Special effects company branches into making movies
The movie industry is a tough business to get established in and even tougher to stay afloat. Whether you’re in Hollywood or the unconventional production region of southern Alberta, the industry is cut throat.
“To survive here, you’ve got to do a variety of different things,” said Becky Scott, the co-owner of Bleeding Art Industries.
Bleeding Art Industries was founded in 2002 by Leo Wieser. With a background in theatre and pyrotechnics, Wieser handles the creative side of the business. Scott came on board in 2003 and deals with the company’s business, marketing and communications.
“With every company you’ve got to have the visionary and right brain side but you also need the left side,” Scott said.
The company initially focused on special effects for the film industry, and then it evolved into fabrication and other areas. According to Scott and Wieser, this move was “partly out of interest and partly because it’s very hard to survive.”
Not wanting to always be at the beck and call of whatever film or studio that came through the province, Scott and Wieser continued to diversify. They recently embarked on their most ambitious project: ‘Skeleton Girl‘, a short film shot in stereo 3D and stop motion animation.
Produced by Brent Dufault
“We had a lot of creative ideas and we knew that we had the skills and expertise to pull it all together,” Scott said. “People reacted positively to what we were doing. It’s very difficult to make your own film whether it’s a short or a feature.”
‘Skeleton Girl‘ ended up winning the award for, Best First 3-D Film in New York City’s BeFilm: The Underground Film Festival.
Amongst other projects, the company is currently in the very early stages of creating another short.
“In an ideal world I’d like us to be able to focus just on that and get it done in a set period of time,” Scott said. “But the reality is that we’ve got other things going on and we don’t have the resources to do that.”