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.
JAMIE COTTINGTON | INSTRUCTOR
Jamie moved to Kelowna from London, England in 2013 after a very successful career spanning around 17 years with BMW UK.
He had been successfully ‘playing’ at being a photographer for around 10 years, never committing to making it his full time gig. However, when everything seemed to align perfectly, he couldn’t ignore the opportunity for a radical change of direction in life. Jamie resigned from his perfectly good job, jumped on a plane and headed to explore what Canada had to offer.
He enrolled at Centre for Arts and Technology, graduating from the Digital Video Fusion Program in 2014, as a way of broadening his creative offering. He has since formed a successful Photography, Videography and Events Management Company, called Pinstripe Productions Ltd., producing work across North America with his two Co-founders.
Aside from his own productions, Jamie is also hired as a Camera Operator for live TV, sporting and music events and is an experienced Gimbal Operator. He has worked on small and large production films and documentaries filmed in the Okanagan and in Europe.
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.
