This text is part of the special Cinema section
The cinema, like most areas, lacks manpower, and the Mel-Hoppenheim School of Cinema takes up the challenge of training it.
Concordia University can boast of being one of the first in Canada to have integrated courses in film studies into its curriculum. “We’ve been training people in cinema for 50 years,” sums up Martin Lefebvre, director of the Mel-Hoppenheim Film School, founded later in the late 1990s.
Today, the School offers three major programs within it:Film Production, Film Studies and Animation Cinema. “We cover a very vast area,” remarks Mr. Lefebvre. The reputation of the baccalaureate in movie production (in English) of Concordia is no longer to be done: on the cinematographic chessboard of the province, graduates find their place very quickly.
For Mr. Lefebvre, the structure of the program is the reason. “Our students tour a lot. The experience they gain is invaluable,” he continues. Currently, they produce just over 200 films a year, and with professional equipment, too. Concordia students have the particularity of shooting everyone’s films by constantly changing roles: thus, a boom operator on one production can become a director on another, then director of photography on a third. This game of musical chairs allows you to learn and especially to test all the professions of cinema. Rather than specializing quickly, students can navigate through this unique experimental zone before entering a fairly codified industry where each individual has their role.
As for the film studies program, the structure is also relatively specific. You should know that students watch a lot of films there, even during class hours, with the aim of building a “strong film culture”, according to the director. For Mr. Lefebvre, who lived through the glory and death of video clubs, epicenter of moviegoers in the past, the abundance of viewing platforms today can become a pebble in the shoes of learners. “We have students who see a lot of films, but who have never seen an African or Japanese film, for example. What we offer is a way of navigating through this ocean of offer,” he says, adding in passing that the Mel-Hoppenheim School has the primary tangent of emphasizing the international cinema.
Arab, South American and even Indian creations are thus placed on an equal footing with Quebec and Canadian films. “We have always sought to avoid the chapel effects specific to the film studies environment in order to embrace the cinema phenomenon as broadly as possible”, he sums up.
New training
Like most fields, the film industry is facing a crying lack of manpower, and the Mel-Hoppenheim Film School wants to train more of them. With the development of new programs, such as firmware Digital Filmmaking or the graduate certificate in screenwriting, over the next few years, the film school will triple in size with the reception of approximately 220 students per year in the film production sector. “It’s the biggest growth I’ve seen in my entire career in a university department,” says Martin Lefebvre, who remains confident despite the magnitude of the challenge.
This year, the new screenwriting and film production microprogram will be offered in French, a first for the school, which nevertheless allows its students to write their written work or even shoot their films in the language of Molière. French has its place in this English-speaking department, which still has more than half of French speakers among its student body. “In the classes, it goes from French to English, a bit like what you find on the street in Montreal,” says Mr. Lefebvre.
This microprogram will be offered online so that Francophones from all over the province can take it. “We covet people who have not completed a DEC, for example, but who have something to tell,” explains the director. As the selection of students is done on the basis of a letter of intent rather than the usual transcript of records, the courses feed with relish on the colorful baggage of all the participants.
For future screenwriters and producers
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