Sisler CREATE Showcase 2022

With files from Sisler CREATE

Students in Sisler High School's CREATE Program were busy over the pandemic; they worked remotely on major creative projects, as well as collaborating with major companies across North America, including Nelvana, Nickelodeon and CBC Kids.

Sisler CREATE students, staff, families and partners gathered at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on June 22 to celebrate all of the students' creative achievements over the past few years. 

Founded in 2015, the CREATE Program provides high school and post-high students with educational and career pathways to the creative industries in Canada, and worldwide. Students can enter into three educational pathways: Graphic Design, Interactive Digital Media and Motion Picture Arts. Students can study film, animation, game design, graphic design, photography, digital media and more in an environment that provides technology and skill sets that rival most colleges and universities. Sisler instructors were key in the development and writing of the provincial Interactive Digital Media and Motion Picture Arts vocational frameworks.  

CREATE students are able to connect with industry mentors and internship opportunities that allow them to build their portfolios while still in school.

CREATE Department Head Jamie Leduc said the pandemic actually created more opportunities for mentorship with industry connections and remote work opportunities.

“Some of the side-effects of Covid have been that studios have been reaching out to us and asking us to do stuff, which has been so cool,” Mr. Leduc said. “I think a lot of the studios were aware of some of the struggles the kids were going through and they wanted to help education.”

The industry connection has also resulted in job opportunities for current students. Twelve CREATE students secured paid internships with Canadian animation giant Nelvana over the past year. Most of the students had their internships extended into the summer.

“These post-high students are probably going to clear $16,000 within a calendar year, while going to school, getting studio experience with storyboarding departments, storyboarding revisionists, rigging, layout, background painting, animation seed setup, post layout and working on existing and upcoming shows,” Mr. Leduc said. “They’ll be coming out of Sisler with all of that on already on their resume.”

The arrangement has been beneficial for both students and an industry that is always looking for more creative talent.

“The studios are trying to find talented kids who want to be in the creative arts and those industries, because they will need those workers,” said Bernard Alibudbud, who teaches in Interactive Digital Media in the program.

The CREATE program has remarkable alumni success rate. More than 82 grads have pursued post-secondary education in digital media, while 32 have found full-time employment at Amblin Studios, Atomic Cartoons, EA Sports, Relic Entertainment, Tangent Animation, APTN and more. 

“Alumni always come back to visit when they are in town,” Mr. Alibudbud said. “The kids are making that connection of ‘this is a Sisler graduate who is now working in the industry.’”

Student projects showcased

Among the projects highlighted at the CREATE Showcase was student Ewan Gordon’s live-action short film, Late; the film was inspired by the 20-year-old student’s own struggles with anxiety. The protagonist of Late has an anxiety attack after being late for a class presentation assignment.

“I really tried to approach it like ‘what does it feel like when I’m having an anxiety attack?’ I wanted to make it feel real, rather than fabricated,” said Gordon, who will be moving on to Red River College Polytechnic in the fall to take Digital Film and Media. “Even when you explain anxiety, people don’t get what it’s really like. It’s not just ‘I’m worried about some things,’ it’s everything. It’s literally everything. So with film, I’m more able to visually express that. I might not be able to describe it very well, but I can show you what it looks like and what it feels like.”

Gordon added that the CREATE program gave him the technical tools to bring his project to life.

“There is so much equipment we have available to us…and I definitely wouldn’t have been able to create a lot of this without that help and mentorship,” he said. “It’s really helpful to be put into a situation where you are encouraged to be creative…it’s just a really welcoming and encouraging program for students to express themselves.”

Post high-students Erin McLeod and Rana Belal, both 19, pitched their animated series concept The Legends Club. 

“With Covid, I didn’t know if I wanted to move to another city with everything changing. My mom saw something on the CREATE program on the news, and I’ve basically been interested in animation my whole life,” McLeod said. “This turned out to be perfect for me.”

McLeod is now moving on to Vancouver Film School in the fall, while Belal is headed to Seneca College in Toronto. The duo credited the mentorships they experienced in CREATE with putting them on the career pathway.

“With mentors, it became tangible…these are people who actually made it. Now we know how they got there and their stories,” Belal said. “We feel ready. There’s a real path that exists, and we can take it.”

Animated keynote

Keynote speaker for the event was Mark Galez, a Filipino-American director, storyboard artist, and illustrator based in Los Angeles. Mr. Galez has worked with the Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney TV, BlueSky, and Netflix Animation, and he’s currently working on the animated adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s Invincible at Skybound Studios. Mr. Galez has also been mentoring Sisler CREATE students through The Orange Tree Project.

The animator was highly complimentary of the program.

“I’m super blown away with the presentation of your guys’ work,” Mr. Galez said. “I don’t think (people) understand how difficult it is to execute things at this professional level. It’s better than presentations I’ve seen at art universities.” 

Mr. Galez said mentorship was critical in the development of his own career, and said he enjoyed working with Sisler students remotely over the pandemic.

“We always want to grow and push ourselves, while making plenty of mistakes along the way,” Mr. Galez said. “It’s important as artists to pass down the knowledge that is gained from those mistakes, and pass that on to someone else who is walking along the same path.”

Major announcements

The evening also saw the announcement and presentation of several major awards and honours. Mr. Leduc and Mr. Alibudbud announced that Sisler had been named an Apple Distinguished School.

CREATE students also announced they had been working on a top-secret film project. The project comes on the heels of a 2019 collaboration that saw Sisler CREATE students working on the short animated film Cops and Robbers. One of the directors of that previous project, Arnon Manor, invited Sisler CREATE students to be involved with the upcoming comedy feature Quarter, which is currently in production.

Meanwhile, Xierra Cansino, a student in the CREATE high school program, was the recipient of the Carole Vivier Scholarship for this year. The scholarship was established in honour of Carole Vivier upon her retirement as the CEO & Film Commissioner of Manitoba Film & Music. It is awarded to a graduating woman or non-binary CREATE student who has been accepted to a recognized post-secondary film or animation program. 

Cansino also pitched her 2-D animated concept for Day’s Eye, along with co-creator and fellow student Kimberly Chau. The series is aimed at young adults and is set in a dystopian future where the protagonist, Daisy, lives in the slums of the underground city Metroculus. Cansino said she was inspired by films such as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

“In Grade 9, I saw this program…I was kind of good at art, so I thought let’s get better and better and see where it takes me. Now, working along with all of these creative people makes me want to do 2-D animation even more,” said Cansino, a Grade 12 student who plans to return to the CREATE post-high program next school year.

She encouraged younger students who have similar creative inclinations to consider entering the program: “If you really want to do this, just do it. Don’t be scared about what people will think about your art. If you are passionate about something, you keep going.”