Digital Kitchen, one of the top production design firms in the world - with studios in Seattle, Chicago, New York, and L.A. - paid a visit to VFS last Friday to speak with Digital Design students, conduct interviews, and tour the school.

Naturally, when you have DK in the house, you want a little show-’n'-tell, and Creative Director Matt Mulder and Creative Lead Brad Abrahams didn’t disappoint. They presented three case studies out of the Seattle studio - the opening sequence for the TNT miniseries The Company, a promo for Wired Science on PBS, and the hilarious Microsoft Recruiting viral video MindQuest.

The pair talked at length about these projects, delving into the exhaustive and exhausting process on The Company (Matt: “You want a rocket? Here’s 8 rockets”) and the hectic Wired Science shoot (Brad: “You never want to find yourself in a position where you’re on a greenscreen stage, someone says, ‘What’s next?’ and you have no idea”).

The MindQuest project offered a couple of simple lessons to any designer. First, it was put together on a shoestring, and even for a company like DK - who have won Emmys, and got lots of acclaim for the title sequence for Dexter - those jobs are worthwhile. Brad: “We take on [low- or no-budget jobs] occasionally just to keep us sane.”

During the Q&A, Matt, who’s one of the professionals on the Digital Design Advisory Board at VFS, said that there’s no shortage of opportunities out there for designers - “Everybody’s always looking for somebody” - but stressed the importance of being well-rounded and knowing more than just software. “Did they set out to communicate something and communicate it, or did After Effects take over?”

We’ve just gotten word that VFS Makeup Advisory Board Member Gail Kennedy and her team have won the Emmy for Best Makeup for a Miniseries, Movie or Special for their work on HBO’s acclaimed miniseries Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. The Emmy was awarded as part of this weekend’s ceremony honouring those in the Creative Arts categories.

Gail has been nominated for Emmys before, for her work on Into the West.

Incidentally, 2007’s been a busy year for Gail. Besides Wounded Knee, she also served as Makeup Department Head on The Lookout, Resurrecting the Champ, and Brad Pitt’s new film, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Congratulations, Gail!

Makeup Design Advisory Board member Leonard Engelman Elected as Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Makeup Branch Governor!

And for those of us who may not know exactly what that means?

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, aka the guys who give out the Oscars every February) have a board of governors representing the various arts and trades in the film industry as they come together to promote their crafts and recognize outstanding achievements. Until recently, there was no official Makeup Branch, and so, no governor to officially represent trends and excellence in Makeup.

All that has changed, as AMPAS has created a Makeup branch, and the 120 makeup and hairstyle artists the branch comprises have elected Leonard Engelman — Makeup Artist for movies like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Batman & Robin, Moonstruck, and Ghostbusters – as their governor.

The newly-overhauled Makeup Design program at VFS is proud to have the distinguished Mr. Engelman on their Advisory Board, which helps keep programs current and relevant in terms of industry practices and needs.

The proven education at VFS is built on a premise that the skills students learn here must prepare them for a lifetime of personal and professional opportunity. Our mission is to ensure that students come here and, in one year, learn the skills they need to move directly into their respective industries.

As part of this mandate, we are serious about involving prominent industry professionals in the development of our programs. These Advisory Boards serve as lifelines to the industry, providing students with direct connections to the professional world.

Our two newest programs, Digital Design and Game Design, recently finalized their advisory boards comprised of leading designers and thinkers.

“We wanted to put together advisory boards with representatives from each of the specific job titles we are preparing students for,” says Stephen Webster, who heads both departments. “For Digital Design this meant having people who specialize in motion graphics, user experience, and interface development and design. For Game Design we wanted people who are producers, level designers, and quality assurance analysts. We’re very happy with the groups we have assembled for both programs.”

The current advisory board members come from many of the world’s top companies, including Digital Kitchen, Blast Radius, and Electronic Arts for Digital Design, and Bioware, LucasArts, Ubisoft, and Nokia for Game Design. Both boards also include independent thinkers and scholars from their respective fields, notably Hillman Curtis for Digital Design, who is widely considered as the top intellectual in the field and whose books on web design have swiftly become required reading for digital artists.

In a move aimed at strengthening ties between the video game industry and educators, Ubisoft Entertainment has reached agreement with the Vancouver Film School for Yannis Mallat, an Executive Producer at Ubisoft, to join the advisory board of the film school ’s newly created Game Design program. The agreement was finalized in the early weeks of July 2004, when Mallat formally accepted the school’s offer.

As a producer for Ubisoft Entertainment, Mallat’s primary titles include Prince of Persia 2, Prince of Persia The Sands of Time, and Rayman Advance. He has also worked on production for Little Nicky and other animation titles. Before joining Ubisoft in January 2000, Mallat worked with humanitarian aid organizations and set up rural development projects in west Africa. He received an MBA from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Montreal , Canada, and is now Executive Producer for Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia franchise.

The relationship between VFS and Ubisoft emerged after Mallat gave a well-attended talk on the VFS campus in April, when planning for the Game Design program was still in motion. For Ubisoft, the opportunity to form a meaningful partnership with VFS is part of an increasingly important effort to work closely with educators to develop programs that offer students the instruction they need to jump from school to working in a studio.

“I am pleased to be joining the advisory board at VFS,” stated Mallat. “This is a significant opportunity to have a strong hand in developing one of the premier game design programs in Canada . . . . It’s Ubisoft’s strategy to get closer to schools across Canada , and help them build appropriate programs reflecting our needs. This relationship with VFS helps solidify what is already a key part of the country for us.”