Superior Filmworks

brings over 40 years of photography and filmmaking experience to all of our clients. Our education and training in these fields is unparalleled. We use the latest technology together with classically proven production techniques and aesthetic principals to create outstanding still and moving images.

Superior Filmworks is owned and operated by Brad Stephenson. Brad was born and raised in Thunder Bay and has been a professional filmmaker and photographer since his teens.

Brad has completed hundreds of projects for a diverse range of clients including large corporations, government departments, economic development agencies, television networks, bands and musicians, non-profit organizations, and countless individual and family clients.

Brad established SUPERIOR FILMWORKS in 1989. He is an award winning filmmaker, photographer and screenwriter.

All photography by Brad Stephenson - Superior Filmworks unless otherwise credited

Prior to establishing Superior Filmworks in 1989 Brad built a solid background of experience in photography and filmmaking. He has worked for a number of photo labs in Thunder Bay. He was a news photographer at CKPR-CHFD Television, shooting, processing and editing daily news segments on both 16mm film and 3/4 inch Umatic videotape. Brad spent a number of years as the cameraman, director and editor at Confederation College’s Audio/Visual Production Centre where he created dozens of educational videos, some of which were distributed across Canada.

From 1979 until 1989 Brad owned and operated Stephenson Photography where he photographed scores of weddings in Thunder Bay and other locations around North America. Stephenson Photography also specialized in portraits, landscape and nature photography, family gatherings and events, pet photography, as well as commercial and industrial assignments.

Brad’s formal photography training began when he was only 16 years old in an Art class at Selkirk High School in Thunder Bay. Brad also began making his first Super 8 movies while in high school. Falling in love with both mediums, Brad enrolled in photography classes at Confederation College and entered the Film Production program there after completing high school. Brad graduated from Confederation College with two diplomas, one in Photographic Arts, the other in Film Production.

USC School of Cinema-Television

After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lakehead University Brad attended the graduate studies program at the prestigious School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California. USC Cinema is consistently named the No. 1 film school in the world. Admission to USC Cinema is extremely selective. In fact, it is harder to get into USC Cinema than it is to be admitted to Harvard Law School!

At USC Brad had the opportunity to be taught by a number of legendary Academy Award nominated filmmakers. Many more Oscar winning screenwriters, directors, producers, editors and cinematographers came to USC as visiting lecturers or presented seminars. Brad graduated from USC Cinema-Television with a Master of Arts degree.

Brad’s USC classmates and contemporaries created or worked in key crew positions on these films and TV series:

A Most Wanted Man, Absolute Power, Altered Carbon, Austin Powers, Batman Begins, Better Call Saul, Blade, Boyz n the Hood, Breaking Bad, A Bug’s Life, Cool Runnings, Coco, Dark City, The Dark Knight, ER, Finding Nemo, Grindhouse, The Iron Giant, The Little Drummer Girl, Meet the Parents, The Mummy, National Treasure, Strange Days, Third Watch, Titanic, The Usual Suspects, Van Helsing, While You Were Sleeping, and many more too numerous to list…

• Best Editing - Confederation College Film Night Awards

• Braun Award - Scenario Division, CNE National Student Film Awards

• Print Accepted for Exhibition - 32nd Annual Print show, Professional Photographers of Canada

• Print Exhibited at Juried Photography Show - Canadian National Exhibition Centre

• Best Screenplay - 2006 Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards

• Best Screenplay (Finalist) - 2010 Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards

• Semi-Finalist - 2013 Kairos Prize for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays

• Semi-Finalist - Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, 1992

• Quarter-Finalist - Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, 1995, 1999, 2003

SUPERIOR FILMWORKS has worked with a wide variety of outstanding clients, both large and small. We consider every client a partner and work closely with each one of them to ensure top quality content is delivered to meet their specific expectations.

We listen! Each project, whether it is a quick photo shoot or an epic film production, receives the utmost care and attention which is the defining hallmark of every SUPERIOR FILMWORKS production.