{"id":41862,"date":"2016-11-04T15:04:26","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T19:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=41862"},"modified":"2016-11-07T13:22:35","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T17:22:35","slug":"award-winning-filmmaker-and-brock-grad-releases-first-feature-film-in-niagara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2016\/11\/award-winning-filmmaker-and-brock-grad-releases-first-feature-film-in-niagara\/","title":{"rendered":"Award-winning filmmaker and Brock grad releases first feature film in Niagara"},"content":{"rendered":"

From making videos on his first VHS camera at the age of 11 to starting his own filmmaking business in Niagara and now releasing his first feature film, Adrian Thiessen (BA \u201909) is the model \u2018living out your passion.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Thiessen graduated from Brock University\u2019s Film Studies program and was one of the key players in rejuvenating BrockTV, which gave him valuable and influential experience to start his own filmmaking business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started Fourgrounds Media in 2008 when I was still a student \u2014 balancing client pitch meetings with seminars and lectures in my last year at Brock,\u201d says Thiessen. \u201cI think I knew pretty early on I would be starting my own thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fourgrounds has produced its first award-winning feature film, The Hotel Dieu<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> which will be screened Friday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. at the Seneca Queen Theatre in Niagara Falls and Saturday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre\u2019s Film House in St. Catharines.<\/p>\n

Located in downtown St. Catharines, Fourgrounds Media<\/a> Inc. is a video and film production company with a diverse and creative team of filmmakers and editors dedicated to creating engaging content for any platform. Fourgrounds specializes in commercial, corporate and film production and are big supporters of other local organizations in Niagara.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the commercial work we do I am proud of for different reasons,\u201d says Thiessen. \u201cThe work we do locally at the Shaw Festival or for the Niagara IceDogs is cool because it is seen by a large audience and we are proud to be a part of what organizations like that are doing locally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fourgrounds has also been successful in creating viral sketch comedy videos that have been seen by millions of people around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo put something out there and see it travel the globe in a few days is unreal,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Along with corporate commercial and video production, The Hotel Dieu <\/em>was Fourgrounds\u2019 first award-winning feature. Now they\u2019re developing two other feature films and a web-based drama.<\/p>\n

The Hotel Dieu<\/em>, <\/strong>which was shot primarily in the old hospital in St. Catharines a month after it was decommissioned, is a coming of age drama in which a teenager’s reality is challenged after losing his sight in a near fatal experience and tells a story through emotion and creative imagery. The film was co-written and directed by Thiessen, produced by Niagara local Kristen Nater and involved a cast and crew of around 35 people.<\/p>\n

Making The Hotel Dieu<\/em> was a goal and passion project for Fourgrounds and has since made its way around the festival circuit, earning \u201cNiagara Rises Best Feature\u201d and \u201cRBC Emerging Artist Award\u201d at the Niagara Integrated Film Festival, \u201cBest Director of a Feature Film\u201d and \u201cBest Supporting Actress in a Feature\u201d at the Portsmouth International Film Festival and \u201cBest Producers of a Feature Film\u201d at the St. Tropez International Film Festival, all in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far it has been a great release,\u201d Thiessen comments about the reception during the Toronto screening last week. \u201cWe had quite a good reception last year in our festival run with several awards and nominations globally, so it is great to finally get the film out to our family and friends and the general public.\u201d<\/p>\n

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From making videos on his first VHS camera at the age of 11 to starting his own filmmaking business in Niagara and now releasing his first feature film, Adrian Thiessen (BA \u201909) is the model \u2018living out your passion.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":41867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,1,4,38],"tags":[2978,87,2977],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41862"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41869,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41862\/revisions\/41869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}