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Company Wants to Create Filmmaker Network, Offering Movie Gigs to Troubled Youth

How can youth revitalize the film industry? Why shouldn’t students also learn about the business side of films? A new company is working to pump new, fresh ideas into Hollywood North.

Digital Journal — A film is often touted as a success when the actors expertly transform themselves into believable characters, when the director frames a perfect scene, or when special-effects specialists create fantasy out of nothing. But a newly formed marketing company wants to turn the spotlight to the business side of film-making, which is often lost in the mix. They also hope to inspire a new generation of filmmakers at the same time.

Rememberthe9ts.com, based in Toronto, is a marketing and research company for the film industry, and its reach is much wider than the standard get-a-film-noticed routine. The company wants to provide networking opportunities for filmmakers, but not just any filmmaker. Youth have become a primary focus for Rememberthe9ts, which has a mandate to give young filmmakers opportunities to find their own piece of Hollywood.

“Student filmmakers need to go above and beyond the usual pitch to employers,” says Sam G, founder of Rememberthe9ts, in an interview with DigitalJournal.com. His long-term goal is to create one network for Canadian students to communicate with each other. Short-term, Sam wants to give kids internships right when a film’s seed is first planted.

Rememberthe9ts is working with several producers on an upcoming unnamed Toronto film that will involve student interns to work on various aspects of film-making. Positions are available in fields such as direction, screenwriting, production design, accounting, and others. Sam stresses that a wide variety of film lovers can sign up for internships — it’s not only the glamorous jobs that should be showcased, he says. Behind the scenes, it takes a lot more to create a film, which is where producers, accountants and marketing execs come in.

“Students can learn, start to finish, how a film is made,” says Sam, 25.


Rememberthe9ts worked on promotional campaigns for the upcoming film Hank & Mike

His company is hooking up with producers from a film Rememberthe9ts worked on recently, Hank & Mike. Featuring Joe Mantegna and Chris Klein, the movie debuted at several film festivals and will be released soon. Sam has worked on marketing initiatives for the film, while also networking with producers and industry insiders in order to strengthen his own contact list. Essentially, he’s doing what he hopes other students will accomplish.

But Sam’s projects don’t end there. In the Toronto area, he’s been talking with city councilors and mayors to help fund a program he calls Guns for Films. The provocative title has an equally provocative mission: convince youth in crime-riddled pockets of Toronto to grab a camera and film their stories, whether they’re fictional or real. Sam says kids in the Jane-Finch area, for instance, should act out their criminal fantasies on film rather than on city streets.


Film-making is more than just the actors on screen, Rememberthe9ts stresses. It hopes to offer internships in other fields such as accounting, production, marketing and graphic design

“If kids can focus on something productive or creative, they won’t have to waste time hanging out in a mall or doing something criminal,” Sam says. “I’m not doing an after-school special and saying ‘Let’s stop the violence.’ Instead, I want them to flex their creativity to find a sort of release.”

He says Guns for Films will not only cater to youth but also attract attention from businesses and politicians who want to seek alternative strategies in dealing with criminal gangs. “Getting a story out can inspire other people in other communities,” he adds.

He views Guns for Films and the student internships as a way to revitalize the sluggish Canadian film industry. “It’s dying, everyone I meet is telling me that,” he says. “And students need better access to this industry, and it would be amazing to see fresh blood giving the film world a much-needed boost.”

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