WV couple
donate
$6Mto
film at Cap
James Weidon
jweldon@nsnews. com

CAPILANO
University's new film
centre is a substantial
step closer to reality
thanks to a $6-million
donation from a West
P# Vancouver couple.
Nat
Bosa,
president
of the Bosa Development
Corporation, and his wife
Flora gave the money to the
Capilano's Centre for Film
and Animation, due to open
in 2011. It's the largest private
donation in the school's
history.
" I levitated," said film
centre director Bill Thumm,
describing the moment he
heard the news. "When the
actual commitment was made
. . . it was the banner day."
The university announced
the donation May 26.
The
70,000-squarefoot centre, already under
construction, will become the
new home of the university's
motion picture arts degree
See Money pa^e 5

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

BILL Thumm, director of Capilano University's Centre for Film and Animation, looks out from the portable that
his department has long since outgrown onto the construction site of a new film department.

Money will equip new centre
From page 1
program, which at the moment is housed in portables. In August
last year, the federal and provincial governments put $30 million
toward the effort — enough to cover construction of the first
phase of the two-phase project.
That money would only pay for the building itself, however.
The Bosa donation will allow the school to buy the equipment
that goes in it, said Thumm. That will include 3-D cameras, a
high-definition 3-D movie theatre, sound mixing equipment,
lights, computers, editing stations and other gear.
The new facility comes not a moment too soon, said Thumm,
as the program has long outgrown its digs.
"We are crammed into a space now that is far too small for
what we offer," he said. "It's a two-storey portable situation
dating back from god knows when — the paleolithic era."
At the moment, students have to rely on off-campus industry
facilities to complete many of their projects. The new centre is

expected to change that.
"Everything the students now need to go from the very
developmental part of their film to the final stages of post
(production) will be available to them in-house," said Thumm.
"To be able to deliver afist-classeducation, it is my contention
that you needfirst-classfacilities and it all needs to be industry
standard."
He estimates the school needs about $9 vciiFdon more
probably from the government, to complete Phase 2, which will
house an expanded animation program. The Bosa donation will
very likely cover all the equipment needed to outfit that portion
of the centre as well, said Thumm.
Capilano's School of Motion Picture Arts, the largest film
school in Western Canada, serves 400 students annually.

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