It is not often you get to film some of the top athletes in the world, while shadowing a Gemini award winning producer and a Canadian Soccer Hall of Famer on an Olympic level sports competition, but that is just what some of our students were up to recently.
Mike Brannagan and Helen Stoumbos of Gleam Media were here to shoot Canada’s finest at the Big White 2017 World Para Snowboard Championships and they brought Centre for Arts and Technology Digital Filmmaking students Matthias MacLeod, Max Knutson, and Vince Eger along for the experience. Needless to say our students were extremely excited and grateful for this epic opportunity.
Gleam Media has worked with the Canadian Paralympic Committee on many previous projects and has created content and interviewed people like Drew Carey, David Beckham, and the manager of the Blue Jays, John Gibbons to name a few. They have also covered 12 Olympics, CFL Grey Cup Games, and the Juno Awards, so our students were greatly honored to have a chance to shoot alongside them at the Paralympic Games at Big White.
Para-Snowboarding, originally called Adaptive Snowboarding, is a relatively new sport to be recognized by the IPC (The International Paralympic Committee) debuting on the Olympic level in Sochi in 2014. Para-Snowboarding athletes have an impairment such as limb loss or deficiency, a spinal cord injury, nerve damage, or cerebral palsy and have overcome these challenges to become top of their game on the world stage.
The 2017 World Paralympic Snowboard Championships are the last major competition before these accomplished athletes compete in the 2018 Pyeongchang Paralympic Winter Games in Korea. Our very own Big White was a proud host to these fine athletes as they prepare to compete next year.
The Centre for Arts and Technology strives to involve our students work with real world projects and opportunities and we go to great lengths to nurture industry relationships. We feel that being involved in real industry events and working with real world talent gives our students a competitive advantage and the confidence to tackle big things when they graduate into professional life.
Gleam Media has presented to our Digital Filmmaking students in the past and has taken their valuable time to impart the wisdom and advice of their profession. Students learned that they can expect some long days and challenging situations, but in the end it is a rewarding and amazing career. They also received some advice on how to thrive in the industry. Important concepts like why diversity, attitude, entrepreneurship and resilience can be some of the most important skills to have. They also covered upcoming trends, potential roadblocks, and where students should focus their sites in this ever changing industry.
All in all it was a spectacular event and we look forward to amazing opportunities like these in the future. We really appreciate Gleam Media allowing us to participate and we also wish these talented Olympians all the best in Pyeongchang next year!