Is there really a formula to writing comedy? Can you write funny even if you are not naturally a comedian? These questions, among others, may very well sit in the minds of the audience that gathered recently at the VFS campus to participate in a three-day workshop with acclaimed writer and teacher John Vorhaus .

Best known as the author of The Comic Toolbox - a how-to guide for comedy writing - Vorhaus began his career writing for popular situation comedies including Married with Children and Head of the Class . Now a teacher at the American Film Institute and UCLA, Vorhaus travels frequently offering workshops based on concrete formulas that supply even the most fearful writer with the tools to write comedy.

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What does an army of toxic decomposing butt-zombies from hell sound like? Ask Sound Design grad Nassim Ait-Kaci. After all, he invented it. Creating new sounds is nothing new to Nassim. This musician/performer/breakbeat producer/DJ/sound engineer has been obsessed with audio as far back as he can remember.

After being approached by filmmaker Kevin Speckmaier to create music for a movie, Nassim discovered the marvel of film audio. He suddenly had a new direction to take his innovative talent. This took him to VFS.

“Someone once told me that to become affluent in cheating at poker, you have to learn how to play the game first,” says Nassim. “VFS took a parallel approach to audio. Rather than simply training you as an audio engineer/sound designer, they took the time to detail the actual physics of audio. That made the engineering training far more relevant.”

From Microsoft to Neversoft

In August of 2003, Nassim graduated from the Sound Design Program and was quickly hired by Microsoft Game Studios in Seattle . When MGS dissolved a year later, Nassim found himself at the centre of a bidding war between several major studios including Rockstar, Sony, Infinity, and Neversoft.

A meeting with the team at Neversoft – which produces the Tony Hawk franchise – convinced Nassim his next step was to the company’s California studio. Much of his job now involves creating original sounds, like writhing alien beasts or toxic decomposing butt-zombies, from the depths of his own imagination. “It’s a challenging environment that allows me to ooze creativity and use my skill set,” Nassim says. “Once you break into a good company after graduating, you can open almost any doors.”

Game Audio

Sound design is the syncing of audio to visual media. This includes dialogue, special effects, ambiences, music, mixing, editing, and foley. Unlike film, game audio is completely contingent upon the player. In a movie, the sound of a car passing is identical every single time you watch a scene. But in games, a player’s decisions makes the audio non-linear and, for Nassim, also a lot more interesting.

“Not only do I create the audio assets, but I am also confronted with new challenges and logic puzzles on a daily basis,” says Nassim. “I reproduce real-world acoustical phenomena within a completely manufactured interactive virtual environment. For me it’s a dream career and I wouldn’t change a thing in my life.”

Watching the Credits Roll

With several high profile game credits already to his name, Nassim is currently at work on the latest addition of the Tony Hawk franchise, as well as a new title Neversoft is keeping under wraps. Nassim credits his VFS experience for developing his professional skills, particularly the certification in Pro Tools software.

“Pro Tools certification makes you instantly employable,” says Nassim. “If you want to work with the big boys, you better learn to handle the big boys’ toys. And Pro Tools, like it or not, is the industry standard in audio. With certification my resume went to the top of the pile of hundreds of people applying to video game companies every day.”

VFS Makeup grad Elizabeth Good has gone from experimenting with makeup on herself and her friends, to working as a makeup artist for the leading sports entertainment company in the world. How exactly did she make this jump? She studied makeup practices that prepare people specifically for working in film and television.

Good spends much of her time working for the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, or ESPN, the sports broadcasting titan of North America. ESPN has seven domestic television networks, and twenty-four hour programming every day of the year. Because much of the programming is dictated by seasonal sports schedules, the content changes daily, and with it the challenges of the job.

“Working in a professional television studio and getting to see firsthand how things operate has given me so much experience,” says Good. “I am very lucky to be working with such great people and building strong relationships.”

Just Pick Up the Phone

Once she had received her diploma from VFS, Good did not waste any time looking for work. Shortly after returning to her home in Connecticut, Good simply cold-called the head of the makeup department at ESPN’s headquarters in nearby Bristol.

The person she spoke with was impressed that Good’s schooling was specialized for film and television. After an interview, Good was brought into the studio for a training period, and soon after began to be contracted regularly as a makeup artist. “The best part of my job is the flexibility,” says Good. “I freelance for ESPN, which allows me to work elsewhere as well.”

Roughly seven months after starting at ESPN, Good moved from working on the network’s international shows to the hugely popular Sportscenter and ESPN News.

She recently received an award from The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for her contributions to the Emmy award-winning Sportscenter.

Airbrushing Classes Pay Off

Just over a year ago, ESPN began shifting its studios to High Definition (HD), a digital technology which combines extremely high-resolution images with digitally enhanced surround sound. This shift to HD has a serious effect on makeup practices.

When she works in a traditional studio, Good still relies on a standard approach of using cream/cake makeup for heavier coverage. But the clarity of HD television is so much higher than regular television that it reveals more skin flaws and makes heavy makeup too visible. For HD, the makeup has to be applied with an airbrush, a technique which uses compressed air to spray makeup through a small gun.

“The airbrushing classes I took at VFS gave me good background knowledge of what it was about and the correct way to apply it,” says Good. “Once ESPN switched to HD, our makeup department brought someone in to train all of the makeup artists. It ended up being a refresher course for me.”

Fundamentally Sound

For something that started as fun experimenting on herself and her friends, Good has certainly traveled a long way. She credits the Makeup program for preparing her to enter the industry with a sense of professionalism and maturity by covering the fundamentals from period makeup, to special effects, and hairstyling.

“I loved to do makeup before, but never had the knowledge of how to make it into a career,” says Good. “VFS taught me the fundamentals, but the most important thing is that it did this while allowing me to discover a personal style and expand my own creativity.”