Writing grad Zach Roe’s Portfolio Short Father Fred is online at Shortnonstop, a new initiative of the Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival. The film – directed by Nicholas Humphries and starring Acting instructor Michael Chase and Writing grad and TA Wade Fennig – is up against 11 other contenders for the grand prize of $1000 – check it out!

And speaking of the Writing program – this is a reminder that the Writing for Film & Television Open House is just a week away. Come say hello, meet the Head of Department Maria Jacquemetton (currently a Writer and Producer on the hit new drama Mad Men) and ask all your questions about how our Writing program prepares you for the world of professional screenwriting.

Writing for Film & Television Open House
November 22nd, 6pm
VFS Cafe
390 W. Hastings

Register for this event at openhouse@vfs.com or call 604.631.3591.

VFS Festivals & Awards – 2007

Our 3D Animation & Visual Effects program has just been named the number one 3D school in Canada, fifth worldwide, and it’s the only one-year program in the top five in 3D World’s Ivy League of the world’s top animation programs!

Sound Designers do the darndest things. And Sound Design grad Robert Van Kolken could tell you a good one about a frog…

After graduating from VFS, Robert moved to New York City, and soon landed at Soundtrack Studios, where industry vets Tom Fleischman and Bob Chefalas mixed films like Apollo 13 and The Departed.

“Strictly due to ‘right time, right place’” is how Robert describes ending up working alongside director Jim Mickle on his horror feature, Mulberry Street, which has screened at major international festivals like South By Southwest, Tribeca, and Stockholm, and has been picked up by distributor Lions Gate.

Mulberry Street led to a stint on a short animated film called Once Upon a Christmas Village, which starred the voices of Jim Belushi and Tim Curry. Robert was ultimately credited as Supervising Sound Editor on the short, which went on to win a Telly Award for Best Sound Design.

“Following Once Upon a Christmas Village,” Robert explains, “I was put in touch with a Sony/BMG film called Feel The Noise. The film was produced by Jennifer Lopez and I was credited as a Sound Effect Editor.

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3D alum Carlos Villareal Kwasek’s VFS film Climber is going on tour! Once the Banff Mountain Film Festival folds tent at basecamp in the Rockies, it hits the road on its World Tour, with screenings across North America and around the world. (Five to eight different films are chosen from a pool of about 25 for each screening – check the tour schedule for the details.)

Carlos’ film, about an ice climber facing the personification of his darkest fears, also features the work of Sound Design grad Jessica Lemes da Silva, who went on to lend her talents to Skywalker Sound! For his part, Carlos is currently a Maya Animator at Prime Focus London.

VFS Festivals & Awards – 2007 

In animation, it’s the little things that count – something 3D grad Robert Cole is witnessing first-hand. He’s the Surfaces & Lighting TD for Nanotoon’s next version of the popular Molecularium. Molecularium originated as a “full dome musical cartoon” – meaning it was shown in planetarium-type environments – and now Nanotoon is expanding and improving upon it for a 2008 IMAX release.

The production is spearheaded by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. Animators draw on the Institute’s resources and nanotech know-how to present a microscopic world in an accurate yet engaging way. (With songs like “Carbon is Incredible”, how can you lose?)

“What I find interesting about the project is the molecular simulations that have been created on the Institute’s cluster of supercomputers,” Robert says.

Robert’s experience in animated features – he was senior texture artist on the 2006 film Barnyard – is proving invaluable. “Many of the crew on production are students and graduates of RPI, so scripting and coding comes naturally to them,” he tells us. “As one of the only three people on the project with feature film experience, I have been enjoying bringing the ‘art’ into the film and sharing my knowledge.”

Game Design Expo 2008 is coming January 19th and 20th! Like the sold-out 2007 event, this edition features talks and panels by some of the best in the business, and a keynote address delivered by Bungie’s CJ Cowan and Jay Weinland – Director of Cinematics and Audio Lead, respectively, on Halo 3.

Other speakers at the Industry Expo include designers, developers, and CEOs from top companies like Activision, BioWare, Eidos, EA, Hothead, and Stormfront Studios, presenting topics ranging from the Console Wars to Digital Acting & Interactive Narrative to Game Audio.

In conjunction with Game Design Expo, the VFS Game Design program is hosting an Open House on January 20th, a free, day-long event that includes workshop classes and hands-on game demos.

Tickets to the Industry Expo go on sale to the public on November 21st, but those interested in the Open House can register right now. Both events were booked to capacity last year, so don’t delay.

With so much going on at Game Design Expo 2008, be sure to check out gamedesignexpo.com, which has a full schedule, info on ticket sales, and up-to-the-minute news.

We mentioned the inspiring speech Game Design’s Brian Vidovic gave to his graduating classmates, but we knew one line couldn’t really do it justice. Simultaneously sincere, hilarious, and delivered in rhyming couplets, it really has to be seen (and heard). Thanks, Brian, for letting us share this:

It’s that time of year again! Time for the VFS Makeup department’s Autumn Swap Meet!

This is a chance for Makeup & Hair Artists of all levels to:

- pick-up bargains on great supplies
- sell excess makeup tools, equipment or supplies
- meet guests and industry suppliers
- be entered in prize draws
- mingle with industry colleagues

Professionals, alumni, and students from all schools welcome!

Light refreshments and snacks will be served, and there will be a cash wine & beer bar.

Please join us:
Wednesday November 14th, 2007
7 PM – 9:00 PM
VFS Café, 390 West Hastings Street

Admission: $2 (proceeds donated to one of VFS’s favourite charities, the Oppenheimer Park Christmas Fund)

To book a table at no charge: email Laura Wright at lwright@vfs.com, or call 604-631-3054.

Acting grad Krystal Meadows is currently recording the second season of Nelvana’s hit animated show Grossology. On the series, Krystal voices one of the lead characters: Abby Archer, part of a brother-sister duo who use science to solve crimes too “gross” for adults. We asked Krystal how she landed the gig, and how voice acting is similar (and different) to on-camera work.

How did you get cast on Grossology?

I went to a General Audition at Nelvana, one of Canada’s biggest animation houses, located in Toronto. A general audition is where you go in and read sides for a variety of different characters so the casting people can get a feel for your vocal range. They know the new shows that are in development that need to be cast, and off the general audition they can make recommendations to the director and producer about who they think should be brought in to audition for that show specifically.

I read for about 4 different young girl characters and a boy character. Then, two months later, just after Christmas, my agent called and said that it was between me and one other girl for one of the characters I had read for in my General Audition, for the show Grossology. I had an intense week and a half of wondering and hoping and finally got a call that they had made their decision — I got the part of Abby Archer on Grossology. We started recording two weeks later. It was a wild ride. I was never called in for a call back for the role of Abby Archer after my General Audition– I was cast off the general. The audition process doesn’t usually happen this way, but it did for me on this one.

What has the experience been like?

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Game Design graduate Brennan Massicotte is one of the featured artists in the September issue (#23) of ImagineFX! The UK-based magazine took a while to arrive in North America, but now it’s here – look for the cover story on the legendary Brian Froud.

Brennan speaks with the magazine about his creative process, concluding, “Sometimes it’s fun to put technicalities aside and play with visual poeticism.”

Prominently featured is some concept art for the main character in Bloom, the Game Design final project for which Brennan was Art Director. Since Bloom… bloomed… Brennan’s taken on a new concept design gig for a local gaming upstart. Not a bad month, huh?