Have you RSVP’d for the upcoming VFS Open House yet?

This Wednesday, July 23 event is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to get a first-hand look at all 13 programs at VFS, meet their Heads of Department and senior faculty, and see award-winning student work.

You’ll also have the chance to meet students and grads, including some we’ve profiled on this very blog - Nicky Forsman and Tihemme Gagnon are but two examples!

VFS Open House
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
6pm – 8pm
VFS Café
390 West Hastings Street

To register for this Open House, email openhouse@vfs.com or call 604.631.3590.

A chance like this doesn’t come along every day.

Join us on July 23, 2008 to experience a behind-the-scenes look inside all 13 of Vancouver Film School’s programs: an unparalleled introduction to a one-year education in every dimension of film, TV, games, and design, all under one roof.

This evening is not to be missed.

At this unique VFS Open House you will:

- Hear about our 13 programs: 3D Animation & Visual Effects, Classical Animation, Digital Character Animation, Acting for Film & Television, Acting Essentials, Digital Design, Entertainment Business Management, Film Production, Game Design, Makeup Design for Film & Television, Sound Design for Visual Media, Writing for Film & Television, and Foundation Visual Art & Design

- Meet our award-winning leaders, including the producers, writers, sound designers, makeup artists, and execs behind Zoolander, Three’s Company, The Butterfly Effect, Whale Music, EA’s NHL video games, and countless others

- See amazing examples of student films, reels, and portfolios from all of our programs, including incredible never-before-seen work

Wednesday, July 23, 2008
6pm – 8pm
VFS Café
390 West Hastings Street

To register for this Open House, email openhouse@vfs.com or call 604.631.3590.

We’ve seen what happens when our Digital Design students let loose their motion graphics mojo on the subject of Typography. But what about the Print Designers?

“Generally, Digital Design students are given assets to work with to make a small book,” says Print Design and Typography Instructor Robin Mitchell. “In the past, we have worked with local award-winning publisher Simply Read Books. Simply Read Books has allowed us to use professionally prepared images and text for children’s books.”

“[This class] did a special version of the project,” she says: The ABCs of Typography.

The “special version of the project” spanned classes and even terms - the students created the basic assets of The ABCs of Typography in Typography class, and in the next term’s Print Design class, they all drew from that pool of assets to create the books, which were printed at school and bound professionally.

The results are simply stunning. In Robin’s words, they “did an exceptional job of sharing ideas and assets and produced a great array of well-designed books.”

“I think the most important lesson was that we can always learn from each other,” says former student – now grad – Andrea de Mattos Quaresma, “And different styles can always make you see your work in a different way.”

The challenge of housing such a diverse set of designs is one that most designers will face at some point, and the students tackled it head-on. “It wasn’t easy to find a way to relate such variety of styles in one single book,” says Andrea, “But it was fun to find solutions for each page and see how we could make them work together.”

And the students did have some room to breathe. According to Andrea’s classmate Everardo Iñiguez, “We had the option of changing aspects of each other’s work as long as the core concept remained.”

“My book was titled Typographique Abecedarium,” he says of his project, which became part of his semi-finalist entry in this year’s Adobe Design Achievement Awards. “[It] was designed so it could fit every asset without overshadowing the visual importance of each piece, but giving you enough information and a cohesive sense of collection.”

So, what did the students ultimately take away from this term-bridging project, apart from some really beautiful books?

Read the rest of this story »

We let you know when it was in production - now it’s only fair to keep you posted! Writing grad Adam Zang’s feature film Cole, directed by Carl Bessai, has finished shooting. Check out this article from the Vancouver Province for the scoop.

Three — I mean, THREE — VFS productions are screening as part of the Cannes Film Festival this year. That’s awesome. Presented as part of theShort Film Corner’s Reel Ideas program, Cannes will screen A Brief Guide for Bridesmaids created by Digital Design students Nicolas Alexander, Yaniv Fridman and Amber MacKay, Happy Thoughts, created by Writing student Rosely Cortes and directed by Cory Kinney, and last but not least, the feature-length documentary 1000 Days To Live, based on the 2007 Reel Ideas award-winning short by Film Production faculty member Glen Tedham and award-winning Film grad Aaron Beckum. Wow, congrats to everyone involved.

VFS has a stack of student work up for 2008 Adobe Design Achievement Awards. Most come from our Digital Design program, but Foundation Visual Art & Design and Film Production are in the mix as well.

(You’ll recall that Digital Design’s Boca ended up with a trip to San Francisco after his Drop was a finalist for one of the awards last year.)

You can see the full list (and it’s long!) of semi-finalists here. Below, the VFS students and grads who made the grade. Congratulations to all!

Installation Design
Ivan Cruz, Gaia: a self-contained environment (Digital Design)

Animation
Jadyn Aguilar, Monday (Digital Design)

Live Action
Jadyn Aguilar, While You Were Out (Digital Design)
Jordan Clarke, Human Movement (Foundation Visual Art & Design)
Jonathon Corbiere, See Through Me (Film Production)
Simon Haiduk, Nagdeo (Digital Design)

Motion Graphics
Yaniv Fridman, Nicolas Alexander & Amber Mackay, A Brief Guide About Bridesmaids (Digital Design)
Ryan Uhrich & Boca, Duelity (Digital Design)

Illustration
Jeanette Seah, Surrealism Design (Foundation Visual Art & Design)

Print Communications
Everardo Iniguez, typographique abecedarium + compendium of thought process (Digital Design)

Browser-Based Design
Pablo Kraus, Pablo’s Garden (Digital Design)

Digital Design grad Bartosz Barlowski is globetrotting, and documenting it along the way.

He’s planning a series of music videos. “This project is entirely non-profit,” he says, “as I’m using music from known artists like Moby, Radiohead, or Nine Inch Nails - all with their permission!”

The first, 02:minute Japan, went up on Vimeo a couple of weeks ago. “I was visiting Japan as part of an internship I got at a Japanese company called Hadeco. I had a hands-on one-week experience on how a company like that works, and was responsible for interface design for medical equipment, and some web design too.”

“In the next one or two years, I plan to build up my portfolio with these kinds of videos, and start my own production studio in Poland.”

We’ve gotten another letter from our boys in Copenhagen at Thank You Motion Graphics - Digital Design grads Ryan Uhrich and Boca and Foundation Visual Art & Design alum Todd Smith.

The trio all worked on a program package for Danish national broadcaster DR: Boogie Prisen, a music awards show. Todd breaks down who did what: “Myself initially for cinematography and camera rigging, Ryan for 3D supervision, and Boca for the bulk of the work and tireless hours from concept to mastering.”

Todd’s last dispatch to our fair blog was about some stop-motion work done for MTV Denmark, and this has a similar old-school-meets-new vibe.

“We moved away from the typical flashy graphics one would expect seeing the MTV Video Awards or Teen Choice Awards in favor of an aesthetic that would inspire kids to be creative,” he writes. “The result was a rough approach, where over three days we bombarded our photo studio with illustrations.”

“They were hand-drawn, stenciled, and painted on the studio floor, animated in stop-motion through a two-camera setup (one rigged directly overhead and one at 45 degrees to the left), brought into Cinema 4D, and mapped onto a CG environment. The piece was rendered using HDR projection and v-ray for C4D.”

You can see the end result at thankyou.dk - scroll down to “Boogie Awards”.

Yes, it’s time again for the annual roar from the West — the nominations for the Leo Awards were announced, and VFS is well represented.

Todd Ramsay -Classical Animation grad - Best Direction/Storyboarding in an Animation Program or Series for Chaotic - Chaotic Crisis

Dorian Pareis - Sound Design grad - Best Overall Sound in a Short Drama for My Inventions

Glen Noseworthy- Sound Design grad - Best Overall Sound in a Dramatic Series for Secrets and Lies

Larisa Andrews – Film Production grad - Best Documentary Series for True Pulp Murder

Dwayne Beaver - Foundation instructor - Best Direction in a Music, Comedy, or Variety Program or Series for Road Hockey Rumble - Summerside

Luke Carroll - Film Production grad - Best Animation Program or Series for Barbie Mariposa: Fairytopia 4

Chris Abbas - Digital Design and Foundation Visual Art & Design grad - Best Visual Effects in a Dramatic Series for Painkiller Jane - Higher Court

Emile Ullerup -Acting grad -Best Lead Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series for jPod - Senseless Prom Death

Colin Cunningham - Film Production grad - Best Supporting Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series for jPod - Senseless Prom Death

Colin Cunningham - Best Direction in a Short Drama for Centigrade

Colin Cunningham – Best Performance by a Male in a Short Drama for Centigrade

[editor's note: Nice goin', Colin!]

Patrick Britton - Film Production grad - Best Picture Editing in a Short Drama for Dog Boy

Tara Hungerford - Film instructor -Best Best Music Video for In This Room by Ambush

Check out the complete list of Leo nominees. Congratulations to all — and good luck at the ceremony on May 24!

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?”