William Davis Directs Student Performance Project
May 4th, 2012The senior students in our full-time Acting for Film & Television program have been in the final stages of rehearsal for their performance of James McLure's The Day They Shot John Lennon, directed by our program founder William B. Davis. Known to many as "Cancer Man" on the The X-Files, William Davis has directed over 100 professional productions at major theatres in Britain and Canada.
The performance was at the Havana Theatre in Vancouver May 10th -12th, along with another one-act play North of Providence, directed by Chilton Crane.
Photography Exhibition: A Matter of Time
April 26th, 2012VanArts would love to invite you to check out our exhibition of brilliant work from our senior Digital Photography students, opening April 29 - May 8.
Click here for more details on our event page >>
VanArts Grads Hit the Floor at Fan Expo Vancouver
April 23rd, 2012This weekend was Vancouver's very first Fan Expo convention, which attracted over 15,000 guests into a sold-out attraction at Vancouver Convention Centre. Fan Expo, based out of Toronto, is Canada's largest fan convention for comics, movies, TV and games, and VanArts was excited to be on the floor as an exhibitor to share information about our programs.
Even more exciting was seeing the variety of successful graduates from our full-time programs who were there to greet fans and show their work.
Aaron Douglas, known to many as Chief Galen Tyrol on Battlestar Galactica and Frank Leo on The Bridge, is a graduate of our Acting for Film & TV program at the William Davis Centre for Actors' Study at VanArts. Aaron is among the cast of the upcoming thriller Death Do Us Part, which was being promoted at the Expo.
Georgie Daburas, another graduate of our Acting Department, is currently receiving accolades for his lead role on Hitman 101, a locally-produced web series.
Danielle Anathema, a graduate of our Digital Photography program, has launched her own business for her horror-themed photography, and had her own booth at Fan Expo to showcase her art.
Dan Schoening and Nina Matsumoto are graduates of our 2D Character Animation program, who have both made a big name for themselves in the comics industry. Dan has produced art for a number of clients and created a series of Ghostbusters comics, and Nina has won an Eisner award for her work on The Simpsons comics.
It's great to see the Force is with our star grads who are pursuing their dreams and getting to meet their fans. Be sure to look for us at the Calgary Comic Expo this weekend and Toronto's Fan Expo in August!
Read more about our grads in these previous blog stories:
Aaron Douglas
Georgie Daburas
Dan Schoening
Nina Matsumoto
Pixar Artists' Masterclass 2012 Tour
April 3rd, 2012VanArts is proud to present the Pixar Artists' Masterclass tour for 2012!
Featuring instructors Matthew Luhn (Head of Story) and Andrew Gordon (Animator), both from Pixar Animation Studios, this exceptional 2-day class offers participants an extremely rare and exciting opportunity to learn from the industry's top talent.
This year's Masterclass Tour includes Chicago, Seattle, Miami, Toronto and Vancouver. Check out our exclusive video for a sneak-peek at what previous years' attendees had to say about the event.
For more details, visit our 2012 Tour Event Page >>
Graduation Spring 2012
March 26th, 2012Congratulations to our Spring 2012 class of graduates from our full-time programs in Visual Effects, Game Art & Design, Digital Photography and Character Animation! Their official ceremony was held at Simon Fraser University's Goldcorps Centre for the Arts on Thursday, March 15th.
We wish our grads all the best and look forward to seeing their names in lights!
Photos by Jen Piper
1920's Harold Lloyd Film Poster found in Vancouver
March 6th, 2012During a recent building demolition at Granville and Robson Street in downtown Vancouver, a fascinating piece of film history saw the light of day for the first time in 90 years. A "ghost sign" (common term for a sign that represents a dead business) pointing to the now-gone Capitol Theatre, where the silent comedy Grandma's Boy starring screen legend Harold Llloyd was scheduled to begin playing on October 2, 1922. This sign was covered up shortly afterwards by another building, hidden from sight until just a few days ago.
Our animation history instructor at VanArts, Charles Phillips (pictured above with two of his students), has a great passion and extensive knowledge of silent film comedians, particularly his hero Harold Lloyd. He has often shown the film Grandma's Boy to our animation students in his history course, and spoken about the influence of the silent film era on the early days of animation.
We went with Charles down to the site of the ghost sign downtown to record him talking about this amazing piece of our city's history, and just one day after we shot this video, the sign was demolished.
Click on the link at the end of this video to continue into a more extensive history lesson by Charles about the history of Harold Lloyd's film Grandma's Boy in context with the silent film era and other artists like Charlie Chaplin.
Shown here is also a movie review and advertisement from the Vancouver Sun from the original run of Grandma's Boy.
For more information on the uncovering of this sign, read this article from the Vancouver Sun >>
Read another article on the final demolition of the sign here >>
Click here for more Vancouver Sun newspaper ads for the film from 1922 >>
Thanks Charles for sharing your vast knowledge with us about this historic find!
UPDATE: Charles was invited to introduce a screening of the film Grandma's Boy at the VanCity Theatre on Wed March 14th
Linked articles © Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
VanArts at Comic Con India
February 27th, 2012VanArts was proud to be an exhibitor and participant at the 2nd Annual Indian Comic Con in Dilli Haat, New Delhi, from February 17-19, 2012. Representing our school was Shweta Mendhekar, our admissions advsior for India. Comic fans and artists were able to visit our booth, ask questions about our programs, and pose for photo opps in their costumes.
For more pictures from the event, click here >>
For more information on admissions for Indian students, visit our ADMISSIONS INDIA page and feel free to contact us!
VanArts Representing at Fan Expo Vancouver
February 27th, 2012
VanArts is looking forward to Canada's largest Comic Convention FAN EXPO (based from Toronto) coming for the first time to Vancouver on April 21-22, where we will be on the floor as exhibitors, at BOOTH #426!
Even more exciting is watching the guest list grow and witness the various connections the event has to VanArts.
Most recently added is Aaron Douglas, a graduate of the William Davis Centre for Actors' Study at VanArts. He is best known for his starring roles in Battlestar Galactica and The Bridge, and most recently the upcoming film Death Do Us Part. Aaron is one of our celebrated graduates who has often come back to offer his guidance and advice to our current acting students.
Another very recent addition is our Acting graduate Georgie Daburas, who is currently the lead actor in the local web series Hitman 101.
Click here for the full story on Hitman 101 >>
Also among the various exhibitors and guests our own Steve Rolston, who teaches our part-time course in Comic Book Production, and two of our animation graduates who have made it big in the comics industry: Nina Matsumoto (VanArts Grad 2003) and Dan Schoening (VanArts Grad 2000).
Another interesting distant connection to VanArts at Fan Expo Vancouver is the guest appearance of Troy Nixey, who took our part-time course for Intro to Stop-Motion Animation with Ken Priebe back in 2001. At that time, Troy was an up-and-coming comic artist, and more recently was hired by Guillermo del Toro to direct the feature film Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, based on the strength of his short film Latchkey's Lament.
It's always neat to see where our various VanArts students land!
On top of all of these VanArts stars being present at Fan Expo is the full guest list of celebrities, which includes none other than the original 1960s Batman & Robin, Adam West and Burt Ward. (The distant connection here is that the animated titles to the Batman series were created by our founding program director for the VanArts animation program, the late Lee Mishkin.)
Hope to see you at Fan Expo Vancouver! Tickets are now available at www.fanexpovancouver.com so be sure to drop by our booth and talk to us. You never know who you will run into!
The Beat's Remo Williams talks to Broadcasting Students
February 15th, 2012
Exuberance is contagious, and Remo Williams from The Beat 94.5 brought a boat-load with him when he came to talk with our students in Broadcasting for Radio & Television.
Remo started his radio career in Brandon, Manitoba and hosted the Remo Rant at CKMM in Winnipeg before moving to Vancouver in 2005.
Remo talked about diving into this industry headfirst, and that you have to attack to get what you want. Be aggressive. Be passionate. Ask questions. And don't forget to give a little back. After all, what goes around comes around. Thanks Remo for giving back to Columbia Academy @ VanArts!
If you are interested in a career in broadcasting, sign up today for our Workshop & Open House on Feb 25! Scholarships also available for our upcoming March start date, so contact us for details.
Rhythm & Hues presents to VanArts Students
January 30th, 2012On Wednesday, January 25th, VanArts was excited to welcome Recruiter Maggie Lee and Recruiting Supervisor Joe Caggiano from Rhythm & Hues Studios to give a presentation to our students & staff. The award-winning studio from Los Angeles has opened a branch in Vancouver and is busy gearing up for full production. Maggie and Joe showed us production reels from their feature films, talked about how to apply to their studio, and took many great questions from our students in Character Animation, Game Art & Design and Visual Effects.
A big thanks to Rhythm & Hues for taking the time to spend with us here at VanArts!
