The Centre for Creative Communications

This is the second edition of the Dean's Newsletter at The Centre for Creative Communications, Centennial College featuring news and highlights from our Fall 2009 semester. In this issue:

• Global Poverty Project
• Explore Design
• 'Inconvenient Truth' at The Centre
• Internet Radio
• Ad students in New York
• Grad Meets Hugh Jackman
• and more

Global Poverty Project Launch

The Centre for Creative Communications, Centennial College hosted the North American launch of The Global Poverty Project in partnership with Chris Adams, former Chief Vision Officer of Participant Media, producers of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth at The Danforth Music Hall in September.

The launch featured the premiere of 1.4 Billion Reasons, a presentation similar to and inspired by An Inconvenient Truth, presented by Hugh Evans, Australian author, humanitarian and founder of The Global Poverty Project.

Led by former Young Australian of the Year Hugh Evans - who was a member of the team behind the Australian Make Poverty History campaign featuring U2's Bono - the Global Poverty Project aims to help the planet's poorest 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty - defined as those living on less than a $1.25 a day. With the support of actor and Global Poverty Project spokesperson Hugh Jackman, the initiative advocates the United Nations' eight Millennium Development Goals, developed in 2000 and adopted by 189 countries with the objective of improving the lives of the world's poorest people by 2015.

The event attracted approximately over 700 people, and excerpts will be featured in an upcoming new documentary to be released and premiered at the 2010 G8 and G20 Summits in June in Toronto.

Hollywood Producer Chris Adams

Chris Adams, Film, New Media and TV Producer visited The Cerntre for Creative Communications on Sept. 9 - 10, 2009, speaking with students and faculty from The School of Communications, Media and Design.
Adams is an internationally recognized new media pioneer, entertainment industry executive and social entrepreneur and co-founded Participant Productions in 2004 with Jeff Skoll, eBay's first President.

Participant's first slate of films including Syriana, starring George Clooney and Matt Damon; North Country, starring Charlize Theron; Good Night and Good Luck, starring David Strathairn and George Clooney were nominated for an unprecedented 11 Academy Awards. Chris is also proud to have identified and helped develop former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth which, along with Gore's work, participated in his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Adams is from film company Participant Productions, founded by well-known Canadian philanthropist and eBay's first CEO, Jeff Skoll. Participant's credits include Syriana, with George Clooney and Matt Damon, North Country, with Charlize Theron, and Good Night and Good Luck with George Clooney.

Explore Design 2009

Once again, The Centre and the School of Communications Media and Design exhibted at Explore Design (ED) connecting with thousands of potential students and distributing over 1,000 of our view books and brochures. In addtion, Paul Koidis programmed, moderated and organized two feature panel discussions on Future Careers in Communications, Media and Design which included represenatives from various colleges, including Nate Horowitz, discussing what's next for apsiring creative students.

ED is a consortium of educational institutions, associations and professional group will provide 2 days of interactive exhibits, hands-on workshops, and seminars. Keynote presentations will be provided by internationally recognized design professionals and design celebrities.

The full range of design disciplines will be represented including video/game design, furniture design, architecture industrial design, textile design, fashion design, interior design, graphic design, and the dozens of other design disciplines.

Kyle Surrowicz and Hugh Evans interviewing in Times Square

Meeting Hugh Jackman, Quincy Jones, Deepak Chopra and Donna Karan, were just some of the highlights for a recent Centennial College graduate's trip to New York City.

For Kyle Surowicz, graduate of the Broadcasting and Film Program, networking with these iconic celebrities while attending a United Nations conference and at a private event at Jackman's home on that same day, was a dream come true. But the real reward came with being able to participate in something that just might change the world.

"The best thing was getting involved in some absolutely amazing events," says Surowicz of his involvement in The Global Poverty Project, a presentation and forthcoming documentary similar to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

"I met Hugh Jackman (best known for his recent role as Wolverine), some of the greatest political and business minds of our generation and attended a United Nations meeting that included the Presidents of Senegal, Malawi and Uganda," Surowicz says. They are all involved in some way in this UN initiative to end extreme poverty in our lifetime.

Surowicz was in New York City with Paul Koidis, Manager of Communications, Marketing and Development for The Centre, to capture footage for an upcoming documentary that is being produced in collaboration with Australian Producer Clive Burcham and Chris Adams, formerly of Participant Media, whose projects include Syriana, with George Clooney and Matt Damon, North Country, with Charlize Theron, Good Night and Good Luck with George Clooney and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

Internet radio for Centennial College

In November, Centennial College launched its newest Internet Radio project, led by students and Journalism faculty Ted Fairhurst. The programming is produced by student volunteers, under the coordination of Ted Fairhurst, a part-time faculty member and coordinator of the Joint Program in Journalism between Centennial College and the University of Toronto (Scarborough College).

Centennial College Internet Radio will:

• Exist as a service of the college. The station will offer programming of interest to the students at all campuses. It will also provide opportunities for students to become producers of radio programming.
• Foster the spirit and goals of the college's Vision and Mission Statement. The service will contribute to the personal development of students and be a vital expression of the diversity of the student body.
• Extend the Signature Learning Experience by offering an additional platform for students to explore social justice, equity and environmental sustainability. The SLE-related programming will compliment the social media site, Humanracebook.com.

The on-air studio is located at the Centre for Creative Communications. The Centre houses all of the college's communications-related programs, including Journalism and Broadcasting and Film. Look forward to a formal launch event in early 2010.

For more information, contact Ted Fairhurst at tfairhurst@centennialcollege.ca

On location in Philippines

Recently, two students from Broadcasting and Film program traveled to the Philippines to film "My Mother, Your Nanny," the story of Filipino nannies who come to work in Canada. Carissa Reyes and Kim Smith are making a feature documentary as a major part of their third year at the college. They are part of a larger team of third year students working on their professional portfolio. Check out their exciting progress on their blog , mymotheryournanny.wordpress.com

Closer to home, several Broadcasting and Film students are making PSAs for the big multi-charity fundraiser at the East York Civic Centre in late November.

ADFS student in the studio

Downtown Toronto is at our doorstep and this year, more than any of our over thirty-five years, the Art & Design Foundation Studies program at The Centre for Creative Communications will bring the cultural capital of Canada into our curriculum.

Visual Culture: The Social Life of Art & Design, is a new first semester course that's part art and design history and part creative workshop, incorporates assignments based on field trips to the museums and scavenger hunts to our diverse neighbourhoods. So far, students have revealed the mysteries of Chinatown and Graffiti Lane and developed concepts for art museums encompassing the broader cultural community that is Toronto and are about to undertake an investigation of advertising design- using sprayed stencils in public spaces.

Kensington Market

In mid-October the Book & Magazine publishing students head off to St. Stephen's Church in the Kensington market area. For a week all regular classes are suspended, and instead they concentrate on the job search. In addition to talking about resumes, cover letters and how to ace a job interview, the students meet a wide variety of professionals working in all aspects of the book and magazine industry. Using the speed-dating format, small groups of 5 or 6 students talk to more than fifteen professionals for 10 minutes at a time.

Editors and sales people and rights people from Canadian Family, Today's Trucking, Style at Home and Masthead, Firefly Books, Tundra, Owl Kids, Nelson Educational, and HarperCollins. Recent grads from the program are also invited to talk about their job search and experiences out in the work world. It is fun, intense and gives the students an understanding of the breadth of the two industries.

Students from Centennial College's post grad Advertising Account Management program went to Toronto streets recently to ask for change. They're not panhandling to offset high tuition costs, but collecting loonies to send overseas to help with disaster relief.

The event is part of the student-led Countdown for Change, an in-class project for Anthony Thomas, who teaches the Communication Agency Primer course and is also a Centennial College alumnus.

"Anthony told us that, as advertising students, we should get involved in the community," said Allison Cornford, a 21-year old student in the one-year post-grad program.

At the fundraiser, people received information about the project and could make $1 donations. However, most donations came through the project's website, CountDownForChange.com. Since launching Oct. 27, it has raised more than $1,500.

All funds raised will go to the Canadian Red Cross' relief efforts in Asia. The region has been hit by a string of natural disasters this year, including Typhoon Ketsana in the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia, an earthquake in Indonesia and a tsunami in Samoa.

"The message is that this is a countdown," Cornford said. "We felt like the victims have been waiting long enough for the money. So we wanted to challenge the public to raise as much money as possible in a week." The effort was promoted on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

Thomas said, "The entire project was created in seven days, and is amazed at the student's focus. Any time I hear people in the industry complain about ‘the next generation,' I tell them to come to class," Thomas said. "These kids are amazing."

Ad students in New York City

On Saturday Sept. 19th at midnight the students in the 3-year Advertising Program, along with students in the Advertising Account Management and the Advertising Media Management programs boarded a chartered bus and travel overnight to New York City.

We arrived in Times Square around 10:00 a.m. and students have the whole day Sunday to sight see and shop. But the real excitement starts on Monday morning when Advertising Week in New York begins. Students choose from over 12 events each day. Some favorite sessions included Google: Experiment in Digital Creativity, Facebook: Knowing is Better, Social Networking 2.0, U.S.A. Today - Linking Social Issues with Corporate and Brand Strategy.

One highlight of the trip was a private tour for our students to an advertising agency called Strawberry Frog. Students sat out on their rooftop garden and heard all about the agency.

Students dressed and behaved professionally and most people they talked with in the industry assumed that they were in the industry already. At a social event that Microsoft was running one of their VP's came up to faculty to say how much they enjoyed having them at their event.

When students look back on the program they always count this as one of their best learning experiences.

Gary Garland, Mags Canada

On October 15, Gary Garland, Executive Director of Advertising from Magazines Canada presented some astounding facts on the magazine industry to Advertising Media Management students.

Contrary to popular belief, the magazine industry is thriving in Canada and survived the economic downturn of 2008/2009. 34 new magazines titles entered the landscape for a total of 1,282 consumer magazines available to Canadians. Overall, circulation and readership numbers for magazines are up as well. Even dominant U.S. publishers only have 3 titles on Canada?s top 100 circulated magazines further illustrating Canadians much prefer stories and magazines about themselves.

GDM student work bt Ray De La Calzada

The Graphic Design-Media program is pleased to announce that we have created a new blog to showcase exceptional work by our students, in both first and second year. The purpose of the blog is to not only feature the exemplary work of our students, but also to involve industry peers as the students progress through our program.

Using this blog as a vehicle, principles in the industry will be able to monitor the progress of students as well as comment on the content of the program as a whole. This direct interaction will ideally result in interest in our students well before the advent of placement, as well as provide valuable feedback into the content of our program. All members of the Graphic Design-Media faculty are invited and encouraged to participate regularly.

CC+PR Students

The students in Corporate Communications & Public Relations have been getting a solid grounding in the future of public relations and getting a taste of what they will be doing on a regular basis as communicators in any given field. Especially significant are the value of networking and the importance of time management. Field trips to Canada NewsWire and the National Post, along with guest speakers in significant and relevant fields, have delivered a first-hand look at the real world of business communications.

One of the most interesting courses is Event Management. The class is virtually theory-free since the course is based on holding an actual event. It has been extremely valuable and has given students the opportunity to learn about issues such as sponsorship and budgeting in a real-world setting outside the classroom. As part of a major project, students must approach local businesses with the intention of securing donations for a variety of events. Requests for donation letters are drafted by students and the success of these letters can easily be evaluated by the response of the potential donors approached. By far this is the most practical experience gained in the course, through the process of soliciting sponsors for student-organized events.

J.J. Johnson, creator of This is Daniel Cook

The Centre for Creative Communications newest post-graduate program, Children's Entertainment: Writing, Production and Management, launched in September. The program attracted a diverse group of students with educational and work backgrounds including film & television production, children's theatre, acting, professional artist, children's book writing, early childhood education and digital media.

Highlights so far have included guest speakers J.J. Johnson (creator of This is Daniel Cook) and Matt Wexler, Executive Producer at Toronto-based toy giant Spin Master Entertainment, as well as field trips to several leading production companies, including DHX Media and Lenz Entertainment. Both students and faculty look forward to the coming year!

FAS students

The Fine Arts Studio Program (FAS) has been busy this fall with a number of student-lead projects. These include: FASSIE, a print and digital platform for the exchange of professional development information; "EAT ME: The Politics of Food", the first student generated exhibition in the Corridor Gallery; and a number of cross program/discipline initiatives that will engage FAS student skills on a professional level.

Sara Shields, a second year FAS student has been enjoying a break-through year in her own creative process. While earnestly studying in the FAS traditionally-based studios, her own work has become decidedly non-representational. Within 30 seconds of hanging her first show in The Closet Gallery, a student from another program at The CCC approached Sara. She wants to introduce Sara and her work to a close connection who is opening a new commercial gallery in Cabbagetown. Isn?t this how every art career should unfold? Congratulations Sara!

Above and beyond the regular challenges of delivering the curriculum, the Fine Arts Studio Program (FAS) this fall has been creatively generating a number of student-lead initiatives. These include the launch of FASSIE, a print and digital platform for the exchange of professional opportunities, opinions, and imagery. Lead by a team of first and second year students, FASSIE will become much more than just a classroom exercise.

It will be a very real resource which emerging artists (Centennial students, and beyond) can consult to find venues to submit their artwork, jobs, workshops, studios, and residencies, and engage their peers on both creative and professional concerns. The next phase of FASSIE is to develop an active promotion strategy. To that end, there is now a student organized Facebook complement to promote FASSIE. To visit the blog, please go to http://fassieblast.blogspot.com, or for more information contact Valerie Severino, the second year FAS student who is FASSIE's editor; val.severino@gmail.com.

FAS is also celebrating the first-ever student-generated exhibition in The Corridor Gallery. Curated by Ayan Melikli (a first year FAS student), "EAT ME: The Politics of Food" presents an eclectic range of work by 9 FAS students, responding to the issues of eating, food production, and nutrition. You can contact Ayan at melikli.a@gmail.com. As a solely student-generated exhibition, "EAT ME" shows the way to other talented students, who have been reluctant to organize their own shows - an essential aspect of any professional development training for a fine artist.

On other fronts, FAS has facilitated a number of cross-program / discipline projects. These include a competition to find a student team to produce an inside wall mural for one of the computer labs in Gaming; a team comprised of a Foundation (ADFS) student and a first year FAS student to produce a graffiti style banner for CCSAI student lounge, currently under renovation; and the liaison with a professional film documentary production who will employ at least 3 students from The CCC (2 FAS students, and one from Graphic Design Media) to generate and digitally process imagery.

Future plans include a grad workshop, an extra-curricular course in designing and executing murals, ongoing mentorship meetings, and a fun debate between FAS students and faculty on art related issues.

Malcolm Kelly and student at The Races

Sports Journalism program students went off on their placements at the beginning of November after 39 weeks of hard work here at Centennial College's Centre for Creative Communications.

Placement students are all over North America, including CBC Sports and the Fan 590 radio, Rugby Canada and XM Satellite Radio, the Miami Herald, St. John's Evening Telegram, and even Andretti Green Racing (Toronto).

At the same time, four of the students have been hired part time, two at Hockey Night in Canada, and two at Canadian Press. Plus we have one in Vancouver working freelance for CP and other outlets.

During the Winter Olympic Games at Vancouver, two Centennial grads will be hard at work, one with NBC Sports (assigned to Whistler) and the other with the Olympic broadcast unit.

Feedback has been strong, especially focussing on the size of the "tool box" our students are bringing with them -- the ability to work in print, online, TV and radio, plus podcast and video cast and more.

We begin with a new group of 25-plus students on Jan. 11.

Field trip to Cuppa Coffee studios

Students from the Digital Animation and the Broadcasting and Film programs are working collaboratively to produce several stop-motion films. Stop-motion animation blurs the boundaries between traditional film techniques and animation. Today there is an increasing use of digital postproduction techniques that aid and enrich the traditional methods of stop-motion animation, creating a fertile playground for experimentation and storytelling.

The project was kicked-off with a field trip to Cuppa Coffee studios in downtown Toronto. Students were given a tour of the extensive in-house facilities that house wardrobe, puppet production, stages and post-production. At the end of the tour the students also received a great lesson in the fine art of stop motion acting

Kevin Pullen and Paul Koidis perform at WRC concert

Once again, The Centre hosted the annual White Ribbon Campaign Concert on Dec. 2, featuring various faculty and student performers. Organized by Paul Koidis, the event supports the effort to end violence against women and hopes to raise awareness and funds.

The White Ribbon Campaign is the largest effort in the world of men working to end violence against women (VAW). In over fifty-five countries, campaigns are led by both men and women. In 1991, a handful of men in Canada decided they had a responsibility to urge men to speak out about violence against women. Wearing a white ribbon would be a symbol of men's opposition to violence against women. With only six weeks of preparation, 100,000 men across Canada wore a white ribbon, while many others were drawn into discussion and debate.

This year, the show featured special guest, singer and songwriter Kevin Pullen, whose original songs have been featured on various Canadian shows including Hearland and Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Degrassi's Cassie Steele

2009 was capped off with a special appearance by Degrassi: The Next Generation star and Canadian recording artist Cassie Steele who hosted a special holiday webcast for her growing fan base.

Steele is a Canadian actress and singer-songwriter and is best known for portraying Manny Santos on Degrassi. She also appeared in the 2007 MTV movie, Super Sweet 16: The Movie and wrote and recorded the song "Prayer" which was used nationally to promote HIV/AIDS awareness. Her recent album, Destructo Doll, was released in July, 2009.

The webcast was produced by students in the Broadcasting and Film program at Centennial College, and featured acoustic selections, guest performances and will be hosted by the creator of the popular Drinktheglitter.com website.