Date: April 29, 2025 – 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM (Reception from 7:00 PM – 7:30 PM)
Location: U of M Smart Park – MPR2 Room – 100 Innovation Drive
Registration Fee: FREE – Register below!
Register: Demystifying AI for Manitoba’s Film Industry
About the session:
Film Training Manitoba and Tech Manitoba are proud to jointly announce this first-of-its-kind one-on-one moderated session in Manitoba.
During this session, Manitoba film industry veteran Andrew Yankiwski will be engaging with Dr. David Gerhard in an in-depth discussion on the developments of Artificial intelligence (AI) and the current and potential future effects on the film industry.
This session is designed to demystify the elements of AI to support the participant’s understanding of the various effects AI may have as well as sharing the potential benefits and advantages of AI.
Topics covered:
- What is AI?
- Vision
- People
- Process
- Technology & Infrastructure
- Governance & Leadership
All participants are welcome to attend.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Gerhard is the Department Head of Computer Science at the University of Manitoba and is a full-time professor. His current research focuses on Virtual Reality User Interactions and he has a specific focus on researching highly dexterous interactions in Virtual Reality for sport, music, and typical use.
He has an interdisciplinary background with experience in engineering, computer technology, mathematics, communication, music, linguistics, and philosophy.
About the Moderator:
Andrew Yankiwski caught the audio production bug as a hobbyist in 1992. Andrew cofounded Precursor Production in 2000 out of the need to have a dedicated studio for his own music projects, but it quickly attracted clients and students.
Naturally drawn toward boundary-pushing music in every genre, he created innovative studio workflows to infuse Precursor’s audio production with this spirit. He also developed Precursor’s audio production courses from the ground-up in response to the limitations of traditional audio production training.
Andrew has an undergraduate Arts degree (History major, English minor) and a Law Degree from the University of Manitoba.
His volunteer work as a board member of New Media Manitoba and as Chair of Film Training Manitoba reflects his passion for film, digital technology and video games.
His career highlights include recording Liam Neeson’s ADR for The Marksman, dubbing Mark Hamill for episodes of The Sandman series, recording Natalia Dyer’s ADR on episodes of Stranger Things season 4, recording Dan Bakkedahl’s ADR for the final episode of Veep and recording Hilary Swank’s narration for the documentary Becoming Annika.
FTM is a non-for-profit charity and member of the Province of Manitoba’s Sector Council program funded through the Economic Development, Investment, Trade and Natural Resources. FTM builds a highly skilled and adaptable film industry workforce to support the activities of Manitoba production companies. FTM collaborates and partners with members of the film industry to identify training needs to support workforce development.