For the film and television industry to continue its growth, guest productions, co-productions, and locally-conceived productions need to be able to maximize regional labor hires to remain cost-effective and competitive. Edmonton Screen is dedicated to equipping the region’s workforce with the necessary practical skills and knowledge. To help achieve this goal, we have engaged Stage 32 to develop a new training initiative to help support opportunities for advancement in below-the-line areas.

This program focuses on enhancing practical, real-industry knowledge for local individuals in specific entry-level and mid-level roles. Each stream of the program will enhance production skills in selected job categories. The first streams that we will be offering are:

Production Assistant Master Certification
Production Coordinator Master Certification
Assistant Director Master Certification

Future offerings of the program will expand into other job categories.

Program Highlights

The program is aimed at entry to mid-level individuals looking to advance their skills
Each stream includes online, in-person, and on-set training components
Participants will receive practical knowledge and experience and gain a credit to add to their resume

Program Details

Participants must be based in the Edmonton region
Participants may only take part in one stream at a time

Production Assistant Master Certification

In this Master Certification track, students will get certified as a production assistant for film & TV series. A Production Assistant is a key role in any production and one of the few roles that interface with every department on set.

Course outline:

Fundamentals of Production Assisting
Production Assisting: On Set Protocol
Production Assisting: Paperwork & Department Interaction
Call Sheets

Taught by Directors Guild Of America Assistant Directors, and former Production Assistants Gary Romolo Fiorelli (Castle Rock, All American); Korey Pollard (Seal Team, Halloween).

Production Coordinator Master Certification

In this Master Certification track, you will get certified in Production Coordinating for film & TV series, a key role on any production team.

Course outline:

Fundamentals of Production Coordination
Call Sheets
Production Scheduling
Production Coordinator: Logistics

Taught by the top producers in the world including Korey Pollard, Producer and DGA Unit Production Manager/First Assistant Director, and Matt Conner, Producer/Unit Production Manager/Line Producer. Korey and Matt have worked on productions for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, ABC, CBS, NBC, USA, FX, and more.

Assistant Director Master Certification

In this stream, you will get certified as an Assistant Director for film and television series. The Assistant Director and the Assistant Directing Department play critical roles on any production and are responsible for scheduling the production, running the set, and acting as the Director’s team to allow the Director the most time to set shots and work with the cast.

Course outline:

Fundamentals of Assistant Directing
Assistant Director Scheduling
First Assistant Director On Set Protocols
Key 2nd Assistant Director Protocols & Call Sheets
2nd 2nd Assistant Director Protocols
Fundamentals of Production Assisting

Taught by top Directors Guild Of America Assistant Directors Korey Pollard, Sylwia Dudzinska, and Jerram Swartz who have worked on films and television shows including Halloween, E.T. – The Extraterretrial, The Walking Dead, Sons Of Anarchy, Seal Team, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Blues Brothers, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Chicago Fire, and many more.

The program consists of three phases:

Online training
In person training
On-set experience

Online Training

The online component consists of multiple virtual courses through the Stage 32 platform. Each course takes approximately 90-120 minutes to complete. Online courses are done at the participants’ own pace (within a set time frame for completion). Participants may pause their courses throughout to take notes and go back to rewatch at any time.

At the end of each course will be an online test, examining the skills learned in the course. Courses may be taken in any order, however, all must be completed to receive master certification and to progress further in the program.

In Person

Once the online certification is successfully completed, Edmonton Screen and Stage 32 will provide in-person training that will be bespoke to the region. A Stage 32 educator will be brought in to Edmonton to work with participants to provide them advanced training. The students will have the opportunity to interact directly with the Stage 32 educator to ensure that, with all their new skills, they are fully prepared to seamlessly work on a film or television production.

On-set experience

Upon successful completion of both the online and in-person training, participants will be considered for on-set placement. Participants that are placed on set will receive paid experience and will receive a credit in the project. Placement will be contingent upon what productions are occurring, timing, and participant availability.

Application Information

Participants may only take part in one stream at a time, so please select the correct cohort

Application Requirements
Information required for the application form:

Applicant contact information (company, phone, address, etc.)
Producer information including website or IMDB link and highlights of previous training or experience
Career impact: the potential impact of the program on the applicant’s career, why do you want to be a part of this program

This is a competitive process and the following general criteria will be used to assess applications:

Alignment with program objectives
Career advancement of the producer
Application quality

Other criteria may also be considered.

Process

All applications will be reviewed for eligibility
Eligible applications will then be assessed based on the criteria above
Applicants will be notified of decisions
Successful applicants will be provided further details
Additional requirements, including reporting requirements, will be communicated to successful applicants as needed throughout the process.

Edmonton Screen will announce program participants publicly following the selection period. Further recognition and reporting requirements can be found in participant agreements and will be available on the participant toolkit.

Applicants with overdue final reporting for this program will not be eligible for future Edmonton Screen funding until the reporting is submitted.

	Production Assistant	Production Coordinator	Assistant Director
Applications Open:	October 20	November 3	November 17
Applications Close:	November 3	November 17	December 1
Notification by:	November 14	November 28	December 12
Online training window:	November 17 – December 29	December 1 – January 12	December 15 – January 26
In person training:	Mid-January 2026	Early February 2026	Late February 2026
On-set training:	2026 (based on production availability)	2026 (based on production availability)	2026 (based on production availability)
Reporting:	30 days following program completion	30 days following program completion	30 days following program completion