September Spotlight | Amazing Alumni Accomplishments
At Toronto Film School, we never cease to be amazed by the accomplishments of our awesome alumni and students who are out pursuing their dreams in the creative industries – be it dropping a debut EP (and designing its cover art!), working as an assistant camera on a Vice docu-series, or landing a role on a popular CW series.
Here are some of September’s standout highlights from Toronto Film School’s talented community of creatives:
Online Graphic Design & Interactive Media students Lau and Eva Bianchi – aka the talented sisterly music duo known as BIANCHI – just dropped their debut EP, ELEGY.
Released on Sept. 30, each of the five tracks on ELEGY was composed, arranged, written, produced, mixed, and mastered by Lau and Eva themselves.
“ELEGY is a collection of serious reflections on grief. The EP could be compared to a flowerpot, where the tracks are all the beautiful flowers that faded away too soon,” the sisters said in a statement, noting that the word elegy was chosen for the title of their debut EP, because it encapsulates the theme of five-track collection: serious reflections on grief and death.
In total, it took Lau and Eva seven months to complete ELEGY, whose track list includes the songs ‘Beautiful Flowers Fade Away’, ‘Teardrops of Pain’, ‘Unbearable Silence’, ‘Your Goodbye Letter’, and ‘Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?’
Both Lau (BIANCHI’s lead vocalist) and Eva (the band’s sub-vocalist and piano player), are also fully involved in the production of all content related to their music – from designing the cover art and posters for ELEGY, to directing the photoshoot, to leading its social media promotion.
Check out the BIANCHI Instagram page for more information about their debut EP, ELEGY, or purchase the EP HERE.
Class of 2018 Film Production graduate Sebastian Montiel recently worked as a 2nd AC on the upcoming VICE TV docu-series, Tales from the Territories.
Set to premiere on Oct. 4, Tales from the Territories chronicles the territory-based days of wrestling, dominated by unscrupulous bookers, rabid fans and fearless wrestlers who blurred the lines between fiction and reality both inside and outside of the ring.
Montiel characterized his time on the set of the docu-series as a “wonderful” experience, and thinks audiences will be “captivated” by the “raw and real stories lived and told by the big-time wrestlers” profiled in Tales from the Territories.
“I was brought on as the 2nd A.C. for the second block of filming and had a great time working alongside some of the best in the industry within Toronto,” he said.
“It was an awesome production to be a part of and my time on set was a great opportunity to continue growing my professional experience and skills.”
A learning experience from both a technical and practical perspective, Montiel said the opportunity to work on Tales from the Territories also allowed him to reinforce and compliment some aspects of his camera and cinematography knowledge.
“From working closely with the 1st A.C., and troubleshooting on the spot quickly and efficiently any camera related issues, to paying close attention to the DPs decisions and thought processes, and understanding the creative choices being made – the whole experience was something that I really valued and gained much from,” he said. “Overall, it will help immensely on my own journey of being a DP.”
See more of Montiel’s photography work here and his cinematography here.
2019 Acting for Film, TV & the Theatre grad Natalia Aranguren landed a role on the popular CW series, In the Dark.
The recently minted TIFF Rising Star, who hails from Colombia, played a housekeeper in ‘Excess Baggage’ – the ninth episode of the series’ third season.
The show follows Murphy Mason, an irreverent blind woman in her twenties, as she tries to solve her friend’s murder.
Paul Viret, who graduated from the Film Production program in 2013, recently worked in the sound department for Entertainment Weekly’s coverage of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.
Viret was responsible for all audio recorded during Entertainment Weekly’s interviews with festival attendees – setting up all the mics (there were 15 of them), making sure wireless connections were strong, and dealing with any problems that arose along the way.
“Because there were so many microphones, as well as three separate mixers, there were plenty of bugs to deal with – and a ton of batteries to change at a moment’s notice,” Viret said of the experience.
“It was a pretty tough job, but luckily at TFS I had plenty of opportunity to work on some less professional productions – student films – where things would always seem to go wrong,” he laughed.
“Everybody makes mistakes…everybody fails and learns from those mistakes. But when you’ve made mistakes and run into problems a hundred times at school, you’re more prepared for what might arise in the real world.”
You can check out a sample of Viret’s work for Entertainment Weekly below, in this interview with the cast and director of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
***Are you an alumnus or student who would like to share your latest accomplishment with the TFS community? If so, please reach out to our Alumni Relations Coordinator at alumni@torontofilmschool.ca
