Faced with a flourishing film industry in Quebec, Concordia University has decided to implement a plan that will allow it to train a greater number of qualified students to ensure the next generation.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
By 2024, the Mel-Hoppenheim School of Cinema will therefore welcome around 220 students per year, while it currently accepts 70 to 80 out of the approximately 800 applications received annually.
“There is a need for manpower, and everyone knows it,” notes Annie Gérin, Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University.
“There are productions that have been canceled, or at least postponed, because there was a lack of workers on the sets. So, we are responding to the call to train more people,” underlines the director of the Mel-Hoppenheim Film School, Martin Lefebvre, whose students quickly place themselves in the milieu.
With the development of platforms, we are filming like we have never filmed in Quebec.
Martin Lefebvre, director of the Mel-Hoppenheim School of Cinema
“I have colleagues who often tell me that they have received a phone call during the week from all kinds of productions looking for an editor, a third assistant, and who ask if we have a student to pass on to them”, illustrates he.
The University has been working on this project for two years now, along with the government, the Office of Cinema and Television of Quebec and the major studios established in the Montreal region. In addition to meeting the demand of the community, the issue is both economic and cultural, specifies the dean.
“I have just come from a trip of a few weeks to Los Angeles where we met people from HBO, Warner Bros, Amazon… We told them about our project and we were told that this is what they were waiting for. send productions to Quebec,” she says.
A greater choice of study programs
Despite the arrival of all these new students, a physical expansion is not currently planned, as the University has decided to move forward using the available premises.
“If we had decided to wait for a pavilion, we would not have been so reactive. And if we haven’t done that before, it’s because we’re really creating solid partnerships with people in the industry. At the moment, we are talking with people at MELS studios and especially at Grandé Studios to be able to hold master classes in their spaces which could allow us to touch equipment that the University will not buy, ”explains Annie Gérin.
By working directly with the people who will hire our students, it really allows us to be on the cutting edge and to expose our students to professional spaces and environments.
Annie Gérin, Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University
In addition to the existing bachelor’s and master’s programs, the University wants to open the door to students with an atypical background or who are already on the job market, in particular with the creation of several certificates (including at the graduate level) and a few microprograms — i.e. specialized training concentrated in three courses.
Among these, the firmware of Screenwriting created last year as part of the Recovery Assistance Program by increasing training (PARAF) to allow people to reorient themselves will continue, indicates Annie Gérin, but it will also be offered in French from ‘winter.
The screenwriting and production microprogram will be offered online in French, while the English version of the training will be given in the evenings and weekends in the winter to facilitate access to students who work during the week, says Martin Lefebvre.
These are diplomas that do not exist in Quebec. So we are filling a space that is necessary for the health of the film industry in Quebec.
Martin Lefebvre, director of the Mel-Hoppenheim School of Cinema
Discussions are also underway to open the door of the Film School to certain communities that are underrepresented in the film industry. Thus, a bridge between the School and Kiuna Cégep is being developed to facilitate the recruitment of students from First Nations.
“Telefilm Canada, SODEC, everyone agrees that there really is a need to encourage this diversity in the film industry,” concludes the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts.