No one said the road to becoming a professional digital filmmaker was an easy one; like many other arts-based careers, it takes dedication, commitment, drive and above all passion. Passion to make you get up early in the morning when the light is just right for shooting, passion to push you onward when film school gets tough, passion to look away when doubters tell you that you will never make it in the sea of others scrambling for the same goal; to MAKE it.
We at Centre for Arts and Technology know that our grads have this mix of skill and attitude and we love it when all of their hard work and passion come to fruition. Recently a group of CAT students embarked on a film journey, with the goal of producing a unique short film with a twist; it’s a musical! CAT Digital Filmmaking Alumni, Benjamin Musgrave is the writer, cinematographer and director of this ultimately collaborative piece that will hit the film festival circuit in summer 2016.
The film centers on a young man searching for a life beyond the confines of his prairie home. The protagonist is a dreamer, seeking a life filled with “more” but is struggling to find the balance between expectation and reality. This carefully laid out film includes themes of family, expectation, and generational gravity that eventually explodes into a sequence of song and dance; dream and ambition.
The production of this film included the expertise of over a dozen CAT alumni, current students and staff and all actors cast in the film were sourced from the Kelowna area. The film, title “Late Harvest” was shot on location in Lloydminster, Albert with a few scenes shot in CAT’s on-campus film production studio.
Director and CAT Alumni, Benjamin Musgrave is described on the Late Harvest website as
“Thematically intrigued by the subjectivity of desire and the grasping pursuit of one’s bliss,
Benjamin Musgrave’s style is best defined as ambiguous.
Genres are melded to off-beat originals; story structure is subservient to atmosphere,
mood and emotion. Music is the inherent influence of his life and the centre from which all other expression originates.”
All of us at CAT are exceptionally proud of Benjamin and his team and we look forward to seeing the final, full length piece. Centre for Arts and Technology supported this initiative by kitting out the crew from the school’s equipment inventory. A list of staff and student credits can be seen below:
Writer / Cinematographer/Director Benjamin Musgrave (CAT Alumni)
Producer Natasha Howes (CAT Instructor)
1st Assistant Director Gary Potzkai (CAT Alumni)
Lighting Director Gary Potzkai (CAT Alumni)
Best Boy Katie Rabb (Current student)
Location Audio Brandon Cardinal (CAT Alumni)
Script Supervisor Katie Rabb
Music composed by Benjamin Musgrave (CAT Alumni)
Music Co-composed by Tyler Devon Gillis (Current student)
Music Engineered by Taylin Simmonds (CAT Alumni)
Recorded at Centre for Arts & Technology, Kelowna.
Mixed at Blue Label Records (Anthony Mansour – CAT Alumni)
Sound Effects Artist Brendon Nilsson (CAT student)
ADR Recordist Tony Gort (CAT instructor / Emmy award winning sound engineer)
ADR Assistant Recordist Samuel Agecoutay (CAT student)
Recorded at Centre for Arts & Technology, Kelowna
Re-Recording Mixer Tony Gort
Graphic Design & Credits Steffanie Mackie (CATGrad)