Can Museums Gain New Audiences with Immersive Media?

By Dana Lacey and Margaret DeRosia

Histovery (Winner of the 2017 French Cultural Start-up Award) created this product, Histopad, seen here in use at the Palais des Papes. An augmented reality product, it was designed for cultural institutions specifically to enhance museumgoers' experiences.

In early March 2018, a guerrilla art collective called MoMAR launched an unsanctioned augmented reality (AR) installation inside the New York City Museum of Modern Art. The installation lets viewers interact with animations crawling across Jackson Pollock’s famous splatters. In January 2018, Google’s Arts & Culture app rocketed to the top of iOS and Android download charts. Its feature? Users take a selfie, which then matches their pic to a series of similarly-featured portraits in galleries around the world. 

These projects represent novel ways of people embracing art during a time when museum and gallery attendance is declining. They offer Instagram-friendly experiences that create their own engagement with art. Immersive media technologies like augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) can enter the museum and gallery space to help generate new and enthusiastic attendees. Yet projects like MoMAR’s can ignite familiar debates. What qualifies as art? Whose stories get told? Who decides how people should or should not experience art?

Some cultural institutions are beginning to embrace AR and VR as a component of the exhibition experience. These projects may enhance or extend a new understanding of art works by immersing visitors in a piece of history they normally could not see or touch. AR can add whimsy to walking through a curated space, personalizing what can be seen and felt – something the recent French Cultural Start-up Award-winning company Histovery understands well with their "augmented visit" solutions.

Tech companies and media foundations, eager to reach a wider demographic and evolve VR and AR as immersive media technologies, can help offset the financial investment these new technologies require. Cultural institutions are taking a risk on the unknown, investing in expensive new technologies, but these cost barriers also provide an opportunity; most people lack the means of viewing AR or VR at home, so their presence at an exhibition may drive people to attend. These institutions can pioneer new technologies, with AR and VR enabling curators to dream up new ways to tell stories, attract visitors, and expand their own curatorial practices. 

Read on for a sampler of recent immersive media technologies at work in galleries and museums.

Reimagining the Audio Tour

Museums and galleries are beginning to employ AR to reimagine the traditional audio tour of their exhibitions and collections. A Royal Ontario Museum app uses AR to bring its most popular dinosaurs to life, enabling the experience on iPad stations within the museum, or by having viewers download the app and use it on their own mobile devices. In July 2017, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) launched ReBlink. Here, Toronto-based digital artist Alex Mayhew adopted AR so that viewers could see a range of paintings in the AGO’s collection come alive in unexpected ways. 

In 2017 in the U.S., the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) premiered, Lumin, a new mobile tour that incorporates AR and 3D animations to help engage and educate its visitors; the app was created through a partnership between the DIA, Google and GuidGo. The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) built a beta-stage AR app for the exhibition, Felice Grodin: Invasive Species, which includes multimedia explainer videos and an interactive map. Both the DIA and PAMM projects were funded by The Knight Foundation, as part of a $1.87 million fund to help 12 art museums leverage technology to connect people with art.

Expanding the Exhibition Experience 

While the above examples incorporate primarily AR, VR took centre stage at the AGO in December 2016, and then at the Met Cloisters in 2017, when the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab (CFC Media Lab), Seneca’s School of Creative Arts and Animation and the AGO screened their groundbreaking collaboration, Small Wonders: The VR Experience. 

Visitors to the exhibition, Small Wonders: Gothic Boxwood Miniatures, were able to do much more than observe the 50 miniature boxwood prayer beads, most small enough to hold in the palm of a hand. By donning a VR headset and exploring a 3D rendering of one of these miniatures, viewers could see the tiny bead with a level of detail otherwise unavailable to the human eye. This VR experience also marked a significant first for the AGO – the first integrated use of VR to enhance the exhibition experience.

Extending the Life of An Exhibition

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA) partnered with Los Angeles-based startup VR’t Ventures to create a VR experience of MOCA’s exhibition, MASTRY, a retrospective honouring Kerry James Marshall’s work on the marginalization of African-Americans in American art. The exhibition, which ran at MOCA from March through July 2017, as well as at the Met Breuer in New York, was both popular and well-reviewed. VR’t Ventures created an immersive VR experience (which required a headset) as well as a more accessible desktop version that enables users to select paintings to learn more. While the physical exhibit was only on display for a year, the virtual version continues on, and can be experienced by more people globally – extending the exhibition’s duration and access considerably.

Transporting People to the Past

From March to June 2017, the Canadian Museum of Nature hosted screenings of the short film, First Life, a VR experience produced by Alchemy VR and narrated by British broadcaster and naturalist, David Attenborough. Its use of Samsung Gear VR technology enabled visitors to enjoy 360-degree interaction with extinct marine creatures that were brought vividly to life. Other museums have hosted similar VR-focussed exhibits that immerse visitors directly in historic events, such as the British Museum’s grim exploration of life in the Bronze Age, a “virtual reality weekend” at the Museum, created in partnership with Samsung in August 2015.

Breaking Down Walls, Reimagining Engagement

Art collector Gorge Kremer, having spent more than 20 years acquiring the paintings of seventeenth-century Dutch masters, recently collaborated with his engineer son, Joël Kremer, to launch a museum based entirely in virtual reality. The collection was recreated digitally through a process called photogrammetry, which required photographing each piece thousands of times to create high-res 3D images. They hired Johan van Lierop, an architect who’d built brick-and-mortar museums, to imagine a space without the physical limits, building code requirements, real estate scouting and astronomical costs of traditional construction. Holographic guides impart art lessons as users wander past paintings lit by the exact right conditions. Visitors can stick their noses right up to the surface to examine the brushstrokes, which would likely get them booted from a physical museum! Even better: users can visit this museum from anywhere in the world. 

As these examples indicate, the uses of AR and VR in galleries, museums and other cultural institutions are rich, varied, dynamic – and continuing to evolve and transform. They have drawn new viewers, enabled greater access and broadened our understanding of what constitutes “art,” leading us to wonder, where will AR and VR in these spaces take us next? And how will we, the viewers and attendees, perhaps start to see art anew?

Enjoying 'Small Wonders: The VR Experience' at the Art Gallery of Ontario in November 2016. Alex Bruce Photography.

This list will be updated as additional premiere dates are announced.

The first day of spring has finally sprung! To help you celebrate the beginning of a fresh new season, here are some fresh new and returning series airing this spring featuring the work of several CFC alumni.

The Detail

Cop drama The Detail premieres on Sunday, March 25 at 9 p.m. ET/MT on CTV. The 10-episode project centres on three female homicide investigators who work tirelessly to solve crimes while navigating the complicated demands of their personal lives.

Series writers include CFC alumnae Sarah Goodman and Sandra Chwialkowska and series directors include alumni Jordan Canning, Sara St. Onge, Grant Harvey,John Fawcett and James Genn. The Detail features CBC Actors Conservatory alumni Jesse LaVercombe and Humberly González.

Imposters

Imposters returns for Season 2 on Thursday, April 5 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. The second season sees alumnus Jeremy Boxen as an executive producer and writer.

The Crossing

On Monday, April 2 at 10 p.m. on CTV you can tune into the series premiere of The Crossing, which follows refugees from a war-torn country who start showing up to seek asylum in a small American fishing town. CFC alumnus Ken Girotti is a director on the series.

CLICK HERE to watch the official trailer.

Have an alumni series to add? Email us at alumni@cfccreates.com.

The excitement was palpable at the Avalon Hotel Beverly Hills last night as CFC alumni, partners, Board Members, residents of the Telefilm Canada Feature Comedy Exchange and the Slaight Music Residency, distinguished guests and our honouree, Christina Jennings, gathered for our 2018 reception in Los Angeles, co-hosted by Cast & Crew Entertainment Services. This annual event celebrates our alumni accomplishments, as well as our cross-border industry partnerships, which are vital to our success and enable us to create opportunities in the global marketplace for our diverse CFC alumni voices. Our reception this year also celebrated CFC’s 30 ^th anniversary.

This year, we were extremely proud to present Christina Jennings, founder, chairman and CEO of Shaftesbury, CFC alumna and prolific and visionary producer, with the fifth annual CFC Award for Creative Excellence. This award recognizes and celebrates Jennings’ innovative storytelling, critically and commercially accomplished body of work, and her creative and business contributions to the Canadian and international entertainment industries.

Five years ago, we established the CFC Award for Creative Excellence to pay tribute to international visionaries who have made significant creative and entrepreneurial contributions to the screen-based and/or digital industries. We wanted to shine a spotlight on alumni whom we believe have created important works, have achieved artistic excellence and who have had a significant impact internationally.

Like previous award recipients (Semi Chellas [2014], Graeme Manson and John Fawcett [2015], Don McKellar [2016], and Clement Virgo and Damon D’Oliveira [2017]), Jennings is a remarkable Canadian creator and entrepreneur who has had an impact globally with her groundbreaking, award-winning and indelible content.

Roma Khanna speaks at CFC's 2018 reception in LA. Photo by Jesse Grant.

Wednesday evening’s festivities began with a warm welcome from Roma Khanna (CFC Board Member, CEO of REVOLT Media & TV and the MC for the evening), who thanked guests, including James Villeneuve, Consul General of Canada, Los Angeles, for their support of the CFC. Following a few remarks from Villeneuve, CFC CEO Slawko Klymkiw took to the podium to share a few words about the CFC and our annual L.A. reception, “I am delighted to see so many of our alumni here tonight. They continue to enrich the global entertainment landscape. And while the projects and talent may be Canadian, our alumni are exploring stories that reflect an international experience and perspective and they are helping to cross many borders and break down barriers.” He continued, “Nothing makes us happier than seeing our CFC alumni achieve great heights and celebrating their talent is one of the key reasons for tonight’s reception as we present the annual CFC Award for Creative Excellence.”

James Villeneuve, Consul General of Canada, Los Angeles, speaks at CFC's 2018 reception in LA. Photo by Jesse Grant.

Khanna then took to the stage again to share some personal stories of Jennings. “What is Christina Jennings to me?” she began. “She is a formidable woman. She is a formidable businessperson. She has been a beacon, an icon, a mentor, a partner, a friend.”

Khanna then called CFC Founder and Chair Emeritus Norman Jewison to the podium to present Jennings with the evening’s honour. “Christina, it was 28 years ago when you graduated from the [Canadian] film centre. And I tell you, in the ensuing years, you have exceeded all of my imaginations,” shared Jewison.

He continued, “You have created one of the best, one of the largest production companies in Canada. I think this is a great tribute tonight because in a way it’s a cycle. You have not only graduated from the [Canadian film] centre, not only created so many productions and employed so many graduates of the centre, but you are now Chairman of the board! I mean, isn’t that something?”

Jewison added, looking at Christina, “I tell you, in the last 30 years, this is one of the most exciting moments for me, to present you with this award!”

CFC Founder Norman Jewison presents Christina Jennings with the 2018 CFC Award for Creative Excellence. Photo by Jesse Grant.

Jennings was then welcomed to the podium to accept her award, which was created by another CFC alumna, Gail Harvey, whom Jennings has collaborated with on many projects, and Toronto-based graphic artist Riad.

Harvey shared her inspirations for the artwork on the award before the event, explaining that “Christina Jennings is a genius visionary, who is kind, loving, and who sees the world. I wanted this award to show her vision, and be a reflection of the CFC world, and the opportunity presented itself with the eye. A reflection. On one's career and life, showing the magnitude of her sight and artistry. A literal reflection of who she is and what she has achieved.”

Christina Jennings shares remarks with guests at CFC's 2018 LA reception after being presented with the 2018 CFC Award for Creative Excellence. Photo by Jesse Grant.

After accepting her award, Jennings took a moment to reflect on the path she took to get to the CFC, quoting a line from Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken–

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

“Now you may be asking, ‘What does a poem by Robert Frost have to do with the CFC?’” said Christina. “Well, I was actually at a fork in the road in my life almost 30 years ago when I called Peter O’Brien at the film centre and I decided to come up to the CFC. And it has absolutely made a huge difference in my life.”

She continued, “I am eternally grateful to the CFC. It taught me that all of these disparate parts of Christina actually made a pretty good producer. It taught me to have confidence in my own ideas and my own projects. There’s no question that the CFC kick-started my career.” Jennings went on to explain that her first film, Camilla, was made as a direct result of the relationship that she built with British producer Simon Relph at the CFC. She also shared how she is proud of everything that she has produced and every creative partnership she has had over the course of her career. “So, 30 years have gone by – I’m still loving this business and there is no apparent end in sight.”

Thank goodness for that, because we look forward to seeing what comes next for Christina Jennings.

Following the award presentation, guests continued to network and mingle while enjoying food and beverages. Thank you to our reception co-host, Cast & Crew Entertainment Services, for their continued support of CFC.

See more photos from our 2018 LA reception HERE.

Read our profile on Christina Jennings’ career and her company, Shaftesbury, HERE. 

The CFC is currently seeking nominations for the next Slaight Music Residency, a creative and business initiative for Canadian composers and songwriters. Over the past several weeks, we have highlighted some Slaight Music Residency alumni through featured Q&As, during which we discussed their past, present and future work in the screen-based entertainment industry.

Our final 2018 Slaight Music Residency Spotlight focuses on Aimee Bessada, an alumna of the 2016 Slaight Music Residency. You may have heard her work on How to Buy a Baby, a CBC Comedy webseries that features a number of other CFC alumni in major roles (including Cineplex Entertainment Film Program alumnae Lauren Corber, Matt Code, Molly McGlynn and Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux).

What were your biggest takeaways from your time in the Slaight Music Residency?

My biggest takeaway from the Slaight Music Residency would have to be the access to the CFC community itself.

During the year of my residency, I met directors, writers, producers and editors, both emerging and established. Some of these connections have led directly to work since I’ve completed the program, and I’m certain there will be a great deal more [opportunities] throughout the future of my career.

What initially attracted you to creating original music for film and television?

My initial attraction towards writing [music] for film began with a friend who directed a short film that needed score and an original song. At the time, I’d mostly written music for myself as a performing artist. But after that project and a few more that followed, I realized the special challenge and incredible satisfaction that came with creating music for picture.

I always had a deep love of film music, but it hadn’t occurred to me to pursue it professionally. It’s become one of the most creative outlets for music I’ve found, as each project varies and I’m essentially starting from scratch each time. And I love the collaborative aspect: working with the director/creator to achieve something they desired but probably couldn’t express themselves. It feels integral and exciting.

Aimee and her fellow residents perform at the 2016 Slaight Music Residency Showcase. 

Which CFC alumni (from the Slaight Music Residency or otherwise) have you collaborated with since completing the program?

Since completing the program, I have kept in close contact with the other residents from my year. Together we’ve collaborated on a short film anthology that involves too many former CFC alumni to count (it spans all the programs—producers, directors, writers, actors and editors). We also consult each other from time to time on our individual projects.

Independently, I’ve worked with producer alum Lauren Corber and director alum Molly McGlynn on the CBC Comedy webseries How To Buy A Baby, which has just been greenlit for a second season!

Additionally, Rebecca Everett has lent her voice to some of my songs; Neil Haverty, Chris Reineck and I are slowly but surely putting together our dark country/folk outfit; and Spencer Creaghan and I have both been assisting CFC composer chair Lesley Barber.

What advice do you have for aspiring composers?

This is a tough one because I feel like everyone’s path is truly so individual—I know mine has been. But I can say this: if there’s anything I’ve learned about composing for film, TV, webseries, commercials, it’s to try to be selective about the projects you work on, if you can. At least try to make sure each project has something in it for you—something that steps up your game creatively, puts you in touch with some new and exciting creators, or, at the very least, pays your way for a few more months while you figure out the next great project to work on.

There’s A LOT of people at home, in sound houses and in studios with the ability to write music and put it to picture. It’s not really an exaggeration to say anybody can do it (at least the basics). That’s why I think nothing matters more than your taste, in both the music you create as well as the projects you take on.

Of course, not everything that comes your way is going to be a killer indie feature or a perfect webseries. But I think you should be able to say that whatever it is, it adds to your brand.

Aimee performs at the 2018 CFC Annual Gala & Auction. 

Want to nominate a creator for the Slaight Music Residency? Here’s how.

Please note that nominations must be submitted by March 30, 2018.

CFC alumni are continually making waves in the Canadian and international screen-based entertainment industries – from awards to festivals, industry recognition, “it lists” and more. Here’s the latest round of updates and success stories for CFC alumni and residents from March 2018.

NOMINATIONS & AWARDS

'Maudie'

2018 Canadian Screen Awards

CFC alumni took home 18 awards at this year’s Canadian Screen Awards. Click HERE for the full list.

'Milk'

2018 SXSW Film Festival Awards

The New Romantic (from writer/director Carly Stone and writer/producer Kyle Mann), the latest feature developed through the Telefilm Canada Feature Comedy Exchange, received Special Jury Recognition for First Feature in the Narrative Feature Competition at SXSW. Additionally, CFC alumnus Max Walker’s short Milk was the Jury Award Winner in the Midnight Shorts section as part of the SXSW Short Film Jury Awards. More info HERE.

Christina Jennings is presented with the CFC Award for Creative Excellence from CFC Founder Norman Jewison

2018 CFC Award for Creative Excellence

Visionary producer and CFC alumna Christina Jennings, founder, chairman and CEO of Shaftesbury, was presented with the fifth annual CFC Award for Creative Excellence at a reception in Los Angeles on March 21. Read more HERE.

'The Things You Think I'm Thinking'

2018 Canadian Film Fest Awards

Congratulations to our alumni who took home awards from this year’s Canada Film Fest: Renuka Jeyapalan and Jordan Canning won the DGC Ontario Best Director Award (with their fellow co-director Kris Booth) for their work on Ordinary Days; Sherren Lee scored the Special Jury Prize for her short The Things You Think I’m Thinking; and Honor Thy Mother, written by Kathleen Hepburn, story by Charlie Hidalgo, was the Grand Prize Winner for the Harold Greenberg Screenplay Contest, winning $10,000 in development funding. Click HERE for the full list of winners.

Michelle McLeod (actor) and Pat Mills (director) of 'Don't Talk to Irene' with Jessica Allen, Correspondent for 'The Social'

2018 Kingston Canadian Film Festival Awards

Alumnus Pat Mills’ comedy feature Don’t Talk to Irene, which was developed through the Telefilm Canada Feature Comedy Exchange, continues to be well-received by audiences and critics alike – it recently took home the People’s Choice Award from the 2018 Kingston Canadian Film Festival, and the 2017 Comedy Vanguard Feature award from the Austin Film Festival! Read more HERE.

2018 Omaha Film Festival Awards

Congratulations to CFC Features and alumni film ADVENTURES IN PUBLIC SCHOOL, from writer/director Kyle Rideout and writer/producer Josh Epstein, which won another audience choice award – this time the Audience Choice Feature Film award from the Omaha Film Festival! More info HERE.

2018 Festival du Film Canadien de Dieppe Awards

Two alumni films took home awards at the 2018 Festival du Film Canadien de Dieppe: Don’t Talk to Irene (from director Pat Mills) scored big with the Prix du Zonta Club and the top prize of Galet d’Or, and Indian Horse (produced by alumnae Paula Devonshire and Trish Dolman) also won two awards, Prix du Jury Jeunes and Prix du public. Learn more HERE.

2018 Prism Prize

The Prism Prize, celebrating the top Canadian music videos of the year, released its top-10 nominees list, which includes Pup’s video for “Old Wounds,” directed by CFC alumnus Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux. Find out more HERE.

FESTIVAL WATCH

'Made This Way: Redefining Masculinity'

The 2018 Hot Docs Festival

• The 25^th annual Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, running April 26 to May 6, 2018 in Toronto, will honour Canadian filmmaker and CFC alumnus John Walker with this year’s Focus On retrospective and will feature Walker’s following films: A Drummer’s Dream (2010), The Fairy Faith (2000), Men of the Deeps (2003), Passage (2008), and Strand: Under the Dark Cloth (1989).

• CFC alumni Charles Officer and Yung Chang will be involved in this year’s Big Steps program, a partnership between Hot Docs Samsung Canada to commission six short films in celebration of the festival’s 25^th anniversary.

• Some additional alumni works will also be featured at this year’s festival in the Canadian Spectrum program: 1999 from alumna Samara Grace Chadwick and United We Fan from alumnus Michael Sparaga.

• Additionally, two CFC Media Lab VR productions will see their premieres at this year’s Hot Docs Festival in the DocX program, “an interdisciplinary section of the Festival celebrating documentary work that lives outside of the traditional format”: Made This Way: Redefining Masculinity, produced by CFC Media Lab, an interactive mixed-media documentary that explores how transgender men are challenging gender norms and redefining the traditional notions of masculinity; and Small Wonders: The VR Experience, CFC Media Lab’s groundbreaking virtual reality collaboration with Seneca’s School of Creative Arts and Animation and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) that takes users on a transcendent experience as they don a VR headset and explore a 3D rendering of a miniature boxwood carving from the AGO’s collection.
  
  Click HERE for the full festival lineup.

The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival

• Two alumni films will be screening in the Midnight section at Tribeca Film Festival, which runs from April 18 to 29: 7 Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss By Passing Through the Gateway Chosen By the Holy Storsh, directed by alumnus Vivieno Caldinelli, and The Dark, produced by alumni Laura Permutter and Andrew Nicholas McCann Smith. See the full lineup HERE.

INDUSTRY UPDATES

'Mary Goes Round'

• Netflix has renewed sci-fi drama Travelers, which was originally developed at the CFC in the 2014/15 Bell Media Prime Time TV Program story room, for Season 3. More info HERE.
• Canada’s beloved period drama Murdoch Mysteries, from producer and CFC alumna Christina Jennings, has been renewed for Season 12. Read more HERE.
• Hit CBC comedy Schitt’s Creek, which stars CFC alumna Annie Murphy, has been renewed for Season 5, and alumna Jordan Canning will be directing six episodes of the upcoming season! The Season 4 finale airs Tuesday, April 10 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT) on CBC. More info HERE.
• Alumna Reem Morsi has been selected as one of five winners of the 4th season of WIFT Vancouver’s From Our Dark Side Genre Concept Contest. See more HERE.
• Alumna Molly McGlynn’s Mary Goes Round, developed through the Cineplex Entertainment Film Program, will be released theatrically in Toronto on March 30. Click HERE for more info.
• Alumni short film ROPEd, from alumni Jordana Aarons (producer) and Sebastián Barriuso (co-producer) and edited by Jorge Weisz, will air nationally across Canada on CBC’s “Canadian Reflections” series on April 5, 2018 at 11:30 p.m. local time and is also set to air in Toronto on April 17, 2018 as part of the WIFT-T Showcase. More information HERE and HERE.
• Alumni film Love Jacked, directed and produced by alumnus Alfons Adetuyi, written and executive produced by fellow alumnus and brother Robert Adetuyi, and edited and executive produced by alumna Lisa di Michele, has been making its rounds on the festival circuit. Stay tuned for more details on this “runaway romantic comedy,” and in the meantime, check out the trailer HERE.

Have some alumni news to add/share? Get in touch at alumni@cfccreates.com.

The CFC is currently accepting applications for the next CBC Actors Conservatory, the only full-time comprehensive professional on-camera acting program in Canada. In the weeks leading up to the application deadline (March 30, 2018), we have been highlighting Actors Conservatory alumni through featured Q&As discussing their craft and their development since their time at the CFC.

Our final 2018 CBC Actors Conservatory Spotlight focuses on Jade Hassouné, 2012 Actors alumnus and star of supernatural teen drama Shadowhunters. In addition to playing Meliorn on that much-loved Freeform series (airing on Netflix Canada weekly in Canada), he is also a producer and actor on That’s My DJ, a webseries created by Cineplex Entertainment Film Program alumna D.W. Waterson and also starring fellow Actors Conservatory alumna Emily Piggford.

What were your biggest takeaways from your time in the Actors Conservatory?

There are two things that remained with me [after the Actors Conservatory].

First, it gave me an inner knowing, a confidence that I was ready for this business. That what I dreamed, I was already accomplishing. It was a launching pad for my belief that this IS my career.

The second thing [that remained with me] was the people and connections. I met friends and colleagues that I will know my whole life, who are all extremely talented and proactive in creating their own content and who want to manifest projects into reality.

Jade on the set of Shadowhunters Season 3. 

How have you applied what you learned in the Conservatory to your work on beloved series like Shadowhunters and That’s My DJ?

For Shadowhunters, it was more of an auditioning/preparation/on set process and practice. I used tactics that would enhance my experience in preparation, as well as execution of my scenes (mixed with what I've always done).

For That's My DJ, there were no auditions. I was given a role that we workshopped through table reads and scene study like [what we had done] at the CFC. It was collaborating with writers and the director to focus the vision into a cohesive map of the project. Then there was the raising of the money online, which allowed me to discover more of a producer approach to a project.

What’s next for you? Any plans to collaborate with more CFC alumni?

There will always be collaborations with CFC alumni, mostly because they are everywhere! [Laughs]

But yes I do have plans to continue reaching out to my talented friends/alumni, as we all have amazing resources available to us. We are very fortunate to have each other.

WANT TO APPLY FOR THE 2018 CBC ACTORS CONSERVATORY? HERE’S HOW.

PLEASE NOTE THAT APPLICATIONS ARE DUE BY MARCH 30, 2018. 

As individuals, Matt Gorbet and Susan Gorbet are each incredibly talented. Yet as a team, there’s no doubt in their minds that they create better work together than on their own. Partners in life and work, this highly collaborative duo has been running Gorbet Design Inc., a Toronto-based experiential art and design firm, for more than 15 years.

Their work defies easy description. Two of their previous art and design projects were a solar-powered work of public art in Cambridge, Ontario and a 20-foot interactive obelisk at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum — with much more in between. Their current focus has shifted toward helping other people do creative things with technology through education, an approach that informed their work as faculty for the TELUS Interactive Art and Entertainment Program at the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab (CFC Media Lab).

Read on to discover more about the Gorbets’ work, their time at the CFC, what working closely with one’s spouse is like, and why it’s important to always ask, “So what?”

How did you both end up doing the kind of work you do together?

Susan: I’m an experience designer, and have degrees in psychology and computer science. I went out to the San Francisco Bay Area for graduate school, and that’s where Matt and I met in the mid-90s. His background was with the MIT Media Lab, with degrees in architecture and also training from CFC Media Lab itself. He was working in tangible media, which is that intersection between the physical world and the digital world.

We’ve always both been interested in places where you invent the rules rather than follow them. We’ve always helped each other and talked about the things we’re designing, and when we moved back to Toronto, we wanted to work together. For us, it’s as much about building a life as it is building a business. Working together lets us have design meetings at 11 p.m. in our pyjamas.

Matt: As Susan said, we’ve both been interested in pushing boundaries and looking for new, creative ways to use technologies and create experiences for people. That led us both down that same path of working in a design practice and methodology that’s focused on trying to invent or discover what the right way to do these things are, rather than doing what other people have been doing or what we’ve been taught. It always seemed there wasn’t much space to do that, except by doing it together.

Can you describe some highlights from your years of working together?

Matt: We do different kinds of work. On the one hand, we’re very interested in creating new things, whether in the world of art installations or experience design for people in the physical world. On the other hand, a big part of what drives both of us is education and helping people learn. [We value] teaching and exploring these new things and experiences that we can create for people, or how to use technologies or create experiences that help people be more creative with one another.

We’ve had many different flavours of projects. Some of them have been more creative and artistic, and some more practical. One of the big ones was when we spent several years doing a master plan of sorts for the San Jose International Airport in California, helping figure out a framework by which they could create an art and technology program, the art activation project. That project is in some ways exemplary of the kind of work we like to do. It brought together all kinds of different types of problems that we had to examine solving, what kinds of questions to ask about those problems, and how to bring them together to create something new.

Susan: I think that project also exemplifies one of the secrets to our longevity in working together. Not only do we work deeply and collaboratively with each other, but we almost always collaborate with other people, too. On the art activation project, we worked with Banny Banerjee, who was head of the Product Design Program at Stanford and a senior designer at IDEO. Working with people like him who are truly fantastic, who bring so much that we don’t always have into our collaboration: that was one of the highlights of that project.

What’s some of the best career advice you’ve ever received?

Susan: Once long ago, in a career workshop someone was talking about creating resumés and one of the things they said very clearly was: “So what?” You did that thing, so what? What did it accomplish? What would have happened if you weren’t there? What was important about that thing that you did in the world?

I’m telling you, I’ve helped a lot of people with this advice. If you do a resumé this way, it really makes it sing. This idea of “So what?” is also fundamental to how we work as designers and educators; we’re always asking questions with what we do. Every design is a question, not just an answer or solution. By asking questions and understanding the bigger frame of what you’re doing — So what? What does it mean? — one can make something to feel good about that has an impact in the world.

Is there an easy way to sum up your design work?

Susan: As artists, one of the things that is different in our approach is that we don’t have a medium. We look at the situation, context and environment and ask, “What’s happening here, and therefore what makes sense to do in this world?” As a result, our pieces are incredibly different from each other, which creates a difficulty sometimes for galleries and curators, because the art world really wants artists to work in one thing so they can say, “Oh, that’s the ‘nixie tube guy,’ or those are the ‘light artists.’” But that’s not actually our work at all. There’s no one thing that could describe everything we do. We have mechanically moving pieces, we have pieces that work with light, we have a telematic piece that you interact with over the web, and a lot of our work is very intimate and interactive in a personal space — but not all of it — so it’s all these different dimensions. That’s partly because we are always looking for our mantra. We’re always asking, “So what?” I feel like the Solar Collector [commissioned by the Region of Waterloo and launched in 2008] is a good example.

Matt: With the Solar Collector, the whole concept was that if it’s going to be a solar-powered piece, it should be solar. It should reflect the ideas of solar energy and solar power. So that informed the whole form of the piece. Whereas for a piece like the obelisk that we did for the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) [in 2007], we were taking a different set of constraints about longevity, and about being able to honour donors for their contributions.

Susan: Yes, one of the ROM’s mantras was that they’re all about artifacts that tell stories. So we basically created an artifact that tells a story about the donors for donor recognition. With the Solar Collector, on the other hand, it was about this connection between the public and this space. Because they had asked for a solar-powered piece, our mantra was, “If it’s solar, make it solar.” So many solar-powered pieces have a little tree of solar cells off to the side, and then they have the piece, and they’re two completely separate things. For our piece, the way that solar power works — and even the math of the way the sun moves through the sky — is all reflected in the forms of the piece. That kind of connection and mantra-making is how we approach all of our pieces.

Solar Collector at the Waterloo Regional Operations Centre. Matt and Susan designed the sculpture with Rob Gorbet.

Describe your time as faculty at the CFC. You may have been the teachers, but what did you learn from the experience yourselves?

Matt: We were part of the faculty of the CFC Media Lab’s TELUS Interactive Art and Entertainment Program, or IAEP. We started in 2002/2003 and were on the faculty of that program until 2011-12, about a decade. Over that time it grew and changed, but essentially it was a residential program for people exploring new media projects. We did crits on that program, and we also each taught a different section. I taught a section called “Beyond the Screen,” which was about forms new media can take, which emphasized creating tangible and physical experiences in the world.

We didn’t teach together in that program, but we did do crits together and helped shape projects for the residents. That was a great experience, to be able to help people shape projects from concept to realization. One of the major things that was successful about that program was how it brought people together to collaborate. Collaboration has been such a big part of the way we work, and we think people should work in these fields. So being able to help people understand how to collaborate, work together, and draw on other people’s skills was a real joy.

Susan: I taught not just experience design, but also did a project process and documentation section. That was a kind of coaching with the residents, an after-crit moment in the program. I gained a deep understanding of collaborative groups and the way that collaboration really works — and that has informed everything that I’ve ever done since. We teach creative collaboration now. In the corporate world, we help people understand how to run strategic conversations to a good result. Working together in that creative, collaborative way is just the way that things are in the world now, and I gained a lot of insight into that approach during my time at the CFC.

What’s on the horizon for Gorbet Design Inc.?

Susan: One of the ways that we think about our career is that we spent the first 10 years creating installation work — interactive physical installations in public spaces, both art and design — and we’ve spent the last six or seven years doing what we think of more as brain work. We have moved more into helping other people do creative things with technology; helping others learn how to collaborate creatively, in terms of strategy; teaching/coaching in the corporate environment about facilitation; and about design and what they call “design thinking.” It’s always exciting to bring new ideas to people.

What’s it like to work so closely with your spouse?

Matt: We get asked that question a lot. There are a lot of challenges, but there’s an incredible amount of reward as well. The one thing that has kept us going this long is this absolute conviction that what we create together will be better than what either of us could have made alone. That lets us work through processes that can be trying sometimes.

Susan: Yes, that deep knowledge that even if it’s making me crazy right now, everything we do together is better than things that we could have done individually — that’s what really carries us through.

This interview has been edited and condensed for publication.

Welcome, IDEABOOST Cohort 7! From left to right: Lesley Klassen (The Campfire Union), Alexa Roeper (Penta Medical), Erin Millar (Discourse Media), Paul Greenberg (Creatubbles), Sid Bhargava and Paul Whelan (Paddle HR).
Photo Credit: Brian de Rivera Simon.

Five stellar startups – The Campfire Union, Creatubbles, Discourse Media, Paddle HR and Penta Medical – arrived at the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) on March 23, as CFC Media Lab’s IDEABOOST Accelerator got underway. These five companies are “Cohort 7” because 2018 marks the seventh time the Accelerator bootcamp has run since launching in 2012.

Based in Toronto and tailored to select digital media-focused startups, the four-month Accelerator offers a bespoke curriculum powered by a team of experienced staff, mentors, executives and investors. After 10 finalists pitched to a jury of IDEABOOST faculty and mentors, these five were selected and invited to join.

The Accelerator operates as one part of CFC Media Lab’s wider IDEABOOST program, designed for companies building the next generation of technology-based media, sports, leisure and entertainment products and brands. Since 2012, 33 media and entertainment technology startups have been accelerated, raising more than $800K in investment on average per company. The full program has supported 84 startups through a variety of programs and services, including the community affiliates program, Network Connect; the Accelerator; and a post-Accelerator alumni program for companies entering the marketplace.

Previous successful cohorts have included companies like ASAP Science, Brinx Inc. (MasterpieceVR), Deep Inc. (Liquid Cinema), Filmtyme, ivvi, Little Robot Friends, Repable, Social Asset Management (SAM).

Meet IDEABOOST Cohort 7

The Campfire Union develops virtual reality media platforms for immersive video and user-generated VR content. People gather around the campfire to share stories, make music and embrace life. The campfire is a platform of expression they represent in their products.

Their product Flipside offers the fastest way to create animated shows. With nothing more than an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, people can produce their own animated shows in real time, whether recorded or streamed live. As a real-time animation software company, Flipside empowers creators to make animations quickly and with as much agency as possible. It replaces the traditional studio with a virtual one, allowing creators to perform all aspects of production to make compelling content at a fraction of the cost.

People

Lesley Klassen, CEO, Co-founder: LinkedIn
John Luxford, CTO, Co-founder: LinkedIn
Rachael Hosein, CCO, Co-founder: LinkedIn

Connect

Website:campfireunion.com
Twitter:@campfireunion
Facebook: facebook.com/campfireunion
Instagram: campfireunion
LinkedIn:The Campfire Union

Kudos

• Third Place in Innovate Manitoba's Lift'Off Venture Challenge (2016) 
• The first VR board game, their game Lost Cities was also an Oculus featured game at Mobile World Congress and GDC 2016), and the first third-party game for the Oculus social platform
• Their Yana Virtual Relaxation was the 63rd app in the very first VR app store, was chosen as a Cardboard Favorite by Google, and was included in WEARVR Top 10 for four weeks
• Won "Best Technology Pitch" at Innovate Manitoba Pitch Day (2013)

Creatubbles believes that global interconnectedness does not necessarily mean gravitating to the lowest common denominator. Instead, they leverage technology to create a kinder, more humane and more aesthetic world, one in which a plurality of possibilities can be understood and explored, and where nuance is valued.

These core ingredients create a safe global community of creators of all ages. With users in more than 50 countries, Creatubbles lets people share their experiences and creations safely, whether at home, school, events or other activities. They seek to connect the dots between natural human creativity, technology and business to inspire and bring out the best in us, including our youngest and most vulnerable. The company’s API allows any third-party app, platform, site or solution to save creative output directly to Creatubbles, positioning it as the logical aggregation point for children's authoring tools.

People

Paul Greenberg, CEO, Co-founder
Peter Van Der Weeen, COO, Co-founder: LinkedIn
Francesco Romano, Head of Product Strategy, Co-founder

Connect

Website:creatubbles.com
Twitter: @creatubbles
Facebook:facebook.com/creatubbles
LinkedIn: Creatubbles

Kudos

• Winner of AASL 2016 Best Websites for Teaching & Learning Award
• 
Official creativity sharing partner for Benesse, one of Japan’s largest educational publishing companies
• Feature-length article in leading Japanese tech publisher, ASCII
; Profile article on Yahoo! Japan Kids
 (Both from Japanese-language press)
• Japan TV evening news feature of international creativity collaboration event between Japanese and Indian students (In Japanese, contains English subtitles)

Discourse Media is an independent, for-profit media company. They provide high-quality, consequential journalism about complex issues, not only revealing problems, but also pointing possible paths forward, helping audiences move from dismay to possibility, passivity to action.

Their primary product consists of journalism packages based on in-depth original research, data journalism, and deep engagement with impacted communities. In a radical departure from traditional media, they produce journalism with their audience, resulting in relevant, nuanced content that responds to specific needs, and succeeds in engaging segments of the Canadian public that other media outlets have failed to reach or have outright ignored. Here, the story, rather than the production cycle, determines the format. Whether the story is told best with a custom data app, narrative podcast, long-form multimedia article or live event, that’s what they produce.

People

Erin Millar, Founder, CEO: LinkedIn
Caitlin Havlak, Chief Operating Officer: LinkedIn
Rachel Nixon, Executive Editor: LinkedIn

Connect

Website: www.discoursemedia.org
Twitter:@thediscourse

Kudos

• Erin Millar named one of the top seven women-led ventures in Canada at the SheEO Summit, Toronto (March 2018)
• The 2017 Edward Murrow Award for Best Investigative Reporting (international small digital news category) from the Radio Television Digital News Association
• The 2017 Silver Award for the Best Digital Editorial Package from the Digital Publishing Award, and The 2017 Silver Award for the Best Investigative Reporting from the National Magazine Awards (with Maclean’s)

• The 2016 CJF Innovation Award from the Canadian Journalism Foundation

Paddle HR makes understanding career paths in your organization effortless. They use big data to uncover how people move, and help large organizations match existing talent to new internal career paths.

People voluntarily leave their jobs most often because of a perceived lack of opportunities, especially when many organizations are so complex that their employees cannot see the next viable job. By recommending great career options, Paddle HR helps organizations keep top talent and employees build rewarding, diverse careers. Its matching algorithm, powered by 330 million peoples’ career histories, trains its machine-learning models to predict subsequent career moves. The product leverages this intelligence, not only to offer high-level analytics to human resources leaders about internal mobility, but also to provide employees exciting internal career choices.

People

Pat Whelan, CEO & Co-Founder: LinkedIn
Sid Bhargava, CTO & Co-Founder: LinkedIn

Connect

Website:paddlehr.com
Twitter:@paddlecareers
Facebook:facebook.com/PaddleHR
LinkedIn:Paddle HR

Kudos

• "Announcing Cohort 7,” Acceleprise
• "Paddle Snags $700,000 in funding to help students embrace ‘Job-Jumping,'" Betakit
• "This Website Could Tell You Which Career Path to Take,” The Foundation for Young Australians
• "Why Non-linear is the Only Path Forward,” Academica Forum

Penta Medical offers a modern approach to physical rehabilitation. They develop precision tools for the treatment of chronic musculoskeletal conditions.

Their first product, Helios, allows patients to use a clinically proven treatment at home, every day. The software control system gives patients the same level of oversight as a physiotherapist, and intelligently selects the ideal treatment plan for their injuries. It's intended to be simple and easy to use — the opposite of traditional treatment tools.

People

Alexa Roeper, CEO, Co-founder: LinkedIn
Daniel Choi, CTO & Co-founder: LinkedIn

Connect

Website: pentamedical.ca/
LinkedIn: Penta Medical
Twitter: @penta_medical
Facebook: facebook.com/pentamedicalinc

Kudos

• "At Age 22 and 23, These Sisters Have Both Founded Their Own Startups,” The Globe and Mail
• "Women Taking Action: 10 Top Female Founded Tech Startups,” Forbes

• "Penta Medical Takes Home $35,000 from Velocity Fund Finals,” Betakit
• "Alexa Roeper on how Penta Medical plans to help heal injuries faster,” Canadian Business
• The 
2017 Canadian Hardware Cup, 1st Place; 
2017 OCE Medical Sciences Proof of Principle Grant $70,000; 2017 Queens Entrepreneurship Competition, $50,000 

Stay tuned for more CFC Media Lab updates on IDEABOOST Cohort 7 in the coming months!

Twelve CFC alumni have made the Canadian Cinema Editors’ (CCE) final cut this year, earning 2018 CCE Awards nominations. These nominations span a variety of mediums from short film and webseries, to features and TV series.

We are particularly thrilled to see alumni Jane MacRae and Kye Meechan nominated for their work on upcoming CFC Features film 22 CHASER. 

View a full list of CFC alumni nominees by category below.

BEST EDITING IN A FEATURE FILM

• Chris Mutton, Luba (pictured)

• Jane MacRae and Kye Meechan, 22 CHASER (a CFC Features film)

• Michael Pierro, Room for Rent

BEST EDITING IN A DOCUMENTARY – SHORT FORM

• Katie Chipperfield, NUUCA: Field of Vision

• Luke Sargent, The Love Songs of Oedipus Rex

• Tiffany Beaudin, On My Way Out: The Secret Life of Nani and Popi (pictured)

BEST EDITING IN A ½ HOUR SCRIPTED

• Aren Hansen, Kim’s Convenience (“Janet’s Boyfriend")

BEST EDITING IN REALITY/COMPETITION/LIFESTYLE

• Baun Mah and Seth Poulin, Top Chef Canada: All Stars (“Lock It Up! IT’s the Finale!”)

BEST EDITING IN SHORT FILM

• Maureen Grant, L’Audition

BEST EDITING IN WEB BASED SERIES

• Simone Smith, That’s My DJ: The Finale

The CCE Awards gala will take place May 30, 2018. 

CFC extends our congratulations to longtime CFC friend and collaborator Catherine Tait on her new position as president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada. Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly made the official announcement yesterday, Tuesday, April 3 in Ottawa. Tait will become the first woman to hold the position, replacing outgoing president Hubert Lacroix.

Tait is a 30-year veteran of the Canadian film and TV industry, having previously served as manager of policy and planning for Telefilm Canada, Canada's cultural attaché to France, and the president and COO of Salter Street Films; and having co-founded digital content company iThentic, as well as movie-channel company Hollywood Suite.

Tait has been a friend and collaborator of the CFC for many years. Since 2006, she helped to organize the CFC’s strategic and corporate development plan. She also reviewed CFC’s programs and business practices and organized a board survey and retreat. Most recently, Tait conducted an evaluation of CFC’s IDEABOOST program.

Congratulations, Catherine, on this well-deserved appointment!

CFC Presents Special Presentation of 22 CHASER as Part of National Canadian Film Day 2018

22 CHASER is the 22^nd feature film to be developed and financed for production through CFC Features

Toronto, April 11, 2018 - The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) is pleased to present the first-ever Special Presentation of CFC Features’ high-octane drama 22 CHASER as part of the fifth annual National Canadian Film Day (NCFD) on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 at 7 p.m. at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto. A Q&A with director Rafal Sokolowski and select cast will follow the screening.

22 CHASER follows a desperate tow truck driver who risks everything to become king of the road and piece together his broken family. It is the feature directorial debut from Rafal Sokolowski (Three Mothers, Seventh Day) and is based on a screenplay by Jeremy Boxen (Imposters, Orphan Black, Killjoys). The film stars Brian J. Smith (Sense8, Red Faction: Origins, SGU Stargate Universe), Raoul Trujillo (Sicario, Cowboys and Aliens), Tiio Horn (What Would Sal Do?, Hemlock Grove, Defiance), Aaron Ashmore (Killjoys, Regression), and John Kapelos (The Breakfast Club). The film is produced by Don Carmody (Shadowhunters, Resident Evil franchise, Chicago), Daniel Bekerman (The Witch, Bang Bang Baby) and Aeschylus Poulos (Mary Goes Round, Sleeping Giant); co-produced by Brendan Carmody (13 Eerie, Home Again); and executive produced by Justine Whyte (Cube, Rhymes for Young Ghouls, Adventures in Public School).

“National Canadian Film Day presents a fantastic opportunity to get Canadians engaged in and to appreciate our homegrown content and talent,” said Justine Whyte, Executive Director, 22 CHASER and Director & Executive Producer, CFC Features. “22 CHASER has been under the wings of the CFC for a very long time and it’s one of the most complex films we have supported to date – we are overjoyed to finally share it with audiences, especially on a day that is dedicated to celebrating Canadian film!”

22 CHASERwas produced through the Canadian Film Centre’s CFC Features program. Development at CFC Features is supported by the Government of Ontario, and production support and financing are supported by the CFC and The Movie Network, a division of Bell Media.

The producers secured additional production financing from Telefilm Canada and The Ontario Media Development Corporation. 22 CHASER was recently picked up for distribution in Canada by levelFILM and will be released theatrically this summer. The film is represented by XYZ in the U.S. and Red Sea Media in the international market.

Tickets for the Special Presentation of 22 CHASER will become available to the public free of charge as of 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 12 until the screening is sold out. CLICK HERE to claim your ticket. Please note: passes received through this promotion do not guarantee a seat at the theatre. Seating is on a first come, first served basis, except for special guests. The theatre is overbooked to ensure capacity. Arrive early to secure your seat.

Additionally, the Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) is presenting a screening of CFC Features’ 1995 quirky horror-comedy BLOOD & DONUTS, CFC alumna Holly Dale’s directorial debut, on National Canadian Film Day (April 18, 2018) at 9:45 p.m. at Globe Cinema in Calgary as part of its spotlight on female filmmakers. Acclaimed cinematographer Paul Sarossy will join a Q&A following the film. Find more information and secure your free ticket HERE. Similarly, Media Commons, Robarts Library will present a free screening of BLOOD & DONUTS in Toronto on April 18, 2018 at 3 p.m. at Media Commons, 3^rd Floor Robarts Library. Learn more HERE.

CFC is also pleased that a number of CFC alumni films are included in this year’s NCFD Spotlight Films, celebrating the accomplishments of women in Canadian film, including:

• Away From Her (written and directed by alumna Sarah Polley)
• The Breadwinner (written by alumna Anita Doron and produced by alumni Anthony Leo and Andrew Rosen)
• Crackie (written and directed by alumna Sherry White, starring alumnus Joel Thomas Hynes)
• Double Happiness (written and directed by alumna Mina Shum)
• Empire of Dirt (directed by alumnus Peter Stebbings, written by alumna Shannon Masters, produced by and starring alumna Jennifer Podemski)
• Ginger Snaps (directed by alumnus John Fawcett, written by alumna Karen Walton, produced by alumnus Steven Hoban)
• The Lesser Blessed (written and directed by Anita Doron)
• Long Time Running (co-written and co-directed by alumnus Nicholas de Pencier)
• Manufactured Landscapes (produced by Nicholas de Pencier)
• Maudie (written by Sherry White)
• Meditation Park (written and directed by Mina Shum, produced by alumni Raymond Massey and Stephen Hegyes, featuring alumnus Don McKellar)
• Modra (written and directed by alumna Ingrid Veninger)
• Picture Day (produced by alumni Lauren Grant, Peter Harvey and Aeschylus Poulos)
• Stories We Tell (written and directed by Sarah Polley, produced by alumna Anita Lee)
• The Sun at Midnight (written, directed and produced by alumna Kirsten Carthew, starring alumna Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs)
• Window Horses (written and directed by alumna Ann Marie Fleming)
• The World Before Her (written, directed and produced by alumna Nisha Pahuja)

For more information on NCFD, visit canadianfilmday.ca.

Learn more about CFC Features HERE.

Social Media

CFC

Twitter: @cfccreates | #CFCFeatures
Facebook: facebook.com/cfccreates
Instagram: @cfccreates

National Canadian Film Day

Twitter: @canfilmday | #CanFilmDay
Facebook: facebook.com/CanFilmDay
Instagram: @canfilmday

About CFC
The Canadian Film Centre (CFC), celebrating 30 years, is a charitable cultural organization that supports, develops and accelerates the content, careers and companies of Canadian creative and entrepreneurial talent in the screen-based and digital industries. Its uniquely designed programs and initiatives span film, television, screen acting, screen composing and songwriting, and innovative work in the digital media and entertainment technology industries, all of which continue to push boundaries and generate world-class content, products and companies for the global marketplace. cfccreates.com.

-30-

For media inquiries, please contact:

Cory Angeletti-Szasz
Manager, Communications, CFC
416.445.1446 x463
cangeletti@cfccreates.com

The Canadian Film Centre Media Lab’s (CFC Media Lab) IDEABOOST Accelerator recently held the first of its four weekend intensives from March 23 to 25. Here, experienced executives, investors and staff met, mentored and challenged the five Cohort 7 companies and their founders: Lesley Klassen (The Campfire Union); Paul Greenberg (Creatubbles); Erin Millar (Discourse Media); Sid Bhargava and Pat Whelan (Paddle HR); and Alexa Roeper (Penta Medical). Read more about their companies and connect with the founders here.

Enjoy these highlights!

Clockwise from top: IDEABOOST program director Aaron Williamson sets the stage; IDEABOOST managing director Ana Serrano delivers opening remarks; Everyone gathers for an icebreaker.

Program director Aaron Williamson facilitated a mix of formats, from founder pitches to mentor-founder product demos; from playful icebreakers to one-on-one “office hours”; from diving into “what won’t work” to celebrating what has; and from brainstorming to optimizing business models.

Alexa Roeper, Co-founder and CEO, Penta Medical.

Sid Bhargava (left) and Pat Whelan (top right), Co-founders and CEOs, Paddle HR.

Erin Millar, Founder and CEO, Discourse Media.

Networking continues over a delicious lunch.

Paul Greenberg, Co-founder and CEO, Creatubbles.

Lesley Klassen, CEO and Co-founder, The Campfire Union.

This year's cohort represents five strong layer-stage companies, each of whom will benefit from an increase in per-company funding this year, up to $50,000 from previous Accelerator cohorts.

Site of the Accelerator's first weekend intensive, the Northern Dancer Pavilion on the grounds of the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto.

For more news on IDEABOOST and Cohort 7, sign up for our newsletter.

Photos by Brian de Rivera Simon.

We were pleased to attend the opening reception last night for DIVERGE, a group exhibition featuring the Master's thesis projects of 18 graduate students in the Digital Futures Program at the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU). Graduate Studies at OCADU and the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab (CFC Media Lab) are proud to partner as hosts for this annual event.

An innovative, student-centred program, Digital Futures has part-time Graduate Diploma and full-time Master's Degrees (MA, MDes and MFA) options. The program responds to the increasingly important and sophisticated role of digital technology as a catalyst for change, and draws an international student cohort and faculty – a perspective key to securing its graduates futures in the ever-evolving, global, creative digital industries.

Samaa Ahmed’s 'Digital Debris: Visualizing the Future of Global E-Waste.'

These multi-disciplinary designers and artists’ creative and intellectual labour are on full display at this exhibition. Playing on the meanings of “diverge” – to move in a different direction or shift and adapt into new forms – DIVERGE reveals an eclectic range of thesis projects in: artificial intelligence (AI) and communicative domains; augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR); civic media; digital and electronic fabrication and digital art; educational video games; gesture technologies; information visualization; immersive storytelling and audiovisual environments; participatory multimedia and performances; post-physical sculpture; and therapeutic devices.

Some of the immersive and interactive projects at DIVERGE to experience include:

• Designer, fine artist and writer Samaa Ahmed’s Digital Debris: Visualizing the Future of Global E-Waste, which immerses a viewer in a landscape that forces them to confront the scope of, and urgent need to address, e-waste issues on a global scale.
• Multimedia designer Bijun Chen’s Masters of Laoting Shadow Play: Experience traditional art practice in a virtual space, which examines how the rise of the digital has replaced or displaced more traditional art forms like shadow plays; by engaging in field research in China with one living master practicing the art form on the edge of extinction, Bijun produced an immersive 360 documentary short that recreates the viewer’s experience of these forms.
• Designer, audiovisual artist and music researcher Afaq Ahmed Karadia’s Embodied Expressions reworks audiovisual performance systems to expand artist practices. Modern electronic music performance has decoupled sound from the material objects that create it; in his piece, Karadia juxtaposes this practice to a set of musical instruments placed in the audience’s environment, which the performer can custom-control through a gesture-based system.
• Editorial designer Ania Medrek’s News by Association: Designing a Way Out of the Echo Chamber, part of a larger project called Echology, engages with Participatory Design methodology to identify and unpack what contributes to the echo chamber phenomenon on – and limiting algorithms of – social networking sites.

Congratulations to all of the talented Digital Futures graduates: Samaa Ahmed, Thoreau Bakker, Bijun Chen, Mudit Ganguly, Sara Gazzaz, Manik Perera Gunatilleke, Yawen Guo, Afaq Ahmed Karadia, Mahsa Karimi, Nadine Lessio, Ania Medrek, Katie Micak, Natasha Mody, Afrooz Samaei, Hammadullah Syed, Shreeya Tyagi, April Xie and Rana Zandi!

Don't miss DIVERGE this weekend! The exhibition takes place at the 49 McCaul Street Open Gallery in downtown Toronto from Friday, April 13, through Sunday, April 15, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. daily. For more information, visit the OCADU website here.

Hit Comedy ADVENTURES IN PUBLIC SCHOOL Opens in Theatres Across Canada

Limited engagement beginning April 28 includes screenings in 11 Canadian cities

Toronto, April 16, 2018– The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) and Vancouver-based film production company Motion 58 are pleased to announce that their charming award-winning comedy, ADVENTURES IN PUBLIC SCHOOL, will open in theatres in 11 cities across Canada for a limited engagement on Saturday, April 28 and Tuesday, May 1, 2018.

The theatrical release follows ADVENTURES IN PUBLIC SCHOOL’s strong showing on the festival circuit, where it had its World Premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), was selected by TIFF as one of Canada’s Top 10 Features of 2017, and won the award for Best Comedy Feature Film at the 2017 Edmonton International Film Festival. Hailed by audiences and critics alike, New Times San Luis Obispo dubbed it “the Canadian Lady Bird,” TIFF Senior Programmer Steve Gravestock heralded the film as “one of the best Canadian romantic comedies in recent memory,” The Hollywood Reporter claimed that “the writing and direction put a bright spin on high-school antics, and the ace cast makes the grade,” and NOW Magazine gave it a NNNN rating, naming it “an unexpected treat.”

“ADVENTURES IN PUBLIC SCHOOL has travelled the world, but Kyle Rideout (director) and I are most excited about the opportunity to share it with our own country,” said Josh Epstein, Producer. “We imagine our audiences having a bright, hilarious and fun night out at the theatre when they go see our film. They will witness the exceptional work of everyone’s favourite actress – Judy Greer – and be introduced to the next Canadian comedic darling, Daniel Doheny. They’ll also get to rediscover some of our country’s biggest stars like Grace Park, Russell Peters and Andrea Bang in a new light.”

ADVENTURES IN PUBLIC SCHOOL follows a socially inept home schooled dropout (Daniel Doheny) who enrols in public school to chase after a one-legged dream-girl (Siobhan Williams) while his mom/best friend (Judy Greer) teaches him his teenage rebellion while learning to let him go. Directed by Kyle Rideout, the film is based on an original screenplay by Rideout and Josh Epstein (producer). ADVENTURES IN PUBLIC SCHOOL is produced through CFC Features and Rideout and Epstein’s production company, Motion 58, with Adam Folk as co-producer and Justine Whyte as executive producer.

Screening details:

Calgary
Cineplex Odeon Eau Claire Market Cinemas
Dates/times to be announced

Halifax
Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane
Saturday, April 28 at 7:15 p.m.
Tuesday, May 1 at 9:45 p.m.

Montreal
Cinéma Cineplex Odeon Quartier Latin
Saturday, April 28 at 6:45 p.m.

Ottawa
Cineplex Odeon South Keys Cinemas
Saturday, April 28 at 6:30 p.m.

Peterborough
Galaxy Cinemas Peterborough
Saturday, April 28 at 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 1 at 9:45 p.m.

Sudbury
SilverCity Sudbury Cinemas
Saturday, April 28 at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, May 1 at 10 p.m.

Toronto
Cineplex Cinemas Yonge-Dundas and VIP
Saturday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 1 at 6:15 p.m.

Vancouver
The Park Theatre
Saturday, April 28 at 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 1 at 9:45 p.m.

The Rio Theatre
Wednesday, May 2 (time to be announced)

Victoria
The Vic Theatre *extended limited engagement
Friday, April 27 at 7:45 p.m.
Saturday, April 28 at 7:45 p.m.
Monday, April 30 at 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 1 at 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 2 at 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 3 at 5:30 p.m.

Windsor
SilverCity Windsor Cinemas
Tuesday, May 1 at 9:45 p.m.

Winnipeg
Cineplex Odeon McGillivray Cinemas and VIP
Saturday, April 28 at 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 1 at 6:45 p.m.

See theatres for more information and to confirm showtimes.

Canadian distribution for ADVENTURES IN PUBLIC SCHOOL is handled by Motion 58 and world sales are handled by Kaleidoscope Film Distribution (KFD), working in partnership with XYZ Films in the U.S. Gravitas Ventures acquired all U.S. rights to the comedy and will release it in select theatres in the U.S. and on VOD on April 27, 2018.

ADVENTURES IN PUBLIC SCHOOL is the 23^rd film to be developed and financed for production by CFC Features. Production and financing was supported by the CFC and The Movie Network, a division of Bell Media. Development at CFC is supported by the Government of Ontario. CFC Features’ longstanding partnerships with The Movie Network and the Government of Ontario benefit emerging filmmakers from across the nation.

Motion 58 brought in the additional support of Telefilm Canada for production financing, and received instrumental support in the script’s development from the Telefilm Canada Feature Comedy Exchange, a CFC marketplace initiative in collaboration with Just For Laughs; the National Screen Institute’s Features First program; the Independent Filmmaker Project’s (IFP) No Borders program; Corus Entertainment Inc. and Whistler Film Festival's Feature Project Lab. Visit CFC Features or Motion 58 for more information.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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Motion 58

Twitter: @motion58 | @joshepstein1 | @kylerideout
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#AdventuresInPublicSchool

About CFC

The Canadian Film Centre (CFC), celebrating 30 years, is a charitable cultural organization that supports, develops and accelerates the content, careers and companies of Canadian creative and entrepreneurial talent in the screen-based and digital industries. Its uniquely designed programs and initiatives span film, television, screen acting, screen composing and songwriting, and innovative work in the digital media and entertainment technology industries, all of which continue to push boundaries and generate world-class content, products and companies for the global marketplace. cfccreates.com.

Motion 58 Motion 58 is a Vancouver-based production/distribution company that focuses on creating original content for film and television. Their first film, Eadweard, garnered 47 award wins and nominations, including 5 Audience Choice Awards and a CSA nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. It has been distributed around the world. Rideout and Epstein are represented by The Jennifer Hollyer Agency. For more information, visit motion58.com.

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For media inquiries, please contact:

Cory Angeletti-Szasz
Manager, Communications, CFC
416.445.1446 x463
cangeletti@cfccreates.com

Amy Strilchuk
PR for Motion 58
amy@theartleft.com

Larissa Giroux

After an eight-and-a-half year run at the CFC, producer alumna and senior Programs Department Executive, Larissa Giroux, is leaving to pursue her next exciting adventure.

A 2003 alumna of the Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Producers’ Lab, Giroux returned to the CFC as the Executive in Charge of Actor Programs, and later became the Executive in Charge of Actor and Music Programs, before becoming Associate Director, Programs/Talent. During her time at the CFC, Giroux helped us grow not only our programming slate and alumni community, but also our brand internationally.

“We were lucky that Larissa remained with the CFC for as long as she did, and during that time she affected a tremendous amount of positive change within the Programs department,” shared Kathryn Emslie, CFC’s Chief Programs Officer. “She headed up the launch of our Actor’s Conservatory in 2009, then two years later our Slaight Music Residency, and she helped facilitate the integration of both of these initiatives into our existing [film and TV] programs.” She continued, “Furthermore, she has built significant inroads into the acting and music talent communities across Canada, gaining their trust and respect as these programs evolved year after year into notable talent incubators.”

“I am passionate about the CFC and its mandate to build Canadian talent,” said Giroux. “Helping to create inspiring initiatives that benefit our creative community was an honour and I am so proud of what was accomplished. Our alumni successes speak to the strength of CFC’s programs and I will continue to champion these storytellers.”

Giroux is a true creative force with a gift for scouting talent. We will miss her energy, dedication, drive, counsel and her wicked sense of humour.

Best of luck, Larissa, on your next chapter!

If you wish to contact Larissa, she can be reached at larissagiroux@gmail.com.

My memories of Earth Day largely consisted of passively watching dull documentaries about the dangers of acid rain or the plight of the polar bear. These lessons were scary yet abstract and easy to forget the rest of the year. Other classic Earth-first lesson plans included planting a seedling, picking up trash and visiting a natural history museum to meet a litany of glass-eyed, stiffly stuffed carcasses. Every year, without fail, we’d all be assigned the same projects, creating countless tiny sprouts and spotless schoolyards and odes to the dodo. Considering the current state of the environment and our obsession with disposable everything, these tactics have failed to inspire the average person to embrace environmentalism in a meaningful way. It’s easy to see why so many adults are disconnected from their environment and the realities of climate change.

Thankfully, filmmakers are learning how to make the earth and its diversely weird inhabitants a compelling subject. Immersive tools such as virtual and augmented reality can thrust an environmental education into a kid in a much more visceral, memorable way. 

I was recently inspired by the educational system in Ready Player One, a book-turned-blockbuster, which imagines a not-too-distant world in an energy crisis, so miserable in reality that the masses elect to spend their time in a virtual construct. Schools in the physical world are so dangerous and under-resourced that most parents opt for their kids to receive a virtual education instead. The virtual curriculum skips all those dull documentaries or museum tours of my youth to instead get up close and personal with whatever subject they were exploring: meet a famous scientist, explore a foreign ecosystem, re-enact a natural disaster.

On this Earth Day, students in the real world can already benefit from VR in their education through one of these three ways:

1. Watch a tree grow live

Watch virtual seeds grow into trees in Tree.

2. Meet extinct species

Get to know an extinct species, close-up in First Life. 

3. Play Pokemon Go’s modern-day take on the classic community cleanup crew

Niantic Labs is launching an Earth Day project with Playmob, a company that helps gamers and brands work with NGOs to raise social consciousness. Local nonprofits across the planet will host cleanup events with an augmented reality twist by hiding Pokemon amongst the trash.The catch: join the cleanup crew to catch them all. Find a local cleanup event near you, or launch your own.

Ultimately, though, in this world, cost remains a real barrier to students using VR in classrooms and beyond. Headsets are expensive, and augmented reality still requires smartphones, tablets and a reliable internet connection, which are privileges not every school has. Technology companies, hoping to create a future for their products, are already selling classroom-ready VR and AR tech to schools and offering donations. Some enterprising teachers have launched crowdfunding campaigns to equip their class. Because it shouldn’t take a societal collapse to embrace immersive media in the classroom. 

A still of Ben (played by Brian J. Smith) in 22 CHASER

Yesterday evening, we hosted the first-ever Special Presentation of high-octane tow truck drama 22 CHASER, the 22^nd feature film to be developed and financed for production through CFC Features, at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto as part of the fifth annual National Canadian Film Day (NCFD).

The screening drew a sold out crowd filled with the film’s cast and crew, CFC friends and supporters and Canadian moviegoers eager to support this new Canadian feature on a day that is entirely devoted to celebrating and championing Canadian film.

22 CHASER is a gripping and emotionally charged drama centred around Ben (Brian J. Smith), a struggling tow truck driver who risks everything in order to become king of the road and piece together his broken family.

It is the feature directorial debut from Rafal Sokolowski (Three Mothers, Seventh Day) and is based on a screenplay by CFC alumnus Jeremy Boxen (Imposters, Orphan Black). The film stars Brian J. Smith (Sense8, SGU Stargate Universe), Tiio Horn (What Would Sal Do?, Hemlock Grove), Raoul Trujillo (Sicario, Cowboys and Aliens), Aaron Ashmore (Killjoys, Regression), John Kapelos (The Breakfast Club), Aidan Devine (October Gale, Suicide Squad) and Shaun Benson (The Girlfriend Experience, Saving Hope). The film is produced by CFC board member Don Carmody (Shadowhunters, Resident Evil franchise) and CFC alumni Daniel Bekerman (The Witch, Bang Bang Baby) and Aeschylus Poulos (Mary Goes Round, Sleeping Giant); is co-produced by Brendan Carmody (13 Eerie, Home Again); and is executive produced by Justine Whyte (Rhymes for Young Ghouls, Adventures in Public School). The film was edited by CFC alumni Kye Meechan and Jane McRae (who earned a CCE Awards nomination for their work on the film), and also features appearances by CFC alumnae Lisa Codrington, Camille Stopps and Emily Piggford.

(From L to R): Wole Daramola, Shaun Benson, Rafal Sokolowski, Tiio Horn and Aidan Devine

Following the screening, audience members had the opportunity to participate in a Q&A with director Rafal Sokolowski and cast members Tiio Horn (who plays Avery), Shaun Benson (who plays Elvis), Aidan Devine (who plays Ray) and Wole Daramola (who plays Kaleb), as well as Director of Photograhy Cabot McNenly, that was moderated by CFC alumnus and Canadian filmmaker Warren P. Sonoda.

Here are a few of the highlights from and topics that were discussed during the Q&A.

Learning about tow truck culture

Sokolowski explained that in order to prepare for the film and to gain a better understanding of the subject matter, he spent several nights on the road with various “chasers” – tow truck divers who chase after accidents to be the first on the scene – discovering the realities and demands of their work, “one of the first things that hit me was how stressful their reality is,” shared Sokolowski. “I was intimidated to arrive on the scene of an accident where real tears, real stress, real tragedy unfolds, and these tow truck drivers dive in – and some of them are amazing heroes, and some of them find a way to squeeze a buck out of human tragedy,” he continued. This reality is reflected in the film with Ben (played by Brian J. Smith), who (initially) represents an honest and honourable by-law tow truck driver, versus Elvis (played by Shawn Benson), who is a ruthless and hostile chaser. “It’s freaky the way this (tow truck) world works. It was eye-opening to me to get to know this culture and see what they do and what rules this world,” added Sokolowski.

Family story at heart

Sokolowski discussed how the narrative is layered – there is of course a storyline about tow truck culture and the challenges of that lifestyle, but at the centre of the film is a family story about a man, Ben, who will do whatever he needs to in order to be able to provide for his family and, ultimately, keep his promises to his son, “it puts you in a really vulnerable position because you want to perfect and, consequently, you fail at everything.” Sokolowski explained that the various layers in the narrative existed at the outset in the script that writer Jeremy Boxen penned, and how he really connected with the family storyline as soon as he read the script, and how important and relatable he feels that the human element is to the overall narrative.

Getting into character

The actors present at the Q&A explained a little bit about how they approached their respective roles:

Tiio Horn as Avery, Ben’s wife and mother to Zach (played by Jack Fulton)

Tiio shared that she largely got into her role by approaching her character as being a mom and a woman who needs to keep it together in order to keep her family together. She elaborated to say that she found it easy to get into character because of how was easy it was to connect with her fellow actors, mainly Brian J. Smith.

Shaun Benson as Elvis, the hostile and menacing chaser

Shaun looked beyond his character’s rough and evil exterior to approach his role – he looked inside to the human element and focused on why his character behaved the way he did, which was ultimately to pay for his life and what he loved.

Wole Daramola as Kaleb, a mechanic and garage owner

Wole explained that reacting to the energy of his fellow actors and scene members provided him with inspiration and fuel for his character.

Director Rafal Sokolowski answers a question during the Q&A after the Special Presentation of 22 CHASER

Working with a limited budget to manage so many moving parts – like night shoots, a cast of 39 vehicles, multiple road scenes, etc.

“A lot of planning, being very clear with the producers as to what is required, being very clear about what can happen within the budget, being good with adapting and working with plans B, and C, and D, and E … Asking people for a lot of commitment and sacrifice and working really hard until we got the shot,” explained Sokolowski.

On striking a balance between two storylines that’s didn’t compete, but rather completed each other

“In production, things happen so quickly that there isn’t that much space to find the balance,” shared Sokolowski. He went on to explain that a lot of the balance came from the writing (in the script) and in the editing process. In the writing, Boxen worked to ensure that the family drama is well established so that the audience understands the stakes and the emotional core of the story, while building up the tensions and action in the tow truck storyline. Furthermore, the design in the editing was really to balance these two worlds – between tender family moments and high-speed, dangerous moments in the tow truck world.

Can’t wait to see 22 CHASER (again or for the first time)? Stay tuned for information on 22 CHASER’s theatrical release; levelFILM is expected to release it in Canada sometime this summer!

Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday evening for the Special Presentation of 22 CHASER. Huge thanks to REEL CANADA for organizing another successful National Canadian Film Day and to all Canadians who supported Canadian film yesterday (and hopefully everyday!).

22 CHASER was made possible thanks to the generous support of our CFC Features program sponsors: development at CFC Features is supported by the Government of Ontario, and production support and financing are supported by The Movie Network, a division of Bell Media.

See more photos from the Special Presentation of '22 CHASER' HERE. 

The Hot Docs Canadian International Festival of Documentary Film – North America’s largest documentary festival held annually in Toronto – offers an outstanding selection of more than 200 films from Canada and around the world. This year marks the 25th anniversary and reprises the DocX series, an interdisciplinary section of the Festival celebrating documentary work that lives outside the traditional format.

The Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab (CFC Media Lab) is proud to have two of its virtual reality (VR) productions screening together in the DocX series: a reprise of Small Wonders: The VR Experience and the premiere of a compelling new production and photo installation, Made This Way: Redefining Masculinity.

Small Wonders: The VR Experience

A groundbreaking VR collaboration of CFC Media Lab, Seneca’s School of Creative Arts and Animation and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Small Wonders: The VR Experience enables viewers to step inside the stunningly intricate details of a 500-year-old European prayer bead. The original bead, small enough to fit in the palm of the hand, depicts a complex scene of heaven and hell with elegance and precision. The VR experience adapts one of the AGO’s micro-computed topography (micro-CT) scans, enabling viewers to explore the intricate carvings of the prayer bead from various angles and in detail otherwise inaccessible to the human eye. The soundtrack that accompanies the experience, Treasures of Devotion: Spiritual Songs in Northern Europe 1500-1540, adds to the ambiance of the near-tactile, meditative experience in the headset.

Made This Way: Redefining Masculinity

Made This Way: Redefining Masculinity, a new co-production of CFC Media Lab and Cinehackers by artist/photographer Irem Harnak and writer/filmmaker/producer Elli Raynai, complements Small Wonders’ engagement with reimagining and enhancing art through VR. Made This Way blends both a photographic installation of large-scale portraits of transgender and non-binary subjects with volumetric VR testimonials of two people featured in the portraits. In the VR experience, viewers hear two people describe their relationship to masculinity and experiences of gender transition. Hot Docs will screen both the VR experience and exhibit the photographs in the same space. Together, these two dimensions to Made This Way reveal a complex, subtle landscape of portraiture, an artistic rendering of identity and body consciousness, and a deeply honest and personal narrative of gender transition.

Both Small Wonders and Made This Way will be screening at the DocX VR screenings at Autodesk. Admission is free and both pieces will be shown during:

• Friday, April 27 to Tuesday, May 1: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
• Wednesday, May 2 and Thursday, May 3: 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
• Friday, May 4 and Saturday, May 5: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
• Sunday, May 6: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Throughout much of the designated festival screening times, attendees will be able to meet the creators of both Made This Way and Small Wonders in person. Please keep in mind when festival planning that last admission will occur 30-90 minutes prior to close, subject to demand, to allow waiting patrons time to experience the projects. Also note that all VR participants must be at least 13 years of age.

Finally, don’t miss these other fantastic CFC alumni projects screening at this year’s Hot Docs:

• This year’s Focus On retrospective is Canadian filmmaker and CFC alumnus John Walker, and will feature Walker’s following films: A Drummer’s Dream (2010), The Fairy Faith (2000), Men of the Deeps (2003), Passage (2008) and Strand: Under the Dark Cloth (1989).
• The Canadian Spectrum program will screen the films 1999 (by alumna Samara Grace Chadwick) and United We Fan (by alumnus Michael Sparaga).
• CFC alumni Charles Officer and Yung Chang are involved in Big Steps, a partnership between Hot Docs and Samsung Canada to commission six short films in celebration of the festival’s 25th anniversary.

See the full festival schedule of Hot Docs here.

The deadline to apply for the Bell Media Prime Time TV Program, a full-time, five-month program for TV writers that delivers a team-based approach to series writing, is fast approaching. If you’re still unsure whether you should apply this year, or if this is the right program for you, can we introduce you to four people who may be able to convince you?

We recently spoke with alumni Adam Higgs, Rachel Langer, Michelle Ricci and Hayden Simpson about their experience in the Bell Media Prime Time TV Program. Read on to find out what lessons they learned and contacts they gained during the program, as well as details on the amazing industry opportunities that followed.

WHAT WERE YOUR BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS FROM YOUR TIME IN THE BELL MEDIA PRIME TIME TV PROGRAM?

ADAM HIGGS: I had such an incredible experience working in a room with a showrunner and my fellow residents, and it prepared me for every subsequent room I’ve been in. I met my agent [through the CFC], who I still work with today and is a good friend. I made invaluable contacts that led to my first pilot sale and so many gigs since. I got an executable plan to accomplish my goals.

In essence, I got a career thanks to the CFC. But more importantly, I made lifelong friends with the other residents. These are people whom I love dearly, people whom I spend Christmas and share stories about jobs and life with.

RACHEL LANGER: The biggest lesson I learned was that it takes a lot of layers to be useful in a writers’ room. Getting the chance to be in a functioning story room was an invaluable experience.

The other major lesson I came away with is that writing is 90 per cent persistence. It’s a grind! You come in thinking that it’s magical and creative and fulfilling in every moment, but it’s really a lot of work. What comes through that persistence, and the value you find in the work is where the true magic is. The Prime Time Program puts you through the paces in such a way where you’ll either rise to that challenge, or you won’t. It’s such a necessary thing to learn early on.

MICHELLE RICCI: The TV program is the best career accelerator in the country, and arguably in a class by itself in the world. It gives its participants direct access to showrunners, producers and networks, as well as a platform for pitching directly to those in a position to hire. What can take years to achieve, the CFC provides in a matter of months.

But what I think was even more valuable for me, in hindsight, was the degree of confidence the program instilled in me. [After the program] I knew I could handle a story room and notes, I knew I could contribute in an important and unique way, and I knew I could actually forge a career for myself doing what I loved. Confidence is hard-won in any creative industry, and having people who believed in me unconditionally was everything.

HAYDEN SIMPSON: The poetic answer is I walked away with more confidence in my writing, a sense of direction and momentum in my career. But I literally left the program with a solid sample that got me an agent and a wide network of industry contacts. And gout.

A still from CBC series Burden of Truth, which Hayden Simpson worked on. 

HOW DID THE PROGRAM PREPARE YOU FOR WORKING IN STORY ROOMS?

AH: There are very few programs that put you in a real writers’ room. This is one of them. It allows you to understand how to pitch stories, build on other’s ideas, collaborate, give feedback, bond with your colleagues, break ideas, talk character arcs, and so on. There’s really no [better] way to prepare for this stuff than by doing it.

RL: I think you often underestimate the amount of time and energy that’s required to do what we do as writers. It’s not just pitching ideas—it’s listening, it’s critical thinking, it’s knowing the flow and energy patterns of the story room, it’s learning to lend your voice to someone else’s vision. It’s also learning to multitask and support your showrunner however you can. The program teaches you that you need to find your own spot and function within the room, and use it to add value.

MR: The program gives you a safe space to figure out your place in a room, with unconditional support and a real-life showrunner to explain how it all goes down in the real world. When I got to my first real-life story room, I wasn’t afraid to express my opinion, and I had all kinds of advice from working writers in my back pocket for the various situations I began to encounter. It made it much less stressful, and my integration into a pre-existing room that much more successful.

HS: The program gave me the confidence and experience to hit the ground running on the first season of Burden of Truth. It’s a crash course in story room dynamics because a TV writer actually spends most of their time sitting in a room and talking.

More importantly, though, the program taught me how to dispassionately deal with feedback. Part of the job is putting you and your heart onto the page, so it’s tough not to take it personally if someone hates your work. But the other part of the job—the crappy part—is taking notes, which is never fun. The most important lesson I learned was not to fight notes, but to look at what they’re really saying about my work. It was often the note behind the note that showed me where I needed to improve my craft.

A still from Syfy series Ghost Wars, which Rachel Langer worked on. 

IS THERE SOMETHING SPECIFIC YOU LEARNED IN THE PROGRAM THAT YOU USED/USE WHEN WORKING ON SERIES LIKE SCORPION (Adam); GHOST WARS, REBOOT: THE GUARDIAN CODE AND THIS LIFE (Rachel); MURDOCH MYSTERIES AND FRANKIE DRAKE MYSTERIES (Michelle); AND BURDEN OF TRUTH (Hayden)?

AH: It’s hard to single out any one thing. Being a TV writer means building on your skills in every room you’re in. Those early days working at the CFC on Orphan Black helped prepare me for [Republic of Doyle], and that in turn [prepared me for] Haven, and then Scorpion and so on.

RL: Don’t panic! Although I have still done my fair share of panicking on all of those shows, the program helped me to expand my capacity to withstand the pressure cooker.

On This Life, there was a moment where we realized that the end of the episode I had just turned in needed to be the beginning. The showrunner looked at me and said, ‘Can you do that in three days?’ I said yes. And I did. Though there was a fair bit of stress eating in there, I knew I had the capacity to get it done.

There were times during the program where I thought, ‘I can’t do that this quickly!’ But generally you can. It might not be gold, but copper is a workable start.

MR: Writing is often a solitary enterprise, but TV writing is the exact opposite. Collaboration is key and having the experience of a real story room in a safe environment like the CFC taught me the best idea should always win, and to appreciate and use the skills of others to augment my own. We’re all in it together, and the more a room and a production can feel like a team all working toward a common vision, the better the show will be.

HS: [Working] with Executive Producer in Residence, Karen Walton, gave me my first taste in writing a serialized show. Learning to adapt and adjust my script as the story evolved in the room was a huge asset on BoT. With things constantly in flux and your script suddenly no longer making sense, you’re forced to find fixes fast.

Even learning how to serve a showrunner is a useful skill. My job as a junior writer is to make the showrunner’s job easier, which begins with delivering a script on time. The program’s blistering pace got me battle-ready for the practicalities of writing for production.

A still from CBC series Frankie Drake Mysteries, which was co-created my Michelle Ricci. 

WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO APPLY FOR THE PROGRAM?

AH: All through my time at the University of BC (UBC)—going to events, chatting with guests, meeting writers—everyone spoke so highly of the CFC. I did my research and realized that this was THE program for TV writers in Canada. It quickly became a goal of mine to go to the CFC in hopes of taking another step forward [towards] my dream of becoming a TV writer.

RL: So many people I’ve admired had come through the program, [so] it seemed like a no-brainer to apply. I didn’t expect to get accepted, but I am so thrilled that I did.

MR: The CFC seemed like the best kind of prep school, [featuring] a practical approach that wasn’t all reading books and talking about theories, but actually doing the work. And it was exactly what was promised, and so much more than I could have expected.

HS: I was looking for guidance and direction with my career and the program came highly recommended. I learned how to write in a vacuum, how to write scripts in my spare hours before and after work and on weekends. But more than anything, I wanted to work with a group of writers who were at the same point in their careers.

A still from This Life, which Rachel Langer worked on with alumnus Joseph Kay. 

HAVE YOU COLLABORATED WITH OTHER CFC ALUMNI (FROM THE BELL MEDIA PRIME TIME TV PROGRAM OR OTHERWISE) SINCE COMPLETING THE PROGRAM?

AH: Too many to list. The CFC has produced wonderful talent in all manner of positions: actors, composers, directors, editors, writers, network execs, etc. The TV program especially—it is such a stamp of approval. When, myself, or my friends are looking to hire new writers, we call the CFC.

RL: I am currently developing a project with Joseph Kay, who was my showrunner on This Life, and is an alumnus of both the Prime Time Program and the Showrunner Bootcamp.

MR: The industry is full of CFC alumni, so yes, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many and look forward to working with many more.

HS: On Burden of Truth alone, I have worked with CFC alumni Shannon Masters, Lynne Cody, Eric Putzer, Felicia Brooker and Julia Holdway. And I co-wrote an episode of Burden of Truth with my fellow alumna and third-favourite person Laura Good.

After six-exhausting months in the Prime Time Program, [Laura and I] immediately found ourselves working together again. Could we have used a break from each other? Probably. But we further cemented our collaborative spirit forged in the program, writing an episode of television that makes me proud. And we’re continuing our creative partnership in the development of an original series.

A still from CBS series Scorpion, which Adam Higgs worked on. 

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR ASPIRING TV WRITERS?

AH: Read as many scripts as you can and write as many scripts as you can. It’s the fastest way to get better.

Also, be aware that TV is a collaborative medium. It’s the beauty of it. You need to learn how to both give and take notes and ideas. Writing groups and workshops can help develop these muscles.

RL: Don’t be afraid of the grind. You can’t escape it. Never stop writing, no matter what else is going on in your life.

And get out there! Meeting people is so important. It often feels like playing the long game, but I promise it pays off.

MR: Almost everything in life comes down to luck and timing. But what most people don’t see in the good luck of others is the enormous amount of preparation that goes into being ready to take advantage of the luck and timing.

So write, and write some more, and don’t give up. Apply to the CFC. If you don’t get in, apply again.

HS: The obvious answer is WRITE. Every day write something that comes from your heart. It’s the most efficient way to improve your skills. Absolutely study the craft by reading scripts and watching shows, but you have to write to be a writer.

And meet people. Get out there, introduce yourself and build relationships with other writers. They’re the people you’re going to be working with. And they’re often the ones that are going to hire you. Don’t be phony or sycophantic. Be genuine, honest, open and humble. Just don’t pretend to be someone you’re not. Writers have a good nose for sniffing that out.

And never be afraid to ask for advice. Every writer has had help along away and most are very happy and willing to pay it forward. 

A still from Orphan Black, which was developed through the Bell Media Prime Time TV Program. 

WHY WOULD YOU ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO APPLY FOR THE PROGRAM?

AH: It’s the best. There’s really nothing like it in the world. It allows you access to a writers’ room and all the business contacts. If you want to write television, you should want to participate in this program.

RL: Whenever I’m discussing the program with new writers I tell them that there are many ways into the industry, but the Prime Time Program is a fast track. There are no guarantees in this business, but this program opens more doors than any other program I’ve come across. Once they’re open, you just have to have the guts to walk through them.

MR: You have nothing to lose by applying and everything to gain. You’ll meet the entire industry while you’re learning to apply your talent to the unique construct of a story room. You’ll gain confidence, experience, contacts and friends.

As [I said] above, if you don’t get in, apply again. It’s not the only way into the industry, but it’s arguably the best way.

HS: If you’re a good writer, the CFC can make you great. I encourage anyone who is confident in their writing and ready to take some big steps with their career.

It’s not for the faint-hearted. There are long hours and a long commute. But it’s the best opportunity to improve your craft, make great connections and commit your life full-time to your passion.

Please note that applications for the Bell Media Prime Time TV Program are due by May 1, 2018. 

To learn more about the program and apply, CLICK HERE.

Growing up in Scarborough, Ontario, Orla Garriques didn’t plaster her walls with pop stars. Instead, she collected advertising designs, which set the stage for a later career in digital media marketing and content production.

Garriques completed the TELUS Interactive Art and Entertainment Program (TELUS IAEP) at the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab (CFC Media Lab) in 2010. Here, she was a prototype co-creator of DruMeBa, a multimodal drumming experience created in collaboration with children with autism. Her connection with the CFC Media Lab continued when she took on the role of project manager with the ASTOUND Initiative— a partnership between the CFC, Hot Docs and OCADU, which aimed to create investment and business development solutions for creative content producers.

After working in arts and entertainment on both production and marketing, Garriques now is Inner City Films’ digital marketing manager for the 2018 film, Love Jacked. She joined us to describe her career path, experience with the CFC, the upside of working in the arts, and what advice she’d give her younger self.

How did you get started in your creative work?

I don’t think there was one clear moment when I could say, “That’s when it started.” It was more of a culmination of things that began with my childhood curiosities. I was social, and active in sports and music, but what I really loved was collecting, designing and building. I collected performance catalogues from school field trips, advertisement posters (not pop star posters!) and I cut out magazine layouts and fonts. I would rearrange my mom’s artwork and furniture, including hiding the pieces I hated.

Around age 11 or 12, I took to calling companies with ideas for new products and sharing creative suggestions. I remember calling up Canada Dry to convince them to consider a new Sorrel Ginger Ale drink for Christmas. Sorrel is a Jamaican beverage served during the holidays, and my mom put ginger ale in it. One day a lightbulb went off and I thought, “This needs to be mass produced.” Another time I called up a local newspaper to suggest a better font, as their use of lower-case and their colour choices didn’t come across to me as serious news. Odd hobbies for a little Black girl who came to Scarborough from Jamaica at five, and my mother didn’t really know what to make of me. Some people know right away what they want to do, but when I was growing up, there were no digital media marketing content producers. It took me a while to figure it out.

What are you are most proud of in your work?

I am most proud of the people with whom I work and collaborate, and the unexpected places those projects have gone.

My work for CFC alumnus Alfons Adetuyi at Inner City Films (ICF), on rebranding and self-distributing ICF’s catalogue, cemented the importance of international markets and ROI. The freedom to develop the company brand, their individual productions’ promotional materials, and then to introduce web and digital elements – it all allowed me to dig in to content branding and marketing. I am proud that we sold to more than 20 countries while I was there, with a product that regained its presence in the market to sell for top dollar.

I’m also proud to have worked with Mary Darling and Clark Donnelly at West Wind Pictures developing digital media and live audience experiences for Little Mosque On the Prairie fans. Leading up to season four, on every Friday for six weeks, I had the pleasure of contacting the Little Mosque Facebook quiz winner to confirm their prize. Also, working with Marva Ollivierre, Scott Boyd and Maya Bankovic on the MADE IN CANADA (MIC) documentary, we explored up close the shifting landscape facing workers in the Canadian film and television industry. We captured more than 200 interviews of industry professionals who offered great insight and advice. What I am proud of there is that the documentary evolved into an internship program that runs during the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to assist youth breaking into the industry.

Then there’s DruMeBa, which was a customizable drumming experience created in collaboration with children with autism. CFC alumni Conor Holler, Dee Balkissoon and Cathy Chen and I developed the project at CFC Media Lab as part of the 2010 TELUS Interactive Art and Entertainment Program, and then further built it at MaRS Educational Cluster, the University of Toronto and the Geneva Centre for Autism. Although we couldn’t get it to market, I’m proud that we created it with the children it was designed to serve.

Finally, there’s ASTOUND, an industry-wide initiative led by the CFC Media Lab in partnership with Hot Docs and OCADU to encourage private investment in the creative industries. As the initiative’s project manager, I found it incredible to work with Ana Serrano, who spearheaded the project, and the committee of Suzanne Stein, Elizabeth Radshaw, Chloe Sosa-Sims, Charles Officer, Ann Marie Maduri, Eric Blais, Warren Coughlin and Aaron Williamson. I am most proud that we took this initiative further, with Tina-Louise Smith and the South African Documentary Association, to design a similar program for South African content producers and customized curriculum to continue the knowledge exchange.

What do you like best about working in the arts and media?

I get to create something practically every day. That can take many forms and bring together talent and expertise from many industries. For example, I work with filmmakers, doctors, engineers, teachers, curators, graphic designers and digital media content producers around the world. One day I’m creating a workshop for filmmakers in South Africa, the next I’m designing material for a film to go to market. One month I’m building a digital archive, the next I’m developing live audience engagement experiences.

What has stayed with you from your time with the CFC?

I had a broad CFC experience first as a resident and then an alumna of the CFC Media Lab. It’s where I discovered my creative voice, along with the freedom to experiment, create and play, all while understanding the methodology behind it. Then there’s my work with ASTOUND, which allowed me to contribute back to the CFC and creative community at large. What I learned and developed there informs my work today. It’s where I made the shift from traditional to digital marketing and storytelling, and gained a great network of friends and colleagues. Today, the CFC feels like home, and a very nice one, too.

What are you working on these days? Any interesting projects on the horizon to share?

I’m working with Inner City Films on their current romantic comedy, Love Jacked. After our recent world premiere at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles in February, we’re making our festival run. It’s great working with Inner City Films and fellow CFC alumni like director Alfons Adetuyi, writer Robert Adetuyi and editor and executive produced Lisa di Michele.

My passion for collecting has matured and evolved into collecting African-Canadian art, including a comprehensive collection of Black film and video. Currently, I am working with Marva Ollivierre on a digital archive dedicated to preserving and publishing the artistic, historical and cultural contributions of Black artists to the Canadian mosaic.

What advice would you give your younger self starting out in the industry?

Some of the greatest experiences and opportunities will come from challenges and unexpected encounters. Be authentic, fearless in your pursuits, and open to the possibilities around you. Enjoy the work, embrace the challenges and celebrate your successes.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.