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It’s back! Our annual awards show celebrating the achievements of TVNM students throughout the 2011-12 academic year. If you’re planning to attend (and why wouldn’t you, really?), pencil in Wednesday, March 21st from 6–9 pm.

We’ve got a new venue, and pre-production is well underway. Our solid-gold host once again is Eric Howard.

Tickets will go on sale later this month. Stay tuned!

And don’t forget the 2012 Screenings, to be held Monday, March 19th… more details to come.

Continue reading »]]> It’s a new year, and we’re already back at work in the TVNM program.

After a (hopefully) restful holiday break, students return Jan. 9th to get back at ‘er.  With only 10 weeks until internship, second– and  third-year students are in a race to the finish, while first-year students have courses — new and returning — through until the end of April.

We’ve got lots to look forward to in 2012, including the TVNM/Animation Screenings on March 21st, and the 9th Annual Sparkie Awards on March 23rd.

Check the web pages for sneak previews and behind-the-scenes footage of our two major productions, Hiding and Veridical.

And don’t forget to tune into Chef Class and QuinteView, our weekly lifestyle and current events programs, produced by students in Year 2.

All the best in 2012!

Continue reading »]]> Loyalist TVNM kicked off its second-annual 48-Hour Film Festival Wednesday afternoon. A total of 24 teams have entered the race to complete a film before Friday afternoon.
Two faculty teams have also chosen to participate — just for fun.
The criteria this year is:
Colour: Orange
Object: Ladle
Phrase: “Avoid it at all costs.”

The completed films will be available for viewing on YouTube this weekend. Stay tuned!

Continue reading »]]> Loyalist TVNM students are heading back to class in September!

If you’re one of the lucky few counted in this group, please note that classes start on Tuesday, September 6, 2011 (NOT Wednesday, as suggested in other correspondence from the College).

Year 1: 9:00 am. Media Studies Orientation, Loyalist Gymnasium (you will be escorted from there to your Program Orientation)

Year 2: 1:30 pm. How Semester 3 Works. Room 1N7

Year 3: 3:00 pm. How Semester 5 Works. Room 2H10

Attendance, as always, is required. In the meantime, check out our 48-Hour Film Fest page for details on this year’s awesome orientation event!

See you then!

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This is very cool stuff. I just entered the world of Apple TV. This is not an ad for Apple TV just a comment on streaming content on your computer and the web to the big screen. There are lots of devices out there.

I’m old school…ok I’m getting old too but that’s not where I’m going. I like the big screen. Most folks from my generation do. This is why we are now starting to see these streaming devices pop up. With this small box I can take the content from my computer and watch it on the big screen. I can watch podcasts, movies, home movies, pictures, and even stream music to the surround sound and to another hand held device in another room. The other cool thing is that if I’m watching something on my hand held device I can also push it to the big screen through the Apple TV box.

Now quality is an issue, some content doesn’t look that great. Movie rentals from Apple TV look pretty decent. Netflix artifacts a little more but I’m willing to sacrifice a little quality right now for the quantity I can get from all the online content.

Continue reading »]]> Loyalist students picked up another award from the Broadcast Educators’ Association of Canada.

Darker Side of Gray, a stylized television intro sequence produced by third-year TVNM students, picked up the award for Best Commercial or Promo for 2011.

Producer: Dillon Hodgin

Director: Ken Harrigan

Director of Photography: Nick Lee

Editor: Adam Palkovits

Congrats to the students and crew who worked on this excellent production!

Watch the winning production below:

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In my last blog I talked about how the story is king. Well, what you do with that story as a director is extremely important as well.

A little gem of a movie from the 80’s called Angel Heart, is like a text book of how to use imagery to aid the story telling process. You will either love or hate this movie. Whichever way you go you will not deny that the powerful use of imagery and themes help take the viewer on a fantastic ride.

The imagery of fans, staircases, elevators, and religious icons and many more all tell the story of a decent into hell. The director also uses the hot Louisiana weather as an unspoken character in every scene.

Alan Parker writes and directs this classic, starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, and featuring Lisa Bonet of Cosby show fame. If you don’t know Alan Parker, get to know his movies, he one of the best directors of our time.

For those of you that want to make music videos and want a master class on imagery, please watch this movie.

Continue reading »]]> The story is King.

I don’t care about all the special effects, 3D, fancy editing, humongous sets, outlandish costuming, or great high profile actors. If you don’t have a good story, you’ve got nothing.

After recently watching a TV series called The Black Donnelly’s it became very clear that my first statement is true. This series has no special effects, no outlandish sets, no overpaid high profile actors, and yet I could not stop watching because the story was so good.

Paul Haggis wrote and produced this series.  He is the same writer/director for Crash with Sandra Bullock, not the weird Cronenberg Crash with Holly Hunter. Here’s the other great thing about Paul, he’s Canadian.

All right, I have put my flag down and will continue telling you about The Black Donnelly’s series. It’s an Irish and Italian mob story set in New York City present day. It’s sort of Sopranos meets Boondock Saints. You are introduced to Joey Ice Cream an Italian kid from the neighborhood that is recounting the whole story while being interrogated by police. His narration helps connect the disjointed timeline of present day and historical flashbacks of the four Irish punk brothers.

I highly recommend it.

–Eric Howard