I was hired in late 2006 as a student producer by a company called UTours Website, for a film being made about Carleton University – my alma mater. UTours is an independent company that is putting together documentary videos about numerous Canadian Universities in a style akin to that of programs that one could find on Much Music or MTV.
The plan is to distribute these films to high schools so that students can watch the films to get a clearer idea as to what goes on at a particular university from the perspective of the students who attend the institution.
This opinion piece film project tries to provide information that is seemingly absent or more thorough then that which can be obtained through the reference books and pamphlets that are already at the students’ disposal – mostly because many of the questions are social issues and ideas in regards to student impressions of the school.
The films cover five main areas: Academics, Setting, Campus Life, Residence, and City Night-life. After setting up interviews and organizing the shoot for the crew, I assisted with the filming process while they were in town.
Filming wrapped on April 3rd 2007 and I feel that things went really well. The Cinematography was handled by Anthony Seck, a director known for doing music videos and special effects work. Some of his previous work has included working with Canadian rockers such as Feist, Broken Social Scene, Stars and Metric. The video was hosted by comedian Katherine Ryan, well known for being on Much Music’s Video on Trial series as well as part of the Yuk Yuk’s comedy circuit (other famous Canadian comics such as Rick Moranis, Howie Mandel and Jim Carrey all started off at Yuk Yuk’s).
The guys and girls at UTours completed editing the video in time for the beginning of the 2007/08 school year in September – some parts of this video are visible on their website, though I have yet to see the full product. If you are in high school now, or can get access to the movie, be sure to look for me in the video!!!).
