North Vancouver School District
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Oct 23
Digital Media students hear from Emmy Award winner Michael Cliett

​By Chris Miller, Teacher, Digital Media Academy

On Friday, October 4, over 60 Argyle Secondary students from Median Design, Digital Media Academy (DMA) and DMA Lite had the exciting opportunity to hear and learn from Visual Effects Supervisor, Producer, Director and Artist, Michael Cliett. 

Recently having won an Emmy for the special visual effects on the TV series Shōgun, he shared about the three-year process that happened behind the scenes. Starting with the historical research on 17th Century CE Japan to ensure accuracy of all details in the story, characters, locations and more. They worked with pre-eminent scholars from Japan.

Argyle_Michael Cliett_EmmyAward_2024.jpegMichael shared footage from Shōgun showing the technical workings of blending live action with computer generated special effects. The footage highlighted the actors, crew, and software technicians working. Michael also explained in detail how safety was of upmost importance on set. He showed actors and horses on set during the production of action scenes that were hard to distinguish from real sets such as an earthquake or dangerous ocean voyage on a boat. 

The opportunity to learn from industry experts allows students to imagine future possibilities and see how their current classes are setting them up for success. This was evident in the correlation that the types of software available for students to learn on at Argyle is also used throughout the industry.

With many takeaways, students had very thoughtful questions about the technical processes and challenges encountered at various levels of production. Perhaps one of the coolest takeaways was being able to hold Michael’s Emmy award and get a photo with him. 

As one of the best in the industry for special effects, Michael was generous sharing about his knowledge and career path. We are thankful for his time spent with students.

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