NFB open house offers public final chance to tour old studios.
That’s how I heard about the event. It was only a few days before it was schedule to happen. I was excited because I didn’t have commitments that day so I knew I would be able to attend this amazing opportunity.
I can’t remember exactly what I had done the night before. It’s not important, but I mention it because I was running a little later than I had planned. You see the National Film Board of Canada’s Montreal headquarters is preparing to move. In it’s preparation one of the things they decided to do was open they doors to the public for the firs time in over 30 years. This was in part associated with les journées de la culture (the days of culture) Quebec.
Canada’s national film board has won many awards. You can read more about on it’s wikipedia page. I mention this because this felt like a once in a life time opportunity to actually visit working studios.
Here’s a quick quote about the awards it has won taken from the wikipedia page.:
The National Film Board of Canada has received 12 Academy Awards to date. It has received 74 Oscar nominations, more than any film organization in the world outside Hollywood.[113] The first-ever Oscar for documentary went to the NFB production, Churchill’s Island. In 1989, it received an Honorary Award from the Academy “in recognition of its 50th anniversary and its dedicated commitment to originate artistic, creative and technological activity and excellence in every area of film making.”[114] On January 23, 2007, the NFB received its 12th and most recent Academy Award, for the animated short The Danish Poet, directed by Torill Kove and co-produced with MikroFilm AS (Norway).[115] 55 of the NFB’s 74 Oscar nominations have been for its short films.[116]
The doors were scheduled to open at 10 am. I got there a little bit after 10:30. I had just missed the bus at the exit of the metro station and I decided to walk rather than wait for the next bus. The time required for each being almost the same.
There was already a large amount of people in line ahead of me and that line continued to increase. It was confirmed afterwards via the media (twitter/facebook along with other sources) that they volunteers were somewhat surprised by the number of individuals that decided to take advantage of this tour.
I know I waited almost two hours from the time I got in line to the time the tour started. The staff was extremely professional and eventually got the groups moving in a timely fashion. However I saw several elderly individuals require assistance after having waited so long standing in line.
The tour itself was informative, educational and fun. We saw the animation studios, some of the editing studios and the various equipment they used.
We then proceeded to the sound studio and stage where the sounds were created and recorded. I thought was an excellent stop along the way. The showed how one person was creating the sounds, one was recording and adjusting, the whole time while ensuring synchronized to the movie. They also got some of the kids to participate by creating the sounds. We then got to tour the sound creating area as well.
We also saw the storage vaults where climate controlled rooms ensured the protection of the various film mediums. They even had two old rolls of film that had decomposed due to poor storage. I forget exactly what the process is called but the degradation of the film create a strong odor of vinegar which was easily recognizable after he opened the film canister to show us the damaged film.
There was a stop in a stop motion studio artist. He had just completed his most recent project but was showing everyone visiting what was required to create one second or video and the tools required.
There was a quick question and answer session with some of the directors. Finally there was an explanation of what the new building would look like in downtown Montreal. They mentioned that in the future they would always have one working studio that the public will be able to view and interact with in this new location.
Finally there was an option to hold an actual Oscar that had been given to the National Film board. By this point in the tour I had been standing for several hours already. Rather than stay to hold an Oscar, I left and made my way to China town in order to have a nice meal with a friend.
The tour was completely worth it. I’m glad to I got to experience part of the science, art and hard work that goes into the creations at the NFB. The tour members seemed to be composed of people working in the various related industries, families with children, up and coming artist and people like myself who just wanted to learn more about this wonderful institution.
