By Adam Donnelly

Lights! Camera! Action! Aspiring Kamloops filmmakers learn tricks of the trade

Feb 13, 2018 | 3:14 PM

KAMLOOPS — For years, making movies took lots of time and even more money, but with the advance in digital technology, the ability to create a visually engaging film exists in most of our pockets. On Saturday, one local production company teamed up with the Kamloops Film Festival Society to help aspiring filmmakers turn their ideas into reality with a Filmmakers Workshop.

It was a peek behind the curtain on Saturday, for 20 aspiring filmmakers at Mastermind Studios. The local production company opened up their soundstage facility to host a Filmmakers Workshop, in partnership with the Kamloops Film Festival in the hopes of inspiring some local filmmakers to take part in the Kamloops Independent Short Short Film Fest.

“The festival folks just approached us and said ‘We really love what you guys are doing and we want to have a better relationship between our two organizations,’” Mastermind’s Cinematographer Jordan Nicholson explained.
 
The workshop covered a variety of subjects which comprise the basics of video production for the aspiring filmmakers, all who have different levels of video experience.

“There are quite a [few] people here who just want to get better at what they do,” Nicholson said.

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One of the 20 who went to the workshop was Joel Feenstra.

“I’ve seen the Film Festival and all of their advertisements around and thought it was a great pairing,” Feenstra told CFJC Today. “Now I can go [to the workshop] and take what I’ve learned here and go down to the festival and compare notes.”

Feenstra says he hasn’t been bitten by the creativity bug yet but hopes this workshop will give him the tools to realize his vision once that happens.

“I don’t have any good five-minute ideas [for the Independent Short Short Film Fest],” he said. “Maybe when the story hits me I’d do it.”

The crew at Mastermind is hoping these filmmaker workshops help create a renewed interest in the film industry in the city, an industry they’re hoping to attract with their new soundstage facility.

“We’re trying to bring this industry to the region,” Nicholson said. “Traditionally, everyone leaves. They get trained [in the film industry] and then go where the work is. We want the work to be here.”

According to Nicholson, the 20 spots in this inaugural workshop filled up very quickly, which means Mastermind could likely look at holding smilier events in the future.