Celebrating creativity in B.C.
After hearing Peter Fassbender sing a few bars from Roy Orbison’s Oh, Pretty Woman at Creative B.C.’s private Union Club function last Monday night, one diplomat suggested maybe he shouldn’t give up his day job.
“They asked me after last night not to sing today, so I won’t,” deadpanned B.C.’s minister of community, sport and cultural development the following afternoon in the B.C. legislature’s Hall of Honour.
The self-mocking minister was there to introduce Shirley Bond, minister of jobs, tourism and skills training, who officially proclaimed Feb. 27-March 25 as Creative Industries Week.
Highlights at Tuesday’s launch, where Bond also announced the allocation of $1.2 million for the Music Company Development Program from a $15 million B.C. Music Fund, included a mini-concert by Vancouver-based indie rockers Said the Whale, visual effects demonstrations and opportunities to experience cutting-edge technology such as Blueprint Reality’s inaugural MixCast VR game Awaken.
During Monday night’s gathering, hosted by actor Ellie Harvey
(The Addams Family), dozens of musicians, film and television producers, digital media players, book publishers and studio chiefs were entertained by Carmanah’s Laura Mina and 54-40. Notables included Vancouver Film Studios president and COO Pete Mitchell; Heidi Waechtler, executive director of the Association of Book Publishers of B.C.; Sylvia Skene, executive director of the Magazine Association of B.C.; Phil Klapwyk, business agent for IATSE 891 and Liz Shorten, vicepresident of the Canadian Media Production Association, B.C.
“You are a giant when it comes to job creation. I think you’re one of those unsung heroes,” Bond told creative-economy stakeholders. “People don’t realize how important this industry is to the province.”
It’s responsible for 85,000 jobs and contributes more than $4 billion to the provincial economy, said Bond.
“The whole theme of this week is empowering the next generation of talent,” said Prem Gill, CEO of Creative B.C.
“We need to ensure we have a global reputation of excellence and that we’re maintaining that and encouraging people to pursue viable, long-term careers, whether in digital, music or the motion-picture industry.”
Gill said it made sense kicking off Creative Industries Week events in Victoria, home to the Vancouver Island South Film and Media Commission, which the not-for-profit government agency funds.
“We work very closely with them. What’s great about Victoria is that you can work with one group and they can connect you very easily with people in other sectors.”
Kendrie Upton, executive director of the Director’s Guild of Canada, B.C., says she has noticed an upswing in production here.
“As producers are looking more to be outside of Vancouver’s downtown core, Victoria is a natural option,” she said, citing the region’s heritage properties, small-town looks and filmfriendly attitude.
“There are productions based here purely for that architecture and that flavour that is frankly in more supply here than in Vancouver.”
One guy who sees the light when it comes to filming here is Peter Hayman, executive director of the International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE local 669.
“It’s a different light, no question, in the same way that Alberta has a very different light than B.C. does,” he observed.
“What you sometimes get from the haze here is incredible. We have seven different weather systems so you never really know what you’re going to get.”
James Hursthouse, chair and acting executive director of DigiBC, had just appeared at Discover Tectoria and would fly to San Francisco for a game developer’s conference midweek before returning to Vancouver to prepare for the March 14 BCTECH Summit. He found the time to attend and sing the praises of B.C.-based companies that specialize in virtual-reality development, however.
“I think we’re at the dawn of what some people call the fourth era of computing,” said Hursthouse, explaining the wonders of mixed reality, virtual spaces in which objects or individuals can be dynamically integrated in real time. As he spoke, a young gamer wearing a VR headset against a green screen immersed himself in such a world, his actions as the star of the MixCast VR game
Awaken reflected on screen. “We are where creativity and technology meet, but with mixed reality these devices have now got to the point where you can use them for real-world purposes.”