought me this far. Coming to LA is daunting. Everyone in LA is a “writer” (there are a lot of actors too, but that is a different story). The sheer amount of people trying to “break in” can be discouraging. Finding that first industry job is hard, as is finding someone to read your stuff, getting an agent, getting staffed on a show/selling a script, and all the other successful stuff we attribute to making it. You have to keep going. It’s corny, but you have to believe in yourself and above all — KEEP WRITING! Thanks for the positive words, Richard. Best of luck on Rules of Engagement!
The partnership will give students in Sound Design for Visual Media access to Native Instruments unparalleled line-up of digital instruments, samplers, and sequencers, in particular Kontakt, the industry-leading sampler used to create the score for Avatar. “This partnership really allows us to take advantage of what Native Instruments brings to the table with their products,” says VFS’s Head of Sound Design for Visual Media, Shane Rees. “VFS students will have access to an extensive software collection that gives them a better way to harness their creative powers.” Find out more about Native Instruments at native-instruments.com.
To give us an idea of the effort that went into making his first feature film, he sent us more info about the behind-the-scenes action he saw alongside his crew, and where his career is heading now. Can you tell us a bit about the challenges of getting this film made? Alexandre: We shot this film in 35mm, at night, with 150 extras in costume. We had fire, fake blood, and battle scenes. Our main location was 2 hours north of Montreal, lost in the woods with no cell phone coverage and limited electricity. We had an initial budget of $500,000. You could imagine what could go wrong. Everything! And it did: bad weather, logistical problems (firing our Assistant Director after 4 days), shooting without an AD for the rest of the film, breaking stuff, accidentally setting fire to stuff, losing our minds, losing costumes, losing actors (ie: forgetting to pick them up in Montreal on the day), etc… etc. But we had the magic. A great Director of Photography (Claudine Sauvé), a dedicated crew of 20 fanatics, amazing actors, and about 70 core medievalist extras who came for two weekends to fight for us. [Alexandre also blogged about these challenges - and much more - for The National Post in the lead up to the Toronto and Montreal premieres. You can read some of those posts here.] The Wild Hunt was honoured as an audience favourite at Slamdance. What was the atmosphere like at the screenings there and in Toronto? Alexandre: The atmosphere at Slamdance and Toronto was quite good. The room at Slamdance is quite small, so it’s like having a private screening with your friends. But what I found to be the best ambiance was during a midnight screening on a weekend at the Seattle International Film Festival. The room was packed with 700 or 800 people — a midnight audience that loves genre films and crazy stuff. It was amazing to see so many people laugh, gasp, and shudder at once. The Calgary Underground Film Festival screening was also excellent: people were allowed to drink beer in the cinema; it was a riot. Your team has elected to distribute the film through video-on-demand and online methods. Why? Alexandre: Ideally we would have wanted our film to open in theatres, but given the new reality of the marketplace, our extremely low marketing budget, and the fact that we do not have “stars” acting in The Wild Hunt, VOD is more realistic. Basically The Wild Hunt came out in 2009, just at the end of the recession. It was a bad year for the distribution of indie films. Not too many deals were made, no MGs were paid, it was lousy. We were initially slated for a limited theatrical release in the US but that distributor did not respect his contractual obligations and we had to look for another distributor. The momentum our film had gathered with the awards and the word-of-mouth was lost. Our current US distributor, Cinetic Media/FilmBuff still saw some potential for the film, but they felt that video-on-demand was the best way to have a good return on investment and get the film seen. Where do you go from here? Are you working on another feature? One thing you realize after doing one feature is that you are a beginner. It’s really exciting actually! There are a million mistakes you can still make and there is the adrenaline rush of exploring stylistic or story ideas that fascinate you-hence the necessity for me to still keep doing my own stuff. So yes, I am working on another feature film. Something crazy (no costumes this time). Can’t say more at this point. I am also attached to a couple of films seeking financing. One of them is from Canada and the other is through an L.A.-based company. I know that I am being vague, but in this business one learns to not count his chickens before they hatch, so I don’t want to jinx anything. Thanks, Alexandre. Best of luck on your upcoming projects!
Only weeks after the film’s release and subsequent critical acclaim, Seth looked back at the six-year-long road it took to get here: the email queries, the negotiations, the industry buzz, and the media attention. Seth acknowledged that it’s all been a bit overwhelming at times, but that “losing your way” is not such a bad thing. After his then-unproduced screenplay for Hanna began to open doors in Hollywood, he was approached to pitch himself as a writer — alongside A-listers like Stuart Beattie — for numerous productions, from a He-Man adaptation to the new Sherlock Holmes. Instead, though, he’s opted to focus mostly on his own original screenplays, showing the kind of gutsiness it takes to maintain a creative vision through six years of script development (as was the case with Hanna). Seth answered a number of questions from the audience, from “Who is David Farr, the other writer credited on Hanna?” (Answer: Seth doesn’t personally know him; Farr is one of the writers who wrote a draft during the development stage), to what it was like to travel to Berlin with director Joe Wright to work on rewrites. He and Wright kept up an insane schedule of long days and little sleep during the pre-production phase. Once they got the script to where it needed to be, Seth stayed on in Europe to make any last-minute tweaks to dialogue or story developments. After it was all said and done, he had lost 20 pounds – despite the gummy bears Saoirse Ronan’s mother was supplying him on set. Thanks very much for your time, Seth! We look forward to seeing more of your work on the big screen. Check out some of the photos from Seth’s VFS visit below, or on our Flickr page.
First it was grad Nick Yonge being nominated in four categories at the Canadian Video Game Awards for Prior, a game he created in 48 hours for the Ludum Dare competition. Now it’s Game Design grad Pieter Parker, as part of Team Masheen, winning the Great Canadian Appathon to the tune of $25,000. Their winning entry, Super Punch, also made in 48 hours, puts players in the role of a villain-punching superhero – power-up enough and you can launch your nemesis into space. Pieter has run the game design gamut, from AAA titles like Dragon Age for BioWare to time-crunched, contest games like Round Boy, also created by Team Masheen. He currently works in web development for a multimedia company, although the four game designers have already opened their own studio with their winnings, Bit Shift Games. Battle Ready So why are Game Design grads always ready to answer the bell? “Making two fully realized games, within the course of 4 months at VFS, helped to prepare me to make [one] in 48 hours for the contest,” Pieter says. “The program really forces you to learn how to make games fast and within rapid development cycles.” One of the biggest challenges with tight time-constraints in contests isn’t not having an idea, but rather having way too many. Pieter says Game Design helped him with that, too. “Another valuable skill that VFS taught me is to scope your game appropriately for the development timelines that you have set for yourself, and don’t be afraid to eliminate features or ideas that you may love but aren’t the best for the core of the game. It’s all about focusing on the core aspect of the game. Everything after that is icing on the cake.” During the day Pieter designs websites, an activity he doesn’t see as all that different from game design. “Game design is about creativity and energy,” he says, “which are essential for developing strong websites and projects that people enjoy viewing. Websites are about user experience, and you can’t get much more involving for the user then in game development.” The game design community is incredibly close, with game developers offering tutorials, information, and even entire game engines to each other for free. It’s also an industry that’s very good at identifying talent early on, something that has plagued other, more established media such as film and music. ”I think it comes from the market itself,” Pieter says. “There’s a lot of great young talent out there, and the indie community is essential for people getting involved and spreading the word. The attention we received from this competition is so valuable, and it would have taken a lot to generate that without the assistance of groups willing to support indie design.” The Payoff “I can’t speak for every game developer out there, but for me personally it’s all about being part of a rather tight-knit community when you’re a part of the game industry. Nothing can really describe what it feels like to see a complete stranger enjoying something you’ve created. It’s really one of the best feelings in the world.” Congratulations to Pieter and all the members of Team Masheen! UPDATE: Foundation Visual Art & Design grad Matthew Miner competed as well, and his game Trajectory won the Wild Card category.
Joined by Head of Makeup Design for Film & Television, Stan Edmonds, and Head of Film Production, Don Hunter, the foursome chatted about the challenges of working behind the camera with visual effects and special makeup effects. Navarro talked at length about the lighting techniques he used during the production of Guillermo Del Toro’s Hellboy 2, which utilized many 3D makeup appliances. The two Guillermos built a working relationship on this film that would be called upon for 2006′s Pan’s Labyrinth, for which Navarro won an Oscar for Best Achievement in Cinematography. Many thanks to Guillermo Navarro and David Crone for their time. Best of luck with Breaking Dawn! You can watch the panel discussion below, or on the VFS YouTube channel.
One look at his IMDB page (which he says accounts for about 60% of the work he’s done), and you can see the kind of demand there is for someone with his talents. On top of all of this on-set experience, as well as working large-scale live events like the 2010 Winter Games, Christopher also recently learned that Tempo, a film he co-directed, has made it to the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner. Hi, Christopher. Could you start off by talking a bit about what it was like those first few months after VFS? Was it hard to find work? Chris: After graduation I found work fairly quickly, my first official gig was to DP [Director of Photography] the west coast sections on a feature-length documentary for Omni TV. Aside from that show, I began to work on anything I could possibly get my hands on. Tons of networking on freebies, mostly short films and a couple of indie features working in the lighting and camera departments. What was it like collaborating with other students in the Film program while you were here? Chris: Collaboration with my peers from the beginning to the end of my one year at VFS was enjoyable. I believe collaboration can be a very effective tool in the creative side of the film industry and you should always take other people’s ideas into consideration. Chris: The biggest challenge I faced when dealing with large-scale events like the Olympics was making sure I captured the shots well; live events only happen once, so it’s incredibly important not to miss out on a great opportunity. I have been fortunate enough with both of these large-scale events to have worked with great and talented people. As you get more experience, the productions are getting bigger as well. How have you been working to grow your career? Chris: I have not worried about growing my career but just try to work with the same people and collectively build all of our careers together. To me this is a much more powerful tool when it comes to being noticed because film is a team effort and you cannot reach your full potential without them. Work ethic never hurts either. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned since stepping into the industry? Chris: Don’t ever be late. Thanks, Christopher! Best of luck at Cannes!
Naturally, any high-profile animated feature boasts a number of VFS 3D Animation & Visual Effects grads, including Character Animators Ken Kaiser, Thom Roberts, and Graham Silva, along with Senior Lighting Technical Director Arun Ram-Mohan. Congrats, guys!
Only 8 participants compete at the invite-only event, in either the Prosthetics or Beauty/Fantasy category, and a full 25% of those called to New York were VFS students or grads: Jonghee Song, Malin Sjostrom, Sarah Elizabeth, and Carolyn Williams. All four competed in Prosthetics (Malin also competed in Beauty), and at the end of the day current student Jonghee claimed second place with Carolyn taking third. Congratulations to all winners and participants! VFS Alumnus Sarah Elizabeth with her IMATS Prosthetics entry. Entries from L to R: Jonghee Song, Sarah Miller, Malin Sjostrom, and Carolyn Williams.
Learning the Rules of Engagement
Sometimes it actually is all about who you know and the connections you make at film school. After a year inside the Writing for Film & Television program, grad Richard Manus had made such a positive impression on Head of Department Michael Baser that the 30-plus-year industry veteran reached out to his circle of contacts in Hollywood on Richard’s behalf.VFS Partners with Native Instruments
We’re pleased to announce an official partnership between Vancouver Film School and Native Instruments, the leading manufacturer of software and hardware for computer-based music production and live performance.Fire, Fake Blood & Battle Scenes
We recently mentioned that The Wild Hunt – a feature film co-written and directed by Film Production grad Alexandre Franchi - was soon to be released online and through video-on-demand service providers.
Alexandre: The idea is to pitch for some projects in L.A. through my agents while working on my own projects here in Montreal.
Hanna Screenwriter Seth Lochhead Returns to VFS
VFS students were recently treated to a talk with the Writing for Film & Television graduate behind the Hanna screenplay, Seth Lochhead.Game Design Grad and Team Take Top Prize
There’s something in the water at VFS Game Design, and it’s producing battle ready graduates.
Creativity, Energy, and CommunityOscar-Winning Pan’s Labyrinth Cinematographer Visits VFS
Academy Award-winning cinematographer Guillermo Navarro (Pan’s Labyrinth) and veteran camera operator David Crone (The A-Team) took a break from shooting the upcoming film Twilight: Breaking Dawn to share their experiences with current VFS students and faculty.Film Grad Pushes the Pace After VFS
Christopher Fisher graduated from the Film Production program in June of 2009 and soon began working at a pretty intense pace. 
What are some of the challenges you face working as a Steadicam Operator at events like the 2010 Winter Games?
VFS Grads Sizzle in ‘Rio’
Rio, the new 3D-animated feature from the creators of Ice Age, hits theatres today. Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, and a host of other stars lend their voices to the comedy about an endangered, neurotic Blue Macaw who’s afraid to fly. (See the trailer here.)VFS Makeup Design Shows Up Strong at IMATS NY
VFS Makeup Design for Film & Television students and grads are at it again. Following their sweep of the 2010 Vancouver edition of the International Make-Up Artists Tradeshow, where VFS alumni went first, second, and third in the Character/Prosthetics Competition, VFS competitors showed up in force at the New York edition and made their presence known.
