Representatives of Vancouver Film School are visiting St. John’s to promote enrolment in their media arts diploma programs. They will be hosting an event at The St. John’s Convention Centre on Thursday, March 30th.

Vancouver is often called  “Hollywood North” because the city is home to a number of television studios, visual effects studios, game development companies, and design agencies. Vancouver’s film and television industry has consistently expanded and prospered over the past two decades, and is now worth more than $2 billion a year, and employs around 35,000 people.

The thriving industry has treated Vancouver Film School (VFS) alumni well, the school’s graduates have been landing lucrative jobs on a huge projects. Former VFS students have gone on to work on blockbuster productions like, Avatar, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow – Part 2, and The Dark Knight Rises, just to name a few.

Graduates have also been landing gigs on TV programs like Game of Thrones and Family Guy. People who studied game design at VFS later worked on internationally recognized games like, Halo 3 and Assassin’s Creed III. In the last year alone, graduates of the school grossed over $19 billion working on projects in film and television all over the world.

The event at the St. John’s Convention Centre will give potential students an opportunity to meet with admissions representatives from VFS who can offer advice and answer questions about enrolment and what to expect from their diploma programs. VFS says they are, “… on the hunt for ‘creative potential” in St. John’s and hope to meet with local talent.

VFS offers year long diploma programs designed to give students a strong foundation in a particular area of media arts.  Their fast-track programming model is meant to pack what most schools teach in three or four years into twelve months so that students can focus on finding work more quickly.

The school hires instructors who have experience in the industry to teach courses on topics like; 3D Animation & Visual Effects, Game Design, Writing For Film and Television, and Acting for Film and Television.

In addition to helping students hone their natural aptitude for media arts, the school offers practical advice on how to break into the industry. Faculty and mentors help students craft professional portfolios, resumes and reels.

The school has recently noticed a surge in applications to their media arts programs. A lot of that interest is coming from outside of Canada and in the coming year VFS is aiming to up the number of applications from students within the country. Their visit to St. John’s is part of that initiative.