Plaza Theatre hosts world premiere highlighting the works of over 100 budding teenage Calgary filmmakers
Plaza Theatre hosts world premiere highlighting the works of over 100 budding teenage Calgary filmmakers
Throughout the school year, students at Tom Baines Junior High School in Calgary have been studying film and producing short movies.
Wednesday, they got a chance to see them on the big screen.
Benjamin Tran's short film Locked is about a student unable to open the combination to his locker. It's a simple concept but one that struck a chord with his audience of fellow junior high students.
"At first you feel like nervous and like stressed, like you don't want to see your film. You don't want to present it," said Tran "But when it's actually up there (on the screen) and it's finished, you feel like relief, likey ou've gone all out and everyone's watched it."
Benjamin Tran's short film Locked is about a student unable to open the combination to his locker.
ASPECTS OF FILM MAKING
Through the school year students learn every aspect of film making, from writing and pre-production, to lighting, camera operation, and sound, through to post-production editing and special effects.
A big take-away for all of them is just how hard it is to make a well-produced film, even a short one.
"You can see how hard it is. Just to make a minute of a movie takes like a whole day," said Grade 8 student and director Dinuli Desilva.
"I know how it is like to make a two-minute movie," she added. "It must take a lot of hard work to make a two-hour movie."
DeSilva’s movie is an homage to one of her favourite films Uncharted. In it, she recreates several key scenes from the movie, trying to match the lighting, set design and camera work
"It's so nice to see your movie in the big screen. I'm just 13 years old, and now I can tell people that my movie was shown in a big screen."
WEIGHTY TOPICS
Some of the student films deal with weightier topics. Kaylee Tang was camera operator and grip in the short film Gone.It's the story of a quiet girl, who has trouble making friends in school.
"And no one really noticed her or like, they kind of just ignored her, even though she's like, always been there. And all the new students have friends already. And so she decided to disappear. And her parents were really worried," said Tang.
She says it’s not about any one person in particular. Tang says her crew simply wanted to make a movie others her age would instantly understand.
"We kind of created it as a group together," she said. "But we struggled at first because we all had really different ideas. And it was it was hard to put them all together in one film.
"We just tried not to make like a super basic story," she adds. "We tried to make it like a story that people could relate to."
LOVE OF MOVIES
Their instructor Robert Dougherty has been teaching this course for over a decade. A film buff since he was a preteen, he's hoping to instill that love of movies to his students.
More importantly, he says the team-building, and presentation skills the students learn are valuable life skills.
"If you can teach them the discipline and the control the planning, the execution and composition of good filmmaking, so that they can use that technology, then you get amazing outcomes," he said.
And he says for some in the class it could potentially spark a career.
"I've got kids who are working as composers in Los Angeles for film, kids who are doing special effects," he said. "Well, they're not kids anymore, but they're doing special effects in film. One of my (former) students is in the new Avatar film, and she's one of the actresses who is featured in that movie."
Doughtery says while it remains to be seen if any of the students at the Plaza Theatre Wednesday will ever hit the big time, seeing their films shown on the big screen gives them a chance to feel like they already have.
Cape Breton University has more than doubled in size by enrolling thousands of international students, and critics say the campus and community weren't ready. Watch the documentary 'Cash Cow' on CTV W5, Saturday at 7 p.m.
A new Canadian study of 4.8 million people says a daily alcoholic drink isn't likely to send anyone to an early grave, nor will it offer any of the health benefits touted by previous studies, even if it is organic red wine.
W5 profiles the man who makes the sounds for breaking bones and squealing tires in Hollywood’s biggest films; and he does it from a small town in Ontario. Watch 'Sound Farms' at 7 p.m. on CTV W5.
Statistics Canada has released its new report about the Canadians level of confidence in Canada’s institutions, finding that recent immigrants are more likely to express confidence in the media and parliament.
In a choice forced upon them by the Canadian government, four mothers have made the agonizing decision to forfeit an opportunity to repatriate their children from open air prisons in northeast Syria.
Lawyers representing Toronto MP Han Dong served Global News with a libel notice on Friday over reports that alleged he spoke to a Chinese diplomat in February 2021 about delaying the release of the two Michaels, and that he was a 'witting affiliate' of Chinese interference networks – allegations that Dong denies.
A recent report from Royal LePage is predicting a drop in prices for Canadian cabins and cottages this year as demand softens from economic uncertainty and low housing stock.
Officials in Vancouver said they plan to meet with the artist and volunteers who are keeping vigil on a children's shoe memorial on the steps of the city's art gallery in an effort to end the tribute to children who didn't return from residential schools.
After the RCMP commissioner admitted he didn't read the Mass Casualty Commission’s final recommendations, family members of those killed in the April 2020 tragedy say they have doubts the force will change.
Cape Breton University has more than doubled in size by enrolling thousands of international students, and critics say the campus and community weren't ready. Watch the documentary 'Cash Cow' on CTV W5, Saturday at 7 p.m.
A doctor named in a lawsuit after a Nova Scotia woman died in hospital following a long wait to see a physician has denied allegations from the family that he failed in his duties.
A Vancouver Island woman managed to capture something on video last Sunday that experts say is extremely rare. Maxine Gillette calls it a once in a lifetime experience.
A Vancouver Island musician and former church pastor will serve three months of house arrest, followed by 18 months of probation, after he was convicted of one count of sexual assault.
The leader of Ontario's new democrats says she's removed long-time party member Michael Mantha from caucus amid an independent investigation into alleged workplace misconduct.
In one day, Ontario midwife Manavi Handa saw three patients who will have to pay thousands of dollars to be able to schedule a C-section beginning on Sunday.
Akwesasne Mohawk Police say they are working with Immigration Canada and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to confirm the identities of the eight migrants whose bodies were pulled from the St. Lawrence River this week.
April Fools' Day -- better known as poisson d'Avril in Quebec -- is upon us. Some of the province's familiar faces got into the spirit Saturday with a few light-hearted social media pranks.
In an attempt to take pressure off hospital emergency rooms, the Saskatchewan government will offer a bump in pay for family doctors who work later hours.
Cape Breton University has more than doubled in size by enrolling thousands of international students, and critics say the campus and community weren't ready. Watch the documentary 'Cash Cow' on CTV W5, Saturday at 7 p.m.
A northern Ontario man has been banned from licenced hunting and fined $5,000 after pleading guilty to having more than six times the legal limit of grouse and obstructing conservation officers.
The sale has started of former Saskatchewan government liquor store buildings. The province got out of liquor retailing earlier this month and is disposing of all assets.
In an attempt to take pressure off hospital emergency rooms, the Saskatchewan government will offer a bump in pay for family doctors who work later hours.
Benjamin Tran's short film Locked is about a student unable to open the combination to his locker. 
