By : Lesley Allan
Source : http://www.draytonvalleywesternreview.com
Category : Film School Online
The dream of bringing a film school to Drayton Valley is coming true for local resident Michael Rye, who has been working on the project for more than two years and plans on opening the doors in September of 2012.
With major sponsors in place, as well as production and film equipment already ordered, the only thing left to bring the Drayton Valley Film School (DVFS) into completion is a place to call home. Currently Rye is hoping the school might find a home at the Eleanor Pickup Arts Centre (EPAC) as a possible venue .
“I don’t think this community could build an arts community if they don’t come together. It’s hard enough to get anything started in any town, but when you have a lot of groups doing their own thing, and not wanting to come together, then nobody really takes you seriously,” says Rye. “This way if we partner with EPAC we will be financially helping them out and then it [would give] us a building that we could call home, that is an old theatre, so it’s a tasteful place to hold the school. “
Rye is already heavily involved with several local high school students who are working with him on projects already in production, many of whom are already interested in attending the school once they graduate. With the goal of having between five and 10 students each semester, Rye also plans to visit Drayton Valley and area high schools to talk to seniors about the program.
“We’re hoping to get a list of about 20 schools that we can go visit because handing out pamphlets doesn’t work because they just get thrown out, but if you can actually go there and set up the equipment and show them what they’re going to learn on and get them excited about it then we can hopefully grow a lot bigger.”
Modelling the course after film schools in the United States and Vancouver, much of the course will focus on giving students the opportunity to produce films- from creating concepts to directing, shooting and editing- everything will be in the hands of the students. As far as in class work goes, Rye says creativity can’t be taught, so all they can teach students is the basics and the rest is up to them.
“The course is really hands on so a lot of the work they’ll do will be actually shooting, which will be done in the community,” he explains. “There are lots of places that are partnering with us to give us meeting rooms when we need it, but the classroom stuff is about three hours a day Monday to Friday.”
With experience teaching through Drayton Valley’s Life Church Rye had an idea of what was needed for the school, but looked to existing film schools to assist with the design of the course.
“It’s more like the New York Film Academy where you go in and it’s very intense where they compact two years of study into twelve months. So I used them as a model and then I have a lot of friends in the film industry so I brought a lot of professionals in and went through and said “Here’s some of the stuff, what else should I be teaching and how should it be set up?” explains Rye as to how he developed the course. “So I had a sound engineer, a director, a producer, I’m a cinematographer by trade, so that one was easy to set up. So I took all of their information and then broke it down into the basics we’re going to teach and the hands on stuff they’re going to do themselves.”
Rye says students interested in taking this course need to be creative, independently motivated and determined to make a career for themselves within the film industry. If this sounds like you, and you’d like more information about the course you can contact Rye at (780) 898-1391.
Source : http://www.draytonvalleywesternreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3498488
