Since arriving from Vancouver a month ago, Gord Peters has had an eye to the viewfinder and an ear to the ground.
As the new station manager for Valemount’s community TV station, VCTV, Peters wants more community members involved making TV.
“This is a lot of fun; this isn’t brain surgery. No one ever died from making a bad TV show,” he says in his office at the VCTV studio on Gorse St.
Peters thinks of himself as a shepherd when it comes to community TV. He doesn’t want to be the guy who makes all the television.
“I want people to be here. I’ll teach them, help them, mentor them, but this is a community TV station and I’m the shepherd. My job is to round up the flock and get them trained into doing it and having some fun.”
Peters has worked in community TV before, as well as taught at the broadcasting college Columbia Academy in Vancouver, where he later became director of operations. He has done numerous freelance projects for corporations as well as his own independent films.
But after 15 years in Vancouver, he decided he wanted to move back to the mountains, and leapt at the idea of working in a small town. He says he liked the idea of not only improving his own skills, but of helping a community get more recognition and providing a community service.
“I had no idea that a job like this could open up, because it’s so rare. When I saw it, I thought ‘Oh, wow. That’s something I have to go after.”
“I really felt that at this point in my life I wanted a job that gives back, instead of chasing dollars.”
With almost 20 years of experience in the hotel industry before his entry into the film & TV world, Peters is no novice when it comes to managing a team or marketing an idea.
He says he first wants to get to know the community and what they would like to see.
He has talked to the high school and the Chamber of Commerce about how to link up with the station. Meanwhile he is getting content on the air by filming local events like Family Day and the Skating Carnival.
Peters says the station can’t compete with the mass broadcast spectrum, but it does offer other opportunities. He says educational, instructional and arts and music programming are some examples of programming not often seen on other channels.
Now that VCTV is on satellite TV across Canada, there are new and exciting opportunities for local programs.
He recently got a call from a woman in Port Hardy who used to live in Valemount who saw the channel on her satellite TV. She was excited to reconnect with the village.
Peters is working on several freelance films. A family film, The Mary Contest, should be completed in a few months. A family film he recently produced and edited, Jake and Jasper, won a gold Remi award at the Houston International Film Festival, won a Canadian International Film Award, and was shown at several other film festivals.
Peters says he has been enjoying his time here so far and people have been very friendly.
You can contact Gord with your questions or if you’d like to get involved. Phone VCTV at 566-8288, email [email protected] or send a message via the VCTV facebook page.
Laura Keil
