Vancouver Film School's Marty Hasselbach (sitting) works with a student. Photo by: Myriam Casper

Since opening their doors 15 years ago-with a class of 12 students-the Vancouver Film School has grown into one of the world's most respected film education institutions. With an accelerated program that is geared toward graduating students in 12 months or less, VFS takes a hands-on approach to education-taking students out of the classroom and putting them onto the film set.

In an interview with MM, Vancouver Film School's Managing Director Marty Hasselbach discusses the school's unique approach to learning, their adherence to the rule of quality over quantity and how a year at VFS is much like a year spent in France.

Jennifer Wood (MM): Location plays an important part in any education, but film education especially. What makes Vancouver a great place to learn about film?

Marty Hasselbach (MH): Vancouver is rated as the third largest entertainment center in North America. It is a very busy city when it comes to commercial production-many high-budget movies are made in Vancouver-as well as indie production. We have a thriving independent filmmaking community in Vancouver as well as busy animation studios and new media production companies. Being in Vancouver allows our students access to some of the best and brightest people working in the industry.

MM: What do you think is the one thing that sets VFS apart from some of the bigger US schools like NYU, USC or UCLA? Why should students considering those programs take a look at VFS?

MH: VFS offers a very unique model of education and the truth is, it isn't for everyone. It takes a very dedicated, focused and creative person to succeed in the fast-paced production style of training that we offer. We take the student out of the lecture hall and put them into the production studio in an accelerated timeframe.

VFS programs are all one year or less, and they concentrate on being in production, not being in a theory class. For a certain type of person, this makes the most sense: they want to come in and immerse themselves in their discipline and go out with their portfolio and get a job. It is about learning the most in the shortest timeframe.

MM: VFS invests a lot of time traveling the world and holding informational meetings in an attempt to recruit new students. Why do you take such an aggressive approach to maintaining a wide international cross-section of students?

MH: VFS may be based in Vancouver, but we are a global school. We believe that it is important that we have a wide variety of people in each class because the entertainment industry is global. Each class ends up working with people that will undoubtedly be good contacts for them in the industry, whether they are from Canada, the US, Japan, Australia, England or Africa. Each person brings their own perspective to their chosen discipline and each person in that class can learn from someone else's experiences and perceptions. It isn't just the technical information that is important: it is learning to work creatively and constructively within a team environment, with people who have similar and different views, that rounds out a true professional.

MM: The philosophy at VFS seems to be quality over quantity: students don't need to spend four years in an educational program when they can learn just as much in one-and enter into the workforce that much sooner. What steps do you take to make sure that the compression of coursework does not suffer as far as quality is concerned?

MH: An example of how this "immersive" model of education works is this: If you were going to learn to speak French, you could go to class every day for two to four years, or you could move to France for a year. The truth is, you would be more proficient by living in France, because you would absorb the language, the culture and the subtext of the language. That is what VFS does.

Students work hard at VFS. Their average day is 12 to 16 hours, depending on where they are in the production cycle. We expect a great deal of our students-and they constantly deliver. We have taken out much of the lecture hall-type of teaching because we believe that the students who attend VFS are going to learn by doing. We encourage students to watch films, attend film festivals, and to discuss the great directors on their own time. When they are in school, they are working on films.

MM: VFS was the first school to offer a 3D animation production program, and the first to offer a production training program for new media. How do you keep current with happenings in the film industry? Are there any new 'firsts' forthcoming?

MH: We have recently introduced a new Sound Design for Visual Media program, which is the first program of its type in North America. Students learn how to create sound for film, television and the Internet. Many other programs out there concentrate on the music industry. While the program does cover music, including soundtracks and scores, this program is a direct result of VFS going to the entertainment industry and asking what type of person they needed in order to improve the quality of their movies, television shows and Internet projects.

We are also in the final development stages of a Broadcast Media Production program that will train students to work in the ever changing world of broadcast. They will learn on-camera skills as well as how to shoot, edit and transmit their tapes to the studio from anywhere in the world. Again, this program is a direct result of industry input: we know what the industry needs-they have told us what jobs they have and what skills are necessary to fill them-and then have worked with us to create these programs.

MM: VFS adopts a very hands-on approach to film, even with your part-time students. Can you talk a bit about your Indie Film Shoot program?

MH: VFS offers part-time courses in all of our full-time programs. It provides people with the chance to experience VFS before making the commitment to apply for full-time enrollment, or it gives people who don't have the time or resources to come full-time to learn. It also allows industry professionals to upgrade their skills on a regular basis.

The Indie Film Shoot is a part of the part-time courses that we offer and gives students the opportunity to work on a film, from pre-production to shooting to post-production. The courses involved in the Indie Film Shoot include Producing, the Director, Cinematography, Script Supervisor and Art Direction. It is a great way to gain real experience as a member of a film crew on an actual film shoot.

MM: You have a separate set of courses for teens. Where do the kids come from who take these courses? How are they different from your undergraduate classes? Are the goals different?

MH: The teen courses are reasonably new and were started because Vancouver is a very busy production center for film and television-and more and more young people are realizing that they are interested in a career in entertainment.

The training is quite intense. Even in a part-time program, students are expected to act like professionals-they are there to learn how to be professionals, after all. The teen programs are developed specifically for younger people so, naturally, the courses are a little different than those developed for adults. But don't get me wrong, the teens that come to these classes are focused and dedicated and want to learn-and the instructors are industry professionals

MM: What are some of the biggest changes you've seen in the 15 years since the Vancouver Film School first opened its doors?

MH: I think that what really stands out about VFS is the success of our graduates and the school's international reputation for excellence. VFS graduates are working in the film, television and entertainment industries in some very high-profile jobs. We have grads that have worked on Lord of the Rings, Titanic, The X-Files, Malcolm in the Middle and The Sixth Day. And at studios and production companies around the world including ILM, Pixar and Digital Domain, Warner Brothers, NBC, Blast Radius, Totally Hip Software and, of course, even MovieMaker. (MM Founder Tim Rhys is a graduate of VFS Class 16).

Our president, James Griffin was in Asia recently at a coffee shop and as he stood waiting for his coffee, a young man approached him and introduced himself. He was a VFS graduate, working in the film and television industry,  and he wanted to thank James, saying that VFS put him on the road to  success.

It seems that whenever VFS goes to a trade show or an event throughout the world, people are coming up to us and telling us how the year at VFS changed their life for the better. The truth is they changed their lives by being creative, disciplined and focused and by making the decision to learn their craft at VFS-a production house that teaches.