FASHIONSIGN EZINE VOLUME I
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JEWELLE COLWELL
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CALGARY’S BOMBSHELL COP ACTRESS OPENS UP ABOUT HER BOOMING CAREER
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PHOTOGRAPHY by Anat Gat STANDING ACTRESS Jewelle Colwell ARTICLE by Jill Maria Robinson MAKEUP by J.M.R JACKETS Bano eeMee
o understand Jewelle Colwell, one might think of her as an award winning actress, respected producer with prestigious nominations, as well a published author of five short stories, and screenplay writer. However, the story of how she got there tells us more of her own personal drive for her love for the arts. Jewelle Colwell has started and helped so many of her other independent actors in Calgary, AB with her direct impact with her many projects, acting classes and her influence as a producer. The simple truth is Jewelle’s first love is acting and to this day remains the ultimate passion in her life. She recently learned ASL (American Sign Language) for an important role in the Hershel Gordon Lewis’ feature film Bloodmania (2014). She was also nominated for Best Actress in the theatre world in Calgary, after her strong performance as the wicked step mother in Cinderella. Jewelle continued with film and starred in various feature films, such as Missing Link (the first ever Nigerian/ Canadian co-production and for which she received her “Best Actress” trophy from the Nigerian Ambassador himself), several web series, and numerous other feature films. Jewelle plays lead detective Summer Brown in her television crime series, Bluff. Season 2 is in development now and will broadcast on the small screen throughout the US later in 2015. The first season currently available on DVD in North America. The strong humanitarian undertones set this series apart, with heart and soul being explored throughout each story line via stories of addiction, abuse, human trafficking, and dangerous drug dealers. People who are in the professional and independent Calgary film market have certainly heard of Calgary’s award winning actress Jewelle Colwell as a producer. This sparkling talent is making Calgary very proud! Many would say she is one of Calgary’s finest actors and producers and has set the path for so many others in the last three years! Her projects Bluff, Uncaged and Offscreen are her more recent successes. Bringing in many talents found in the Calgary area, Jewelle has created UnCaged - a lifestyle series for outdoor motorbike adventure seekers starring her husband, Rob Colwell as the host. Jewelle’s story began with an almost magnetic attraction for the acting world. Growing up in West Germany, Jewelle’s first role she landed was at the age of five, when she played a very young Mary in a church Christmas Pageant. She started to
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write poetry and learn the piano at the age of eight. Upon her return to Canada, Jewelle auditioned for a minor role in a school play (Anne of Green Gables) and was offered the lead role instead. Growing up, Jewelle planned to be a singer and actress. She recorded her first and only album at the age of 21. Several of her songs are available on iTunes, a few being considered for a feature film soundtrack produced in Los Angeles!
Utopia’,
with seven selfwritten and produced songs. She has the sweetest voice to go along with her personality. Jewelle has worked with celebrities Judy Norton, Mark Gantt, Judy Star, Neil Schell and many more over her long career that began in theatre.
writing segment of the apprenticeship, was to write original dialogue and shoot a scene with a minimum of four people, with the required editing and camera work also part of the assignment. This was the birth of Poker Girls. Jewelle decided to ask some women in her circle to come and act with her. Five women replied with a resounding “yes” and the first shoot of Poker Girls was planned. Though no one knew it yet. Each of the women who decided to attend was of a “certain age” seldom portrayed truthfully in western media. Jewelle felt this would be a great point of exposure for them, she wanted to provide them more opportunities than they were currently being offered in Calgary’s growing industry. From this she received one of the best compliments about that first season of Poker Girls: the audience thought they were improvising, although in truth they were following her scripts nearly verbatim.
Jewelle’s love for acting did not diminish with time. As a teenager she took some film acting classes and worked with a few vibrant groups with rave responses to her work. As a lover of stories and her constant effort to make the world a better place, Jewelle recorded a CD titled
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Schnell was particularly important as he was a pivotal acting coach to her. Schell subsequently offered Jewelle a filmmaking apprenticeship and promised to teach her everything he learned from his 20 years of experience in the business -
everything from directing, color choices, camera angles and writing. Colwell accepted, her desire to build and share stories since she was a child seemed to culminate in this opportunity. Jewell’s first assignment after completing the
In 2010, Jewelle decided to continue her journey with a one-on-one film making apprenticeship, which ultimately helped birth the new series, Poker Girls, which was nominated for best TV Pilot at the Banff World Media Festival in
2011. It was at this point that all her hard work started to get recognized for her work as both an actor and producer. Jewelle’s creation, Poker Girls, was nominated for Best New TV Series at the world wide Banff Media and Film Festival, simultaneously Best Drama at the HollyWeb Fest in Los Angeles, Jewelle’s passion to create stories that positively influence humanity’s status quo, exploded from ember to full and raging fire. She pushed her projects and herself to even higher standards, ultimately bringing Poker Girls, renamed to BLUFF, to television both in the US and Canada. Again, Jewelle was honoured and pleased to be found again in such great company as Hell on Wheels (AMC) and Heartland (CBC), Bluff having been nominated for Best Dramatic Series at the Alberta AMPIA’s.
With the new recipe, that first episode was shot in January, with guest star Judy Norton (Walton’s Mary Ellen). This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship and working relationship between Jewelle and Judy.
This pilot received its accolades only a few short months later at the Banff Media Film Festival. With a sought after nomination for “Best Dramatic TV Pilot,” and the Hollyweb Fest Best Drama nomination in Los Angeles. A year later,
Jewelle quickly learned and accepted the industry requirements of long hours. That is only half the story, she also moonlights as mother to her two daughters, and as a wife. She helped along her eldest Ysabella who graduates this spring and was recently accepted into “The Academy” aka AADA! Her youngest daughter is also interested in acting and will soon be finishing high school in a few years. Jewelle
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Offscreen recently had its pilot release in Calgary, Alberta. It was a huge success! She has a cast of over 20 people many of whom she mentored as acting coach before they all put this project together. Bringing in a handful of the actors from the cast to write the script. Jewelle likes to have as many people add their input for the bigger work without losing the focus of the project. She seeks creative growth in her project rather than be the sole creative influence. This seems to work for the people in her life as it allowed for more growth in Calgary’s acting world. Hundreds of people have Jewelle Colwell to thank for their start in the Calgary entertainment industry and has been trend setter since she started. Jewelle Colwell is certainly a Canadian gem! •
ARTICLE by Mitch Wiebe PHOTOS by Anat Gat Photography
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Jewelle immediately began to write, direct, film and edit all the episodes. As one can imagine this project quickly took over all her time. Her schedule soon became very complicated. Sunday was availability day, which she used to work on things outside of the project. On Mondays, the scripts were sent out. Tuesday through Thursday, Jewelle was busy editing the footage from the previous week. Uploading the final product to YouTube was done on Thursday evenings. Friday was left for shoot day in Jewelle’s home, around her dining room table. Saturdays were based around writing and more production. Furthermore, in the fall of that first year of Poker Girls, Jewelle was invited to visit Nairobi, Kenya to work on the series “Saints”, learning behind the scenes for two weeks, as well as being offered the role of Ms . Deya, the baby thief within the series itself.
Jewelle jumped right back in with second season, with a new crime show element but retaining some of the old influent characters. She kept the best aspects of Poker Girls but decided to hire the best cinematographer available to write longer and fuller scripts, and completed ten episodes of a higher quality than ever before. She also found new locations and invited Neil Schell to come direct. At this point, Jewelle decided it was safe to allow herself to be in the show as a character. Typically, this type of move can be looked down on by the acting world, however, she found that her own story now fit in as one of the characters. This also fit in well with her own goals because of her true passion for acting.
Jewelle led a full-sized crew into production of six half-hour episodes in what is now renamed BLUFF, which is in its first season.
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Poker Girls evolved from a simple and fun shoot into Bluff, a weekly series, that she produces as a fulltime endeavor now with its own DVDs and the project is now slated for Fox Affiliate Channels across the US.
Jewelle is connected with Los Angeles in another way. Actor/ producer/mentor/coach Bob Fraser was a source of guidance in her film making life. Jewelle asked him for advice on December 7th in the first year of Poker Girls. Her concern was that her efforts were not justifying this project taking over her entire schedule. His advice was to “try harder, you’re close” which might sound like the opposite you would want to hear. She took that advice to heart. Jewelle was then introduced to LA actress Judy Norton via Neil Schell, who flew to Calgary to join the project, now in its second season.
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A VERY SMALL TOWN GROWS A LOT BY INSTALLING A GYM
eing active is an important part of a healthy lifestyle and Cremona Fitness wants to make sure everyone has the opportunity for good health and a long, vibrant life. “Being physically fit and generally just moving is so important for everyone,” said Dawn Lashmar, owner of Cremona Fitness.
Cremona Fitness Society is a non-profit gym, started in October 2013 and located in Cremona, Alberta. Dawn started the gym because of “the lack of physical fitness opportunities in the area.” Although there are classes available, the hours don’t always match everyone’s busy schedules. That’s why the fitness center is available 24/7 to make sure every person has a chance to get a workout in. The fitness center is available to anyone over 18. If they can walk, they can use the fitness center and I encourage them to do so.” If you’re under 18 and would like to work out, Cremona Fitness offers a after school program for students 13-17 which is chaperoned by a personal trainer. Running a 24 hour non profit fitness center in a small community can be seen as a risky venture, but Dawn wants to show the industry that 24 hour fitness centers are manageable in small communities. She also wants to prove to small communities that non profit fitness centers can be run successfully with the right support and hard working volunteers. “All of the local businesses are supportive as the more variety of services there are in a small community, the more people who are attracted to come here and use them.” With a total of 50 members the 24/7 fitness center has been quite the hit. “ It’s apparent that communities are ready to support these types of initiatives.”
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Although, the gym is Dawn’s dream come true, running a 24/7 non profit fitness center is tough work. “It takes many volunteer hours to keep it up and running.” Being a new business, the fitness center doesn’t have the funds to pay anyone. As time goes on, Cremona Fitness will be able to hire people to perform the everyday upkeep of the gym. For now it relies on volunteers and local business to help out. “Many of the other businesses in town advertised for us and one business (the local mechanic Iron Mountain Diesel) takes and gives out membership forms for us.” Despite the fact that Dawn is new to the fitness industry she is quite familiar with starting businesses. “My husband and I started a business four years ago of which we had very little knowledge, and I am also a real estate investor specializing in rent to own programs. Starting a business I know very little about isn’t a foreign concept to me.” Also two of her board members are personal trainers who have taught her a lot. Another great supporter is Apple Fitness in Calgary, who helped with choosing the fitness equipment and layouts for the center. The tips Dawn has for people starting their own business is to know what you’re getting into, “Be aware of the time and commitment it takes to do something like this.” Another great tip is to not be afraid to fail, “9 out of 10 businesses fail in the first few years so you need to be prepared to start 8 times and fail before you succeed!” A great book she recommends is The E Myth Revisited by Michael E Berber. In the book he discusses why small business fail and what to do when they do. Social media does play a part in the success of Cremona Fitness, which is solely run on Facebook and currently has 147 members. “Hopefully in the near future we can find someone to do a free website for us; right now it isn’t in our budget and doesn’t affect our membership.” When is comes down to the success of a business location plays a key part. Cremona Fitness is presently located near the most active part of town, drives in most of the traffic. “We did really luck out, as we are across from the bank which is one of the busiest businesses in town.” •
ARTICLE by Jennifer Tiwana