The Powell River Digital Film School
Founded in 2008
The Film School is Free if you are in Grade 12 anywhere in BC. You need to apply to the school before September 30 of any year for the following February start of the Program. We have billeted students from Port Moody, Terrace BC, and Kelowna. Check out HERE what it is like to stay in Powell River. You are welcome to attend the 5 month course even if you have graduated High School but once you graduate you need to pay 3500.00 for the full program. Once you are successful in this course you are automatically excepted into Capilano University’s Motion Picture Program if you would like to further your filmmaking career in one of Vancouver’s highly respected University Film Program. Many of our students are either now in Capilano and/or working in the film industry. In the course you will gain a thorough understanding of camera, lighting, writing scripts, producing film, editing, and marketing your self and your product. You will also have an awesome time and get very inspired. Please fill out a form HERE and we hope to see you in February.
All the best
Tony
MORE ABOUT
The Powell River Digital Film School
is a 20 credit Film Program that offers a comprehensive, hands on experience of the world of Filmmaking. There has never been a more exciting time to gain entry into this thriving field. With the substantial growth of the independent film industry, support for new filmmakers and the increase in specialty channels and other output mediums, there are countless opportunities in this demanding field.
The Powell River Digital Film School is here to help emerging talent cut its teeth on creative projects using state-of-the-art facilities, whilst developing a strong and commercial infrastructure within Powell River.
Students will gain knowledge not only to move into this industry within the many positions available, but will also develop skills as team players, problem solvers, communicators, and tolerant higher level thinkers. They will not only learn how to make films but also why make films.
Within the FILM Program, our goal is to provide students with more than an education. It is to provide them with a concrete first step toward a future career. Using industry-standard procedures and equipment, students will develop hands-on abilities with equipment used in television, documentary and dramatic film as well as learn the professional work ethic and protocol of working successfully in the industry.
Our instructors have years of experience in their fields. Our facilities provide individual state of the art workstations designed to enhance individual attention. Students will be involved in a variety of filming projects, lectures and workshops. Emphasis will be on creative intuition.
Graduates of the PRDFS (5 month program) will be fast tracked into the renowned Capilano Motion Picture Program I they choose to further their film studies.
Tony Papa
Instructor/Founder
Tony studied Film and Television in New York as well as the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto. Producing films and television for over 20 years, Papa has won numerous awards for his work including a Gemini For Best Documentary for his feature Doc entitled Suzuki Speaks. In 2008 Papa founded the Powell River Digital Film School in Powell River BC. In connection with Capilano University, a successful student attending the 5 month grade 12 course at Brooks Secondary in Powell River, is automatically accepted into the prestigious Motion Picture Program at Capilano University if they desire to further their film studies.
FILMMAKING
involves teams. It involves communication. It is about working towards a common goal. Is about overcoming the lack of resources and producing creative works that answer questions, reveal information and inspire. It’s about seeing your work presented to an audience and your ideas communicated to others.
Within that framework, from idea to presentation, there is plenty of potential for the integration of curriculum goals, learning outcomes, higher order thinking skills, and technical learning. At the same time, the filmmaking process is all about developing awareness, creativity and self-esteem.
As well as teaching the “how to” of filmmaking, it is also important to ask “why”. Why make film? Why tell the story. Why does it matter? These are questions our students understand as they enjoy the learning process?
They learn why it does mattesr that we develop team building skills, creative problem solving skills, logic skills, critical thinking, and research skills?
Students discover their community, their family and themselves?
Why is the process of leaning more important today than ever before?
As we learn to make films we look at the fast-changing world outside the classroom and suggest how filmmaking as a leaning tool can help prepare our children for a global, visual, information-saturated, media intensive planet.
Part of this curriculum is how we are living in a visual world and how that world has led to a new visual literacy which, whether we like it or not, will increasingly surround our children and become the primary form of communication of the new millennium. We will look at how exponential change in computing, bandwidth and technology is changing how we learn and what we learn both inside and outside the walls of the classroom.
Christian Piers Betley
Writer/Producer
Christian has written many screenplays that have been produced and continues to work in the industry as a writer and producer. What he brings to the Film School is invaluable and wonderful.
Heather Conn
Writing Instructor
It’s all about stories
Whether they’re on the web, in a magazine, book, government plan, or on TV, stories are what grab people by the heart. Everyone loves a story. That’s what I do: take facts and ideas, interview people, add imagination, clarity, and organization, and produce written stories that inspire — an action, organization, reader or audience.
“To call forth the mind and heart of others, one’s own work has to be from the mind and heart. You must be willing to ask real questions: What are the issues? What are the possibilities? What do you feel? What local stories do you have to tell?” – Jean Houston, A Mythic Life
Kelly-Ruth Mercier
Actor/Director/Producer/Writer
Kelly-Ruth is an active actor, director, producer, writer, and teacher in theatre, film and
television. She holds an M.F.A. (Directing) from UBC and a B.A. (Acting) from Dalhousie
University.
Kelly-Ruth is an award-winning film director, writer, and producer. She won the prestigious
MPPIA Film Award and MOVE OUT CLEAN had its World Premiere at the Whistler Film
Festival in Dec 2010. As a DGC “Kickstart” recipient, she won the Leo Award for Best
Screenwriting in a Short Drama with her film NO ONE KNOWS YOU LIKE YOUR
MOTHER. She is a graduate of Women in the Director’s Chair and has received support
through CTV & Creative Women Workshops Association, BC Arts Council, National Film
Board, Women in Film, and the NS Arts Council.
K-R’s breadth of experience has had her invited to teach in a number of specialties. She is an
instructor in the Acting Program at UBC and teaches Script Analysis at Vancouver Acting
School; she has taught at The Art Institute (producing / production planning), and Vancouver
Film School (Writing Dept: Pitching), and has guest lectured at UBC Creative Writing, Women
in Film, and in numerous workshops and private classes.
Ms. Mercier’s last theatrical outing, LOBBY HERO, was reviewed by Colin Thomas of the
Georgia Straight thus: “For 20 bucks, you can go see Lobby Hero at the Havana Theatre and have an
experience that’s more satisfying than that of anything currently playing on this town’s bigger, more expensive
stages” and that “under Kelly-Ruth Mercier’s direction, the acting in this production is tremendous.”
K-R has guest-starred on television on AMC’s The Killing, The Hub Network’s The Haunting
Hour, Showtime’s The L Word, CTV’s Robson Arms and Cold Squad, and CBC’s Black Harbour, as
well as the WB series Smallville and Supernatural and has appeared in a number of features
(including Robert Redford’s “The Company You Keep”) and tv movies (most recently: “Virtual
Lies”). She has graced stages in 9 of Canada’s 10 provinces. Kelly-Ruth has juried for the
Gemini Awards, Leo Awards, and Hot Shots Film Contest.
Danny Nowak
Director of Photography
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. Keeping in time with the latest advancements in technology, he is moving into 3D projects, and has taken several elite 3D cinematography courses in Los Angeles and Vancouver. A patriot of Canadian Cinema, Danny is devoted to the development of the indigenous and international film art.
David Perun
Property Master/Animator
David Perun’s involvement in the arts began over 30 years ago in Toronto, when he worked creating props for the live operatic production of “Ra” by Canadian composer Murray Schaeffer. David’s art training includes a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Quebec in Montreal, with a major in sculpture. While in Montreal he also studied art history at the University of Concordia and Life Drawing under Francois Barbeau & Francois Vincent at the National Theater School.
David has received several recognitions and awards for his artwork. His awards include the McAbbie Award in fine art and his installation piece “Train”, part of a juried group exhibition in Montreal, was featured on the CBC news. He has been involved in community art projects in Toronto, Montreal, Santa Fe and Vancouver.
David continues to work as a Property Master in film production where he has helped to design and create props for over 35 Hollywood productions. A list of his film work can be found on the ‘Internet Movie Data Base’ at: www.imdb.com
David with his wife Audrey and daughter Sophia moved to Powell River in 2005.
Lowell Boran
Tech Support/Website Manager
Lowell was a student of the school in the founding year of 2008. He went to the Capilano Motion Picture Program and eventually returned to Powell River and works as an assistant to the school with tech support as well as instruction on steady cam, website design, pixilation, social media, and more.