| Education in film production usually comes in three different forms.
At the top of the food chain are film production degree programs at schools such as University of B.C., University of Regina and Concordia University in Montreal. Programs such as these prepare students to be directors and equip their graduates, not just with the nuts-and-bolts skills of film production, but with an esthetic, cultural and historical background in film. One or two-year programs like those found at SAIT and the Vancouver Film School are more skills-based, and arguably prepare their graduates to be the craftspeople – the lighting techs, the sound engineers, the editors – of the film industry. Finally, artist-run centers across the country provide all levels of workshops for those with varying degrees of experience in film and video. Some want to wet their feet, others are more seasoned and want new challenges.
Although Calgary, or Alberta for that matter, is not blessed with a film production program at the university level, budding Calgary filmmakers who have neither the means nor the inclination to relocate to other provinces to gain skills have had a few different options. There is SAIT, as well as workshops offered through the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers (CSIF), and EMMEDIA, which offer workshops on topics ranging from scriptwriting to editing to securing distribution.
Still, Calgary doesn’t have a proper film school, an institution devoted solely to the education of filmmakers. Moreover, those wishing to complement practical skills with an understanding of film as an art form have had little choice but to go to universities out of the province.
Enter Brent Spiess, the creator of the embryonic Inglewood Alternative Art/Film School. Spiess is himself a SAIT graduate with a feature (1993’s Purple Toast) and a few documentaries and corporate videos to his credit. What makes his goals for Inglewood so unique is that he’s seeking to occupy the middle ground between two-year technical programs and fine arts degrees.
The school is high on vision – Spiess says ultimately he would like Inglewood to be the kind of place that encourages cross-pollination amongst different media. For example, one of the workshops he offers has students interpret poetry into visuals, while another involves editing images to the beat of music.
Currently Inglewood offers a series of workshops, most of which are two-and-a-half hours in length, not much time to cover a topic as vast as "Montage/Editing Techniques," one of the courses offered at Inglewood. Spiess admits these workshops were not designed for the novice, and would be more suitable to someone who has a pretty firm grasp of filmmaking and wants to broaden their skills. Some of the topics offered are not that different from those offered by CSIF and EMMEDIA, and while they are less expensive, they are also much shorter. Spiess argues that these workshops are the first phase of a much larger project – the development of a full-blown film school offering diplomas in four different areas of concentration.
You can’t help but get the warm fuzzies when you hear Spiess talk about instructing Albertans in Alberta, fostering an artsy filmmakers’ community in Calgary, and his vision of nurturing an anti-mainstream, pro-art film utopia where an artist’s vision takes precedence over financial considerations. "We need something like this," he says with conviction. But do we really? And if so, can Inglewood fill this void?
SAIT, EMMEDIA and the CSIF seem to be doing a fair job responding to Calgary’s demand for this type of workshop. Brian Batista, video artist and production coordinator at EMMEDIA, says he’s actually seen a slump in enrolment since the spring, attributing it to people trying to teach themselves to use editing software on their home computers.
The CSIF runs a series of popular introductory workshops in the spring and fall. Operations coordinator Melody Jacobson says they’ve never had to cancel a workshop due to lack of interest and occasionally have had to turn people down for their most popular workshops. In addition, every two years the CSIF puts on a six-month intensive filmmaking workshop. She says there is a demand for them to put on the start-to-finish how-to program every year, but it’s a costly and work-intensive undertaking for the artist-run center.
"There is a need for a film school in Calgary, but there is also an existing network," says Jacobson. She also notes that Inglewood’s program duplicates much of what is already available.
There is also some concern that Inglewood doesn’t have the resources – cameras, lights, editing equipment – to put on many of its proposed workshops (Spiess says that Inglewood is currently developing partnerships with various organizations and institutions which will provide all the needed production and post-production equipment). Spiess is on the board of directors at EMMEDIA, but that doesn’t mean his students will have access to EMMEDIA’s production and post-production equipment. Batista says EMMEDIA won’t host Inglewood students because then it would compete with their own workshops. The CSIF also has no plans to accommodate Inglewood students with their facilities, nor do they have any plans to host a screening of Inglewood students’ work, as Spiess indicates in his course information. "We’re totally unconnected with this," says Jacobson.
Batista doesn’t see Inglewood as a viable concept in Calgary, citing Spiess’s lack of technical background as a hindrance to its success.
"He’s a strong conceptual thinker," says Batista who is sympathetic to Spiess’s desire to foster an artist-centered school, but he wonders if Inglewood is an achievable goal. He worries that it could turn into something like the Vancouver Film School – a commercial institution that churns out workers rather than artists – "the DeVry of film school," as he puts it.
The consensus is that it sure would be nice to have our own film school, but as the cliché goes, only time will tell if Inglewood will make it past this stage, given the fact that more experienced outlets already offer the same material. |
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