The competition has gives each of the artists ninety minutes of application, including hair styling, makeup, body painting and wardrobe. Zhang showed amazing skill in high speed makeup application under huge pressure and stress, with many audience members looking around. She made fantasy hair styling in a short 15 minutes, when a professional hairstylist would take an hour.
 
“I told myself not to feel like I was in a competition, because there always will be people better than you, so just enjoy yourself and have fun. I had the ability to show my skills, focus on how the brush worked in my hands,” she said. “I have been doing art for more than ten years. In particular, I’ve had lots of experience in hand craft, that helped a lot with a raised speed in makeup and styling.”
 
Zhang showed her skills while working with her friend Laura Village as her model, who has been her model in IMATS twice. Village is also a makeup artist in Colombia.
 
“Laura has an innocent and pure face and I love to do work on her,” said Zhang.
 
She also had professional film makeup artist Stan Edmond as an advisor for IMATS Vancouver. Both Edmond and Village provided Shu with a great support system for a high stress situation.
 
“Shu is breaking the limitations of traditional make-up. She is able to achieve the perfect combination of art and make-up,” said Village.
 
With winning, Zhang’s final work was published in professional makeup magazine “Makeup Artist” twice. She received a reward, and a scholarship from Cinema Makeup School (CMS). She also got lots of prizes from several famous makeup brands, which provide her with the most advanced makeup cosmetics in the industry. For her however, the greatest win is the potential to inspire others to follow in her footsteps.
 
“I hope my success in the international industry attracts more and more Chinese students to study, volunteer, and work in the United States and abroad,” she concluded. ​

​  Music is a global language. In particular, popular music speaks to the masses across all boundaries. Music is visceral and causes us to move in spite of ourselves, freeing one from society’s subliminally imposed self-control. Pop music has the added benefit of letting bits of other cultures creep into our awareness. George Harrison and Ravi Shankar’s influence in the sound of the Beatles, the rock band Styx using Japanese culture in “Kilroy Was Here” (Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto), Rapper Matisyahu, Psy’s “Gangam Style” and its ubiquity on radio across the planet, all testify to the artists’ desire to inspire with their own culture as well as be influenced by those of others. Rather than “code switching”, these artists and others understand that the differences we possess are beneficial because they can bring us together rather than separate us. Two different artists with different heritage came together in Montreal when Canadian Dahov and American Mickey Singh performed a show at the Club Arena to a clambering crowd of nearly 1,000. While these entertainers and their fans are different they came together in a Venn Diagram union of House Music. The only thing that was left after the dynamic performances of both musicians was a unified crowd who had experienced the concert of a lifetime.
  Both Dahov and Singh brought their own influences to this performance but each is also an interesting blending of cultures unto themselves. Dahov was born in Dubai but his family is originally Armenian. He frequently contributes to the fans and audience’s awareness of his Armenian heritage through music. The percussionist/entertainer comments, “Once in a while I throw Armenian melodies into my performances. That can sometimes be problematic as our traditional beat is 6/8 which makes mixing it with a modern electronic or pop sound a bit more difficult.  Nevertheless, Armenians have a very rich music culture and many legends in the music industry with artists like: Cher, Charles Aznavour, System of A Down, etc. System of a Down has used this approach many times in a lot of their concerts and songs. It’s unique and immediately identifiable. Armenians, like any group of people, are a very proud culture. I’m very happy that I have been able to expose the general public to what we have to offer.”
  Harmanjit "Mickey" Singh is an Indian-born American singer, songwriter, producer, dancer, model, and actor, based in Los Angeles. His first mixtape of Punjabi and English music, titled "Mick's Tape", was released for free download on July 22, 2013. His music combines Urban-Desi genre with American and Punjabi music, peppered with jazz influences. Making a conscious and calculated move to represent himself as he is, including his family’s heritage, has resulted in Singh bringing a strong presence to the dance music market. Performing in Canada would serve to spread the breadth of his exposure in the North. 

                                              (PHOTO COURTESY OF ARA SASSSOUNIAN)

​  Dahov’s performance at the Club Arena show in Montreal is far from what the normal concert goer would expect. He often performs on a middle eastern drum called a derbake; supplemented at this show with a Latin percussion setup (bongo, congas, djembe, and timbales) and two dancers. Dahov is not a singer but rather a percussionist/entertainer. To understand his abilities to hype up a crowd and culminate a fervor, one must witness him in person (though his website contains video examples and YouTube is filled with them). It’s this ability to manifest excitement that first led Harpaul Singh (owner of Jannat Productionz) to work with Dahov and seek him out to perform at this event. Harpul confirms, “Dahov is enormously entertaining, incredibly talented, and a very creative performer! Let me tell you, no matter who you are or how old you are, his shows will make even the laziest audience member get up and put their hands in the air!!  He gets the crowd going with his dynamic nature and talent! His professionalism is exemplary. He is kind, attentive, and reliable. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Dahov is that he understands people on a core level…how they want to relax and interact. He has this inherent ability to reach inside you and pull you into the group, in spite of yourself sometimes…to help you have fun. It’s a gift!”
  Every performer appreciates the adulation of the public and their peers. Dahov admired Mickey’s performance and music that night and it was reciprocated. Dahov notes, “I think when he saw me performing live and heard the power of the derbake, he thought this is a really powerful instrument and it seems the beat on it is keeping everyone on their toes! Mickey’s beats were mostly fast, so he knew as well it would be a perfect fusion.” He goes further to state, “I’ve done other gigs where I needed to customize or alter my show a bit to make sure that I was meeting the crowd and the artist in a general area that we share and can automatically relax with. Performing at this show with Mickey, it was easier to blend in. I started off with club music and then transitioned to Bhangra music. That got the crowd going and, as soon as I was done…BANG! Mickey took over with one of his most famous songs. It was a perfect blend!”
  Part of the reason for collaborations such as this one in Montreal between Dahov and Mickey Singh is to cross pollinate their fan bases. This has been a focus of the music and entertainment industry for as long as anyone can remember. Contrary to a solely finance based marketing ploy, this pairing proved quite successful in bringing new music to the fans of both artists. Dahov concedes, “Harpaul actually was very interested in me as he knew he could introduce me into the South Asian community where there was/is a big market for something unique like what I do. The South Asian community is really a big party loving community. His approach was very clever and has worked very well. Mickey is a very talented artist. I had listened to a lot of his music when I attended and performed at many of the South Asian events along with Harpaul. His kind of music was very familiar to my ears as I already did enjoy Indian music and actually speak a bit of the language myself. Mickey Singh is one of the first Indian singers who has taken Indian music to a more club style English oriented beat. I liked that a lot because his music wouldn’t sound unfamiliar to mine as it is very close to the regular club music that we hear every day! I really love the idea that music can bring everyone closer…all in the name of having fun!”

                                                 (PHOTO COURTESY OF ARA SASSOUNIAN)

“[Echavarria] had a spectacular film and television career in Argentina, where we had met a few years before. I had talked to him about my love of filmmaking, and I suggested I could help him with the financing and production,” Cassani recalled. “He instantly agreed, and we produced the movie for the Lionsgate studio in Hollywood.”

The commercial and critical success of their first collaboration prompted Cassani and Echavarria to begin working together regularly, a partnership which has spanned eight films and nearly 10 years. Among those joint productions was the explosive 2015 nail-biter “No Way Out,” which was executive-produced by Cassani and directed by Echavarria. Echavarria stars as undercover detective Juan de los Santos and Danny Trejo (“Machete,” “From Dusk Till Dawn”) as Don Caceres, the leader of the ruthless cartel that Juan infiltrates as part of an investigation which has devastating consequences on him and his family.

After his wife and children are brutally murdered on Don Caceres’ orders, Juan’s unbridled rage and need for revenge drives him to set off on a warpath that leads directly to the Don himself.

“The film’s story was intriguing and fascinating,” said Cassani, explaining why the film was one of his favorites to work on. “It combined action and drama, my two favorite genres, plus it was largely filmed in South America.”

As the film’s executive producer, Cassani had a massive checklist of responsibilities and was heavily involved in every phase of the project.

“I was in charge of securing the financing, I helped secure the locations in South America, and I supervised the production of the whole picture,” he described. “The biggest challenge was matching the scenes we filmed in Hollywood with the scenes that we filmed in South America. We really had to pay attention to the details.”
​
Released with the title “Sin Salida” to South American audiences in 2016, “No Way Out” will storm into American theaters in late 2017.

This year, Cassani and Echavarria joined forces yet again for “The Pastor.” The film stars Echavarria as the titular Pastor Miguel, who’s determined to save his small impoverished town from the devastating effects of rampant gang violence that threaten to destroy it. Situated at the crossroads of action and drama, “The Pastor” is currently in post-production and a theatrical release in the U.S. is tentatively slated for 2017.

As Cassani himself said, the entertainment industry is first and foremost a business, and the most important component of any business is money. Financing, marketing, budgeting and ultimately turning a profit are as essential in filmmaking – if not more so – as they are in any other type of business. A production may boast the most talented director, writers, cinematographers, editors and actors, but without an experienced producer to secure investments and manage costs and expenses, the production will almost inevitably be condemned to bankruptcy long before it nears release. The greatest asset a film can have isn’t a star-studded cast or an award-winning director, but a producer like Angel Cassani with unrivaled expertise in fiscal management, a passionate love of filmmaking, and the visionary instinct to know when a film has the potential to be great.