01 About 02 Speaking 03 Podcasts 04 Boards and awards 05 Work and writing 06 Links

JP
Holecka

Founder and CEO
POWER SHIFTER · Studios
Vancouver

01 About

I trained as a designer, then spent twelve years in film production around Vancouver. Assistant director, production manager, coordinator, on features including Little Women, Arctic Blue and Man with a Gun. My job was making sure other people’s films actually got finished.

I came back to design through an apprenticeship rather than a classroom, spent three and a half years inside TELUS, and started POWER SHIFTER in 2008. Two decades of digital products since, for clients including TELUS, Deloitte, lululemon and Energizer.

In April 2025 I opened POWER SHIFTER Studios, which put me back on productions after more than twenty years away. We make film, image, voice and sound with generative pipelines, directed by people who have worked on sets.

I write about what actually happens when you do this work. What it costs, where it breaks, and what the market is paying for. I was named British Columbia’s CEO of the Year in 2022. I have ADHD and dyslexia, which is most of why I care so much about tools that get an idea out of my head and into the world faster.

02 Speaking

  1. 01

    What production discipline brings to generative filmmaking

  2. 02

    What AI is doing to the creative career pipeline

  3. 03

    How to tell competent generative work from a prompt dump

  4. 04

    Running an agency through a technology shift that threatens it

  5. 05

    Neurodivergence, tools, and getting the idea out of your head

Introduction · read aloud · about 45 seconds

JP Holecka trained as a designer, then spent twelve years in film production, on features including Little Women, Arctic Blue and Man with a Gun. His job was making sure other people’s films actually got finished. He went back to design after that, and in 2008 started POWER SHIFTER, the digital agency he still runs. In 2025 he opened a film studio inside it. So after more than twenty years away he is making films again, except now the whole thing gets designed rather than shot. He also writes some of the sharpest criticism of generative AI going, while running a company that sells it. Make of that what you will.

Short bio · 38 words

JP Holecka is the founder and CEO of POWER SHIFTER, a Vancouver digital product agency, and of POWER SHIFTER Studios, its generative production arm. He spent twelve years in film production before moving into design and digital.

Long bio · 96 words

JP Holecka is the founder and CEO of POWER SHIFTER, a Vancouver digital product agency he started in 2008, and of POWER SHIFTER Studios, its generative production arm, opened in April 2025. He trained as a designer and spent twelve years in film production before returning to design, working inside TELUS and then building POWER SHIFTER’s practice across two decades of digital products. He was named British Columbia’s CEO of the Year in 2022, advises the Wilson School of Design at KPU, and writes about the craft and economics of generative production.

03 Podcasts

Guest appearances. Mostly agencies and generative AI, and ADHD when someone asks.

04 Boards and awards

Where the work has been recognised, and the rooms he sits in.

  • British Columbia’s CEO of the Year, 2022CEO Monthly · United Kingdom
  • Board member, Institute of Communication AgenciesThe national body for Canadian agencies
  • Advisory committee, Wilson School of DesignGraphic design for marketing · Kwantlen Polytechnic University
  • Founding board member, Vancouver UX AwardsVancouver
  • Moderator, Production Design WeekFilm production, AI and virtual world building · Vancouver

05 Work and writing

The work, the case studies and the research live on the company site. These are the doors.