VICTOR POIRIER | DEPARTMENT HEAD
Victor’s interest in film started at age 17 when he had the opportunity to work as a PA on the documentary film A Life, by the late award-winning Canadian documentary filmmaker Frank Cole. After his work on the film (described by Andrienne Mancia of New York’s Museum of Modern Art as doing “some of the things that Scorsese does in The Last Temptation of Christ, but perhaps better”) Victor moved into photography, studying for a BFA at the University of Ottawa.
Post university, Victor worked as a set photographer, gaffer, camera assistant and camera operator in the Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal film industries; he then opened Erebus Productions, a facilities house which serviced the Eastern corridor with grip, electric, 16 mm and 35 mm film cameras. After a period directing music videos for Canadian bands, he moved to producing and directing under the banner Panfilms, where he won several awards in various categories, including documentary, national PSA’s, and animation, for a variety of networks, including CTV, OLN TVO and CBC.
In 2001, Victor moved to the UK where he became the director of BBC Scotland’s longest serving episodic television series The Beechgrove as well as several series for ITV and BBC Gaelic. Over the course of eight years he directed and produced over 150 episodes of primetime, from documentary, to lifestyle to reality. Victor also acted as Executive Producer on the BBC series, The Food Trail. Victor gained national recognition for his role as producer/director on the ITV series The Woman Who Ate Scotland, which broke established viewing figures and gained a Scottish Thistle nomination.
After moving back to Canada in 2008, he worked as director of development at Ocean Entertainment in Halifax, Nova Scotia before relocating to the Okanagan.. Victor now lives in Kelowna and works at the Center for Arts and Technology managing the Digital Filmmaking, and Digital Photography departments.
To learn more about working in the Filmmaking Industry, you can listen to our PODCAST with Victor on our Soundcloud Stream.
DONALD B. FERGUSON | INSTRUCTOR
Don Ferguson has 36 years of experience in the broadcast industry, spanning from the end of the film days to the digital age of today. Don has had the privilege of working as a Studio Cameraman for the Evening Newscast, worked in Master Control on commercials and TV shows and from there progressed to producing for ENG (Electronic News Gathering). There he worked in the field with reporters and anchors, producing the news. Don also has experience as a Production Switcher for live broadcasts of the news and has worked as a News Director, responsible for the audio and video for live newscasts. Don is versed in all the software used for live productions and non-linear editing techniques. Don is a partner in the film production company Techyoumedia and has produced several documentaries and TV pilots through this partnership, including “The Force” hosted by Leslie Nielsen and The KVR Diaries with TV host Mike Roberts. A full length sci-fi motion picture from Techyoumedia is in the final stages of effects and sound design.
Don brings his diverse experience with him to Centre for Arts and Technology as an instructor in the Digital Video Fusion Production Program and the Digital Filmmaking Program.
HENRIETTA POIRIER | INSTRUCTOR
Growing up between Glasgow’s inner-city grit and the rugged isolation of the Isle of Skye on Scotland’s west coast, Henrietta’s world view has been shaped by local folklore and fairytales of travel and adventure. She traveled extensively on her own with little more than a backpack and a pair of sandals, volunteering in India’s southern regions, smoking with sadhus in the Himalayas, traveling by camel through the Gobi Desert, and teaching English in Cairo; wherever she went, Henrietta immersed herself in the culture, stories, and language of the region. From studying Hebrew in Israel, working in France, Greece, and Turkey to living out of a VW van in Mexico and the US, Henrietta’s love for story has been inspired by many cultures.
Educated in both the broadcast and media arts and cultural studies across two continents, she now makes her home in Kelowna BC, where she lives with her husband of 28 years.
Henrietta has worked at the Centre as a part-time contract instructor for ten years, bringing lively and informed instruction across a number of programs, including Photography, Film, and Events and Planning Management. Her love for the written word, warm presence, and dedication to her craft have been both a valuable asset and well-loved addition to our students’ education here at the college.
She is passionate about giving her students informed and insightful feedback and working with them to explore story and improve their writing skills.
With 20+ years writing for film, television, and commercial productions, her writing career has crossed platforms from business to entertainment. She has had short films shortlisted, sold a feature on the Hutus and Tutsis to World Changer Productions; she was the creator/writer of a television series optioned by TVO, and wrote the script for an award-winning documentary aired on OLN.
Additionally, her treatments and proposals have secured development funding from CTV, TVO, and Bell Media.
Henrietta works as a freelance writer both locally and internationally with ongoing contracts in marketing and media production industries. She has had poetry published in three anthologies, and four books published as a ghostwriter. Henrietta is currently working on the adaptation of a novel into a television series set in Neolithic Scotland.
BRANDON OLSON | INSTRUCTOR
Brandon started in the Vancouver Film and Television industry at the age of four as an actor, where he worked on over seventy commercials and two feature films with stars such as Jean Claude Van Damme, Michael Rooker, Scott Bakula and Cynthia Nixon to name a few. After stepping away from acting and pursuing a career behind the camera, Brandon attended and graduated the Centre for Arts and Technology Digital Film Production Program.
Following his graduation Brandon would begin working in pre-production for the same casting directors that hired him as an actor ten plus years earlier. He would also work on sets in the assistant directors department as a background coordinator and in front of the camera again as a member of the second team most often times.
Brandon currently holds a position in both the UBCP union as well as the DGC permittee program.