When Star Trek Into Darkness hit wide release yesterday, it was a chance to dive back into J.J. Abrams’ reinvigorated world of tricorders and Vulcans.

For all of us here at VFS, it’s also a chance to do what we love most – stick around through the credits and applaud the artists and technicians who helped to realize entire galaxies, saving us from two hours of papier-mâché boulders.

Among them are VFS 3D Animation & Visual Effects alumni like Animator Stephen King, Compositors Denny Ertanto, Santhoshi Balasubramanian, and Moises Flores Cabrera, Modeler Ted Moowon Kim, and Digital Artist Srikalyan Tallapragada. Typical of our global age, they worked on the film as far afield as California and Singapore, at studios like ILM and Pixomondo. Can’t wait to see your handiwork, guys!

What does one intense year in VFS Sound Design for Visual Media look, feel, and sound like? Student Carlo Ascrizzi can tell you – he’s been writing a blog series called One Year in Sound for the Italian site sounDesign.

Right now, Carlo is barreling toward an October graduation, and he’s already covered a ton of ground in the series – from Orientation Day to field recording to his first forays into game audio. It’s a candid and incredibly insightful glimpse inside the day-to-day life of a student in this one-of-a-kind program. Want to see what one year in Sound Design is really like?  See his posts right here!

Last week, a group of recent VFS Film Production alumni – including director Shaun Rykiss and producer Trevor Lareau - unleashed the trailer for The Brothers Rapture, a 17-minute short, shot in one room, set in the world of Irrational/2K’s BioShock game franchise.

Almost overnight, the trailer had accumulated 100,000 views and coverage from gaming press heavies like Joystiq, Polygon, and The Escapist, to name a few.

Today, the team unveiled the full film on YouTube. Check it out right now!

The 2013 Leo Award nominations are out, and The Jabberwock, produced by a team of Entertainment Business Management students as part of the Alice in Wasteland edition of the Compendium project, has gotten its claws on a nod for Best Student Production!

The Jabberwock nomination includes EBM producers Skye Radies, Maria Lozano, Shawn Hache, and Zach Hill, alongside director (and Film Production alum) Darren Borrowman.

The Leos, which shine a spotlight on BC’s best film and TV, will be handed out June 7-8, 2013, in Vancouver. This year’s nominees include alumni from many VFS programs, from Acting for Film & Television to 3D Animation & Visual Effects. Check out the full list right here. Good luck, everyone!

Romuald Hivert graduated from the VFS Acting for Film & Television program in 2011. In between acting gigs, including an upcoming stint on the Vancouver-shot science fiction series Continuum, Romuald is a Teaching Assistant in the Entertainment Business Management program.

You may also recognize him from his role in Captive, the first ever VFS feature-length film. We recently spoke with Romuald about what led him to acting, the VFS community, and life since graduation.

Have you always wanted to be an actor? How did you come about choosing it as a career?

Romuald: No. I always knew I loved performing but didn’t know I wanted to be an actor. I was working at a bank and very unhappy. I decided that I would do something that I had always wanted to do. I immediately enrolled in a two-year theatre program in Ontario. After the first year, I wasn’t sure if it was for me, but the Director of the Adult Acting program wouldn’t let me go. He said I was a gem. That second year, it finally clicked that I wanted to pursue this as a career. After the program ended, I decided to move to Vancouver and go to Vancouver Film School. I wanted to take my acting to the next level and VFS is one of the best schools in Canada for that.

As Naseem in Captive.

What was your experience like in the VFS Acting program?

Romuald: Learning how to act is a lifelong thing. I received a great skill base at VFS but I also got access to the VFS community as a bonus. The network I was able to build at VFS is not something you can put a price on. I wouldn’t have known anyone otherwise. I do have to cultivate it but it truly is one of the most valuable things I took away from the school. The community that I became a part of, including teachers, alumni, classmates, students from other programs, producers, directors, photographers – it’s a pool of resources. It’s better than the yellow pages.

What was life like after graduation? What were the first steps?

Romuald: I went back to the real world. I took a flexible job that I could do while I went on auditions. I found an agent right away and booked my first gig out of school, The Arrangement, a film that comes out next year.

After a year, I changed agents. This was when I started getting a lot more auditions, sometimes three a day! I realized how important it is to find the right agent, one that fits you, someone you can work with and create a partnership. My advice is to find the person who can help you maximize your talent and your uniqueness – almost like a soul mate.

With my new agent, I was able to take a bit of control and make an action plan together, as opposed to leaving it all to chance. I shared with her my three strongest characters – thug, professional man/love interest, and high school student. That’s what I excel at. Obviously I still audition for other types of characters but I think it’s fair to say those three are my current base and where I am strongest.

Romuald (second from left) in an ad for Vancouver Actor's Guide.

Tell us about your experience on Continuum.

Romuald: I filmed an episode of Continuum in February which airs Sunday, May 12. I thought it would be intimidating and I was really worried about having to show them I could act but it was very comfortable and the atmosphere was great. I was so used to being on camera at VFS that I felt like I was at home. At the same time, it was also scary because I thought I should be freaking out. I got really good feedback on set, especially for one of my lines in particular. It felt great and I was happy. I was even more convinced that acting is what I really want to do for a living.

Simon Barry, the creator of Continuum, recently visited VFS as a guest speaker and spoke about the road he took that led him to his success. I sat up front, ready to hand him a thank you card for having me on the show since I didn’t get a chance to meet him on the day. When the talk was over, I nervously walked over in his direction. Before I could say anything he said, “I know you! You did an awesome job on Continuum!” He also told me that it was great that my character didn’t die – so you never know what could happen, fingers crossed!

Meeting Simon Barry.

What are you working on now?

Romuald: I am currently a TA in the Entertainment Business Management program. I am also auditing some of the classes, learning more about how to use social media to market myself, how to create a personal brand, and more.

I also took part in Evermore, a short film and personal project. It was produced by Ian Berg, a Foundation Visual Art & Design and Digital Design grad. He is a now a post-production specialist and wanted to use his visual effects skills in the short. It was written by Bobby Henwood, a Writing for Film & Television grad. In fact, about 99% of the people involved in the film are VFS grads. It’s a great example of how the VFS network can come together. It was a great experience and I am very excited for the final product. Ian is hoping to release it this fall.

On the set of Evermore.

What are you goals for the future? Where do you see yourself in five years?

Romuald: Five years from now I want to be working as an actor, mainly in Vancouver but also throughout Canada and the United States. I want to be a lead character on a hit TV show. I would like to be in at least one action film – doing stunts, fighting, using guns, etc. I want to be in at least one blockbuster movie as well – and stay alive throughout the movie! My characters always die! (Laughs) Now that I’ve said all these things, I really have to do it!

It is important to continue taking classes. I know that I will always need to keep training to get to the next level. I received some great advice about who I am as an actor – I need to understand my stereotypical hit. I love the fact that I look dangerous and have a strong presence. The man within – the actor – is a humble kid, full of wonder and play. I like to be bold, fierce, daring, and loving. I just want to share with the world stories that they will never forget. For that, I am willing to share generously the essence of what makes me, me.

I hope people can relate to my characters and that will make them want to learn more about them and their circumstances.

Thanks for sharing this with us, Romuald!

For more information on what Romuald is up to, check out his Facebook Page. You can also catch him on this Sunday’s episode of Continuum, airing on Showcase.

Jennifer Mackie, Raine Anderson, and Brad Pitre of Pixar Canada recently visited VFS to share their thoughts and experiences with our students from 3D Animation & Visual Effects, Classical Animation, and Digital Character Animation. Pixar Canada produces animated shorts and television specials featuring characters from Pixar’s prior films. Those who saw Finding Nemo 3D in theatres last Fall will remember Partysaurus Rex, the animated short featuring characters from Toy Story that ran before the film. That was produced at Pixar Canada, right here in Vancouver, BC.

Pixar has the creative chops to make things great and they employ talented artists and animators to bring their stories and characters to life on-screen. From idea generation to completion, the team operates by the following adage – “It looks good but can we make it better?”

Brad, Raine, and Jennifer were kind enough to provide some further insight on their success. Brad, a Modeler/Rigger previously with Digital Domain, suggested that keeping it simple is key. He also advised that you should always have your work reviewed and be open to constructive criticism.

“You learn from failure. Success is great but you don’t learn from it,” said Raine, an Artist previously at Weta Digital.

Jennifer, a Lead Layout Artist formerly at Axis Animation, maintained that story was paramount. “Everything leads back to the story – it’s the most important thing. The animation can be beautiful but if the story isn’t good then people aren’t interested.”

Jennifer, Katie, Brad, and Raine pose for a quick photo.

VFS Animation student Katie Williams was at the presentation and has some highlights to share.

Guest Post by Katie Williams

Listening to Pixar Canada team members Brad Pitre, Raine Anderson, and Jennifer Mackie was truly an excellent and inspirational experience. Not only were we able to learn about their specific positions at the studio and the hugely cooperative Pixar pipeline, but we were privileged to witness genuine humility.

It is the latter detail that is perhaps the most impressive and encouraging. In so many ways, Pixar is the dream studio of any 3D artist. We look at the work that they do and hope that one day we can be a part of it. Meeting three individuals who live that reality and realizing they still feel the same was wonderful.

Pixar, as all three mentioned and as we can easily observe, is about quality over quantity. In their talk, Brad, Raine, and Jennifer brought up the idea of plussing, making the most of their allotted time, perpetually iterating on assets, and progressing as a collective and holistic creative force as opposed to working in separate departments. It was this concept that was maybe the most valuable to acknowledge, at least for me, because it makes you realize how truly cooperative the industry is, and how interdependence and constancy are vital to success.

Another invaluable practice they touched on was that of referencing in order to stylize reality, maintaining true cinematic language while bringing every part of a world to life, and taking the time to tell a story and to tell it well.

It is that last point that proves the most inspirational and the most motivational. To know that the story is alive at every stage of their process, and to know that it can be, makes everything we are doing now as students so worthwhile and on course.

A huge thank you to Brad, Raine, and Jennifer for taking the time to speak with our students and to Katie for sharing her thoughts about the presentation.

He’s back! Tony Stark aka Iron Man aka Robert Downey Jr. returns today for the third installment of the Iron Man franchise, aptly titled Iron Man 3. This time, Iron Man faces off against a terrorist named The Mandarin, played by Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley.

Working behind the scenes were a number of VFS grads, from programs like 3D Animation & Visual Effects, Classical Animation, Digital Character Animation, Digital Design, and Foundation Visual Art & Design.

Below are a few of our grads who lent their talents to the film. Great work, everyone!

Aaron Gilman, Animation Supervisor
Alex Berson, Senior Digital Paint Artist
Amir Ronen, Animator/Rigger
Andrew Park, Animator
Casey Rolseth, Visual Effects Artist
Cesar Rodriguez Bautista, Senior Paint Artist
Chrystia Siolkowsky, Rotoscope Artist
Clement Yip, Lead Animator
Daphne De Jesus, Compositor
Diego Piccinato, Lead Compositor
Joshua Herrig, Lighting Artist
Juani Guiraldes, Animator
Kieran Tether, Lighting Technical Director
Kiran Menon, Compositor/BG Prep Artist
Max Vogt, Character Modeler
Michael Miller, Modeler/Texture Artist
Moises Flores Cabrera, Stereoscopic Compositor
Nicholas Markel, Previsualization Supervisor
Paul Copeland, Visual Effects Artist
Tamir Diab, Lighting Technical Director
Tuba Yalcin – Effects Technical Director

Fun Fact: VFS grads also worked on the original Iron Man film as well as its sequel Iron Man 2.

We all know that person – everything they touch seems to turn to gold. They’re gifted, driven, positive, inquisitive. Yet, in reality, they’re just like the rest of us – at times insecure as they wend their way through an unknown future. Still, it’s a wonder how people like Sarah Jolley do what they do.

Hailing from Cheshire, England, Sarah graduated from the Classical Animation program in 2011. Her final VFS project, Skip, featuring a Buster Keaton-esque hero and ’60s blacksploitation heroine tripping from film strip to film strip, continues to earn acclaim both online and on TV stations like Washington and Oregon PBS affiliate KCTS9.

In person, she speaks at a lightning-fast clip about Grand National horse racing and the hyperbolic nature of animation. She eschews straight lines because, in her words, they “tend to lie”, and draws with the desperation of a distance runner – she simply cannot stop.

She began her adult education studying Biology and Zoology, and took notes in class using viking runes. She explains, “In cases where the teacher was going particularly quickly I could just… They have entire words in symbols and more. You can just write them faster. Plus, they’re just really easy to draw. Although now I can’t read them anymore!”

When we ask her to list her current projects, she rattles off an animated feature, a book, an online comic book, an online chapter book, plus other mysterious “bits” – it’s a laundry list. She says “some of the best work I will ever do” was storyboarding after graduation at Vancouver’s Rainmaker. She later created D&D-influenced character designs for another client, and is now back in the Rainmaker fold.

Which isn’t to say she doesn’t have the same moments of self-doubt as the rest of us – doubt eased by the help and support of a devoted online community on her blog, other blog, Tumblr, and comic series.

“Tumblr is quite interactive,” she explains. “I was hemming and hawing and wondering, ‘Guys, should I maybe do this?’ If I hadn’t had the encouragement from my friends, I would never have started. And that’s where my audience has come from and it’s grown – I’ve been astonished at how much people like it, which is really touching.”

“It took me the longest time to accept that doing this was something I loved and I could do it for a living,” she says. “And I’m very, very happy that I did because it’s exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life, you know? Find what you love and let it kill you.”

Don’t look now, but Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon is sporting an 85 on Metacritic. The Nintendo 3DS title is a local product, developed right here in Vancouver by Next Level Games, by a team that included VFS alumni from Game Design, 3D Animation & Visual Effects, and Sound Design for Visual Media, to name a few.

Arcade, our Game Design program’s game hub and community site, has posted a fascinating, in-depth interview with four of the alumni who helped make Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon great. Here’s a sample, from game designer Matt McTavish:

“One of the bigger challenges we had was wrapping our mind around what it means to be a stereoscopic game. We wanted the game to be fully enjoyable with the 3D slider cranked up, so we spent a lot of our early prototypes figuring out what worked and what didn’t, related to 3D. When you play through the game, there are so many moments where you can sit back and really enjoy the 3D effect and how it really helps bring the world alive.”

Check out the full interview on Arcade!

L-R: Cavin, Diego, Matt, and Jeffrie

This is what we mean. Behold:

Click to embiggen

It’s kind of astonishing, when you think about it. We all know that VFS is something of a global village, but how exciting is it condense that experience into a single week? We’ve heard from past Summer Intensive students that they’ve made lasting friends and professional contacts in those five lightning-fast days. Now imagine that network extending around the globe.

Live far away and thinking of making the trip? Based nearby but want to work alongside talented new friends during a week-long creative boot camp? Seats in our ten programs are limited and going fast, so register today!