Wanted: An Edmonton film school

Back on March 24, Todd Babiak of The Edmonton Journal wrote the following article about Red Deer College's Motion Picture Arts Program and commented on the cinematic direction and training for Alberta's creative talent.

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Wanted: An Edmonton film School
Will Red Deer lead us to cinematic promised land?
by Todd Babiak - Originally published in The Edmonton Journal

In the Woody Allen movies of the 1970s, every character is writing a novel. In the real world of 2005, every character is making a Woody Allen movie. Or a Christopher Guest movie. Or a really embarrassing John Woo movie.

Not long ago, the motion-picture industry was an exotic cult that only accepted the ultra-rich, the ultra-lucky, the Ultra-beautiful and the extended family of Francis Ford Coppola. Thanks to the wonders of digital technology, a broadcast-quality camera and editing suite is now about the same price as two years of university tuition. Anyone can make a feature, and apparently they are; at a weekly rate, Edmontonians are directing, editing and releasing films into the local market, a market that barely exists.

This is good news, isn't it? We humans long to express ourselves, to share our stories, and we were constrained too long by the prohibitive economic realities of the movie industry. Independent film is on the same level as independent music and small-press publishing, with a libertarian, outlaw quality. Who needs Hollywood? We can rent the Garneau for a weekend!

The keyword here is "rent."

Technical expertise is suddenly available to everyone. What is less available, and rarer than a Whooping Crane, is the ability to conceive and tell a good story. We can cheer the efforts of young and aggressive local filmmakers. We can put their pictures in the newspaper. But no one can pass a lie detector test claiming that any of the locally produced features screened in Edmonton in the last few years approaches mediocre. Either they're mock documentaries filled with unfocused improvisation or they're loud, cliche-ridden messes masquerading as American genre films.

NAIT offers a two-year Radio and Television Arts diploma. The University of Alberta offers a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Media Studies. One of these programs produces all the gaffers and grips the province will ever need. The other graduates experts in narratology and la nouvelle vague francaise. Neither of these programs trains screenwriters or creative directors.

"Maybe our goal is to create a local pool of technicians," says U of A Film and Media Studies professor Jerry White.

"But an environment where people who are creative are encouraged to develop as artists? That's a different thing altogether. A BFA (bachelor of fine arts) in film production in Edmonton would help, depending on what you want, but the networks that allow people to get into the film industry, whether they have a degree in film or not, are very informal."

Making a good movie, a movie worth watching, is ridiculously difficult. Finding an audience for an English-Canadian film is even more difficult, as the faintly audible cricket sounds during Monday night's Genie Awards presentation demonstrated. Even in Toronto and Vancouver, the twin cities of Canadian film, there isn't a genuine opportunity for those informal networks to develop and thrive. After the Genies, professionals talked about how we just need one great Canadian film to capture the nation and the world, creating a measure of interest and activity. Since things can't get much worse, anywhere. Alberta is as good a place as any to develop and release that one great Canadian film. But greatness is unlikely when competence is scarce and making money is just about impossible.

"We've studied film programs across the country, to see what they've done wrong," says Don Armstrong, head of production at Red Deer College's Motion Picture Arts program, a two-year applied after-degree in production or performance.

"We're trying to produce entrepreneurs instead of employees, so we're taking them through pitch sessions and teaching them about the business and the art of film. If you want a job in the industry, you don't have to go to school.

What we're trying to do is help build an industry in Alberta by having students form companies and initiate professional projects."

The latest film to come out of Red Deer College, To The Victor, is nominated for three AMPIA (Alberta Motion Picture Industry Association) awards. The program's last collaborative feature, Naked Frailties, has been distributed around the world.

So far, film programs in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal have been unable to create la nouvelle vague canadienne.

So far, universities in Edmonton and Calgary aren't bothering to try. There isn't much time left, as iMacs [Apple Computer] and editing software transform the art of film into little more than a hobby for the vain and the curious, tightening Hollywood's hold on the industry.

Come on, Red Deer.