We’re very pleased to announce an official partnership between Vancouver Film School and 5 Alarm Music, America’s largest independent production music library for film, television, radio, and commercials.
5 Alarm has contributed music to such productions as Transformers, A Christmas Carol, and HBO’s True Blood – and that’s just a tiny selection.
“VFS partnerships are very important to the student experience,” explains VFS Managing Director Marty Hasselbach. “5 Alarm Music is great example of an opportunity for students to have access to a phenomenal music library which truly enhances the work they create while they’re here. It also becomes the perfect go-to resource after they’ve graduated and enter their own production world.”
Cassie Lord, General Manager at 5 Alarm Music, tells us: “We’re excited to partner with VFS and believe that providing professional tools to students is a valuable asset to their education. Understanding music rights can be cumbersome and we want to aid their understanding of music licensing and gain an appreciation for production music.”
Everyone here at VFS is very proud to make this partnership official, and we look forward to seeing the results in action!
Robert Grieve, Head of Sound Design for Visual Media, recently participated in an Audio Engineering Society (AES) forum on education that delved into how students can break into the film, TV, and game audio industries, what today’s schools are teaching, and what companies are looking for in prospective sound designers.
CBC Radio in Vancouver hosted the panel and graciously provided us with the following audio recording of the entire event.
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From 3D: Character Designer Julianna Kolakis, Previsualization Supervisor Zeke Norton, Lead Layout Artist Jeffrey Burt, Look Development Artist Julien Stuart-Smith, Concept & Creature Artist Ryan Lim, Effects TD James McPhail, Lighting TD Richard Sur, Compositor Aruna Inversin, Roto/Prep Artists Cesar Rodriguez Bautista and Cynthia Rodriguez del Castillo, and Animator Anthony Di Ninno
From Classical Animation: Animator Dave Mah
From Film Production: Art Department Assistant Eli Best
Our students ooze passion. While doggedly pursuing their career dreams over an intense year at VFS, many of them turn their attention to more — how do you say — romantic pursuits in their film and animation projects. To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we’ve compiled a few of these videos from our YouTube channel for all the lovers… and the lovelorn too.
In A Trick of the Wind, Classical Animationgrad Jae Hyun Lee shows Mother Nature can’t stand by and wait for true love to happen on its own.
Saloon from Digital Character Animation grad Thiago Martins proves cowboy-style antics can still get the girl.
In writing the script for The Morning After, Writing for Film & Television grad Yang Hu re-envisioned how a familiar awkward situation could play out.
Sound Design for Visual Media grad Todd LeBlanc brought a whole new life to the prehistoric domestic woesof a caveman in the following short, In The Rough, through his work on its soundtrack. (All visual media generously provided by Blur Studio.)
Film Production grad Jee-Won Sul evokes a story of unrequited love in a wartime setting in The Shortest Dream.
And, finally, Swing from Classical Animation grad Esteban Azuela defies simple description; without saying a word, he’s somehow able to show us the power of long-lasting love.
There’s no better way to get real insight into the program, its curriculum, and the incredible faculty who make it all tick!
Sound Design for Visual Media Open House
Thursday, March 11, 6pm VFS Sound Design Campus
1380 Burrard Street (3rd floor)
At this Open House, you will:
- Learn all about our acclaimed one-year program
- Meet our newest instructor, award-winning sound designer Brad Hillman (Shanghai Noon, Santa Buddies, Intelligence)
- Join in an interactive recording session
- Explore the unparalleled tools at VFS’s state-of-the-art Sound Design campus
Register now at vfs.com/soundopenhouse or call 604.631.3591. We look forward to seeing many of you there!
The awards are handed out by the MPSE (that’s Motion Picture Sound Editors). Jeremy and and a few others are up for “Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Music, Dialogue and ADR in an Animation Feature Film” for the film 9, on which he served as Sound Effects Editor.
It was a busy year for Jeremy, whose other credits included A Christmas Carol, Whip It, and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Jeremy was also nominated for a Golden Reel last year for Horton Hears a Who.
The 57th Golden Reel Awards will be taking place February 20. Here’s a video interview we did with Jeremy a few years ago – we knew him when!
Already highly respected by gamers and critics, the company is smack in the middle of a hot streak of epic proportions, between last fall’s acclaimed Dragon Age: Origins and the upcoming Star Wars MMO The Old Republic.
But it’s not unreasonable to suggest that today’s release of Mass Effect 2 could top them both. Reviews are over-the-top good. We’ve already got a Game of the Year candidate on our hands.
Jordan Ivey, a graduate of the Sound Design for Visual Media program, was one of five VFS alumni on Mass Effect 2’s audio team. (It’s fair to say VFS grads were an influential part.)
That’s pretty special in its own right, but when the project at hand is a well-reviewed sequel to one of the best-liked RPGs of recent years, from a developer renowned for its innovative approach to interactive narrative… it’s something else altogether.
Jordan, taking time out of a well-deserved vacation to share his thoughts on the release, says the team’s overwhelming focus was on immersion. ”Be it a powerful biotic or the blast of a shotgun, the places you visit, or the creatures you battle, our goal is to make it as real and believable as possible,” he says. “To make you feel powerful when you’re taking on a swarm of enemies or panicked when alarms and lights start flashing while your ship is under attack.”
That is to say, for a sound designer who wants to be challenged – by scope, by subject matter, by complexity – the Mass Effect 2 team was the place to be. For Jordan, who also worked on Dragon Age, it was also a welcome change of pace. Then often get paired on bookshelves, but for a sound designer, the fantasy and sci-fi genres are polar opposites. “Being able to work in a world of elves, mages, warriors, and dwarfs and then jumping to the outer reaches of space allows us to work in nearly every type of environment conceivable. It’s as varied a palette as you could have, and it’s a fantastic balance to have,” he says.
Mass Effect 2 is epic. At upwards of 30 hours of gameplay, almost one hundred voice actors, a sweeping plot full of galactic action, drama, and intrigue, and a narrative system that’s been described by reviewers as “the future of storytelling in video games”, the game has what Jordan calls “an incredible amount of material,” which might be putting it lightly.
That means the audio team needs to be large, talented, and on-the-ball. Most of all, they need to be involved in the big picture. ”We work quite closely with all the departments across BioWare,” Jordan explains. “I think it’s part of that interaction that helps us create the kinds of games that we do. I speak to designers every day to make sure that I’m as in the loop as possible for any changes that might come down the pike.
The buzz, the excitement, and the early reviews – that’s gravy. “Watching the reviews come in and watching the excitement grow on the forums over the months is awesome,” he says. “It’s very a very rewarding experience to be able to be part of something like this.”
In fact, if anything, the biggest challenge might be meeting the colossal expectations that come with any project bearing the BioWare logo. ”The bar [for audio] on ME2 was set very high,” says Jordan. “But that’s true of all departments.”
“We know that the fans expect a lot from our games. There’s a lot to live up to with each release, but we have such a great group of people here that have really made something special.”
“We take what we do seriously, but we have a lot of fun doing it as well.”
Mass Effect 2 is in stores today. For more, visit the official site. To find out more about the other VFS alumni who worked on it, check this post.
Today, we remember Alan Carton, a Sound Design for Visual Media graduate who, after a lengthy battle with cancer, passed away earlier this month at 23.
Alan is very fondly remembered at VFS (where few people knew about his illness until the very end of his year) as a bright, talented young man.
As you will see from the Voice piece, Alan dreamed of VFS, and his family moved mountains to make it happen. We’re so, so glad that they did.
Curtis Wright, an instructor who taught Alan here in 2007, says, “I had the pleasure of teaching – and learning from! – Alan… He was a sweet kid with an understated, cool, confident demeanor. He will be missed.”
Alan’s legacy is considerable for such a young man. Here’s one small part of it – one of the projects he completed at VFS, his own take on a soundtrack for a sequence from the film Brick.
Rest in peace, Alan Carton. Our thoughts are with your family, your friends, and your former classmates.
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When BioWare’s Mass Effecthit shelves in late ‘07, it was with a great deal of anticipation. And although the game wasn’t without its flaws, it’s also very fondly remembered – all in all, a great kickoff for an original IP.
Which explains the buzz surrounding Mass Effect 2, due tomorrow. ME2 promises a giant leap in interactive narrative, while ironing out the kinks of the first game.
Game Design grad and ME2 Lead Cinematic Designer Armando Troisi was interviewed by ND Net recently. Choice quote: “Overall, this title propels the cinematic design from ME1 forward an entire generation and I’m excited to see the reactions from the public.” (Here’s our own interview with Armando from the time of the first game’s release.)
We can also tell you, by way of a VFS Blog exclusive preview, that Armando will be joining us at Game Design Expo 2010 (April 10-11) with a talk titled Get Your Game Out Of My Movie! Interactive Narrative Design in Mass Effect 2. More announcements – and ticket sales – coming soon! Visit gamedesignexpo.com for the latest.
Also, stay tuned for more ME2 talk right here on the blog tomorrow.
Full list of VFS grads on Mass Effect 2 after the jump:
The tools don’t make the sound designer, but the sound designer needs the tools. And in the VFS Sound Design for Visual Media program, in concert with a top-notch faculty of industry veterans and an acclaimed curriculum, world-class tools mean a world-class education.
Tools like a Digidesign ICON D-Control dual-operator system with an additional Pro Tools dubber. The dual-operator setup is the industry standard for post mixing in film and television, and that means one more important thing that VFS Sound Design students won’t have to learn on the job – they’ll already have direct experience under their belts.
As Emmy-winning Hollywood veteran and Head of Department Robert Grieve puts it, “There’s only a small handful of schools worldwide that have a dual-operator ICON mixing board that mirrors the industry as it is done today.”
The Changing Face of Post Sound
Grieve, who has been Supervising Sound Editor on over 65 films – everything from The Big Chill to Walk Hard – says that systems like this represent an industry-wide shift. ”Throughout my career, and to a great extent even today, there has been a separation between sound editors and sound mixers,” he explains. “There was even a separate category in IATSE,” referring to the union representing many entertainment professionals, “and we couldn’t do each other’s jobs.”
“That’s all changing at a fairly rapid pace. We train our students now to be both sound editors and mixers. The new sound designers in the industry are fast becoming the changing face of post sound.”
Tools at the Cutting Edge
Senior Instructor Shane Reesis also a veteran of the film and television industry. For him, keeping students at the forefront is a priority. ”First, the dual-operator system is what they will see in the real world,” he says. “Second, more and more studios are updating their old mixing boards for the new technology, which is the ICON. So our students will see the latest and greatest. And honestly, if they can learn the ICONs, going backwards from a technology standpoint is not hard.”
There’s a reason this kind of setup is hard to come by elsewhere. Unlike many other schools with audio-related programs, Sound Design at VFS concentrates on visual media without splitting focus with music or other areas. That means the equipment can be more focused, too – tools like this one are integral to both film and TV.
“This puts us right on the cutting edge of a professional post sound studio,” says Grieve, “and in some cases surpasses what I’ve seen out there.”
A Closer Look at the Gear
The ICON is Digidesign’s state-of-the-art control surface. Rees describes the system now available to VFS Sound Design students: ”We have a dual-operator ICON D-Control ES system,” in other words, two systems, “running on two Quad Core Intel Mac computers. The software we’re running the ICONs with is Pro Tools 8.0.3 HD on OSX (Leopard). Both systems are connected using Digidesign’s Satellite system.”
“We also have a third Pro Tools system in the Theatre that is operating as a re-recording dubber. This third system is newest-of-the-new technology – or, more specifically, how we use it is a new concept. We have an older version of technology for a dubber, which we show students as well, but our students will see how the new technologies are changing how the industry works.”
“Some other new features for the Mix Theatre include a Mojo SDI for our picture playback, which can be played back through our new HD projector and a CEDAR noise reduction unit to show students a true piece of industry technology used to make a film sound better.”
“Up until recently,” Rees says, “sound editors edited in a Pro Tools system and then played it back into a digital board – or two. What the ICONs are capable of doing is mixing right inside of Pro Tools. Because of its tactile functions and customizable features, the ICONs allow mixers a more efficient way of working.”
Here’s a slideshow of photos showing some of the new gear:
Bringing the Real World to Students
The new gear will significantly augment the Sound Design for Visual Media experience for students. For example, students already mix films from the Film Production program in their final terms, working on a film’s soundtrack from beginning to end. But now they’ll be able to do it in a way that’s even truer to the day-to-day industry reality: a significant advantage.
“At VFS, our mandate is to always be the frontrunner in training talent for the real world,” says VFS Managing Director Marty Hasselbach. ”To do that, we must not only understand what the industry requires today but also be able to anticipate the needs of tomorrow. Our commitment to teaching the newest Digidesign technology is truly representative of that.”
“The best way to train students for the real world is to bring the real world into the program,” says Grieve. “And we’ve achieved that.”
Thinking of pursuing an education in sound design at VFS or elsewhere? Do as much research as possible. Find out everything you can about the things that matter: the equipment, the curriculum, the faculty, and the collaborative opportunities. It’s about making informed decisions on your education and career. It’s worth doing right.
To learn more about Sound Design for Visual Media at VFS, visit vfs.com/sounddesign.
Not sure what these are?
We’re very pleased to announce an official partnership between Vancouver Film School and 5 Alarm Music, America’s largest independent production music library for film, television, radio, and commercials.
On the heels of 
BioWare is on fire.
That is to say, for a sound designer who wants to be challenged – by scope, by subject matter, by complexity – the Mass Effect 2 team was the place to be. For Jordan, who also worked on Dragon Age, it was also a welcome change of pace. Then often get paired on bookshelves, but for a sound designer, the fantasy and sci-fi genres are polar opposites. “Being able to work in a world of elves, mages, warriors, and dwarfs and then jumping to the outer reaches of space allows us to work in nearly every type of environment conceivable. It’s as varied a palette as you could have, and it’s a fantastic balance to have,” he says.
Today, we remember Alan Carton, a Sound Design for Visual Media graduate who, after a lengthy battle with cancer, passed away earlier this month at 23.
When BioWare’s Mass Effect hit shelves in late ‘07, it was with a great deal of anticipation. And although the game wasn’t without its flaws, it’s also very fondly remembered – all in all, a great kickoff for an original IP.