By any means necessary. A common principle and powerful force motivating that particular breed of filmmaker who is determined not only to make movies, but make movies with their original vision intact. This is the independent filmmaker. Beyond the physical, financial, and often thematic borders of the major studios, the art of moviemaking is alive and flourishing. With the increased accessibility of cameras and editing suites, a movie has truly become only a story away.

But even the most minimalist films need resources. They need actors, and sound, locations, and even food. In short, they need people. For Jason Woodford, an alum of the VFS Writing program, his vision is to help unite the filmmaking spirit with local support in British Columbia .

The Okanagan Society of Independent Filmmaking

Based out of Kelowna , a mid-sized resort city in the interior of British Columbia , OSIF (www.osif.org ) is a collective of filmmakers with a range of skills and levels of experience, from enthusiastic newcomers to veteran film professionals. As the Society’s President, Woodford’s focus remains true to the motivation that made him become a member in the first place – getting movies made.

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It took ten years of slaving away in sales and management for Marilyn Thomas to decide that what she really wanted was to be a writer. With work on the acclaimed Canadian television series Da Vinci’s Inquest, a co-writing gig on Haddock Entertainment’s daytime drama Fleas, and her new role on the board of Women in Film and Video, Marilyn has no reason to look back.

In 2001, Marilyn entered Vancouver Film School’s Writing program. VFS provided Marilyn with many valuable skills. “I learned how to take feedback from multiple sources, and I also learned how to trust myself and my vision,” she says.

The Coroner’s Report

With VFS contacts and friends in her back pocket, Marilyn set out to conquer the film industry. She started by working on independent productions and commercials, jobs which had her doing everything from wrangling turtles to researching. “One of the things you have to decide is whether you just want to be a writer, or if you actually want to work in film,” Marilyn says.

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We’ve all done it. Draw a simple picture on the corner of a page, turn it over, draw the same image slightly altered, and continue, until a flick of the pages suddenly brings the images to life. It’s called stop motion animation and it is what, at the age of three, first inspired Nathan Keane’s affinity for the art form.

After discovering his talent matched his enthusiasm, Nathan got serious about developing his animation skills and enrolled at VFS for formal training. A mere 2 months after graduating in the fall of 2004, Keane was hired by Vancouver-based animation studio, Bardel , and went to work on their latest project for Disney, The Buzz on Maggie.

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Educational computer games have traditionally been deemed unmarketable because of their limited entertainment value. But this did not stop two recent Foundation graduates from beginning their gaming careers with a mathematically focused game for children.

In spite of their love for games, Roman Magbanua and Jung Kit Chan took a close look at the state of the gaming industry and emerged more than a little distressed.

“My cousin is four and I caught him slaughtering people in a computer game with a smile on his face. It was disturbing,” says Roman. With animated violence desensitizing toddlers, it’s no wonder Roman and Jung Kit created a computer game with the intention of teaching while entertaining. Aimed at children, the action game teaches players to calculate the distance and velocity of a snowball as they go about piling snow onto the opponent. Most of the programming was done using Flash animation. Its creators also relied on old fashioned research skills to give their game a realistic feel.

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