We’re very pleased to announce an official partnership between Vancouver Film School and 5 Alarm Music, America’s largest independent production music library for film, television, radio, and commercials.

This partnership means students throughout VFS will have full and easy access to music that can really make their work pop. 5 Alarm’s huge library of high-quality music is already used extensively by students in 3D Animation & Visual Effects, Classical Animation, Digital Character Animation, Acting, Digital Design, Film Production, Foundation, Game Design, Sound Design, and Writing as they create and polish their films, reels, and other projects.

5 Alarm has contributed music to such productions as Transformers, A Christmas Carol, and HBO’s True Blood – and that’s just a tiny selection.

“VFS partnerships are very important to the student experience,” explains VFS Managing Director Marty Hasselbach. “5 Alarm Music is great example of an opportunity for students to have access to a phenomenal music library which truly enhances the work they create while they’re here. It also becomes the perfect go-to resource after they’ve graduated and enter their own production world.”

Cassie Lord, General Manager at 5 Alarm Music, tells us: “We’re excited to partner with VFS and believe that providing professional tools to students is a valuable asset to their education. Understanding music rights can be cumbersome and we want to aid their understanding of music licensing and gain an appreciation for production music.”

Everyone here at VFS is very proud to make this partnership official, and we look forward to seeing the results in action!

We previously blogged about Foundation Visual Art & Design grad Ryan Copple’s current web series project Riese. A lot has happened since then, including some great media coverage:

In a front page cover story, The Westender described Riese as “an answer to an industry-wide contraction, in that it embodies everything Vancouver has become in its quest for production work — and it utilizes to the fullest the local industry’s unique attributes.”

The series has been further profiled by huge media outlets like The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, and The Vancouver Sun, as well as sci-fi genre websites like scifitalk.com and gateworld.net (the main fansite of the Stargate franchise).

“We’ve been extremely pleased with the amount of coverage we’ve received, both locally and internationally,” Ryan says. “Exposure-wise, it’s certainly helped to put our show on the map, as well as helping us reach audiences we wouldn’t normally have access to. Production-wise, it made us really feel like we had to step up our game, as it felt like everyone was watching. I believe our team was able to do so, which will be evident in the next episodes airing in February.”

With a creative team that also includes Writing grads Miguel Valdez Lopez and Alyssa Cicarelli, four episodes have been posted so far. The final episode of Chapter One goes live on January 4, 2010, followed by a Chapter Two launch in February.

“In these new episodes [6 - 10], we really begin to delve into the characters of Riese, in addition to the political and moral strife that riddles the fictional nation of Eleysia,” Ryan explains. “Speaking of characters, our new cast members include Ryan Robbins (Sanctuary), [VFS Acting grad] Emilie Ullerup (Sanctuary, jPod), Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Gallactica), and Allison Mack (Smallville).”

You’d think all this would keep their hands full, but according to Ryan, there’s a lot more going on:

“We also have an iPhone game being released in February as well, which will serve both as a strategy-card game and a means to tell other aspects of the story. It’s all part of our transmedia storytelling strategy, that’s become essential with new media franchises – telling the story on multiple platforms. We’re also working on the next set of scripts, as well as possible comic and book tie-ins. The world of Riese is constantly expanding, and I think we’ll be seeing it stretch beyond just the Internet.”

Congratulations Ryan, Miguel, Alyssa, and Emilie — and everyone else on the Riese team. Definitely a great way to end the year!

Stay tuned for new episodes at riesetheseries.com and check out the Riese blog for updates. Also, you can currently nominate Riese for a number of categories in The Streamy Awards (which celebrate the best in web television).

If you come here often, you know the kind of year 2009 was for VFS. ”Banner year” doesn’t begin to describe it.

We’re proud – proud of what our students and alumni accomplished in 2009, proud of their incredible talent, proud of the profound effect they had on the global entertainment industry and beyond.

It’s not easy to pick favourite moments of the year. Was it District 9, which truly cemented the VFS community as a creative force to be reckoned with?

Or was it those moments that truly inspired us – students shedding light on unrest in Iran, or young women breaking down barriers in the game industry, or emerging filmmakers making a difference in Uganda?

2009. It was big.

So big, in fact, that it couldn’t be contained in a blog post. So we’ve put together a page for you: Vancouver Film School in 2009: A Restrospective. It’s a month-by-month celebration of this incredible year – videos we loved, stories and interviews that defined our year, plus alumni credits, trivia… you name it.

Check it out: vfs.com/2009

The VFS Blog Team and all of us here at Vancouver Film School wish you and yours a happy, safe holiday season and a very Happy New Year. We’ll still be posting over the holidays, so stay tuned!

The motion design work of Jordan Clarke has a way of finding audiences. And every few months, we discover that we just can’t resist blogging about it.

Jordan, whose year in Foundation Visual Art & Design led him to Digital Design, makes ultra-cool video look easy, from the incredible footage of Human Movement and Balloon Flip (both made in Foundation) to his hilarious explanation of Compositing.

His most recent work to open eyes ? Box Animation. Don’t let the simple title deceive you – in collaboration with musician Mike Edel, and including cameos by several of his Digital Design classmates, Box Animation perfectly captures Jordan’s skills. Tens of thousands of Vimeo views and countless blog posts later (including Stash Media and the blog of Mike Judge’s The Animation Show) and we’ve got a bonafide hit.

Here’s Box Animation in its entirety. Enjoy!

In September, we told you about Riese, the astonishingly good-looking new steampunk web series co-created and executive produced by Foundation Visual Art & Design grad Ryan Copple.

Riese’s first episode hit this week to some fanfare and a lot of positive buzz. (Watch it here.) In fact, it’s gotten a writeup at NYTimes.com (by way of GigaOM) called Dr. Horrible-Sized Budget Creates Steampunk World of Riese – a reference to Joss Whedon’s Emmy-winning web musical comedy. One of the stars of Dr. Horrible, Felicia Day (who also happens to be behind the insanely popular web series The Guild) tweeted some kind words about Riese yesterday. It’s been a good week.

The first episode is a great prologue before we get to dive deeper into Riese’s world, and really shows the care with which Ryan and crew are approaching the series. Check it out!

Riese – Official Site
Watch Riese Episodes
VFS Blog: Foundation Grad Goes Steampunk

What’s Halloween without a home for your deepest fears – the perfect haunted house?

Brad Leith has the answer – the VFS instructor, who teaches Psychology & Art in Foundation Visual Art & Design, is a master of the macabre medium. This week, the Vancouver Sun caught up with him to find out more about the Vancouver house – which is more elaborate and gruesome than any you’ll likely see – and his motivations for doing it year after year.

“You’re going to get a reward if you get to the door, you’ll get a good bag of candy,” he tells the Sun. ”But you might not make it if you’re seven.”

Check out the article, and when you’re done with that, take a look at our in-depth interview from last year: Not Your Same Old Haunt. Finally, if you’re local, visit dunbarhauntedhouse.com for all the details.

Last week, a handful of students and staff members from 3D Animation & Visual Effects, Foundation Visual Art & Design, and Game Design were invited to show their motion capture skills at Electronic Arts (EA) in Burnaby, BC.

Using the physical performances of Digital Character Animation student Brenda Li and Acting for Film & Television grad Matt Pegues, a visual effects camera team of three 3D students – including Andrej Aleksic, Dan Power, and Caio Sugimoto – showed EA what VFS has taught them about calibrating reference video cameras for motion capture.

“It was a great opportunity for everyone to collaborate and be involved with a working motion capture session,” says Head of Animation & Visual Effects Alastair Macleod.

The following VFS students and staff members shadowed EA staff during the shoot, picking up tips on how a professional motion capture set is run: 3D students Alijan Sesli and Diego Piccinato; 3D Teaching Assistant Ben Case; and Game Design student Kight Neale.

“It was such an incredible experience to see in-person how the professionals at EA take your everyday motions and make them into a not-so-everyday blockbuster game,” says Ben Case. “Nothing comes close to being on set in an actual working environment.”

Many thanks to EA for hosting this event.

VFS is scouring North American high schools for the most creative and driven students to take part in an immersive 2-day educational experience in Spring 2010.

From noon PDT on November 20 to noon PDT on November 25, 2009, aspiring artists, animators, designers, writers, actors, and filmmakers from high schools across North America can apply for an exclusive educational opportunity at VFS. Selected applicants will have the chance to experience our world-leading curriculum, and learn from working industry professionals in their program of choice:

Animation & Visual Effects
Acting for Film & Television
Digital Design
Entertainment Business Management
Film Production
Game Design
Makeup Design for Film & Television
Sound Design for Visual Media
Writing for Film & Television
Foundation Visual Art & Design

The programs are open only to the top qualified students in grades 9 through 12, and VFS will cover all educational costs for those who are accepted.

Find out more about this 2-day education experience and how you can apply at vfs.com/standout. Now’s the time to get your application ready!

Danny Chan, a graduate of both Foundation Visual Art & Design and Digital Design and a much-loved fixture of the Digital Design program,happens to be a talented photographer. Proof? His work is featured in the recently-released revised edition of City of Glass, the ode to Vancouver by local author Douglas Coupland (Generation X, Microserfs)!

The book’s been expanded and re-released in part because of the lead-up to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, which take place here in February. Danny’s shot appears on page 34.

Gather ye at your Chapters, your Barnes & Nobles, your Amazons, and take a look! Congrats, Danny!

Foundation Visual Art & Design grad Ryan Copple has lately been devoting a lot of time to Riese - a web series he co-created and is currently Executive Producing, drawing on the writing talents of two Writing for Film & Television grads as well: Miguel Valdez Lopez and Alyssa Ciccarelli.

Ryan and the rest of the Riese team have jumped into the social media world with both feet on this project: there’s a Riese website, a viral campaign site, a Facebook profile, and a Twitter feed. It’s a brave new world of online entertainment.

We had a chance to ask Ryan about the series and his efforts to better establish an innovative route to get ahead in an ever-changing industry. Here’s what he said:

Hi, Ryan. Could you start out by telling us a bit about your educational journey? What eventually drew you to the Foundation Visual Art & Design program?

Ryan: My graduate education began in New York, where I’d been pursuing a doctorate in Forensic Psychology. After a few years, I realized that what really interested me wasn’t so much the psychology but the creative aspects involved with it – such as designing studies which, in a sense, is like constructing a story. It was a hard choice, but I eventually decided to discontinue my studies to invest my time into work that really focused on using my imagination.

Vancouver Film School first came as an obvious choice because of its respected reputation in providing a solid education in film and television. The Foundation Visual Art & Design program especially stood out to me because, although I’d been in the educational system for such a long time, I hadn’t honed my artistic side much, and its well-rounded curriculum seemed like a great place to start. So I made the big move to Vancouver and have loved it ever since.

What is Riese?

Ryan: Riese is a combination of the science fiction/fantasy genre and a journey into the human condition. The story takes place in another world, similar yet different from our own. The majority of the action is centered in a nation called “Eleysia,” and follows the journey of “Riese” – a seemingly random wanderer – and her wolf Fenrir, as they flee from a religious cult that is hunting her.

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