Timmins student recognized for cinematography work by Ontario Mining Association – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – June 1, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

He hasn’t even graduated high school yet, but Francis Huot has already two awards for filmmaking awards under his belt.

Last week, the École Secondaire Theriault student was in Toronto accepting a So You Think You Know Mining Award from the Ontario Mining Association for a short film he made. There were several different categories at the awards, but Huot was recognized for having the best cinematography out of all the videos submitted.

The video Huot is simple but impactful. The visuals of the two-minute-long video are a black-and-white montage of mining machinery and shafts inside GorldCorp’s Dome Mine in Timmins.

“We got permission to go down into the mine and take some shots,” explained Huot. “It was very cool. It’s not every day you get an opportunity to take shots like that.”

The shots of the machinery also make heavy use of contrasting direct light with the darkness of the mine; Huot says this was to help deliver a more emotional impact to the images.

“I wanted the video to be kind of dark so you could sort of focus more on the audio. I think that’s what made my video more cinematic. Most of the videos in the contest were bright and full of colour while mine was more emotional,” he said.

The audio in Huot’s video is one side of a phone conversation between a young man and his grandfather. The grandson has called with news that he has received a job in the same mine where his grandfather used to work, and thanks him for all his support. Huot says he was looking for a simple story to tell that would carry plenty of emotional impact, and the idea of multi-generational mining families hit pretty close to home.

For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.timminspress.com/2015/05/30/timmins-student-recognized-for-cinematography-work-by-ontario-mining-association