After several years of being a filmmaker, Candice Creelman, Thunderbird Sky’s founder, decided that it was time to start making a living at what she loved to do the most. “Most filmmakers get into corporate video to do this, but it wasn’t something that I was really all that excited about. Not that there’s anything wrong with corporate work, it’s just not my thing. I don’t speak that language very well,” Candice recalls.
Inspiration struck when she was attending a Calgary Holistic trade show called the New Earth Expo. She was talking with a vendor about her idea of doing something with her love of filmmaking. It just “fell” out of her mouth that she was going to work with the holistic, conscious, heart based businesses, as well as artists, to help them create marketing videos that would bring their message to the world. She had already envisioned Thunderbird Sky Entertainment as her film production company for her cinematic films, but this new idea was going to add a new dimension to this vision. This is how this new incarnation for Thunderbird Sky Entertainment was born.
“I love working with these types of people and businesses, and after so many years in this industry, it kind of makes sense that I would combine my two loves: storytelling and healing, into one business.” A lot of these businesses struggle with figuring out what makes them unique in a way that will attract their ideal customers to them. Video is the most powerful way to get that message across.
Candice really “gets” her clients because, as a Reiki Master herself, she’s been through all of the typical struggles that her clients face every day, and she understands that these types of businesses have a different way of viewing the world than most businesses. They are about doing what they love and making a difference in the world. They are about having a higher vision and purpose that includes transformation on a personal and global level. And this is the message that Candice wishes to help these businesses share.
Writer, Producer, Director
Candice’s artistic background begins when she was in school with music and theatre. She has been a musician most of her life, began acting and writing screen and stage plays in high school. She continued on in this vein in college where she graduated from theatre production at Red Deer College, Music at Grant MacEwan, then finally moving to Toronto to pursue music where she also graduated with an honours diploma in Recording Arts Management from Harris Institute for the Arts.
It was while in Toronto when she got into film as a background performer, and later began to work on the crew side of film and television in various capacities (assistant director, craft services, transport security and transport driver). This fuelled her desire to make her own films, but it wasn’t until 2012 when, years after moving to Calgary, she took training from the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers on how to make a film.
Since then she was made several short films. Her first short which she wrote, produced and directed (The Guru) was selected and screened at the 2013 Edmonton Short Film Festival and her most recent short film that she produced and had a major acting role in (444), has already won a and IndieFest Film award in the US, and is currently being submitted to film festivals around the world.
Candice is also in the process of writing a feature film script (Starcrossed) which she plans to co-produce and direct within the next three years, already has received positive feedback from several film industry professionals
Many years ago, I was drawn to begin learning about the traditional Native teachings. Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by the Shamanic ways and the idea of the Medicine Man or Woman in the Native culture.
For many years, I only had books to learn from. I came across the Sun Bear book, The Medicine Wheel Earth Astrology that the above story came from. I learned about myself in the descriptions of my medicine wheel sign, Long Snows Moon. I learned that because of when I was born (December 15), I belonged to the Thunderbird Clan. I read and re-read the story of how the Thunderbird came to be, as I somehow identified with this being.
Many years later, soon before graduating from music school, I received several strong messages that I was to go to Toronto to pursue music (and eventually film), in what I could only call a profoundly strong and vivid premonition. These messages were so strong that they overpowered my fear of leaving what was familiar to me.
I made plans to move to Toronto – where I knew no one. I had made plans to go to school and take a music business program. Again, the guidance was so strong that fear never entered into the equation. Not until a few weeks before I was about to move.
One night, as I sat on my couch watching television, I was struck with the realization of what it was I was getting myself into. “Holy S***, I’m moving to Toronto!!!” I was hit with the fear that I was making a huge mistake, but by this time, it was too late to change my mind. I couldn’t go back on my decision.
So I asked for a sign. I asked to be shown an obvious sign that I was making the right decision. I asked for it to be so obvious, that it would not only get though my fear, but through my resistance to trusting my higher guidance. Something that I could not dismiss in any way. Boy, did I get what I asked for!
What transpired over the next hour or so was so amazing that I still get goose bumps. It still boggles my mind that it happened.
After asking for a sign, I had this impulse to head out to my balcony to enjoy the wonderful summer night air. It was a beautiful night. Warm, but not muggy. A light breeze, clear night sky where even in a brightly lit apartment complex, you could clearly see the stars shining. And we had just had an amazing sunset. It was a perfect summer night. Even the energy in the city was peaceful, but yet vibrant and radiated that feeling of “something really great is about to happen”.
I was standing on my balcony taking it in, when I noticed some of the famous Canadian Northern Lights began to appear as they moved across the sky from the North. Very quickly, they became more intense, bright and faster moving than I had ever seen. They streamed and streaked across the sky as if they were in a race to get somewhere.
I wish I had a camera at the time to have been able to take a photo, but the image will forever be etched in my mind. It was incredible! The head, body and left wing of the Great Thunderbird, etched in the sky with Northern Lights. They not only formed, but stayed in that shape for at least 10 minutes once the image was fully formed while the rest of the Northern Lights continued to move and change color and shape around the Thunderbird. The wing was even pointed in the general southeast direction of Toronto.
I thought to myself, “I think that was my sign.” I looked over at my friend and asked her if she saw what I saw, and she said and that it looked like an Eagle or a Hawk. I told her about how I had just asked for a sign, and she looked at me, grinned, and said, “I think you got it.” All I could say was, “I think you’re right,” and thought to myself with a chuckle, “It’s a Thunderbird Sky tonight.”
We continued to watch as the image and northern lights faded away and the sky went back to.
It wasn’t immediately that the words, Thunderbird Sky, became a company name. It was after I moved to Toronto and was immersed in school when that evolution took place. I had been given an assignment where we had to create a logo for a graphic design class.
I had no idea what I was going to use for a company name that could be incorporated into a logo. Almost immediately after asking the question, I remembered the night that I saw the Thunderbird in the sky, and the words that came into my mind – Thunderbird Sky. I knew right then, that was my company name. I had no idea that eventually, that name would become the foundation for healing practice and later, my film production company, which is dedicated to being of service to others – just like the lesson the Thunderbird had to learn.
Years after this experience, at the Body, Soul and Spirit expo where we are regular vendors, a woman asked where our company name came from. I shared my story and her jaw dropped. I was kinda used to this reaction, so it didn’t surprise me.
What did come as a huge surprise was what came out of her mouth, “I was there that night. I saw that.” What I found out, was that she was one of the people who was standing on the street, watching that spectacle. Then she said, “So you’re the one who made that happen.” I told her I couldn’t take credit for making the northern lights do what they did; only Mother Nature can do that, but I guess when I asked for a sign, and got that in response, I had some part in it, but not much. You know how that old saying goes, “Be careful what you ask for…” This was an example of asking for what I wanted had an amazing result!
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