Vancouver Film School

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Vancouver Film School


Established:	1987
Type:	Private
President:	James Griffin
Location:	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Website:	Vancouver Film School

There are other articles with similar names; see Vancouver Film Studios.

Vancouver Film School (VFS) is a private entertainment arts school located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1987, it has achieved international recognition.^[1] The Vancouver Film School has campus locations around downtown Vancouver and comprises six buildings.^[2] As part of the school's 20th anniversary in 2007, in August 2006 one million dollars was set aside in scholarships for new students.^[3]. In March, 2008, Vancouver Film School and YouTube launched a competition for three full-tuition scholarships for the creators of the three videos submitted and voted as favorites by the YouTube community ^[4].

1 History
2 Programs
3 Notable Faculty
4 Highlights
5 Notable alumni
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

VFS opened its doors in April, 1987 to a class of six film students. As of 2006 the school graduates over 1100 students a year.

Timeline

April 1987: VFS launches the Film Production program
February 1994: Classical Animation program launches
February 1995: 3D Animation & Visual Effects launches
June 1998: Digital Character Animation launches
May 1999: Writing for Film, TV & Interactive Media launches
January 2000: Makeup Design for Film & Television launches
April 2002: Sound Design for Visual Media launches
May 2003: Foundation Visual Art & Design launches
August 2004: Digital Design launches
October 2004: Game Design launches
May 2005: Acting for Film & Television launches
February 2006: Entertainment Business Management program and Houdini Certification programs launch
August 2006: the VFS $1 Million Scholarship launch
January 2007: VFS hosts its first Game Design Expo bringing 10 industry veterans to speak to the public at the VanCity Theatre
September 2007: VFS becomes the first school to partner with Joost, offering two content-on-demand channels featuring student work, Animation & Visual Effects and Drama & Documentary ^[5] .
November 2007: VFS named by 3D World Magazine as Canada's number one 3D Animation program, and fifth worldwide ^[6]
January 2008: VFS hosts its second annual Game Design Expo ^[7]
March 2008: Vancouver Film School and YouTube launch a competition for three full-tuition scholarships for the creators of the three videos submitted and voted as favorites by the YouTube community ^[8].

[edit] Programs

Film Production

Film students learn the disciplines of directing, producing, cinematography, art direction, and editing, as they collaborate on dramatic and documentary film projects in both the studio and on location.

Acting for Film and Television Campus

Makeup Design for Film & Television

Makeup students learn set etiquette, script breakdown, and film terminology, and a study of celebrity makeup, film and television makeup, and special effects makeup.

Acting for Film & Television

Acting students study in a studio environment how to perform in front of a camera. Students learn how to interpret stories, refine the use of their voices, and see their bodies as instruments of self expression.

Acting Essentials

Intended for beginners, this four month course prepares students to enter the full time Acting program. Students learn how to interpret stories creatively and how to use body and voice to communicate with other actors and with an audience.

Digital Design

Digital Design students work with live video, Flash, animation, graphic design, and numerous digital tools. Students use typography, colour, composition, motion, interactivity, and sound to build user experiences.

Game Design

Students train to be game designers, learning visual storytelling, to level design principles, to the production process, ultimately creating playable games themselves.

Writing For Film, TV & Interactive Media Campus

Writing for Film & Television

Writing students learn the screenwriter’s role in the film industry by writing, workshopping, and collaborating on a variety of storytelling forms, including feature and short film screenplays, episodic TV scripts and pilots, sketch comedy, and documentaries.

Classical Animation, 3D Animation, Digital Character Animation, Sound Design for Visual Media, Foundation Visual Art & Design, Entertainment Business Management and Houdini Certification Campus

3D Animation & Visual Effects

3D Animation students learn classical forms of storytelling through a study of motion, life drawing, composition, character design, sculpture, storyboarding, lighting, and art direction in order to create a short animated movie, a modeling reel, or visual effects demo reel. In 2007, 3D World Magazine named this the number one program in Canada for 3D Animation and the fifth worldwide ^[9].

Digital Character Animation

This is a six month program for experienced classical animators, whereby students broaden their skill set by combining cinematic storytelling, classical animation techniques, and digital operating environments to create compelling 3D animated characters

Classical Animation

Students learn the entire animation process from concept development to finished product, including the cornerstones of animation technique – drawing, storyboarding, layout, background and character design.

Sound Design for Visual Media

Sound Design students learn to unite sound and image by using producing, editing, and engineering skills to create sound effects, ambient noises, and music to match images in film, animation, and video games.

Foundation Visual Art & Design

Foundation combines traditional theories of arts education with training in modern visual media, such as film, animation, and digital technologies. Students learn how to work with new mediums and develop as artists as they prepare for other VFS production programs.

Entertainment Business Management

Entertainment Business Management equips students to handle the business affairs of artists and entertainers by combining the study of economics, law, and communications. As part of the education, students work with professional artists from film & television, music, video games, and interactive media.

Houdini Certification

Film production facilities rely on Houdini to help them create feature film effects and character animation. In this intensive program, students train and become certified in this industry-standard software.

[edit] Notable Faculty

Larry Bafia, Head of Animation Bafia began his career in stop motion and claymation before moving into CGI. 7-year tenure as Commercial Animation Director at PDI/Dreamworks, where he directed commercials for clients including Coca-Cola, Sega, Intel, Kraft, Circle K, and Saturn. Sequence Lead Animator for PDI/Dreamworkson on films including Antz, and Batman & Robin. Sequence Animation Supervisor for Mission Impossible II. Animation Supervisor for the Stop Motion Division on Tim Burton's feature Mars Attacks!.

Bill Marchant, Head of Acting for Film & Television and Acting Essentials Actor, director, and writer on the feature film Everyone, which won Best Canadian Film at the Montreal World Film Festival (2004). Nominated for four Leo awards, the film has also just been released in the United States and Britain. Marchant played recurring roles on Canadian television shows Da Vinci's Inquest and as Adrian Conrad on the sci-fi series Stargate SG-1.

Sebastien de Castell, Head of Digital Design de Castell is a certified PMI Project Management Professional, licensed fencing instructor, and fight choreographer. He worked with Apple's Research Partnership Program, a joint venture between Apple Canada and BC universities intended to foster innovative interactive projects in academia.

Ken Ashdown, Head of Entertainment Business Management Ashdown has worked as a music journalist, owned the indie record label Waste Island Records, and was a vice-president at PolyGram Group Canada and QDesign Corporation. In his career, he has worked with Shania Twain, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, David Bowie, the Pixies and U2.

David Hauka, Head of Film Production Feature-film Impolite earned Hauka a nomination as Best Director of a First Feature Film from the Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television in 1993. Other directing credits include the half hour film Solus and music videos for Sarah McLachlan, Hilt, Consolidated, and Lava Hay. Hauka's producing credits include the Canadian film Whale Music which premiered at both the Vancouver and Toronto International Film Festivals in 1994.

Ted Jones, Head of Foundation Visual Art & Design Jones is a voting member of The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television in the Television Director Division.

Dave Warfield, Head of Game Design With fifteen years of experience, Warfield worked at Electronic Arts as a senior producer for NHL 2005, and 24 other published video game titles including EA's NBA Live and Skitchin' , Konami's NFL, Mission: Impossible, Top Gun: Danger Zone, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and NEC's Champions Forever Boxing.

Charles Porlier, Head of Makeup Design for Film & Television Awards and nominations - Emmy for prosthetic makeup work on actor William H. Macy in TNT's Door to Door. Emmy for makeup on TNT's Kissinger and Nixon. Canadian Network of Makeup Artists award for Door to Door. Saturn award nomination (Science Fiction Academy Award) for his work on The Sixth Day. Nominated for Best Makeup in the feature film category for his work on Tim Allen in The Santa Clause 2. Nominated for an Emmy when he worked on the Spielberg/DreamWorks mini-series Taken. Porlier has a 25-year career in makeup departments for films such as Thirteen Ghosts, Mission to Mars, Double Jeopardy, Jumanji. As a Key Makeup Effects Artist on X-Men II, Porlier designed the character Night Crawler.

Robert Grieve, Head of Sound Design for Visual Media Won an Emmy for his work on the HBO film 61*, a Genie Award for The Changeling, two Golden Reel awards for Wolfen and Wyatt Earp, an Oscar nomination for Best Sound on Silverado, and two Golden Reel nominations for Dreamcatcher and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Grieve has worked with many Hollywood studios including DreamWorks, Universal Pictures, Paramount, and MGM.

Michael S. Baser, Head of Writing for Film & Television Baser is a writer/producer whose credits include Good Times, Three's Company, The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time, Maude (TV series), A Year at the Top, 9 to 5, What's Happening!!, and Full House.

[edit] Highlights

Enrollment

• Rolling start dates throughout the year.

Facilities

• Motion Capture studio • Bluescreen studio • Multiple film and video editing suites • Four ProTools sound editing studios • Dolby 5.1 multi-track sound theatre • 24-hour access to all studios • 620 desktop computers across multiple labs • Two full Makeup Design studios featuring customized makeup stations.

Production and Student Materials

• All production and material costs, books and supplies, are included in the tuition. • Regularly upgraded software suites for animation, film, sound, and video games. • Makeup kit valued at $10,000 (Canadian) • High-end digital video camcorders and film cameras. • Lifetime registration for a VFS student email address.

[edit] Notable alumni

Neil Kopp, independent producer of Old Joy and director Gus Van Sant's 2007 film Paranoid Park for which Kopp won a 2008 Independent Spirit Award for Producing^[10]. (Film Production)
Neill Blomkamp, director of Halo: The Movie (3D Animation); In November 2006, the film was officially put on hold^[11]
Chad Moffitt, Academy Award–winning animator on The Lord of the Rings^[12] (Digital Character Animation)
Aubrey Nealon[1], director, writer, and producer of A Simple Curve
Clifton Murray, co-star of She's The Man and Canadian Idol contestant in 2007 (Acting for Film & Television)
Daniel Osaki, nominated for an Emmy for modeling and designing spaceships, robots, and props for Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)^[13] (3D Animation & Visual Effects)
Mark Shirra’s short film A Great Big Robot from Outer Space Ate My Homework[2] was an official selection at Siggraph and won Best Student Production at the Leo Awards. Shirra is now at work for Pixar. (3D Animation & Visual Effects)
Cesar Montero’s commercial Sex and the Socket[3] won Gold in the Best Student Marketing category at the MI6 Advertising Awards.^[14] (Digital Design)
Kevin Smith, director of Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Jersey Girl and Clerks II (dropped out of Film Production)
Scott Mosier, producer and actor (Film Production)
Tara Spencer-Nairn, actor in Corner Gas (Acting)
Ori Ben-Shabat[4], Director at Spy Films; winner of the 2007 Shark Advertising Award for Best New Director.