On Friday, we had the great pleasure of hosting writer/director/actor Christopher Guest on campus. Guest held court to a packed house of Writing, Film, and Acting students. With the moderator stuck in traffic, the evening took shape as a casual, intimate, and often hilarious two-hour Q&A.

Among many other things, Guest discussed his long career, which includes favourites like This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind, breaking into the industry (”Tonight is actually my big break,” he joked), and his unique brand of improvised documentary-style comedy.

His process - creating histories for the characters which are given to the actors and carefully outlining the story beats while writing no dialogue - may be out of the ordinary but contains many lessons for filmmakers, writers, and actors alike.

For writers, one of the key points is just how completely Guest believes in traditional three-act story structure, that every scene has clearly defined goals that, even improvised, must be achieved for the story to work. “Improvisation is not just people messing around in a room. It’s incredibly strict,” he said.

“When you’re writing comedy, there’s about three good hours in a day,” he said about his daily writing regimen. “The rest of it is a myth.”

His process - “We shoot in 26, 27 days - then I edit for a year” - as well as his tendency to cut down his own part in a film surprised the filmmakers and actors alike.

Guest discussed all his films at various points in the evening, and frequently returned to 1984’s This is Spinal Tap’s long road to production and 1996’s Waiting for Guffman’s memorable characters. “All the people in Waiting for Guffman are narcissistic and untalented,” he said. “My favourite combination.”

While he prefers to work on his own material, Guest is actually in Vancouver shooting a role in Night at the Museum 2. “The part they offered me is Ivan the Terrible, and I read that and thought, ‘I can make that funny.’”

To most, his career began with Spinal Tap, but he’d toiled for years with National Lampoon and had paid his dues on the road to carving out his own place in the industry: “It was a series of steps. It’s not usually one big thing.”

Before wrapping up the evening and spending some time one-on-one with students outside the theatre, he had important advice for young artists. “If you want to be a writer, director, or actor, there’s nothing to think about: you do it. There’s nothing that will stop you from doing it.”

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.

Father Fred, a Portfolio Short by Writing for Film & Television graduate Zach Roe, was in the Shorts Nonstop festival last fall — and it’s now screening as part of the National Screen Institute (NSI) Film Festival online. Check it out! There’s even a nifty podcast with the director, Nicholas Humphries, explaining the Port Shorts process. Listen to the podcast here. And congrats, everyone!

VFS students and graduates are known for grabbing at any opportunity to create (and build their reels), so we shouldn’t have been surprised to find out that so many VFSers participated in this past weekend’s Diesel Film Racing Tour. Teams were challenged to create an original short in just 24 hours.

A full six teams were led by VFS students and graduates, including:

–”Taking It” by Borrowtime (Darren Borrowman, Film grad)
–”The Rock That Looks Like Elvis” by The Incorrigibles (k. Arie Bird, current Writing student)
–”A Nutty Dilemna” by The Battery Eaters (Steve Stransman, recent Film grad)
–”Drip” by Firing Squad Productions (Diana Donaldson, Writing grad)
–”Pitching a Tent” by OD Films (Miguel Valdez-Lopez, recent Writing grad)
–”Robogreed” by Patrick Henry and friends (Patrick Henry, Film grad)

Want to go see the results of their weekend? The films are screening tonight at The Ridge Theatre, 3131 Arbutus St., Vancouver - 9pm, for $9.

Congratulations to all the teams for finishing! And thank you to the “OD Films” team for providing some pics from the shoot… this team was chock-full of Writing grads including Valdez-Lopez, Keith Opatovsky, Kurt Hoffman, Rosely Cortes Bolio, Paul Ellington (also a graduate of Film), and Alyssa Ciccarelli, and featured the talents of Acting grads Nathan Geoblette, Derek Bedry, Sydney Cochrane, Justine Percy, and Mesha Toor.

Way to keep collaborating outside of class, guys!

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.

The Screenwriters Summit, co-presented by VFS, was a rousing success. Held June 7 and 8, this weekend-long event featured an all-star roster of screenwriting gurus - Syd Field, Linda Seger, John Truby, and Michael Hauge.

All four speakers were kind enough to sit down with us on camera to discuss the art and craft of writing screenplays:

 
For attendees, the Summit was an intense, productive 48 hours. Delving into everything from concept to character development to structure to dialogue, the speakers had attendees applying the lessons to their own scripts and concepts in real time - and some brave souls even acted as guinea pigs, offering up their own pitches to the audience to illustrate various points.

As Hauge said near at the beginning of Day 1, “How to elicit emotion: That’s what this weekend is about.” Some snapshots from this fantastic event:

Time is running out to buy tickets to Screenwriters Summit 2008, an all-star weekend co-presented by VFS including talks by four giants of screenwriting theory: Syd Field, Linda Seger, John Truby, and Michael Hauge. The event runs Saturday, June 7 to Sunday, June 8. It does not get bigger than this.

And we have huge news! VFS students and alumni from all programs can get tickets discounted to $250! Discount seating is extremely limited, so don’t delay.

Order tickets online or by calling 1-800-814-0544. VFS students and alumni interested in getting the discount should email sgordon@vfs.com with their program, class number, and first and last name to receive a discount code before ordering.

It’s all about story, no matter who you are or what you do in the entertainment industry. What are you waiting for?

The dream for every screenwriter is to see their work on the big screen. But movies are huge financial investments, and it’s just not very easy to get one made. In Hollywood, you have to get a studio to option and develop your script - and then start praying you get a greenlight. In Canada, you pitch to independent producers who then must secure enough funding dollars to get the movie to production. The path to getting a feature script produced into a film can be a long one.

But sometimes the stars align, and all the talent, hard work, and networking pays off - as it has for Writing for Film & Television graduate Adam Zang.

Adam spent a year in the VFS Writing program learning how to write, rewrite, and market his screenplays… and now his feature script - the first feature he wrote at VFS, Cole - is in production. It’s being directed by Carl Bessai (whose previous films include Normal, with Carrie-Anne Moss, and Emile, with Sir Ian McKellen) and stars Richard de Klerk, Kandyse McClure (Battlestar Galactica) and Sonja Bennett (Godiva’s).

We wanted to know how one goes from student to pro in less than two years, and a few weeks ago — right while he was deep in final rewrites — Adam was kind enough to answer our questions.

What is Cole about?

This is the logline on the official one-sheet my producers have been using: “When young man gets the chance to escape from his small hometown, he must choose between helping his desperate family and the promising future that lies for him beyond.” My producers like to call it a “slice of life” story.

How did you connect with your producers?

Read the rest of this story »

We’ve got a TON of fantastic news to share about Food for the Gods! The short, directed by H. Scott Hughes during his year in the Film Production program, is seeing some serious public success.

Last week, the film screened at the New Asia Film Festival at the City of Richmond Cultural Centre. In attendance were VFS Writing grad Phillip Matte (the film’s co-writer) and Acting grad and co-star Beverly Wu, along with co-stars Tara Pratt and Yuki Morita—and the film’s lead Yvette Lu as the guest speaker. Yvette and Food for the Gods were featured in an article in the Burnaby Now newspaper.

Then, the film had its television premiere on Sunday, May 25th — showing on Shaw’s Multicultural Channel during their Filmmakers Showcase.

Congrats to the many VFS graduates — from Film, Acting, Writing, Sound Design, and Makeup – who contributed to this film and its success!