Lights, Camera, Collaboration

Junior Institute students collaborate with industry professionals during a multi-disciplinary Film Extravaganza

During November and December’s Junior Institute Afternoons, Grade 7 and 8 students took part in an immersive Film Extravaganza led by the Visual, Media and Performing Arts Institute. Students were involved in every stage of the creative process, including design, production, writing, and performance, gaining hands-on experience across all elements of this multimedia project.

Working alongside leading professionals from Calgary’s film and arts community, students transformed our basement garage into a fully functioning film studio—bringing their ideas to life in an exciting, real-world setting.

Here's how the students got involved:

Film Crew

Students worked with legendary Calgary Film Producer and Actor Ryan Northcott (Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Mystery Alaska) to capture and film the entire project. 

Props Crew  

Students worked with our amazing junior art faculty Ms. Pfaff and Mme Belalia to create, organize, and position magical flowers for the setting. 

Lighting  

Students worked with the GaslampFX lighting team to create an amazing setting, learning how to set scenes and work the special effects like smoke and strobe.  

Soundscapes 

Students worked with Thomas Dundas of the National Music Centre to create Soundscapes to accompany various videos and animations 

Costumes 

Costume Alchemy facilitators helped students create and supply all the different costuming for the various performing acts. 

Makeup 

Sandra Makarewicz, an active film industry makeup artist and special effects creator, worked with the students to create life-like prosthetic dragon scale applications. 

Digital Backgrounds 

Students learned how to create large-scale digital art backgrounds for the film stage. 

Puppetry 

Dean Bareham, who works as a puppeteer in Fraggle Rock, taught the students the subtle and engaging art of puppetry to help the students create their fairy tale story. 

Stage Fighting 

Laryssa Yanchak, one of Canada’s few certified fight captains—active in both film and theatre, worked with students to create a thrilling sword fight scene! 

DJD Dance 

Students worked with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks to create a fairy tale creature dance party! 

Stomp 

Ryan Hancock, a long-time drum instructor and writer for the Calgary Stampede Showband, helped students create a STOMP-style 7 Dwarves Dubstep piece! 

Animation 

The Quickdraw Animation Society brought their super cool mobile stations to help students create their very own papercut animations! 

Clowning 

Clown expert Zoe Arthur helped the students craft a wild and fun gingerbread man adventure! 

Quest Theatre  

Students worked with the workshop facilitators to create a fanciful fairy drama vignette. 

 

This experience connected students with professionals in the creative industry, showing how ideas grow through collaboration and creative risk-taking. We can’t wait to share pieces from this experience as the students’ stories come to life.

 

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Contributor

Jay Michalak
Visual, Media & Performing Arts Institute Coordinator