Back from Banff!

After taking a brief hiatus from blogging and filming for SIMCentre (I still tweeted!),  I returned from an amazing first time experience at a workshop in Banff, Alberta at the gloriously equipped Banff Centre. It was a two-week excursion to the brisk rockies (-31' C the first night), part of the FVIM 300 internship course.

Apart from exploring the winter-activity stocked town of Banff, I also learned things. The workshop is called Women in the Director's Chair was apart of Creative Women Workshops. It was a two-week intense production, involving 8 first-time women directors (Marie Burke, Lori Lozinksi, Celia McBride, Sarah McIntyre, Arlene Rimer, Karen Shopsowitz, Anna Sikorski, and Ana Valine). As a workstudy, I was placed in the grip/electrics department and had four mentors who gave me mini-workshops on equipment, on-set procedure and role dynamics of a medium-sized production. 

Even though I was in the grip/electrics department (I can sand-bag the hell out of a c-stand and tie several types of knots now), I was still able to chat with and not-so-discreetly watch every other department interact, build and aid each project. I had friends and made friends in sound, camera, art, and assistant directing.

The mentality of the WIDC 2012 program was very open source and anti-hierarchy, which, according to my mentors, is the style of most large film productions. Instead of only getting bits of information for a small specialized task, with a chain-of-command to report problems to, I felt comfortable and was encouraged to ask as many questions, go to as many mini workshops and take as many notes and photos as possible (during the appropriate moments of course!).

And much to my almost-graduated ambition's delight, the Banff Centre offers plenty of media production work-study positions throughout the year(in other departments too, it's a well-stocked arts centre). I highly recommend perusing the pages.