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Then/Now Live Performance Series Reveals Emerging Film Opportunities In BC’s Connected Communities

A man in a white tshirt and black jacket stands before a blurred out backgorund of an overcast day, there is snow on the ground. He Wears a white T-shirt and a black leather jacket with a NASA patch over the left breast. He looks to his left as he wears black rimmed glasses and a dark short beard.
Erin Yule alongside his brother and friend took a risk to put on an event featuring local singer-songwriters, fund it, film it, and then share it. Photo Credit - Adam Harasimiuk
Ian Gregg - CFUR - Prince George • BC | 06-10-2023
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Erin Yule has done many pivots in his career. He's just finished his latest -- from musician, to student, and now to film maker.

His journey from musician to filmmaker is a story in itself. Yule is still attending school at UNBC majoring in science while pursuing medicine. He had to drop his touring gig with band The Yule Brothers during the pandemic, so he traded the stage for a classroom and went back to school. With the exercise of education leaving creative void, he decided to pick up a camera alongside his brother Darby Yule and friend Adam Harasimiuk.

After listening to some older material he'd created with his brother about a decade ago, a friend mentioned, "Woah, this sounds nothing like you." It started a cascade of reflections, and Erin realized that it would be a fascinating concept to explore the journey of other local singers & songwriters from their first song, to their most recent.

The next challenge was finding funding. After exploring a few options, the Telus Storyhive program ultimately provided funding for their filmed event titled, Then/Now. The trio coordinated logistics through late 2022, and their efforts culminated on a dark January 2023 evening event in Prince George BC at Trench Brewing.

The finished series is now available for viewing. Check out the series in full, on the artists' online presence or search Then/Now on Youtube.

Telus Storyhive, Yule explains, "is a little more like venture capital." Storyhive funding tends to let the applicants experiment, whereas other funding bodies like Creative BC do provide space for new projects, but mainly support an established act or brand.

By funding a project for live performance, the Telus grant made it possible for Yule to experiment with this live performance format, a departure from the program's more typical docu-series projects. The program typically enables applicants to create visual material, in this case that aspect was leveraged further to document our local musical talent. The Then/Now series focused cameras and microphones on a night of live performance this past winter. The project captures stories and songs our local musicians have been holding for years with some fresh tunes woven in to cap it off.

Then/Now features Amy Blanding, Genevieve Jaide, Marcel Gagnon, The Ebbs and more. Erin Shaw at Telus explained the Storyhive program aims to be as low-barrier as possible. Much like community-campus radio.

Bold white Helvetica font reads "Then/Now" In the background Prince George Performer Genevieve Jaide holds a guitar, her hand and pants are visible, the stage curtain backdrop is to the right,

The "Then/Now series explores songwriting journeys of performers local to the Prince George area. Picture Credit - Adam Harasimiuk.

Listen to the radio program below featuring interviews with Erin Yule and Erin Shaw.

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