Jeremy Dickson
Entertainment Reporter

Humber film students looking for jobs in the film industry got some sound advice from three IATSE representatives this week.

IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, is the labour union of professional stagehands, motion picture technicians and allied craftspeople in the entertainment industry.

The union helps its members secure better wages, working conditions, health programs and retirement plans and is the oldest and largest union in the entertainment industry, with 110,000 members.

Toronto IASTE representatives from three branches spoke with film students on Tuesday, addressing their concerns about getting in the union, rates and fees, security and the likelihood of summer jobs and work after graduation.

“We’ve had a bit of a bumpy year with the recent ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) strike, but it can only go uphill from here,” said Rick Perotto, who represents cinematographers and camera assistants from Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada in Local 667.

Perotto, a Humber grad, said this year’s group of graduates will find it tough because the industry is at a low-point, but recent agreements point to a brighter future.

“ACTRA and the DGC (Director’s Guild of Canada) have new contracts that provide better labour stability, Filmport Studios downtown will be ready for business in 2008 and The Incredible Hulk will be shooting here this summer,” said Perotto.

Landing the Hulk was an important step for getting other American productions back to the city, said Mimi Walsh of Local 873. Walsh, who represents all film technicians from grips and electric to hair and makeup, said it is likely that 100 per cent of technicians hired for the Hulk will be Canadian.

“Cinderella Man was previously the largest production shot in Toronto, but it will pale in comparison to what we are about to see with the Hulk,” she said. “These people from the Marvel studio worked with Canadian crews before on the X-Men series so they know a high level of professionalism will be maintained.”

Walsh said American producers are happy with the skills of IATSE members partly because of their high quality training programs for members to learn additional skills. “Toronto is well-known for its diversity within production and you must be able to adapt to various set environments because they all vary. It just makes you a better technician and more able to earn a living.”

Film grads looking to survive often land their first jobs in the production office or get hired on as production assistants.

Third-year film student Michelle Whiting, 21, got to witness the advantages of joining IATSE first-hand when she worked on Hank and Mike, a $1.6 million film recently shot in Toronto. “I got to see how the union members function and cope with issues. We had people that were working too long so they called the unions for help and they did help. People were working 18-hour days everyday and only getting paid for 10 so either you get your sleep or you get your money. The unions are there for you, that’s the point.”

Jef Catapang
life Reporter

Second-year comedy student Brett Morris’s first gig this school year was at a women’s rehabilitation centre for drug abuse.

“We were all pretty scared,” Morris said. “It’s a different story going into a place where people are recovering from addiction.”

As part of a new exercise for this year’s second-year sketch comedy class, Morris and his classmates performed their material at community centres instead of traditional comedy venues.

“It turned out to be a great opportunity,” Morris said, noting his classmates were initially dismayed about not being able to perform edgier material because of the new socially sensitive settings.

“A lot of us were upset and were wondering how we could be funny without being able to be profane or a little bit shocking,” he said. “But it’s worked out so fabulous because we’ve been able to create comedy that is funny without relying on crutches.”

The women at the Jean Tweed Centre for Addiction turned out to be the best crowd he’d ever played to, Morris said.

“They were just so happy for us to be there and so encouraging, and it was a total blast.”

Other places that the students have performed at over the semester include senior citizen’s residences and unemployment centres, with upcoming gigs at the Hospital for Sick Children and tonight’s performance for the Gilda Club, a social centre for people living with cancer.

Jenny Hickman, project assistant at the St. Clair West Employment Resource Centre, said the comedy class’s visit was welcome because her clients can face numerous challenges and barriers when seeking work.

“They get upset, so we just wanted to give them a chance to laugh and have fun and take their mind off it,” she said.

Although some of her clientele are immigrants who can’t speak English well, Hickman said the students were able to cross language barriers.

Instructor Robin Duke wanted her students to “write within a box.”

Duke, a former actor and writer for Saturday Night Live decided to force her students to write G-rated material that would be appropriate for a wide range of people.

But regardless of the audience’s age or social situation, Duke told her students, “funny is funny.”

Blades of Glory | John Heder, Will Ferrell

Adrienne Huen
Entertainment Reporter

The world of professional figure skating will never be the same, thanks to Will Ferrell’s latest farce against sport’s beloved spandex and sequins wearing athletes.

Blades of Glory begins with a young and orphaned Jimmy MacElroy (John Heder, Napoleon Dynamite), skating around a frozen pond with his blond curls and wearing a pastel blue jumpsuit. Upon seeing his immense talents and potential on the ice, billionaire entrepreneur, and all around creepy guy, Darren MacElroy (William Fichtner, Prison Break) quickly adopts the young boy and grooms him into the perfect figure skating champion.

However, years later at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, Jimmy is forced to share the gold medal with his arch rival and womanizing booze hound Chad Michael Michaels (Ferrell). The duo’s hatred and jealously of the other immediately causes a public brawl, which results in both their medals being taken away and the devastating decision to ban both athletes from the men’s singles competition for life.

Three years later, Jimmy’s former coach (Craig T. Nelson), appropriately named Coach, tries to convince the duo to return to the ice as the first ever all male pairs team at the Winter Olympics. They reluctantly agree.

The film, directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon, was fun and entertaining, but lacked the side-splitting hilarity promised in the commercials and from both actors’ past projects.

Although Heder and Ferrell’s comedic chemistry was undeniable, Heder’s representation of a pastel loving feminine twit was more comical than Ferrell’s overweight sex addict.

With cameos by legendary skaters Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Nancy Kerrigan, Sasha
Cohen, Brian Boitano and Scott Hamilton, and the over-the-top costumes and routines, the film has all the ingredients of a box office hit.

Even though it’s apparent this movie will never win an Oscar, it’s sure to win the hearts of both frat boys and figure skating fanatics alike.

Tyler Kekewich
Entertainment Reporter

A Toronto artist who is inspired by newspapers, said young people who get their information from the Internet might not be getting the whole picture.

“They just don’t see it [newspapers] as part of their daily habit,” said Barbara Astman, whose collection, Newspaper Series, is at the Corkin gallery in Toronto’s distillery district until April 28.

The exhibit is a collection of photographs that are digitally stitched together to create an image of a long row of newspapers, opened to interesting articles and images.

The newspapers in Astman’s photographs look like books lined up on shelves.

With some pieces more than nine feet long, the exhibit feels like being in a library of newsprint.

She collected newspapers for nearly three years and mostly used images and articles from the National Post, Globe and Mail, and New York Times.

The articles and ads focus on tragedy, triumph, or celebrity obsession, but may only reflect the usual, daily content of a newspaper.

“It was almost random – I would be flipping and I would like what I saw,” Astman said, who teaches art and photography at the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Gallery owner Jane Corkin, who represents Astman, said the show is important because it intelligently tackles a current issue facing society.

“She is interested in is our culture’s obsession with media,” Corkin said. “She deals in a very intellectual way with her subject matter.”

Humber faculty bring home a collection of hardware from the Junos

Jeremy Dickson
Entertainment Reporter

Last Sunday the Junos aired on CTV and members of the Humber faculty were not only nominated for their hard work and talent but had the privilege to win and take home their very own Juno.

Hilario Duran, a piano teacher at Humber Lakeshore took home a Juno last Sunday for contemporary jazz album of the year.

“It was very emotional, it was really great,” said Duran after winning the award for his album From the Heart.
Duran attended the 2007 Junos in Saskatchewan, hosted by Canadian icon Nelly Furtado.

This was Duran’s 2nd win and fourth nomination. Duran first won a Juno in 2005 for the same award and was nominated in 2006 and 2002.

“Winning a Juno has been a lifelong dream since I came to Canada,” Duran, who moved to Canada from Havana Cuba in 1998, said.

Duran’s next big dream is to someday win a Grammy and be recognized all over the world.

Duran isn’t the only Humber talent to be recognized at the Junos. Mike Downes, bass department head at Humber, was nominated for his work on the Molly Johnson record, Messin Around. As bass player and composer for a nominated best vocal jazz album, Downes feels honoured to be recognized.

“The Junos are important and they honour Canadian musicians,” said Downes. This is the sixth time he has been nominated for a CD he was involved in.

Downes will be recording a new CD with a large ensemble of his own.

Beginning April 19, Downes will be touring with Molly Johnson hitting places such as Hamilton, Belleville and Toronto. On May 12, you can see Downes play at the Rex Hotel Jazz and Blues Bar in downtown Toronto with his group Mike Downes Quartet.

The Juno Awards, Canada’s most recognized music award, were first held in Toronto in 1970.

Adrienne Huen
Entertainment Reporter

Students in the creative book publishing program will have the chance to study with one of Canada’s leading professionals in the world of publishing.

“I will be returning (this summer) for my second-year at Humber,” said Diane Davy. “I taught the business components of the curriculum and even though it wasn’t the most popular with students at first, I absolutely loved it.”

Davy, who was born in Winnipeg and attended the University of Toronto for Fine Arts, said her initial attraction to a career in publishing was because she thought it was glamorous.

Davy, whose 25-year career began in Toronto with the educational publishing house, Thomas Nelson and Sons, completed the Executive Management program at Queen’s University before joining the Humber faculty.

“I enjoy a variety of challenges, and the truth is I like new things,” Davy said. “In my career, I’ve worked with books, magazines and even in music and television…but most specifically I enjoy working with children and young adult literature.”

Davy, who has been president of such companies as the marketing and consulting firm NextMedia, Key Porter Books and most notably Owl Books, is now the founder and president of Castledale Inc., a business and marketing strategies company specializing in print publishing.

“I specialize more in the area of children and young adult literature because I find it interesting,” Davy said. “I’ve worked with Owl books, which I would think most Canadians have read or subscribed to during some point in their youth. Really though, I like to think I’ve helped form and bring up a generation.”

While the Creative Book Publishing program is fairly new to Humber, Davy said students should be prepared for an extensive program.

“People come to the program for numerous reasons,” she said. “We have a faculty of industry professionals and most importantly the program offers students a realistic and honest look at the industry, while stressing skills that would be good for both publishing and the broader world.”

The two-semester program, beginning in May, offers students a variety of courses from legal and ethical issues, to marketing and book design and even a course on the history of publishing.

“If I could tell the students only one thing, it would have to be to be open,” Davy said. “Be open to the new.

Publishing is based in traditions and students coming into this career have to understand where these traditions come from so, that when they’re out in the field, they know how to take it to the next step.”

Wildlife artist Christine Marshall captures the beauty of Mother Nature one stroke at a time in her acrylic work

Jeremy Dickson
Entertainment Reporter

People have three days left to experience Christine Marshall’s Romance of Nature solo art exhibit at the University of Guelph-Humber.

“Her work is beautiful,” said Claudia Soldevilla, a part-time business student. “I like landscape art and I’m currently taking some painting classes so, I understand how hard it is to get the detail.”

Marshall, an accomplished painter from Bala, Ont., is one of Canada’s foremost wildlife artists and has been featured in over 350 exhibitions across Canada, the United States and overseas.

She has painted for over 30 years, specializing in acrylic on canvas, and has been called “Canada’s first lady of wildlife art.” Her new exhibit in the GH art gallery features highly detailed work spanning a career that began in the 1970s.

Early paintings of mushrooms and leaves stand out among numerous animal and landscape scenes featuring owls, hawks, pandas, tigers, loons, koalas, fox, deer and wolves. Her style has been described as romantic realism.

“People say I look at wildlife through a romantic eye or the idealized eye of nature,” Marshall said. “Not the harsh cruel reality world of nature.”

The display includes paintings on large and small canvases as well as plates. Marshall said the opportunity to show her work at Guelph-Humber is unique.

“It’s rare that I get to bring my wildlife and nature art into the centre of the city for an exhibit,” Marshall said, who owns and manages a successful gallery near Bala, Ont..

Special commissions for her work have taken her across North America, Africa, China, Australia and the Arctic to study, sketch and photograph the animals and landscapes found in her paintings.

She started her career capturing smaller mammals like rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks, but gradually moved on to larger beasts.

“You are just in awe being so close to the big ones,” she said. “I didn’t think the moose was a very attractive animal until I saw one closeup. It brought its massive head up out of the muck, water pouring off its rack while the mist rose off the lake and I just saw this very majestic creature.”

Despite a strong connection to realistic environments, Marshall originally experimented with abstract designs in the fine arts program at York University. She said young artists starting their careers should be open to try different things and use all the media available to them. Business law instructor and artist Chuks Oriuwa said there is something more direct about realist paintings. “It’s one thing to see abstract art, but sometimes the artist behind the work gets lost. To see her (Marshall) actually painting and knowing she went to all these places is much different.”

Radmila Malobabic
Sports Reporter

The OCAA Championships are the most anticipated games of the season and Rogers Television is a local station that airs most of the championship games.

“It’s a big challenge to focus on locally, as much as possible,” said Mike Patterson, senior manager of sports and sponsorship at Rogers. “Our motto is ‘local matters’, so we have a number of challenges when we try to air games. We can’t all the time be perfect, but we try.”

The last OCAA game aired on Rogers was the all-star basketball game, pre-recorded from Durham College. The most recent game covered at Humber was a men’s basketball game on Dec. 1 when the Sheridan Bruins came to the North Campus.

“We have stations in three provinces, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Ontario,” Patterson said. “We have contracts with a lot of (Ontario Hockey League) teams, peewee hockey teams, colleges and high schools. So we don’t air many OCAA games.”

But Patterson said the peak hours for Rogers are between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.

“Mike (Patterson) is always on the go, in meetings all the time, making deals with different teams and schools,” said Gavin Lumsden, supervising mobile producer in Ottawa. “He’s the man when it comes to sports on Rogers.”

Patterson said most local games are in Ontario and the focus is on OHL games more than OCAA.

“We usually air OCAA championship games, more than any other. We don’t get a Maple Leaf audience, but we get more viewers when we air big games like that.”

Josh-Gold Smith
Sports Reporter

Imagine 50,000 screaming fans filling the stands at the Rogers Centre for the Toronto Blue Jays’ final home series against the Boston Red Sox. Picture Roy Halladay taking the mound with Toronto battling for a playoff spot.

The Jays aren’t the second-place team, but they are still in the running. The buzz around the building hasn’t been felt this late in the season since the back-to-back World Series. Under baseball’s current plan, this scenario is highly unlikely. But the Jays and 21 other teams could benefit if the playoff structure changed.

If you were to place all professional sports leagues on the political spectrum, Major League Baseball would be on the right wing. As the most conservative sports organization of the big four (MLB, NHL, NFL and the NBA), baseball has continually fought change.

As the NHL and NBA playoff races heat up, it’s clear the excitement level peaks this time of year. Sixteen clubs qualify for the post-season in both of those leagues, while just eight participate in playoff baseball. Commissioner Bud Selig has resisted the urge to add more playoff teams but it’s time for a change.

While the grand old game has been embroiled in a steroid scandal, it continues to fight for fans who crave a sport with more instant gratification. Three-hour games and six-month long seasons do little to satisfy this, and allowing fewer than a quarter of clubs into the playoffs gives little hope to excitement-starved fans.

The current system gives the six division champions and two wildcard teams access to the post-season. This means that 22 of 30 clubs will not play in October. It took nearly 100 years for baseball to cave in to a divisional system (in 1969) that increased TV revenue and overall interest.

Now MLB finds itself in a similar situation as the other three leagues have stolen viewers and generated more interest. Purists argue that the exclusivity of baseball’s playoffs makes the game unique and gives greater meaning to the championship rounds. These are valid points, but there are millions of dollars being spent by the majority of teams, many of whom know by June their hopes for post-season glory have faded.

When a team like Toronto is already up against two of the richest clubs in the game in New York and Boston in the American League East, the last thing its fan base needs is to be eliminated from title contention with a month or more remaining.

The vast majority of clubs suffer this fate and with thousands of supporters paying high prices for tickets, they need to believe their club has a legitimate chance of competing for a championship.

Hope springs eternal at this time of year as every team has a clean slate, but with a limited number of post-season opportunities, many of these loyal, paying customers are let down. Increasing the number of playoff berths would generate more money for the league and keep fans in the ballparks all season long.

Most importantly, it would restore hope to fans in competitive markets and make September baseball relevant again.

Department aims to increase success of athletes on the floor and in the classroom

Michael Clegg
Sports Reporter

Over the summer the Humber Athletic department will put the finishing touches on its new Building Champions program, an initiative designed to push athletes to a higher level.

“You look at how many silver and bronze medals we had this year and we’ve got to get some more gold,” said athletic director Doug Fox.

“There’s got to be a philosophy about building champions and knowing what it takes to win,” Fox said. “We need to come back, in the fall for instance, with skill improvement. You can’t just go away and come back in the fall and not have work that you’ve gained. You can’t come back without proper conditioning. We had a ton of injuries this year because I don’t think we came back prepared that way. Winning doesn’t come easily and there’s some sacrifices that have to occur.”

These sacrifices will not just relate to athletic success. The Building Champions program is also designed to develop Humber athletes into better students and better citizens, something Fox said they have already started to address.

“We had a freshman orientation this year where we did three different sessions on the first weekend after labour day with our freshman athletes,” he said. “One of the sessions was exactly that – it was everything in terms of being a citizen within the college. Don’t wear your do-rags, get rid of the baggy pants – we started to address it in small ways.”

“The number one priority is to make sure these guys do well in the classroom,” said men’s basketball coach and varsity athlete academic adviser Darrell Glenn. “Unfortunately, many of the people who play athletics don’t necessarily come to community college, and particularly Humber, for academic reasons. So we have to try and change their thinking after they get here.”

The department will also look at making some sacrifices to the athletic programming it already has in place in order to maximize efficiency.

“We have a zillion things that we work at and at the end of the day if you ask how many things are going very well versus just existing, there is a lot,” Fox said. “But each person has been asked to give me the things that they think they can do without, or we should possibly look at eliminating. I’m running club programs and junior varsity programs and women’s rugby and I don’t even have leagues for these teams to play in so those would be the types of things that would be on the bubble for sure.”

In the long term, the Building Champions plan could also mean new facility development on campus including expansion of the weight room and a varsity exclusive gymnasium.

“I’ve looked at possibilities of going overtop of CAPS with a second floor, and all sorts of things like that,” Fox said. “We had the pool designed when it went in so that it could support a second floor, so expanding the weight room and fitness centre could go in that direction.”

“I don’t see a fee increase in the next five years,” Fox said in regards to facility growth.

The athletic department will look at the possibility of teaming up with Ontario Basketball and the Ontario Volleyball Association to maximize facility use and to subsidize the costs involved in expansion.

Any fee increase sought by the athletic department would have to be approved by the fee protocol committee which is made up of members of HSF along with Humber officials.