Local filmmakers part of a passionate, creative community

At the grassroots level, Calgary hasn’t always been known as a film hub in Canada. A local filmmaking company, however, wants to help put Alberta on the map for future film projects, detailing that the province’s filmmaking community is something very special and worth fostering.

What started as a creative outlet for creating short films, Quinn Hawse and Brandon Demish, co-creators of Wide Stream Media, are now celebrating their 8th year in film production. The group has created over six short films, as well as a variety of skits and promotional media for a range of clients.

Aside from filmmaking, the crew is also passionate about video games and the storytelling in those virtual environments.

Dead by Daylight, a multiplayer horror-survival game, was a favourite among the team. Hawse and Demish decided to create a short film based on the game, with fans, actors, and production staff quickly jumping on board to help with the project.

“It was our first project that we had a very large amount of the existing filmmaking community involved,” said Hawse. “It was really great to have that level of the community surrounding the project.”

Both Hawse and Demish agree that the Alberta filmmaking sphere is full of passionate talent eager to build up the creative industry.

“One thing that I love about the community is that there are so many people who just love to do film. You can ask them to do a project, and a lot of them will do it without pay because they’re passionate about it and they really value the experience,” Demish said.

Making mistakes part of the process

Demish encourages aspiring creators and filmmakers to get out and start creating and not to be too concerned with perfection. To help foster the film scene and get new creatives on board, Demish works with them to be comfortable making mistakes in order to learn valuable skills for a future in filmmaking.

“Just get out there and start filming your ideas immediately, and make as many projects as you can because each project is going to improve,” Demish said.

Demish admits there’s a lot to learn in the filmmaking world, but every project will help refine talent and open new doors in the space. He says part of the process is seeing where creative projects naturally transform into their final form.

“Nearly every project we’ve done, we’ve had a vision and goal for it. But what happens is that things change in the process, you do things differently, and the story progresses in a different way, and sometimes it actually ends up being even better than we had planned,” Demish said.

For the love of the craft

Toronto and Vancouver are known hubs for filmmaking in Canada, but recent productions like The Last of Us, Fargo, and Prey have put Alberta on the map due to its diverse environment and spaces for storytelling.

“There’s such a big gap between the existing filmmaking community that we’re a part of, and large-scale productions and the actual filmmaking ecosystem and industry as a whole within this part of Alberta and really Canada in general,” Hawse said.

Even with a much larger film presence in other cities, Hawse and Demish find the local film scene very unique and hope to see it grow in the future.

“It seems like everybody involved in the community is there for the love of the craft, and I think that’s one of the major things that sets Calgary apart from other big film cities,” Hawse said.