Just finished my first week interning at CTV in Toronto. It's been awesome so far and I'll be here for the next 2 months working in various departments. I'll be sure to write about my experiences along the way.
Quinte Conservation - McLeod Dam Green Energy Project
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iyhKGLFvCg&hl=en_US&fs=1&hd=1]
Completed today, I worked as Producer on this Quinte Conservation video about the McLeod Dam Green Energy project. Rest of the crew consisted of; Director - Eric Quinton, Editor - Katelyn Bennett, Dam Graphic - Kyle Couperthwaite, Camera - Nathan Keech, Audio - Aidan Kennedy, Camera Assistant - Christopher Faria.
'Kayley' - final bedroom shoot
Last night was the final bedroom shoot for the major production of 'Kayley'. Here are some pictures. [gallery]
'Kayley' shoot last night
I've been working as Casting Director and now as Behind-the-scenes on Loyalist College's 3rd Year Major Production, 'Kayley'. You can follow us at twitter.com/kayleymovie. But anyways, here are some pictures from last night's shoot at our Bakery Location. [gallery]
My experience at 567vfx
For the month of April I was interning at 567 Visual Effects in downtown Toronto, as our course required we all complete a 1-month internship. The company itself is definitely one of the top in it's industry. Just going to the website you can see that they work on commercials for companies like Tim Hortons, Rogers, Koodo, and Maxwell House. And that's just a sample of their work. I was very surprised at just the sheer amount of projects they've worked on, as the company itself does not employ very many people. An interesting thing about the company is that they share an office with Relish Editing. They pretty much act as 1 office, but are technically 2 businesses. The purpose of having them both in the same place is that they often work on the same projects. Relish may edit together a commercial that 567 ends up doing visual effects on. This process between the two companies is called Offline (Relish) and Online (567) editing. Another factor is that they can share equipement, saving them the very expensive process of purchasing their own set of DigiBeta tape decks.
I often wondered why many of these companies chose to operate in downtown Toronto, all very close to eachother. On my first day I learned why, convinence. Clients, agencies, and peers are usually all at least within a 10min drive, if not a short 5min walk. With a company like 567, which is constantly working with many different clients at once, being in downtown Toronto makes it convienient for everyone.
The company aside, for the most part I really enjoyed my time with 567. As an intern for only a month, I wasn't able to get as down and dirty as I would have liked, but at the same time there is a clear structure within the company, and I respect that. Most of my time there was spent getting suites ready for a screening, picking up different things from shops around downtown Toronto whenever needed, occasional on-foot deliveries to other companies within the area, and operating the tape room. Of all those tasks, I definitely enjoyed my time in the tape room the most. Though nothing glamourous, while there I definitely felt like I was contributing; doing tasks such as dubbing, striping, and labeling tapes.
I was also very lucky to be invited into one of the online editing suites with one of the artists whenever I had free time. I was able to get a good idea for how their system works, and how exactly some of the visual effects are done. I can tell you that it's not just magic, and there is A LOT of work that goes into each project they work on. It's really impressive to watch them work, and how quickly some of the tasks can get done, though still requiring a lot of thinking and often trial & error.
It was a great experience and gave me a taste of what its like working full-time in downtown Toronto.