Creating First Feature Film in Vancouver Film School’s 25-Year History

August 9, 2012 – Vancouver, BC – A small but ambitious crew of students in Vancouver Film School’s one-year Film Production program has broken new ground with Captive, a feature-length crime thriller. The students, who hail from Canada, Sweden, Mexico, Korea, and beyond, went well above the program’s requirements in making the first feature film in VFS’s 25-year history.

Captive, which runs an action-packed 90 minutes, began as the collaborative effort of a small team of students with the shared goal of creating the acclaimed school’s first industry-level feature-length film. To make it happen, the team raised over $75,000 in private donations and overcame countless obstacles during production, from complex action sequences to night shoots to scenes calling for over a hundred extras.

“Captive is a game changer for this group of students and VFS alike,” says Marty Hasselbach, Managing Director of VFS. “It’s a testament to a filmmaking education that, in an incredibly short amount of time, provides a high level of knowledge and skills that allowed these immensely creative minds to achieve something truly groundbreaking. VFS is so proud of what these students have accomplished and are extremely excited to see what the future holds for them”

The film is based on an original screenplay that follows John Rancour, a corrupt detective on the run for murdering a fellow police officer in cold blood. With enemies on both sides of the law wanting him dead, Rancour has no choice but to seek help from the very man that exposed his crimes and sent him into exile: journalist Tyler Chase.

“Captive is a prime example of the opportunities young filmmakers can seize if they work together and refuse to accept defeat,” says VFS student and Captive co-director and co-writer Jordan Brown.  “By uniting as a team and standing behind the shared desire to craft and share a strong story, we were able to achieve what few filmmakers, let alone students, could ever dream of.”

Principal photography was completed in just 13 days, and the filmmakers estimate that their combined soft and hard budget was $130,000 for the finished film. The Captive crew is preparing for the film’s private premiere following their graduation this August at Scotiabank Theatre in Downtown Vancouver, an event that has already drawn interest from members of the film industry. For more information on the film, please visit captivefilm.com.

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About Film Production at Vancouver Film School
Founded in 1987, Vancouver Film School is Canada’s premier post-secondary entertainment arts institution and one of the most distinguished in the world. With 13 production-oriented programs and a world-leading one-year education model, VFS prepares students to join the creative economy. Film students learn the disciplines of directing, producing, cinematography, art direction, and editing as they collaborate on film projects in the studio and on location. Film Production grads have gone on to key roles in productions such as Cabin in the Woods, Fringe, and True Blood. To find out more, visit vfs.com.

For more information, please contact:
Kate Harbinson, Public Relations Coordinator
Vancouver Film School
+1 604.631.3562 or toll free in North America 1.800.661.4101
kharbinson@vfs.com