Belleville production house teaching filmmakers the tools of the trade

Victor Cooper, senior producer and course facilitator at Vantage Point Media House. Photo by Lindsey Cooke, QNet News

By Olivia Timm

BELLEVILLE – The Vantage Point Media House team is doing great things in the film industry.

Starting in 2018, the Belleville video production company is launching a VP Academy workshop to teach people everything they need to know about video – from production to post-production.

The courses will be facilitated by award-winning industry producers and will pique the interest of those who want to produce video content for their own business venture or digital project, according to a recent news release.

Scott Rook, a third-year Film and TV Production student at Loyalist College, says the workshop – which features three separate courses to choose from – would be a good choice for students wanting more experience after post-secondary education.

“I think it would be a really good alternative post-grad program for people like me who are coming out of the third year of college and going out into the working world to get a little more experience with a production company.”

Victor Cooper, senior producer and course facilitator with VP Academy, is an  alumnus of the Loyalist television and film program. Rook says it’s nice to see past graduates working in their field.

“It’s really good that our alumni from the school get to show what they have been doing to kind of give back to the program, which is what I think VP Academy is sort of doing – spreading the knowledge they have to other professionals in the industry.”

Paul Papadopoulos, co-ordinator of the Loyalist Film and TV Production program, agreed that what Cooper and his team at Vantage Point are doing is great.

“I think what VP has been doing over the past few years is growing constantly. They are an example that you don’t need to go to the big smoke – whether that’s Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, New York, L.A. – big media centres – to make a go of it in our industry,” he said. “They have managed to be a Belleville-based company and do world-class production. To have our grads be senior contributing members of that company is great for us and great for the community. I say, ‘Great for us’ because we are proud. They’ve taken the spark that we’ve given them and gone way beyond … we are a conduit to where they are now.”

In one of the three courses offered in the program, Vantage Point will be teaching people how to use industry-standard RED 8K EPIC-W cameras.

Papadopoulos says students and filmmakers should understand it is important to learn the basics of film before going out and using high-end equipment. That’s what is great about this new initiative, he said: students can take advantage of the skills they’ve learned in post-secondary and continue to hone them.

“I think it’s a great thing if you have students coming out of our program who then decide to take these workshops with the guys at VP. I think, ‘What a great complement to what we’re doing. There’s graduates of our program helping graduates of our program. What a great continuation of the learning process, which should never end.’ ”

The Bay of Quinte area is becoming a filmmakers’ hub, according to Cooper. Papadopoulos agrees, saying, “It certainly is growing, and we would love to see it grow more.”

He has seen several examples around the area of folks moving to Hastings and Prince Edward counties to find work and realizing this is a great area to work and live, he said.

VP Academy workshops will be held at the newly renovated media house studio on Front Street in Belleville.