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.

As if getting your script produced wasn’t enough to get you excited! Imagine having two seasoned, pro actors offer to help bring your story to life. It’s a dream-come-true for current Writing for Film & Television student Michael Thede, whose script “My Best Friend, Charlie” will star William B. Davis (of The X-Files fame) and Keith Martin Gordey (Men in Trees, Smallville).

“There were definitely a couple of wow moments along the way, especially watching them on the monitor during the shoot,” Michael says. “Through their interpretations of the script, they both managed to illuminate aspects of the characters and the story that I don’t think I was fully aware of until I saw them perform it. That was pretty cool.”

Michael and his classmates are all witnessing  their heavily-rewritten short scripts become professional film productions as part of the Writing program’s Portfolio Shorts course. Overseen by Head of Department Michael Baser and produced by Production Coordinator Wade Fennig, a student’s “Port Short” represents their first step into the film and television community. Some of these films go on to screen at film festivals.

Following the story of a retiring FBI agent who’s visited by his one elusive wanted man, “My Best Friend, Charlie” went to camera last week under the command of professional Director and Portfolio Shorts veteran, Katrin Bowen.

Congrats, Michael! We can’t wait to see the final cut!

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!

A quick note of congrats to recent Writing for Film & Television grad Cal MacLean, who was named a quarter-finalist in this year’s Scriptapalooza! Cal made the grade in the semi-annual TV writing competition with his House MD spec script ‘Doppelganger’. Well done!

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!

Some students who come to VFS see it as a year-long job interview. It’s entirely plausible, given the well-connected industry professionals they have for instructors.

Film grads Chris Levesque, Anthony Epp, Dave Charles, and Tyler McPherson have all secured jobs with the help of EBM (and sometimes Film Production) instructor Shel Piercy.

Chris was brought on as the assistant for Shel’s company Infinity Films, where he’s producing the 2009 Canadian Business Hall of Fame Awards, shooting the mini-docs for Global TV’s Courage to Come Back Awards, and helping develop the documentary Room 1742 and the feature film Unquiet Dead – both of which will go to camera this fall.

Anthony was hired by Shel to produce a feature length documentary about violence in hockey and the “code” players fight by, called Unspoken Rules, which will go to camera this April.

“I hire VFS kids because I know that their education is well-rounded,” says Shel. “They can use a camera, load footage into an edit suite, and they are familiar with releases and set practices.  And because I have been privileged to be their instructor, I am familiar with their strong work ethic and reliability.”

And Shel’s not just keeping his knowledge to himself.

Shel recommended Dave for a research position at Paperny Films, which grew into an AD position on the company’s new series Chop Shop, and also gave Tyler a recommendation for a job as a grip on a new comedy pilot that was shot by producer Cynthia Chapman (The Guard) for CBC.

And that’s the way the VFS network works. We help one another out, and everyone wins!

Our Writing students come away with skills that extend far beyond the realms of film and TV. Just ask Writing grad Jeffrey Campbell, who’s now a Narrative Designer for Disney’s Propaganda Games.

We first introduced you to Jeff when the concept he pitched for Rainmaker’s Reboot Reborn contest won his team the chance to put together a webcomic based on his vision for rebooting the series. Now Jeff gets to bring life to his visions for video games in a role that allows him to pursue his two passions of writing and game design, evident even in his screenplay for his VFS final project – the love letter to the 8-bit era Would You Like to Continue?

He obliged us with a continuation of his post-VFS story.

How did you get the job?

This is a bit of a long story… Zeros 2 Heroes, a local social media company, got in bed with the National Screenwriting Institute to create a contest/program called ‘playWRITE’, a one-week course on writing for video games. Basically, I applied to NSI with a small package of my work, which was evaluated by numerous video game developers. Of the 300 odd applicants, I, along with nine other lucky writers, was selected to receive the course. By the end, I’d met several representatives from local and national game developers. After a short period of in-person and phone interviews, I eventually received two job offers, one of which I finally accepted. Now I’m a Narrative Designer for Propaganda Games.

What does your job entail?

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A tip of our hats to Writing for Film & Television Advisory Board member (and former faculty, until she got all busy writing and producing for a hit cable show) Maria Jacquemetton! Maria’s acclaimed AMC series Mad Men picked up its second Golden Globe last night for Best Television Series – Drama.

And kudos as well to 3D Animation & Visual Effects grad Mark Shirra, Layout Artist on WALL-E, which won for Best Animated Feature Film!

In 2008, VFS and Script Magazine teamed up to offer the VFS Script Magazine Scholarship to our one-year Writing for Film & Television program. We’re thrilled today to announce the winner and finalists!

Congratulations to Natasha Hall of Brooklyn, NY, who has won the full-tuition scholarship to VFS!

The two other finalists in the Top 3, who each received a $10,000 scholarship, are Alystyre Julian and Daniel Selz, both of New York City, NY.

VFS was overwhelmed by the number and quality of scholarship applications. Each submission was carefully reviewed, and a total of 7 finalists were chosen by the VFS scholarship committee.

“The 7 finalists’ submissions clearly stood out for their professionalism, writing skills, creativity, and passion for their craft,” says Benjamin Colling, Director of Admissions and Student Services at VFS.

The VFS scholarship committee also congratulates the four other finalists: Erin Ottosen, Dan Benamor, Danny Fredericks, and Annelie Desaulniers.

On winning the full-tuition scholarship, Natasha says: “The prospect of writing for one year as part of this program means that I will finally have the time to simply write, and not only write, but polish several of my ideas. This means the freedom to let my mind wander and to have those thoughts be guided and molded not only by my own whims, but by the carefully crafted advice of professionals in the field as well as my peers.”

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