Many of us recognized Dany Papineau’s acting talent when he appeared in the VFS Film Production short Alibi, Inc., directed by Dany’s collaborator and fellow grad Grégoire Bédard. Within a few years of graduating from the Acting for Film & Television program, Dany wrote, directed, co-starred, and produced 2 Frogs in the West, a 21-minute short film based on his own experiences as a young man from Quebec exploring Canada’s West. That initiative opened doors for Dany’s acting career, helping him land a role in the big-budget Underworld: Evolution. 2 Frogs is now getting closer to becoming a full feature, with a projected shoot schedule for this Fall.

Here’s what Dany had to say about his journey up until now:

Q: Being a bilingual actor with experience on screen in both languages, how would you compare the acting opportunities in French-language media to those in English-language media?
A: Hum, I could write an essay on this one but I’ll keep it short. Everyone has a different journey but I think that you have to create your own opportunities. Nowadays, we’re in a global market and (acting) opportunities can be found anywhere on the planet. As an actor or filmmaker, exposure brings work and I believe that the best opportunity that you can get is to have your best film work screening in festivals around the world, in French, English, or any language. Now, if you ever get the luck to be in such a production and you don’t speak English (whatever your first language may be), that’s where you might “lose opportunities.” Whether some Quebecers like this or not, English is currently the language of the world and it sure is an advantage to speak it – in a standard American accent, of course!

Q: How did you land a part in Underworld: Evolution?
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We’re about a month away from the VFS 2009 Summer Intensives! Due to the high demand, extra dates have been added for the Writing for Film & Television, Film Production, Acting for Film & Television, Sound Design for Visual Media, and Animation & Visual Effects Intensives.

The Game Design Intensive and the 2nd date for the Writing for Film & Television Intensive are almost sold out! Don’t miss your chance!

As announced in March, these 5-day creative boot camps put those who are considering attending Vancouver Film School in the trenches of their chosen program, where they’ll gain hands-on experience under the guidance of VFS’s staff of industry professionals.

Check out vfs.com/summer2009 for more information and to register.

Three VFS grads must be very happy after picking up some hardware at this weekend’s 2009 Leo Awards ceremonies.  Big congratulations go out to Benjamin Arthur for winning Best Supporting Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series for his work in Less Than Kind, and also to the team of Jesse Davidge and John Busby for winning Best Music Video for Tupelo Honey’s song, “Morphine.”

You can check out the rest of the winners here. Congrats again to all the VFS grads who were nominated!

What can one say about Bill Marchant, the Head of Acting for Film & Television? He’s a talented actor and a truly beloved part of the school – ask around – but he’s also an author, a poet, a playwright.

His play Ashes, first staged earlier this year to great acclaim, got one more night in front of a thrilled audience last week at Theatre BC’s Greater Vancouver Zone Festival.

Not only that, it was fêted at the post-fest awards, winning for Best Set Design, Best Supporting Female Actor, Best Director, and Best Supporting Male Actor – that last one going to Acting and Acting Essentials graduate Patrick Spencer!

Congrats to all! Here’s hoping this is just the beginning for this tale of “sex, lies, and liquor”!

Update: We caught up with Patrick to get his feelings on the show:

“As a fresh grad of the VFS program, Ashes was an ideal opportunity for me,” he says. “I could not have asked for more than to be a part of a play that Bill, my mentor and friend, had written.”

“It was hard for me to believe that I was being recognized for the work I did. I kept comparing my work to the amazing jobs that the more seasoned actors in the project had delivered, and as such I could only see how far I had to go. However, I tried to keep it simple and when the time came, simply look at my scene partners and breathe. I am thrilled that Ashes has been born – I don’t believe I have seen the end of it.”

If you hadn’t heard, Caprica dropped on DVD this week. The long-anticipated Battlestar Galactica prequel – the idea is that it leads to a SCI FI series beginning in 2010 – has come out to rave reviews, praising the feature-length pilot for its dark character drama.

So we’re pretty happy that Acting for Film & Television grad Magda Apanowicz is right in the middle of it. Magda, coming off a lead role on the series Kyle XY, plays key character Lacy Rand on the show. And with the DVD’s release, the coverage just keeps coming: Sun Media interviewed her, and E! Online Canada caught up with her as one of the “Babes of Caprica”, and that’s just a small sample of the press she’s gotten so far.

You can buy Caprica now at your finer DVD retailers. SCI FI’s got a nice promo video to whet your appetite.

We’re happy to see so many VFS grads and instructors lauded with nominations for this year’s Leo Awards, B.C.’s Oscars. We shouldn’t be surprised though – three of our grads won a handful of awards last year, and another four picked up Leos the year before that!

Here’s a run-down of this year’s nominees we’ll be cheering for:

John Sawa – Sound Design grad – Best Sound Editing in a Feature Length Drama for Impact.

Rob Boutilier & Josh Mepham – Classical Animation grads – Best Direction/Storyboarding in an Animated Program or Series for Kid vs Kat “Stall that Jazz”/”The Kitty Vanishes” (* Rob is also the creator of this series!)

Jesse Davidge & John Busby – Classical Animation grads – (2 nominations!) for Best Music Video for Tupelo Honey “Morphine” and “Not Alone”.

Bastiaan Van Rooden – Digital Character Animation grad – Best Student Production for Border.

Colby Johannson – Acting grad – Best Guest Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series for Reaper.

Mark Hollier – Sound Design grad – Best Overall Sound in a Short Drama for Sanguine.

Bonnie Lambie – Sound Design grad – Best Sound Editing in a Dramatic Series for The L Word

Chris McLaren – Sound Design Instructor – (2 nominations!) Best Overall Sound in a Short Drama for Valentines and Best Sound Editing in a Dramatic Series for The L Word.

Chris McIntosh – Sound Design Instructor – Best Overall Sound in an Animated Program or Series for Jibber Jabber.

Check out the complete list of 2009 Leo nominees. Congratulations to all, and good luck on May 8th and 9th!

Update: Whoops! One more name to add to the list. Film Production grad Matt Leaf was also nominated for Best Cinematography in an Information or Lifestyle Series for On Screen III “Shivers.”

Thanks for the info, Dwayne!

Update #2: Stop the presses! We found another VFS grad on the Leo Awards nominations list. Benjamin Arthur, the Acting grad who TV Guide nominated as one of the 50 Hottest Men on Fall TV last year, is up for a Leo in the Best Supporting Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series category for Less Than Kind.

Good luck, Benjamin and everyone else! The Celebration Awards Ceremony is tonight and the Gala Awards Ceremony is tomorrow. Keep your eyes peeled for stars in Vancouver this weekend.

Viaje Redondo (aka Round Trip), which counts Acting for Film & Television grad Felipe de Lara among its lead actors, came away from the Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara last week with the top prize – and is one of two films the festival jury is recommending to be considered for 2010 Golden Globes. Star Teresa Ruíz also won the award for Best Actress.

Longtime readers might remember that we caught up with Felipe (who’s also a Film grad) about a year ago, when he’d just wrapped the film. Check out the festival’s flickr set of the Viaje Redondo cast and crew meeting with the media. And here’s Variety’s wrap-up of the fest!

Since Vancouver is famous (in Vancouver) for its winter rainfall, it’s only fitting that a group of VFS grads, ranging from Film Production, Writing, Makeup Design and Acting, should bond together in the 2nd annual Raincity 72 Hour Film Noir Competition.

Armed with an inspiration package that included a foam heart and two character descriptions, the team scrambled to put the film together in less than three days. Their efforts garnered awards for Best Actress (Lauren Martin, Acting), Best Director (Darren Borrowman, Film), and even Best Use of Rain. They were also nominationed for Best Writing (Bob Woolsey and Andrew Menzies, Writing), Best Actor (Tom Belding, Acting), Best Sound, and Best Film. Click here to see the trailer for their film, “Pier Pressure.”

“I like to think of our film as a Noir-edy,” says Darren Borrowman. A graduate of the Film Production program, Darren took part in a few VFS 48 Hour Film Festivals and had a great time. After leaving school, he set a goal of making one film a month for a year… He ended up making 15.

“I have made it my goal to learn something new from every film that I make. Past lessons have included: ‘keep it simple,’ ‘have all the cast and crew available for the entire weekend,’ and ‘don’t make a split screen perspective film with only one camera, acting as director and editor in a 24hr period.’ Some things just don’t work.”

Other VFS grad team members included: Josh Guitard (Film), Steve Tyrrell (Film), Jordan Ewan (Film), and Cynthia Gao (Makeup Design).

Congrats, everyone!

Wondering about what it’s like to take a full-time one-year VFS program, but want to try it out before making a big decision about your educational future?

Introducing the 2009 VFS Summer Intensive Programs – 9 five-day programs beginning July 2009 that will allow you to experience our acclaimed one-year programs in a week of learning, doing, and having fun.

The curriculum will be delivered by VFS’s faculty of respected entertainment industry pros, and participants in each program will come away from their week with hands-on experience and real insight into what a one-year program at VFS can offer.

VFS Summer Intensive Programs include:

Experience VFS (a week sampling all of VFS’s programs) – July 20-24
Acting for Film & Television – July 6-10
Animation & Visual Effects – July 13-17
Digital Design – July 6-10
Film Production – July 13-17
Game Design – July 13-17
Makeup Design for Film & Television – July 13-17
Sound Design for Visual Media – July 6-10
Writing for Film & Television – July 6-10

Also, after completing a VFS Summer Intensive Program, students enrolling in a full-time VFS program will have the cost of their Intensive Program applied toward their tuition.

Summer Intensive Programs are open to anyone 17 years of age or older. Spaces are extremely limited and are expected to fill quickly. For full details and to register, visit vfs.com/summer2009. Hope to see you in July!

The answer to the question Who watches the Watchmen?, if you’ve read Alan Moore’s magnum opus, is “no one,” pretty much. Or possibly “an increasingly paranoid and kinda dirty extremist vigilante with a shapeshifting mask.”

In any case, who else watches the Watchmen? Well, that’d be us – and just about anybody with the slightest curiosity about how Zack Snyder (300) will manage to translate the hefty, heady comics into a viable movie.

We’re just a little bit excited.

The other reason we’re excited about Watchmen is the sheer number of VFS alumni who worked on the film. For one, there’s Acting grad Niall Matter (you might recognize him from the Sci Fi series Eureka) playing the small but familiar role of Mothman, one of the story’s broken-down superheroes of old.

And naturally, with a visual effects extravaganza like this one, Animation & Visual Effects is well represented, including Visual Effects Supervisor (Intelligent Creatures) Lon Molnar and Technical Head of 3D (CIS) Sean Lewkiw. The list also include Jelmer Boskma (Previs Modeler), Dominic Cheung (3D Artist), Cynthia Rodriguez del Castillo (2D Artist), Ben Dishart (Texture Artist), Ty Duperron (Previs Artist), Pearl Hsu (3D Artist), Matthias Lowry (Digital Compositor), James McPhail (Visual Effects TD), and Harry Mukhopadhyay (Lead Effects TD). Between our grads who were or are stationed at MPC, CIS Vancouver and Hollywood, Frantic Films, and Intelligent Creatures – VFS is all over this one.

Watchmen comes out Friday. We’ll be in line. Are you with us?

Awesome promotional shot featuring the original Minutemen super-team from the film. VFS Acting grad Niall Matter as Mothman is second from the left.

Update: Here’s a behind-the-scenes video about the Minutemen photo above. Lots of moth-Niall in the background!