In his second attempt getting in on the buzz created by Storyhive, Evan James Ollenberger has dipped into the honey.
The 24-year-old Prince George filmmaker found out last week his project - Intercosplay Robostellar Plasmatron - was among the 10 winning B.C. entries picked to receive a $10,000 grant from Telus to produce the electronica music video he filmed two weekends ago at Northern FanCon.
Based on a cosplay theme, the video will be synced with the music of Chad Magnant and Jer Breaks, formerly of Prince George, to be featured on Telus Optic TV On Demand broadcasts and community programming.
"It's just cool being an artist and being recognized for the hard work," said Ollenberger. "I put in for it once before and my idea didn't land with them and it's just nice to keep pushing and have that breakthrough.
"It's not a big production, so to have money dispersed through the team is a great feeling because it makes everyone know their worth. It's tough in northern B.C. to get funding for art and just to actually be able to do it for a good sum of money, versus it being a hobby, is really great."
Storyhive is a production funding and distribution competition for emerging content creators in B.C. and Alberta. Ten winning entries were picked from each province as determined by a community poll.
The video will be built around a loose narrative in which a bad-guy character steals an ancient artifact and the cosplay characters team up and use each of their unique abilities to get that precious item back to its rightful owner.
The three-day comic and entertainment convention at CN Centre and the Kin Centre attracted hundreds of cosplay characters - heroes and villains - sporting their costumes. Ollenberger encouraged each of them to be creative in front of the camera to reflect their adopted characters.
"We got some great footage, everyone was such a class act about being in it and performing their cosplay characters and it went really well," said Ollenberger, a native of Dawson Creek who studied at Vancouver Film School.
"It was super fast-paced and high-energy, FanCon had a good energy going on this year.
"There was a cosplay re-imagining of a Star Wars character, Boba Fett. He was wearing heavy gear (as armour) and he has a gatling gun. I can't imagine the hours that went into that costume," he said. "The pinnacle experience for me was filming Darth Vader posing with a Challenger Hellcat. (Northern FanCon co-creator Norm Coyne) got the coolest car he could get from the (Northland Dodge) dealership."
Ollenberger's film crew involved six people. The three-minute song, featuring electronic synthesizer talents of Breaks and Magnant, the guitar player for the Canadian country artist Dallas Smith, will be remixed and scored to blend with the images Ollenberger will produce.
"They're going to take another swing at the music and add their artistic talents to it," said Ollenberger. "We'll have over eight hours of video to cut down to three minutes. For me, it's a cool opportunity to make a music video and for them (the cosplayers) it's a cool opportunity to be in one. It's all very collaborative, and that's why everyone is so willing to be in it.
"I love this project, it's just fun."
Ollenberger's cosplay video is being produced by Coyne, who has helped guide other local filmmakers to make successful submissions to Telus's Storyhive.
The finished product will be used to help promote Northern FanCon on its website, www.fancon.ca and on the Northern FanCon Facebook page. The $10,000 prize will give Ollenberger nearly two months to work with the footage in post-production.
"There's already been some labour involved in the shooting but we were so confident in the idea we were going to make it anyway, so it's good it worked out this way," said Coyne.
Telus also has a $100,000 funding program open only to alumni artists already selected for the $10,000 grant in B.C. or Alberta. Ollenberger says he has some ideas for that contest, one of which would be a period piece based in Barkerville.
