FACULTY AND INSTRUCTORS

MASTER CLASS LEADERS

Cinematography

Danny Nowak c.s.c.

Danny started his career as a maverick young cinematographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. After making a dozen of his own short films, he excelled behind the camera, shooting various projects around the world. In recent years, he has served as Director of Photography on many TV movies and over 20 feature films, including Tristar’s The Big Hit, Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl and Bruce McDonald’s Hard Core Logo. Awards for his work include a Gemini (Canada’s Emmy) and top prize from the Canadian Society of Cinematographers.

He is a full member of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers, a member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, and a member of the International Photographers Union (IATSE 669). A patriot of Canadian Cinema, Danny is devoted to the development of the local and international film art.

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Directing

Penelope Buitenhuis

Since 1984 Penny Bruitenhuis has been directing and producing films throughout Europe and North America. She started in Berlin’s super-8 community with aesthetically gritty films that challenged Hollywood’s glossy veneer. Penelope has since directed 18 features and numerous short films. A self-made female director, her recent feature A Wake has won numerous awards around the world.

Penelope encourages new directors to develop and produce their own work, as waiting for funding or support from bureaucratic systems can be disillusioning and often pointless. Make it, show it, be proud of it. Anyone with the passion can be a filmmaker, you just have to do it.

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Visual Effects

Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan is a visual effects and CGI supervisor with over 20 years experience in the creation and design of visual effects and graphics for commercials, feature films, music videos and other marketing mediums. He has worked for sudios including Zoic, Method, and FuseFX. Ryan began his career with Metrolight Studios in Los Angeles, but has worked in Canada for the past 17 years as a CG supervisor, technical director and pipeline specialist. His many film and television credits include Black Panther, The Finest Hours, The Huntsman: Winter’s War, The Great Gatsby and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.

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Business

Clayton Goodfellow

A strong business ethic and a passion for storytelling led Clayton to form Georgia Street Media in 2008. Clayton’s educational background and past experiences nurtured both his creative skills and his business skills and have ultimately enabled him to grow a dedicated team of skilled videographers, directors and editors at GSM. After earning his BA in sociology from UBC, Clayton studied Documentary Film Production at Langara College. Clayton has worked with major tech firms and produced and supervised hundreds of film projects in his years of experience of working in the industry.

FILM PRODUCTION

Film Department Head / Directing

John Pozer

John Pozer is an award-winning filmmaker with over thirty years of experience. His debut feature, The Grocer’s Wife, had its European premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival and was selected as the opening film for the exclusive Critic’s Week section. Among his many notable achievements, John received the George Sadoul Award from the International Critic’s Association and the Best First Feature Award from the Canadian Film and Television Academy.

John has directed for various networks, including The Disney Channel, MTV, YTV, Fox Family, Global, and CBC. He also directed multiple episodes of the popular computer-animated series, Beast Wars, a top-rated children’s show televised in over 60 countries. In addition to directing, John’s credits include writing, producing, and editing on productions that have screened at numerous festivals and garnered world-wide sales and distribution. His first book on film education, 21st Century Film Student Primer: Everything You Need to Know and Do Before You go to Film School, was published in 2019.

Photo by Jake Warren

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Assistant Directing

Mel Siteman

Mel Siteman is one of Vancouver’s top 1st Assistant Directors. With nearly 30 years of experience, she’s a veteran of the film industry with credits including Ninja Turtles, The New Addams Family, Air Bud, many other feature films, and over 150 commercials. A member of the Director’s Guild of Canada, she is also a director, producer, and teacher, certified by Actsafe to instruct the Motion Picture Industry Orientation courses. Mel serves on InFocus Film School Program Advisory Council and has been instrumental in developing the curriculum for the Film Production Program.

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Directing

Diego Lara Maceiras

Diego Lara Maceiras is an award-winning director who has worked for broadcast companies like the History Channel, H2, FuturaTV, CinebrasilTV, SBTSC, and OffTV. His work has reached an audience of over 50 million in the last decade. He is the creator and director of television series ‘Faces of the Future (A Cara do Futuro)’ and ‘My Piece of Land (Meu Pedaco de Brasil).’ He was also the director and showrunner for the first two seasons of animated series Animazoo.

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Cinematography

Leslie Kennah

A graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design and InFocus Film School, Leslie Kennah has been exploring life through the lens for over a decade. Several years of experience working with artistic, non-profit and small business organizations have fostered Leslie’s passion for collaborative work. Her practice as a digital media artist, working with both photography and video, has honed her skills as a visual storyteller. Experienced with transforming conceptual ideas into dynamic and engaging visual content, she is committed to bringing imagination and style to all projects

Acting

Glynis Davies

Glynis Davies is an actress and writer who has appeared on-screen for well-known series such as ‘Supernatural,’ ‘The X-Files,’ ‘Smallville,’ ‘The 100’ and ‘The Twilight Zone,’ to name a small few. Davies is possibly most well-known for her recurring roles as Maryann Wallace in SGU Stargate Universe and Jacqueline Peele in the Netflix Series ‘Travelers.’ Other career highlights include performances in ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ as well as landing the role of Shannon Elizabeth’s mother in the satirical comedy classic ‘Scary Movie.’

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Documentary

Julia Ivanova

Julia Ivanova is an award-winning Vancouver documentary filmmaker, whose film, Family Portrait in Black and White, won at Hot Docs 2011 as the Best Canadian Feature, played at Sundance and was nominated for Genie Award.

She grew up in Moscow, studied filmmaking at the Russian Film Institute (VGIK) and immigrated to Canada in mid-nineties. Since then, she has been directing, editing and filming documentaries. She has made a number of intimate films on the topics of love, adoption, cultural differences and family, partnering with CBC, Global TV, Knowledge Network, PBS and Discovery. Ivanova has been actively involved in the documentary filmmaking community by organizing professional development workshops for DOC BC, co-chairing DOC BC, being on the Board of Hot Docs Festival and mentoring emerging filmmakers through “Giving Voice” DOC program. Being a director/editor/cinematographer and an avid fan of international documentaries, she believes in the emotional power of visual storytelling and poetic cinema.

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Screenwriting

Robert Chomiak

Robert Chomiak is co-writer of the award-winning zombie-comedy cult feature Fido. He has written English adaptations for three animated theatrical features (Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Escaflowne – The Movie) and 207 episodes on seven animated series (Gundam Seed, Zoids, Inuyasha) which have aired on Cartoon Network and Teletoon.

Other television work includes the sitcom Alienated and the Gemini-nominated children’s special Twisteeria. Robert’s pilot script “Slaughter Landing” has been optioned to Frantic Films and MarVista and is currently out to broadcasters.

His screenplays have received development funding from Telefilm, Harold Greenberg, and BC Film. He is co-writer of the R-rated comedy screenplay “My A**hole Neighbour” which was selected for the Comedy Exchange program sponsored by the Canadian Film Centre. Most recently his comedy feature project “ex-gf’s” was awarded $50,000 in development from the NSI/Corus Script to Screen program.

Robert graduated with a BA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Lethbridge and studied for two years in the Simon Fraser University film program.

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Editing

Jeremy Klassen

With over fifteen years of experience working on film and video productions, Jeremy Klassen has accumulated a diverse and practical knowledge of many intricate aspects of filmmaking. He has worked on productions ranging from corporate videos and commercials to documentaries, music videos, television series and narrative films. He’s edited several televised films including Hunted By My Ex, Secret Crush, Fatal Mistakes, Psycho Wedding Crasher, and The Murderer Upstairs, to name a few.

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Audio

Todd LeBlanc

Todd Leblanc is a sound and video editor based in East Vancouver. He has worked on everything from feature-length narratives and documentaries to animated shorts, live events, music videos, promotional packages, and even video-game trailers. He is a frequent collaborator with many names in the Vancouver film industry.

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Production Design

Fredy Mendoza

Fredy Mendoza is a Colombian Production Designer, residing in Vancouver, Canada. He was born in Cartagena, Colombia where, at an early age, his parents taught him to love the Arts. It was during primary school that he enjoyed watching films with his dad and, as a result, became interested in filmmaking. He moved to Canada to study film production, after which he landed a great first job as Production Designer for The Support Group and has since been working as an art director and production designer on many sets.

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Producing

Erik Paulsson

Erik Paulsson is an award-winning filmmaker with over twenty years of film and television experience.

He has produced numerous feature or full-length narrative and documentary productions including The Edge of the World: BC’s Early Years, Peacing It Together, Eve & the Fire Horse, Army of One, Say I Do, Island of Shadows, and Protection. Eve & the Fire Horse, a theatrical feature film, appeared at dozens of international film festivals, garnering half a dozen awards, including the Sundance Jury Prize. Army of One, was awarded Best Canadian Feature documentary at Hot Docs 2004, and was aired on CBC’s Passionate Eye and the BBC. The Island of Shadows, a one-hour documentary produced for CTV, won a Gemini Award and three Leo Awards, including Best Director for Erik’s directorial work.

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Locations and Production Management

Cheryl Uphill

With infectious enthusiasm and much spirit, Cheryl Uphill has taught many subjects with equal passion over the last 18 years. She is currently based in Vancouver working as a Location Manager & Scout in the local Motion Picture Industry, recently working for productions such as The Twilight Zone, Van Helsing, Salvation, and To All the Boys I Loved Before 2.

Prior to becoming a locations scout, Cheryl is an honors graduate from UFV Theatre Arts program and has been a professional actor since 1997. Some credits include television series such as Supernatural and Rouge, as well as TV-movie Toxic Skies. With experience in stageplays, Cheryl also had the lead role in Making a Killing. She is also a certified Yoga instructor.

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Music Videos

Michael Khazen

Michael Khazen, founder of High Deaf Productions, started his career in film ten years ago making music videos and short films. He has since gone on to produce award-winning feature and television content that’s been screened on multiple platforms the world over. He has recently finished a slate of feature films being released in 2018-2019. All of which have received distribution; the metaphysical horror Welcome to the Circle, the edgy art house film The Age of Adulting, and the hard-hitting documentary Ken Foster. He also has one more hot off his post-production pipeline for planned release in 2020, the coming of age teenage comedy Last Night in Suburbia. Michael has a keen eye for strong projects with great distribution potential. With over 30 producing credits under his belt, he has earned the reputation of being one of Western Canada’s most sought after independent producers.

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3D AND VISUAL EFFECTS

3D and Visual Effects Department Head

Miguel Rodríguez

Miguel Rodríguez is the lead teacher of the 3D Animation & VFX Program at InFocus Film School. After finishing his Education here in Vancouver, he went back to Mexico to work as a freelance artist working on Video, Photography, as well as 3D Modeling and Compositing. With a background in TV and Animation, he discovered his passion for teaching, and is now focused on designing programs and developing engaging techniques to help people achieve their goals in the 3D & VFX industry.

Visual Effects

Darvin Manwah

Darvin is the Compositing Supervisor at Side Street Post and a visual effects producer from Vancouver, BC. A graduate of Vancouver Film School, his professional work includes Netflix’s ‘Spectral’, ‘Aliens Ate My Homework’ and ‘The Mist’, Marvel’s ‘Legion’, ‘Falling Skies’ and ‘Once Upon a Time’. Darvin also volunteers with ACM SIGGRAPH S3R3 as a Portfolio Review Mentor. His short film ‘OutPost Alpha’ is in post production this summer where he served as VFX Supervisor and Producer.

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Compositing

Karen Parker

Artist, illustrator and Matte Painter Karen Lorena Parker is a traditional and digital artist living in Vancouver Canada. Known for her versatility in style, from realism to abstract, she has worked on concept art, Film, TV as a compositor and Matte Painter for the visual effects and short film industry. Her paintings are collected internationally and she exhibits annually in Vancouver Canada at Parker Street Studios.

A graduate of Vancouver Film School’s 3D animation and VFX, Think Tank Matte Painting Program, Graphic Design, and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Alberta College of Art and Design, Karen has over 15 years of experience in design, marketing, print and traditional fine art. With a focus on the art of storytelling in visual effects, Karen builds artistic and technical skill necessary to achieve an exquisite result and pushes students towards employment within a talented industry of artists.

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3D Modelling and Compositing

Sean Kalra

Sean Kalra is a director and a visual effects artist, who has worked on various projects for some of the biggest clients in the industry including Warner Bros., Fox, Legendary Digital, 343 Industries, ABC and Bad Robot providing visual effects work for various different tv shows, films, and video Games. His most recent credit includes a short film called ‘Unbound’ which he worked on as the VFX Supervisor and it was screened at the Cannes SFC (2017).

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3D Modelling and Animation

Selman Kantarci

Selman Kantarci describes himself as equal parts animator and modeler with a love for digital work. He began drawing at a young age, which soon morphed into a love for classical animation, soon evolving to flash and eventually 3D. He believes animation is about interacting with people, finding out what makes them tick, and observing with great detail. Recently, Selman has worked on Detective Pikachu and with Angelina Jolie on Maleficent 2.

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Scripting and Dynamics

Shaun McLellan

Shaun McLellan is a Canadian Houdini Effects Technical Director (FXTD) currently residing in Vancouver, Canada. He specializes in Houdini Fluid, Pyro, RBD, Crowd Simulation and Procedural Geometry, Shading, and Animation generation and Mantra rendering for feature film visual effects along with skills in Maya, 3DS Max, Thinking Particles, Zbrush, Nuke, and Photoshop, Unity and Unreal. Over the past several years Shaun has worked on films including Aquaman, Detective Pikachu, The New Mutants, Justice League, A Wrinkle in Time, and more.

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Compositing

Odemaris Burgos

Odemaris Burgos is a Rotoscopy and Paint Artist who has worked for studios including Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic, Zoic, and Scanline. With Industrial Light and Magic she has worked on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and The Mandelorian, The Irishman, and Marvel movies including Dark Pheonix and Captain Marvel. Odemaris also has credits on Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, and other huge series.

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Compositing

James Adkins

Jamie Adkins is a Senior Compositor at Scanline VFX. He has 10+ years of experience working on feature films, TV and media production. His credits include: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Aquaman, Captain Marvel, Terminator Dark Fate, Justice League, and Chappie just to name a few.

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3D Modelling

Arturo Baccio

Arturo is a CG Generalist with a specialty in 3D modelling and texturing, working currently at Mainframe

Since a young age, Arturo has been driven by art, on previous productions he has been diligent and insightful on his work. He has been eager to both learn and implement his artistic abilities on challenging projects, as well as readily provide great problem-solving skills. He strives to fulfill his role with determination and a great knowledge base and can be relied on consistently. He is remarkably well-suited for a role in 3D art creation, and continues to perform well in high-stress scenarios and always reaches out to lend his skills.

Credits include: Emmy award winner The Last Kids On Earth, Netflix Carmen Sandiego, Dreamworks the new Mr Peabody and Sherman show, and more, he has specialized in 2D/3D integration.

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SCREENWRITING

Screenwriting Department Head

Crystal Verge

Crystal Verge is an award-winning screenwriter and playwright. Her feature screenplay Defiant won several prestigeous placements including a top finalist of Hedgebrook’s 2017 Women’ Screenwriter’s Lab with Advisors Jane Anderson, (The Wife, Olive Kitteridge) and Robin Swicord (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Memoirs of a Geisha), a 2019 Nicholl Felowship quarterfinalist, and a finalist for the VWIFF International Screenwriting Competition. She has written two movies for television and currently has a theatrical feature film in development with MCM Media.

Crystal writes plays and non-fiction as well and has won awards for both. Her play Criminal was a 2017 finalist in Nightwood Theatre’s National Playwrighting Competition and a 2018 finalist in BC’s Flying Start Program. Her non-fiction has been featured in magazines and periodicals around the world. She is also an actor who has had numerous lead roles on stages across Canada and numerous supporting and principal roles in Television and Film.

She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and a Diploma in Theatre Arts from George Brown College, Toronto.

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Screenwriting

Kim Barker

Kim Barker is a comedy writer whose produced feature credits include Warner Bros.’ License to Wed starring Robin Williams and John Krasinski and Fox 2000’s All About Steve starring Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper. She has been featured on the Black List multiple times and her feature P*SSY is currently set up at Darko Entertainment with Kyle Newacheck attached to direct.

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Screenwriting

Ryan Bright

Ryan Bright is an award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter working out of Vancouver. His first short film, ‘Til Death, won Best Screenplay honours at the Vancouver Short Film Festival. Ryan is a two-time Academy of Motion Pictures Nicholl Fellowship Semi-Finalist. His feature script, We Came From the Sea, was selected for the NSI Features First Program and won the DGC Legacy Award. He was nominated for a Leo award for the film Reset, which has been viewed more than a million times. Ryan studied screenwriting at the University of British Columbia where he received his MFA.

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Screenwriting

Kryssta Mills

Kryssta Mills began her career as an Assistant Director before moving into Producing. A CFC Producer alumna, Kryssta’s producing credits include the feature The Tracey Fragments, and as co-producer on the features Sheltered Life, and Year of the Carnivore. Kryssta has worked extensively in both Vancouver and Toronto as a Development Executive on television, feature films and web – based content, and was a valuable member of the team that created and delivered CODE, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Cultural Olympiads Digital Edition. Previously Kryssta managed TV Programs for the esteemed CFC, and recently served as Executive Producer and Producer on the second season of the Vancouver shot drama series The Drive.

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Screenwriting

Julia Kwon

Julia Kwon, a writer and director living in Vancouver, was a director resident at the Canadian Film Centre, where she made her award-winning short drama, Three Sisters on Moon Lake. Ms. Kwan’s feature film debut, Eve & the Fire Horse, had its international premiere at The Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize for World Cinema and screened at over 30 film festivals. Since then, Ms. Kwan has written and directed numerous short and feature-length films in different genres (drama, documentary, and/or animation) over the years, including the NFB’s Everything Will Be, her award-winning debut feature documentary and The Zoo, an animated short film. Ms. Kwan is driven to tell original stories that resonate and entertain as well as inspire others to use their distinct voices to tell their diverse stories.

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Screenwriting

Carleen Kyle

Carleen Kyle has directed and written for a variety of media—features, shorts, corporate projects, and a music video. She directed the TV pilot for Scrounger, which was nominated for a Gemini in the Best Drama category, won the Saskatchewan Showcase Best Drama award, and earned a Best Director nomination.

“The Weather Girl,” her Crazy8s and festival-featured short, was the Best Female Director recipient at the Vancouver Short Film Festival and received multiple Leo Award nominations including Best Screenplay. Her feature screenplay “Interspecies Family Therapy” won the 2015 From Our Dark Side competition from Women in Film and Television, sponsored by Telefilm, Creative BC and Superchannel.

Carleen turned the camera on herself in the feature-length documentary Heavy Heart Laughs, using stand-up comedy to recover from trauma with humour. Her feature screenplay “Pearl’s Cut & Curl” was the winner of a Praxis Centre for Screenwriting fellowship and was selected to represent Canada for the prestigious Hartley-Merrill International Screenwriting Award where it received honourable mention.

Carleen holds a BFA from the University of Regina where for two consecutive years she was honoured with Best Student Film.

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Screenwriting

Gary Jones

Gary Jones is a Jessie Award-winning playwright whose thirty-year career began with Toronto’s fabled Second City Theatre. During his tenure there Gary studied improvisation and comedy sketch-writing. He then moved to Vancouver to perform with Second City for the run of Expo ’86. After the fair ended and all the exhibits were packed up and returned to Ikea, Gary decided to stay in Vancouver and the rest, as they say, is pretty boring but still should be mentioned for the purposes of this bio.

Gary received a Leo Award nomination for his sketch-writing work on CBC Television’s “The Western Alienation Comedy Hour,” hosted by Brent Butt. He’s written countless sketches for CBC Radio and directed a Vancouver Theatresports show of his own sketches called “Stop It, You’re Causing A Scene.” He’s taught hundreds of improv classes for Vancouver Theatresports as well as classes School Creative, a Vancouver arts academy and countless workshops for corporate retreats. His improv career peaked when he was asked to perform comedy improv in the Redmond, Washington home of Bill and Melinda Gates and ninety of their nerdiest friends.

Gary just finished work on the 13^th season of CBC Radio’s long-standing comedy hit ‘The Debaters.’ He also has a sitcom in development with CBC Television and Toronto’s Pier 21 Films.

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Screenwriting

Waneta Storms

Waneta Storms acted as Writer/Consulting Producer for four seasons of the CTV/Ion/eOne/ICF dramatic series Saving Hope. She then helped develop, write, and consult on the CBC/Back Alley one-hour series, The Coroner, with creator Morwyn Brebner. She co-produced and wrote for the limited-series dramas Bellevue(CBC/Back Alley), as well as Pure (CBC/WGN/Two East Productions). Recently, she wrote a comedy webisode for The Communist Daughter (Natalie Novak Films/LocoMotion Pictures). Currently, she is adapting Cracked, a novel by Barbra Leslie, into a one-hour dramatic series for High Dive Media and Lark Ent.

Waneta has also worked extensively as an actor. She trained at Simon Fraser University and the National Theatre School of Canada. She has been nominated for a Gemini Award four times, once for her Guest starring role on Blue Murder, and three times for Lead Actress on The Eleventh Hour. She has won a Dora Award for her performance in DVxT’s theatre production of Lynn Seifert’s Coyote Ugly.

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GRAPHIC DESIGN

Graphic Design Department Head

Jaime Sandoval

Jaime Sandoval is a Studio Master’s Professor, Graphic Designer, Industrial Designer, and Front End Web Designer. A graduate of the University of Illinois and Scuola Politecnica di Design, Jaime has worked for design firms with big-name clients such as Armani, Disneyland, Motorola, Adidas and more. He is also an award-winning instructor of design, teaching at various schools including Tribeca College, Tecnológico de Monterrey, and InFocus Film School.

Graphic Design and Typography

Chas Bains

Chas Bains, an award-winning designer, is co-founder and creative director of Transformexp an award-winning design and strategy agency. He has been in the creative industry for over 30 years, launching and managing two design studios, first in London, UK and currently in Vancouver, Canada.

He started work in the creative industry as a magazine and editorial designer developing new titles, before branching out and working in a wide number of industries with hundreds of clients such as, BBC Television, Swatch, 3M and the Governments of the UK and Canada.

He strives to achieve useful and beautiful design, believing that our imagination has limits but, play is limitless. A belief that he applies to his work and life.

Strategic Design

Angela Bains

Angela Bains is a keynote speaker, instructor and Strategic Director of TransformExp, an award-winning design firm. Originally from the UK, she has been in the design industry for over 25 years working with some of the world’s top brands and believes in engaging people to love, buy and share their client’s products and services. Angela has spoken at many creative events including the Registered Graphic Designer’s of Canada’s (RGD) international design conference, DesignThinkers (Vancouver and Toronto), International Women’s Day, and the Graphic Designer’s of Canada (GDC). She has developed several creative industry career events with the BCIT Student Association, and has organised events to participate in Vancouver Design Week.

Angela has been a three-time award winner and five-time nominee of the BCIT Teaching Award of Excellence. Most recently, Angela’s expertise was broadcast on CBC Television and CKNW 980. She has been nominated for the national RGD Canadian Design Educators Award of Excellence and quoted as one of the top 10 takeaways in Canada’s top design publication Applied Arts Magazine “10 Truths We Learned at DesignThinkers Vancouver”.

Strategic Design

Corina Alexandra Pop

With 13 years of experience, having worked and studied across 9 countries, Corina Alexandra Pop brings a strategic marketing mindset and an original perspective into graphic design. Having worked on both sides of the barricade – in business as well as in graphic design and in many markets around the world, she has a deep understanding of an organization’s strategy and objectives, creates designs that speak meaningfully to intended audiences and that deliver business results.

After getting her graphic design degree in Vancouver, Corina took on an exciting role as an in-house designer for one of Canada’s fastest growing health & wellness brands, where she has been designing and directing full-scale digital marketing campaigns, as well as a variety of exciting print materials for the company’s stores and smoothie bars. As an independent designer, Corina has been designing brand identities for young companies from all over the world and across a variety of industries.

Advertising and Marketing

Hamish McIntosh

Throughout his over 20-year career in advertising, Hamish McIntosh has developed creative for just about every possible product category. That includes work for everything from global product launches for multi-nationals to small local advertisers. Clients have included KPMG Global, Honda, Subaru, Trans Canada Pipeline, Destination BC, and Coast Capital Savings He has worked for large agencies, been a creative director of his own agency, and won enough creative awards that he doesn’t pay much attention to them any more. A significant increase in client sales makes his heart pound a lot louder.

Hamish believes that the core of this work is conceptual thinking. An advertising creative person must be capable of generating many, many different creative solutions that solve marketing and communications problems in many possible different ways. They must also have an ability to wrap their minds around complex products and services and explain them in clear and simple terms to others. We are translating the language of business into the language of people and emotions. This business is about finding new and interesting ways to say things that have already been said many, many times before.

His philosophy on consumers and advertising is simple. Given a superior product with a clear consumer benefit, advertised in an intelligent, compelling and memorable way, most people would still rather be checking out Seinfeld reruns. So we better make sure that anything we do is really, really good.

ADMINISTRATION

Executive Director

Steve Rosenberg

Steve Rosenberg is an award-winning writer/director based in Vancouver, BC. His dramatic shorts “Watching Mrs.Pomerantz,” “Vannica,” “Divine Waters,” and “Shanti Baba Ram” have screened at various prestigious festivals around the world.

In 2000, “Watching Mrs. Pomerantz” earned him numerous international awards, including the award for Best Director at The Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival. His films have played on The Sundance Channel, CBC, WTV and Bravo. He is an alumni of The Canadian Film Centre, Canada’s most prestigious film institution. In the past, he taught at the Vancouver Film School and the Environmental Youth Alliance. In 2006, he hosted and produced Blink, a weekly TV talk show devoted to obscure films that come and go in a blink. As founder of InFocus Film School, he loves the creative energy and also feels inspired to continue producing films. He currently has several tv/web series in development.

Director of Admissions

Clarence Sponagle

Clarence Sponagle is an award-winning and nominated actor who has worked across Canada and the United States in both theatre and film.

With 14 years of admissions advisory experience, Clarence has a vast knowledge of the admissions cycle for both domestic and international students in the private career college sector. Always willing to go above and beyond for his current and potential students, Clarence ensures all students feel secure with him leading the way.

Program Director

Steve Rosenberg

Steve Rosenberg is an award-winning writer/director based in Vancouver, BC. His dramatic shorts “Watching Mrs.Pomerantz,” “Vannica,” “Divine Waters,” and “Shanti Baba Ram” have screened at various prestigious festivals around the world.

In 2000, “Watching Mrs. Pomerantz” earned him numerous international awards, including the award for Best Director at The Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival. His films have played on The Sundance Channel, CBC, WTV and Bravo. He is an alumni of The Canadian Film Centre, Canada’s most prestigious film institution. In the past, he taught at the Vancouver Film School and the Environmental Youth Alliance. In 2006, he hosted and produced Blink, a weekly TV talk show devoted to obscure films that come and go in a blink. As founder of InFocus Film School, he loves the creative energy and also feels inspired to continue producing films. He currently has several tv/web series in development.

Director of Admissions

Clarence Sponagle

Clarence Sponagle is an award-winning and nominated actor who has worked across Canada and the United States in both theatre and film.

In 2010, Clarence left the acting industry to help other young artists pursue their dreams and career goals.

With 14 years of admissions advisory experience, Clarence has a vast knowledge of the admissions cycle for both domestic and international students in the private career college sector. Always willing to go above and beyond for his current and potential students, Clarence ensures all students feel secure with him leading the way.

Cinematography

Ryan Atimoyoo

Ryan Atimoyoo is a First Nations, international award-winning writer, director, and producer within the Vancouver filmmaking community. He has studied at New York’s Circle in the Square Theater School, The University of Saskatchewan, The Vancouver Film School and holds a Joint MFA in Screenwriting and Film Production from The University of British Columbia.

Ryan has gathered numerous international awards and screenings ranging from being a 2011 semi-finalist in the Sundance Screenwriting Program, Best Web Series/ Best VFX in The New Media Film Festival, Best Horror Screenplay in The Canada International Film Festival, A Golden Ace award from The Las Vegas Film Festival and various others and works as a professional VFX Editor at FuseFX.

Ryan has enjoyed the full range spectrum of storytelling from directing and cinematography through to acting and visual effects. He has recently finished shooting a short film commissioned by The Canada Council for the Arts titled Macimanitonahk or “The Devil Dwelling” as well as working on his first full-length Feature Film for his thesis Project titled “The Circle”.

Cinematography

Leslie Kennah

A graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Leslie Kennah has been exploring life through the lens for over a decade. Several years of experience working with artistic, non-profit and small business organizations have fostered Leslie’s passion for collaborative work. Her practice as a digital media artist, working with both photography and video, has honed her skills as a visual storyteller. Experienced with transforming conceptual ideas into dynamic and engaging visual content, she is committed to bringing imagination and style to all projects.

Directing

Roy Hayter

After six years, Roy Hayter established his own companies; RH Productions Ltd and Shadow Films Ltd, directing episodic television drama, producing and directing docu-dramas, documentaries, industrials, multimedia presentations for world fairs and international exhibits. He has written several screenplays and a television pilot which he produced and directed and sold to a national television station. He also has produced and directed over 125 television commercials, both in local and national markets.

He has earned 27 local, national and international awards and acclamations for his work.

Roy is a member of the Directors Guild of Canada and is the Representative for the Directors Caucus Committee – 2016, 2017

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Directing

Katrin Bowen

Katrin Bowen is a Vancouver-based director whose award-winning films include Amazon Falls, Financially Strapped, Spitting Reality, Someone, Almost Forgot My Bones and Sandcastle.

Katrin won the 2011 Artistic Achievement Award for direction in her first feature film: Amazon Falls. Amazon Falls premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and won the best debut feature at the 2011 female eye festival. Katrin directed the Gemini nominated slam poetry film Shane with Shane Koyczan that opened the 2011 Doxa Festival.

IMDB

Documentary

Julia Ivanova

Julia Ivanova is an award-winning Vancouver documentary filmmaker, whose film, Family Portrait in Black and White, won at Hot Docs 2011 as the Best Canadian Feature, played at Sundance and was nominated for Genie Award.

She grew up in Moscow, studied filmmaking at the Russian Film Institute (VGIK) and immigrated to Canada in mid-nineties. Since then, she has been directing, editing and filming documentaries. She has made a number of intimate films on the topics of love, adoption, cultural differences and family, partnering with CBC, Global TV, Knowledge Network, PBS and Discovery. Ivanova has been actively involved in the documentary filmmaking community by organizing professional development workshops for DOC BC, co-chairing DOC BC, being on the Board of Hot Docs Festival and mentoring emerging filmmakers through “Giving Voice” DOC program. Being a director/editor/cinematographer and an avid fan of international documentaries, she believes in the emotional power of visual storytelling and poetic cinema.

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Screenwriting

Ric Beairsto

Ric Beairsto is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and producer who has been active in the Canadian film and television industry since 1980. He has written over a dozen feature-length screenplays, while his TV writing credits include The Beachcombers for CBC and Mixed Blessings broadcast by APTN where Ric is the Creator and Head Writer. Ric has also written, directed and produced extensively in the area of nonfiction film, including both one-hour and documentary series for CBC and Knowledge. His documentary production Picture Start, produced for Bravo! and released in 2011, captures the remarkable story of the world-renowned Vancouver School of Photoconceptual Artists, chief among them Jeff Wall, Rodney Graham and Ian Wallace. In 2012 Ric wrote, directed and edited a documentary essay called What Happyns, exploring the unlikely merging of a group of elderly lawn bowlers and youthful skateboarders.

Since 1987, Ric has taught screenwriting at various post-secondary institutes, including and has actively workshopped more than 1500 short screenplays. Ric is the author of THE TYRANNY OF STORY: Audience Expectations and the Short Screenplay, published in 1998, and now available in a revised 2nd edition. The book has been used as a regular textbook in over a dozen North American film schools, including UCLA and the American Film institute.

Screenwriting

Robert Chomiak

Robert Chomiak is co-writer of the zombie-comedy cult feature Fido. He has written English adaptations for three animated theatrical features (Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Escaflowne – The Movie) and 207 episodes in seven animated series (Gundam Seed, Zoids, Inuyasha) which have aired on Cartoon Network and Teletoon. Other television work includes the sitcom Alienated and the Gemini-nominated children’s special Twisteeria. His pilot script Slaughter Landing is optioned to Frantic Films and his horror screenplay Creeped is with Brightlight Pictures.

He is co-writer of the R-rated comedy screenplay My A**hole Neighbor, with eOne on board as distributor and co-producer. His screenplays have received development funding from Telefilm, the Harold Greenberg Fund and BC Film.

Robert graduated with a BA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Lethbridge and studied for two years in the Simon Fraser University film program.

Editing

Ileana Pietrobruno

Ileana Pietrobruno is an editor with extensive experience in feature-length documentaries and dramas. She has cut films for the National Film Board of Canada (This Land, River of Life, Between The Laughter, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, In Other Words, Pocket Desert, Sticks And Stones, Surviving Death) and has also edited for producers such as Jayme Pfahl, Prem Gill, Evan Adams, Desiree Lim and Shan Tam. These films have won awards and screened at hundreds of festivals, including the Berlin International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.

Pietrobruno’s editing credits include a range of styles: cinéma vérité, direct cinema, docudrama, personal narrative, cinematic essay, animated documentary, educational, promotional, mockumentary, comedy, adventure and horror. She believes that an editor’s greatest asset is the ability to listen to the material; to utilize the grammar of film as a platform that allows the film to speak for itself. Her editing work has been described as seamless, innovative, humourous, intelligent and provocative.

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Audio

Kris Siegers

Kris Siegers began his recording career as so many do, as a musician that got hooked on a home recording setup. It wasn’t long after trying to record his friends’ bands that he realized he needed to further his education in the field of audio engineering. After graduating from the Audio Engineering and Production Diploma program at Pacific Audio Visual Institute, Kris was hired as an assistant engineer at Blue Wave Studios; he then worked his way up to Engineer.

He started engineering and producing audio for advertising, quickly moved to animated cartoons, and then on to feature films. Notable companies he has worked for are Disney, Universal Pictures, and Lions Gate Films. He has also worked with music producers and artists such as: Dan Swinimer, Jeff Johnson, Terry Jacks, Raffi, Tom Lavin, and Michael Kreeber.

IMDB

Storyboarding

Javier Badillo

Javier Badillo is a Venezuelan-Canadian film director, writer, and producer with a decade of experience in film, TV, and animation production. His dramas and comedies have screened at various prestigious festivals, including the Cannes International Film Festival. A consummate filmmaker, Javier has a slate of feature scripts in various stages of development. Known as a collaborative actors’ director and a hands-on, dynamic producer, Javier has lent his expertise on hundreds of feature films, shorts, music videos, commercials and corporate videos. With an early career stint as an animation artist on shows like Ed, Edd n Eddy (AKA Cartoons/Cartoon Network) and Atomic Betty (Atomic Cartoons/Disney), Javier has started successful businesses in music, animation and film in Malaysia, China and Canada.

IMDB

Producing

Erik Paulsson

Erik Paulsson is an award-winning filmmaker with over twenty years of film and television experience.

He has produced numerous feature or full-length narrative and documentary productions including The Edge of the World: BC’s Early Years, Peacing It Together, Eve & the Fire Horse, Army of One, Say I Do, Island of Shadows, and Protection. Eve & the Fire Horse, a theatrical feature film, appeared at dozens of international film festivals, garnering half a dozen awards, including the Sundance Jury Prize. Army of One, was awarded Best Canadian Feature documentary at Hot Docs 2004, and was aired on CBC’s Passionate Eye and the BBC. The Island of Shadows, a one-hour documentary produced for CTV, won a Gemini Award and three Leo Awards, including Best Director for Erik’s directorial work.

IMDB

Documentary/Directing/Producing

Cari Green

Cari Green is a film and television producer with over thirty years experience and a background in distribution, sales and marketing. She has produced over 20-award winning productions, including, The Corporation, When I Walk, and Scared Sacred.

She has taught film courses for over ten years at UBC, Emily Carr, Langara College, and the Vancouver Film School and mentored many emerging filmmakers over the course of her career. She received the Mayor’s Arts Award as recognition of her contributions to the film industry and a lifetime honorary membership with Women in Film. Recently she turned her attention to writing and directing and received an MFA in film production from UBC with her short drama, Citizen Jane. She recently produced a feature documentary, It Runs in the Family, for OUTtv and is currently executive producing The Search for CBC’s documentary channel.

IMDB

Producing

Mary Frymire

With over 30 years experience in diverse genres, Mary M. Frymire has developed, directed and produced around 400 hours of production projects in over 75 countries, working in 4 different languages.

Mary honed her filmmaking skills studying and working for several years in Europe, Latin America & Africa on both documentary and dramatic projects. For many years Mary has been lead judge for Vancouver International Film Festival Artistic Merit Award and served as board member with WIFT-T, WIFTV, and for past 5 years, Mary has been on the board of Creative Women Workshops Association.

Mary’s work has been distributed through Bravo, OWN, Lifetime, Nickelodeon, Fox Network, National Geographic, OLN, W Network, Discovery Canada, BBC, Knowledge Network, CBC, CTV, Global TV, and more. She is a Director member of the DGC and Writer member of the WGC.

IMDB

Production Design

Sean McQuillan

Sean McQuillan is a graduate of Studio 58. He has transitioned his theatre training to support a full-time career in the film industry, working in Set Design, Props, Special Effects, Set Decoration and as an Armourer. Additionally, Sean has experience as an actor on stage, in front of the camera and with voice work. His credits include Skyscraper, Timeless, Motive, Wayward Pines, and the upcoming Netflix series; Altered Carbon. His Design for Short Film Intemperance was featured on Air Canada Flights as part of the embargo project. Sean is an active member in IATSE 891 and International attending conferences across North America.

IMDB

Compositing

Karen Parker

Artist, illustrator and Matte Painter Karen Lorena Parker is a traditional and digital artist living in Vancouver Canada. Known for her versatility in style, from realism to abstract, she has worked on concept art, Film, TV as a compositor and Matte Painter for the visual effects and short film industry. Her paintings are collected internationally and she exhibits annually in Vancouver Canada at Parker Street Studios.

A graduate of Vancouver Film School’s 3D animation and VFX, Think Tank Matte Painting Program, Graphic Design, and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Alberta College of Art and Design, Karen has over 15 years of experience in design, marketing, print and traditional fine art. With a focus on the art of storytelling in visual effects, Karen builds artistic and technical skill necessary to achieve an exquisite result and pushes students towards employment within a talented industry of artists.

IMDB

Compositing

Sean Kalra

Sean Kalra is a director and a visual effects artist, who has worked on various projects for some of the biggest clients in the industry including Warner Bros., Fox, Legendary Digital, 343 Industries, ABC and Bad Robot providing visual effects work for various different tv shows, films, and video Games. His most recent credit includes a short film called ‘Unbound’ which he worked on as the VFX Supervisor and it was screened at the Cannes SFC (2017).

IMDB

Cinematography

Danny Nowak c.s.c.

Danny started his career as a maverick young cinematographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. After making a dozen of his own short films, he excelled behind the camera, shooting various projects around the world. In recent years, he has served as Director of Photography on many TV movies and over 20 feature films, including Tristar’s The Big Hit, Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl and Bruce McDonald’s Hard Core Logo. Awards for his work include a Gemini (Canada’s Emmy) and top prize from the Canadian Society of Cinematographers.

He is a full member of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers, a member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, and a member of the International Photographers Union (IATSE 669). A patriot of Canadian Cinema, Danny is devoted to the development of the local and international film art.

IMDB

Directing

Penelope Buitenhuis

Since 1984 Penny Bruitenhuis has been directing and producing films throughout Europe and North America. She started in Berlin’s super-8 community with aesthetically gritty films that challenged Hollywood’s glossy veneer. Penelope has since directed 18 features and numerous short films. A self-made female director, her recent feature A Wake has won numerous awards around the world.

Penelope encourages new directors to develop and produce their own work, as waiting for funding or support from bureaucratic systems can be disillusioning and often pointless. Make it, show it, be proud of it. Anyone with the passion can be a filmmaker, you just have to do it.

IMDB

Directing and Producing

Jeffery Lando

Director, writer, and producer, known for Savage Island, Thirst, House of Bones and Roboshark. His latest release, Suspension, won him Best Director at Montreal HorrorFest, and was released by 20th Century Fox as one of the 8 Films To Die Forï. His first feature film as a director, Savage Island (2004) won best feature awards at The Strasbourg Film Festival, Fright-Fest and ShockerFest.

Since then Lando has directed a further 13 films, produced 12, and written four. Before plunging fully into filmmaking, Lando attended NYU to study film and cinematography. He started his career as a cinematographer in the New York indie scene and after DPing a dozen odd features moved to Vancouver in 2001. Lando brings together an expansive creative and cultural vision for his auteur genre films that, combined with his electrifying visual style and comprehensive technological understanding, put him right on the ‘bleeding’ edge of contemporary filmmaking.

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Business

Clayton Goodfellow

A strong business ethic and a passion for storytelling led Clayton to form Georgia Street Media in 2008. Clayton’s educational background and past experiences nurtured both his creative skills and his business skills and have ultimately enabled him to grow a dedicated team of skilled videographers, directors and editors at GSM. After earning his BA in sociology from UBC, Clayton studied Documentary Film Production at Langara College. Clayton has worked with major tech firms and produced and supervised hundreds of film projects in his years of experience of working in the industry.

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