Two students from Powell River Digital Film School (PRDFS) received gold medals from a provincial skills competition for their outstanding short film.
Michael Stevantoni, from Campbell River, and Annabelle Foss, from Newfoundland, enrolled in the intensive five-month Powell River film program. They beat 15 teams from across British Columbia at the annual Skills Canada competition for high school trades students, held in Abbotsford earlier this month.
Michael and Annabelle advanced to the provincial competition after taking first place at the regional level. The pair will take on schools from across Canada in Toronto, June 7.
“The main part for us was brainstorming and coming up with ideas,” said Annabelle. “We wrote a short script with the ideas that we wanted to incorporate. It was very conceptual.”
At the regional competition, the pair completed their entry around the theme of “a whole new world.”
“We decided to do ours on immigration to Canada,” said Michael.
The filmmakers interviewed a family who had recently moved from Laos in Southeast Asia. “They showed how coming to Canada was like coming to a whole new world,” he said.
In the provincial competition, the pair had to work with the theme of how posting to social media websites can affect one’s personal brand, he added.
“It was less creative of a topic,” he said, “but we made a commercial of how the possibilities are endless to what you can do online.”
They felt some pressure to make the short film a more public service piece about responsible posting and the dangers of cyberbullying, said Annabelle.
“We wanted to move away from that and make something a little more inspiring and focus on the positives of what you can do to invent yourself on the Internet and foster social change,” she said.
The pair wrote a script and Annabelle narrated over top of footage they recorded in an airplane hanger where they were working.
They both said they are excited about the opportunity to go up against Canada’s best high school film students.
“This kind of accolade keeps the students inspired, giving them the feeling that they can do anything,” said Tony Papa, PRDFS director. “It really brings their skills into play.”
This latest recognition continues a tradition of student success at the film school which has been running for the past seven years, said Papa.
The school has enrolled more than 70 students since its inception and many have gone on to further their film education or begin working in the industry, he added.
The school, offered free for any grade 12 student in BC, not only offers its students a fast-track into Capilano University’s motion picture program, but it also gives students advanced dual credits at Emily Carr University, added Papa.
To view the winning film, readers can go online to view the winning film, scroll down to “Download provincials” and click the mp4 link.
