Student loans can give you access to training you could never afford otherwise, but they can also haunt you, and hold you back, for what sometimes feels like the rest of your life.
“There’s nothing worse than completing an expensive training program only to let debt stand in the way of the creative process,” says Geoffery Anthony, CEO of GFZ Studios, a Vancouver company involved in numerous international and Hollywood productions and more recently the Fly Over Canada experience. GFZ has announced that it’s addressing the problem with its new project, GFZ Advance.
As Anthony explains it, “We’ve created a new workshop that enables students and veterans alike by giving them hands on experience in an actual film studio while simultaneously working with established industry experts.” Many of the tutors are leading visual effect and post production experts.
High school students are also welcome to test their interest in the film industry.
GFZ Advance operates at a fraction of the cost of traditional graduate programs. It also prepares students for self-employment by fostering a community where they can make the industry connections that are so crucial to getting a career started.
GFZ Advance currently offers beginner and intermediate courses in Nuke and Photoshop, with spring sessions set to begin on June 1st. You can get all the details and more here.
Maybe the best way to sum up this program is as Anthony puts it: “We’ll be offering the training and real world setting without any threat to a student’s future.”