How else should Okotoks show support for the arts?

By Tamara Neely
Staff Reporter

This week marks the third and final part of the State of the Arts in Okotoks series that has been looking into the priority of the arts in Okotoks, exposure to the arts within the school systems and finally how careers in the film industry are fuelled by creativity.
Through this investigation, the question remains how should a town support its arts communities?
It is common thought that this area has a large population of artists.
Ask any artist if they feel the Town has supported sports far more than the arts and they’ll say h-e-double-hockey-stick yeah.
Several council members, including Mayor Bill McAlpine, have been saying the time has come to pay the arts some more attention.
The Rotary Performing Arts Centre is up and running, again. The business plan for a large, multi-purpose performing arts centre is coming down the pipe.
So, what now? Because that is not enough. How should a town support the arts?
Several people have said that other towns make it crystal clear that artists are valued citizens contributing to the quality of life in the community through arts festivals, plenty of public art and including artists in public events.
Okotoks could benefit from those types of initiatives.
I’d say for town council to show its commitment the next step is to ask the artists what they think would strengthen the arts in Okotoks.
Town council could hold an open house, invite people to send emails or ask a wood carver to make a handsome suggestion box and see what ideas roll in.
Artists will have a bunch of good ideas, they’re creative.

By Tamara Neely
Staff Reporter

Joseph Mercier, a graduate of the Alberta High School of Fine Art, is pursuing a master’s degree in theatre direction in London, England, at the Central School of Speech and Drama. photo submitted

While most people are working for the weekends, there are those walking among us who are following their passion to pay their bills.
Joseph Mercier, a graduate from Alberta High School of Fine Arts is on that path; he is passionate about directing theatre productions.
Mercier, whose family lives on a ranch in the Priddis area, is currently living in London, England pursuing his dream of starting his own theatre company.
Mercier aims to create theatre that engages and challenges the audience, because, he said, television and film do a fine job of simply entertaining.
He is investigating the notion of what brings an audience out to theatre – why would people come and pay to sit for an hour and a half to watch people live on a stage? That concept, he feels, is key to creating contemporary theatre that pushes boundaries, but is still understandable and thought provoking.
“The audience factors in because they’re paramount, theatre doesn’t exist without the audience,” said Mercier. “It’s our responsibility to be perceptive to an audience.”
Acknowledging the audience may seem obvious, but there is a fine line between considering how an audience will perceive the work and compromising the artistic intent by making it palatable to an audience.
Now 24-years-old, Mercier’s passion for theatre was already strong in high school. In Grade 11 he was invited to direct the school production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.
He graduated in 2001 and continued a trajectory toward theatre production, his path delving into ballet performance and an undergraduate degree in playwriting from Concordia University in Montreal before engaging in formal training in theatre direction. He is now half way through his studies to earn a Master’s degree from the prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
“I’m biased toward theatre that is more than entertainment,” said Mercier. “Our job as theatre artists is to provoke the audience, to prod and nudge them to look at things in a different perspective and re-evaluate their assumptions about things.”
His training in London has afforded him the opportunity to learn a style of direction that is not common in Canada.
When he gets started on an original production there is no story. He starts from the beginning with seeds of ideas offered by a playwright, a small group of performers and himself. Together they throw ideas around, working off one another, building on ideas until a story takes shape.
Using this method, Mercier’s role is to cradle the conception of the idea, encourage it to grow and then guide it’s shape, rhythm and movement to the point that it’s a product that an audience can embrace.
“It’s a really frustrating way to work and a really rewarding way to work,” said Mercier.
His primary goal is to create theatrical performance that incorporates the power of movement in addition to spoken words.
“I hope to have a company that’s really physical and challenges the boundaries of theatre and dance,” said Mercier.

Creative people finding career satisfaction in the film industry

Chris Large, on location in Fiji for the 2007 filming of the psychological thriller Boot Camp. photo submitted

Tamara Neely
Staff Reporter

Generations of artistic youth have been instilled with fear for their financial futures. The starving artist is a classic cliché with truth at its core.
However, the blossoming Alberta film industry offers opportunities galore for all types of creative impulses and offers competitive pay.
There is a downside, though. The work commonly involves 16-hour days for months at a time and neophytes have to spend more time towing the line than implementing their own creative ideas.
Nevertheless, the film industry is a magnet for creative people and with the industry growing in Alberta in recent years; it is more and more feasible for people to stay based in the Foothills and work on films produced in the area.
Special effects supervisor James Paradis is based in Okotoks, and grew up here. On his way to becoming a painter and sculptor he took a left turn into the film industry when a future fraught with financial worries loomed closer.
“I said to myself, ‘I can’t afford to be an artist – how can I afford to pay my rent?’”
While working in the film industry he has been flexing his creativity while staying financially secure.
“How many fantastic artists have given up dance or painting because they have to put food on the table? In the film industry you can put food on the table and still be creative,” he said.
Paradis has been in film for 17 years, having moved up from extra, to stunt actor, to special effects. He works with the hands-on types of special effects, as opposed to computer-generated imagery.
His tools are the elements: snow, wind, rain and fire. He creates frigid snow scenes in the summer, driving rain on a dry day and sets off all kinds of pyrotechnics.
“You always have the same tools, but the job is never the same,” said Paradis.
The variety in the work is a major part of the draw for people in the film industry.
Okotokian Chris Large is a stills photographer who captures scenes on film and television sets – and thrives on the demands of each job.
“There’s a huge variety of locations and every show is a challenge,” said Large. “You’re always moving, always thinking, and I think creativity and challenge go hand-in-hand.”
Shooting on set, there are many factors Large has to accommodate. He must, for example, work around the actual filming; he’s subject to the light setting the ambience of a scene and is usually prohibited from using a flash. The list goes on.
“You’re dealing with time pressure, sometimes temperamental actors, weather, all of that is creative to deal with,” he said. “You don’t have all day to do this stuff. It’s fast. I’ll take an actor aside to do a setup and if I have two or three minutes of quality time with them, I feel like it’s a luxury.
“The creativity is everything.”
Large, who worked for 20 years as a police officer prior to getting into film, explained that he is one of only four photographers in Alberta working at this level – photographing multi-million dollar productions for companies such as Sony Pictures.
“The level I work at, there’s not a whole lot of us around,” said Large.
His advice for people interested in shooting stills is build technical ability and contacts.
“It’s as much about networking and connections as everything else – it’s about getting that break,” said Large.
Who you know is a big part of the film industry, even though it’s unionized.
Carol Case, for example, will consider who’s crewing a film and her interest in the script.
Based in High River, Case has been a costume designer for film and television for 19 years. She looks for directors who give more creative freedom to the costume designer.
Creativity is at the core of what she does and also the major appeal of costuming.
“When I read a script I see in my head what it should look like,” she explained. “Then it’s making it into reality and that’s really exciting.”
Case studied costuming at the Wimbledon College of Art in England and then worked in theatre with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival for seven seasons.
Working for film and television productions, Case oversees the costume department and within that department are specialized roles with creative people at the helm.
To make clothing look old or dirty, for example, Case works with people who have a good eye for how clothing wears and can recreate that.
“There’s a fine artist I hire to do that. We do the shadows; we paint in darker or lighter colours. It’s a real art; you have to look at clothes and see, where do they fray? If you were on a mountain top where would clothes be dirty?”
Normally, people hired for their creativity have proven their talent through paying their dues at entry-level positions – the kind of positions that require listening to what supervisors want from you and doing as you are told.
Case said that can be very frustrating, but she said that learning the ropes and paying your dues is the way it works in film.
Despite initial trials, and the potential stress on family life due to the intense work schedule, there are many people who love working in the film industry.
“I cannot imagine anything I’d like to do more,” she said.
The icing on the cake is when the show is an interesting story told well.
And when a show is cliched with poor dialogue and bad acting, crews keep their head down and focus on doing a good job at their own task.
That’s the approach award-winning sound mixer George Tarrant uses.
Fewer productions come through Alberta than Vancouver and Toronto, so there are less to choose from in the province. Most people in the film industry have worked on bad shows.
“You don’t feel good about it at the end of the day, but if I got my job done and we nailed it, I get satisfaction even if it’s the crappiest film on the planet,” said Tarrant, a long-time resident of Okotoks.
A recent project Tarrant worked on continues to rake in awards – the made-for-TV movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
Tarrant won an Emmy for best sound and was recognized among his peers when he won best sound mixing from the Cinema Audio Society. The show won 11 more awards and was nominated for a total of 25.
The thing about sound, Tarrant said, is that audiences only notice sound when it’s bad. Sound recordists like Tarrant have to overcome bizarre and plentiful hurdles in order to achieve crystal clear dialogue and completely normal-seeming ambient sound.
The goal is how to record actors’ dialogue and ambient sound clearly, but keep the background sounds of the city or tractors, for example, out of the recording.
“Ninety per cent of my job is problem-solving to achieve the best possible track,” said Tarrant. “More often than not I’m polishing a turd,” he said, using Jerry Lewis’ saying.
Nevertheless, those challenges and variety inherent in the film industry were cited as a main reason they like their work. Every show is different, they say.
“It takes a long time to get good at the craft because there’s a lot to learn. I learn something new every year, even after 28 years,” said Tarrant.
All caution that effort to balance personal lives has to be made to hold families together. Tarrant said the divorce rate is “staggering.”
Where there is a will, there is a way, however, and many people are happy to figure out how to maintain a happy, healthy personal life balanced with a creatively-satisfying career in film.
Paradis, a family man, is happy to be a part of the film world.
“We all have had to make a lot of sacrifices and work our asses off to be the creative person they come to for the ideas,” said Paradis.

Musician aims to win Foothills fans

Rocker Brock Zeman will be performing at The Stop in Black Diamond on Sunday. photo submitted

By Tamara Neely
Staff Reporter

You’ve got to love playing music to pull off 250 gigs per year, two years in a row. Singer-songwriter Brock Zeman has the drive to tour to that extent. The 26-year-old is overflowing with ideas, too. He has recorded five rock ‘n’ roll bluesy country albums in the past five years, and his pace isn’t slowing. Zeman will be performing a show this Sunday at The Stop in Black Diamond, while on tour in Alberta.
The show at The Stop will be Zeman on guitar, Dan Walsh on lead and slide guitars and Blair Hogan on bass.
“The Stop is a really cool spot, I’ve wanted to play there for a long time,” said Zeman. “Everybody plays there and it’s cool to see a venue like that surviving in a small town.”
Zeman admires The Stop because they host bands throughout the week, as well as on weekends, and for bands on tour a place that will actually book a band in between weekend gigs helps pay hotel and travel bills.
“That’s where you get gas money and money to keep you going,” he said, adding, “It’s a real friendly little area, too.
“The people around Black Diamond and Nanton, they’re so friendly; I just love it.”
Often in larger venues in bigger cities, management fronts with an attitude that they’re doing the band a favour by allowing them to play.
“They feel like you owe them big for being there. That’s the difference,” said Zeman. “When you hit the smaller towns it’s like ‘We’re happy to have you here.’ If you feel like you’re among friends it’s a way better crowd to play music for.
“If you didn’t have a place to stay going in there, you do by the time you’re done – probably two or three.”
Zeman’s approach to his
career in music is a combination of recording albums and touring. All musicians – and families with station wagons – know that road trips are a mix of fun and hard work. These guys, Zeman, Walsh and Hogan, have been touring heavily.
“You’ve got to tour constantly to make it work. At this level, we’re not raking in huge bucks and we want to get people out to the shows, we go away for awhile and come back or else they forget about you,” he said.
“The fans are working for you, if I get two people out to a show, they’ll bring two more friends next time we come around. That’s the way it works. So we’re constantly on the road trying to get heard.”
The tours pay off in an expanding fan base and in sales of CDs, but they also cost the band in gas, lodging and food.
“It works out, but you’ve got to be smart about what you’re doing; don’t eat in restaurants,” said Zeman. “Most of the gigs feed you and give you beer, so you starve yourself a little until the next gig.
“Ah, the glory of the road.”
That rock ‘n’ roll/life-on-the-road lifestyle winds its way into Zeman’s songs. They have a sound of rocking-out, sleeping in, drinking hard, loving good, and making out mixed with a little loneliness.
His two most recent albums were released in March 2007.
The Bourbon Sessions features the simple, acoustic sound of Zeman on guitar. It was recorded at Walsh’s home studio, spontaneously.
“We released it as is, it was the first time I did a record like that – like I didn’t know I was doing a record. It’s really laid back, it’s a different aspect of what I do, so it worked out nicely,” said Zeman.
The album Welcome Home Ivy Jane has an opposite sound. This album, said Zeman, is an “all-out rock album,” and diametrically opposite to the off-the-floor sound of The Bourbon Sessions. It was recorded by Keith Glass a key member of the Juno-award winning band Prairie Oyster.
Brock Zeman and the Dirty Hands will play at 4 p.m. Call (403) 933-3002 to reserve tickets; it’s a small venue and tickets sell out quickly. The Stop is located at 123 Government Road South, Black Diamond.

Rage Against Beige is all about colour

Artist Holly McWilliams hangs her work at the Rage Against Beige art show at the Station. photo by Bruce Campbell

By Tamara Neely
Staff Reporter

A group of seven artists from Okotoks and Calgary are having a show that brings a lot of colour to The Station. The show, called Rage Against Beige II, is the second year in a row for the exhibit that celebrates vibrant, colourful art.
The show will run throughout March and the opening reception will be held on Friday, March 7, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Cheryl Taylor, an Okotoks-based artist instrumental in the show, is excited to be doing the Rage Against Beige exhibit again this year.
“It shows a different side of what people expect of art in Okotoks,” said Taylor. “There’s a perception that there’s a lot of western art. We have some very different art, and vibrant palettes and a bit more contemporary.” 
Artists with a very colourful palette were invited to do a show that focuses on the use of colour, Taylor explained. Showcasing their work in the Rage Against Beige show are Okotoks artists Janifer Calvez, Erica Neumann, Melanie Pope and Taylor, as well as Calgary artists Jana Milne and Holly McWilliams. They will be filling The Station with abstracts, florals, portraits and landscapes.
Taylor would like to promote that the art scene in the Foothills, and Alberta, is not just a culture of westerns and nature scenes.
“We haven’t been (just westerns and nature) for a very long time, but it always amazes me that that reputation still exists,” she said.
It may come down to the visibility of western and nature art. It’s everywhere in Alberta. Taylor observed that those themes dominate travel brochures for the area and events such as the Calgary Stampede.
“It’s more visible and you have to wonder is it because artists are aware of that as their market?” Catering to a perceived taste to sell art, Taylor said, should never be the sole reason one creates art.
“An artist should always be pushing themselves in different directions and gently pushing the public along, as well,” said Taylor. “There are a lot of artists who work in those genres (western and nature) who invest a lot of self-expression in the way they approach, for example, a landscape.”
At the reception, seven contemporary cafes and caterers supporting the arts in Okotoks will be showcasing a selection of colourful appetizers for the palate in an event called A Taste of Okotoks. Contributing delicacies to the evening will be Bistro Provence, Divine, Headless Chef Productions, Home Ground Coffee and Roasting House, Ooh La La, seventynine and Tea and Time Emporium.
To further enrich the evening, a string quartet will be performing at the reception.