Between busily preparing her pitches for the upcoming TV season and completing her latest animation feature, Casey’s Curse , Vancouver ’s animation writers were lucky to have Marilyn Webber in town at all. Her two-day seminar this July focused on the style and structure of the seven and eleven minute cartoon, studying everything from animation genres and scene construction to cartoon dialogue.

“This seminar is based on more than twelve years of experience in the film and TV industry,” Webber says. “It’s all the stuff I wish I had known when I first started out.”

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After years of hard work, VFS Writing alumni Claire Duffy knew she had finally made it when, recently, a bouncer at a London club approached her and commented that “the only celebrity we’ve ever hosted who had more attitude than your cast is 50 Cent.” As the creator and producer of Orion Road , the hit science fiction space drama that follows four teens in a rebuilt 24 th century London on the constellation Orion, Duffy has been trying to create a buzz around the space drama. But there’s one little challenge - it doesn’t exist.

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A film can be a visual masterpiece, but in order for an audience to truly receive the full movie experience a good story is always the starting point. In each class, Film students pitch fifteen to twenty projects to a panel of producers. Based on the strength and creativity of the story presented during the pitch, six films are chosen to be produced. Because the story is ultimately the deciding factor between what will and will not be produced, directors from the Film campus are increasingly choosing to work with students from the Writing department.

There are two ways for Film and Writing students to find each other and begin working out a script. Some writer/director pairs meet in classes arranged by the two departments where Writing students present short film scripts. A recent example of this type of writer/director collaboration is the team of Kathryn Cottam and Sarah Williams who together have developed the short film The Last Suppers . But the classroom setting is not the only way for directors and writers to exchange ideas. The duo of writer Ryan Galletta and director John Chung found each other by networking independently before beginning to develop their short comedy Shotgun.

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As Electronic Arts’ first audio-production interns, Sound Design graduates Jeff Middleton and Josh Linton are finding themselves in the right place at the right time. Booming video game sales and the development of new consoles have created an overnight demand for educated sound designers. Having just completed the VFS Game Audio stream, Jeff and Josh fit the bill perfectly.

After viewing their student work, EA’s Senior Audio Director Charles Deenen approached VFS with the idea of creating an internship bridge between the school and Electronic Arts. Deenen’s audio team needed immediate production help and did not have the luxury of time to train new employees.

Because of their Game Audio focus in the Sound Design program, Jeff and Josh were already familiar with the basic systems they need to work at EA, particularly Pro Tools. Deenen had already seen the high quality work VFS students were creating, and was confident that recent graduates could contribute at a professional level.

“I’ve been involved in the judging of the students’ final work every few months,” says Deenen. “This showed me that the work these students do is very high caliber, and they are prepared for the real-world.”

More Than Your Average Internship

Unlike traditional coffee-running internships, Jeff and Josh are playing key roles in the development of sound, dialogue, and music for upcoming titles due to be released soon by EA BlackBox . BlackBox is a sister company of Electronic Arts and is responsible for the popular series Need For Speed , NHL Hitz , and Nascar Thunder .

Jeff works in dialogue placement, “stitching” voice tracks for sequences of the game. In video game audio, stitching not only creates a wider variety of dialogue for each character, but allows the sound designer to manipulate what each character is going to say at a given stage of a game. In addition, Jeff is setting up international recording sessions and will edit and process the dialogue in five different languages.

Meanwhile, Josh is responsible for creating sound effects, music and dialogue. He also works on sound looping, using a Pro Tools system to repeat sound effects with enough subtlety that a player does not detect any repetition. For Josh, designing sound for games is an opportunity to apply his musical talents. “Music reflects what is happening to the player, so there has to be music for every situation,” he says.

Game Audio Stream Paves Way for Co-op Program

As Sound Design students, Jeff and Josh excelled in instructor Leonard Paul’s Advanced Game Audio class. Intrigued by the possibility of designing game audio professionally, Josh decided to complete the program with a demo that would impress gaming companies. “I really wanted to expand the project from Leonard’s class so I wrote up a proposal that detailed what I needed the sound engine to do for my final assignment,” says Josh.

To meet Josh’s needs, Paul created a custom software system which allowed Josh to capture footage from an existing game and add interactive content to it. This enabled Josh to practice specific techniques like looping sounds, creating music, and mixing dialogue. The outcome was a rendition of the sound production from the video game The Chronicles of Riddick. “Josh did great work on his final project. He has the right attitude, drive, and talent to do well anywhere,” says Leonard.

For his project, Jeff designed the sound effects and music for a classical animation piece entitled A Night in the Gilman. Practicing with Pro Tools helped Jeff get comfortable with the basic systems he needed for game audio. “The main program I use now [at EA] is Pro Tools,” says Jeff. “But because the Sound Design program is so universal, I’m also able to pick up the in-house programs very quickly.”

Jeff and Josh’s success as interns is likely to pave the way for more VFS students to launch their game audio careers at EA. “I see a great opportunity to merge a co-op situation with VFS because the students have worked out great so far,” says Deenen. “They are eager to perform and learn and I see a great future for Jeff and Josh in the gaming industry.”

In the last three months, Kevin Elam has animated for Eminem, had his work screened on the Tonight Show, and been featured in Chill magazine. After completing work on Eminem’s Mosh last fall, Elam was hired by JibJab, a studio started five years ago that has made a name for itself by producing, among other things, humorous animated shorts that poke fun at American politics. What began as a one week contract quickly changed. Within two days, Elam was hired full-time to work on three trailers for the Sundance Film Festival and now two months later, recently got the chance to go to Park City, Utah to see these finished products on the big screen.

“Getting hired by JibJab was amazing, not only because it was full-time work but I love the creativity of the place,” says Elam. “It’s about getting in on the ground floor of a small studio that’s growing. There’s a lot of opportunity to develop along with it.”

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When somebody opened the door of opportunity for Jesse Davidge, he forgot to close it behind him. Jesse, an innovative filmmaker with a flare for animation, is a graduate of both the Digital Character Animation and Classical Animation programs. His work can be seen in various video games from Electronic Arts and the feature film I, Robot . Currently, Jesse is working as an animator at Nitrogen Studios, an established animation company specializing in Computer-Generated Imagery for video games.

Jesse hails from the Northwest Territories, but moved to Vancouver when he was only nine years old. After attending private school, he enrolled at VFS to study animation. Jesse began impressing classmates and instructors with his work ethic and creativity, and eventually caught the eye of Rainmaker Studios . Seeing Jesse as an upcoming, original artist, Rainmaker hired him to help with sequences of their film I, Robot.

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If you’ve ever visited the websites of Nike Brand Jordan, BMW Canada or Nintendo, you’ve experienced Blast Radius‘ creativity first-hand. Amber Bezahler and her team of user experience professionals (Information Architects, Usability Experts, Content Strategists, Designers, Art Directors and Creative Directors) have been instrumental in crafting online experiences for many global brands.

Amber is the Director of User Experience for Blast Radius, a global interactive agency that was the brainchild of four VFS grads.

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