The poutine documentary ... so far
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Documentary Production Student Nicole Godwin Goes to the End of the World for Final Assignment3/27/2011  Nicole Godwin ... let the adventure begin ... Click on the picture to follow Nicole's documentary adventure.
http://caminonicole.blogspot.com/2011/03/only-got-5-minutes.html Some pics from doc school, sponsored by Coke and Sony.
by Graham Lawford
After years of starting and stopping on various projects, I was starting to think the day would never come. I had written and shot some very lowbrow (and low budget) comedy sketches with friends a few years ago, but nothing ever happened with the tapes. Probably for the best. I’ve written a feature length screenplay, some concepts for animated series, and started a few other projects that never made it past the first act. While my concepts were strong I came to realize that you can't get very far as an “idea guy” alone. You have to roll up your sleeves and shoot something, then roll them up even more and edit what you shot. By the end of the day you’re bare armed up to your shoulders, but if everything lines up you may have something decent to show for yourself. My first documentary was screened at the Wakefield International Film Festival! Having completed my short doc in December, I had moved on from the project faster than I had expected to. I hadn’t reviewed my film in over a month. Seeing it again, this time with an audience and on a big screen was an amazing experience. The crowd applauded and the reviews were positive. I can officially say that I am a filmmaker whose work has been screened at an international film festival. I was on a high. My fiancée rolled here eyes, amazed yet again at the power of my own ego, and I was brought back down to earth and reminded yet again that the important part is doing the work. The rest will come. Until then check out my first short, Karen Bailey: A Portrait.  by Marta Perez I think documentarians are galaxy explorers. We spot a distant galaxy of ideas and its forces lure us to explore it further. Once immersed, the wonders of our subjects keep us in orbit through the process of filming and beyond. My current documentary is an expedition into Blair’s Galaxy. A small town Patch Adams style doctor, Blair has spent 12 years tweaking his invention, a version of the jolly jumper that we all played with during our childhood. I got to try it out while filming and I still feel dizzy when I recall it. Determined not to be caught in the last minute whirlwind I found myself in last semester, I started to shape my ideas for my half-hour doc over the Christmas break. Peaking down back to earth though, all we have left for this semester is 6 weeks of intense transcribing and editing. Unless I come back to earth quickly, I will no longer be ahead of the game! The return to reality is sure to be turbulent unless I pick up the pace. But how does one rush out of such wonders? This clip shows my "rapture contraption". This is a homemade Jolly Jumper for adults that I have been evolving over the past 12 years. It is made of bicycle inner tubes hung from a swivel on a rope. It supports you safely above the ground so you can move in any position. After many fun hours on this thing, I'm wanting to show others what I have been up to in hopes of inspiring more people to shake and move in creative ways.
There has been a key personal transformation for me with this project, it has given me a sense of identity as an artist that I never had before. Being a doctor in a small town comes with a strong identity whether you want it or not. Most people see me as "Doc" rather than as Blair. This is easy to slip into for myself. Part of what has kept me motivated is that this creative project was outside of all that. I got to be a different person in playing with this. I had an "Ah Ha" moment when i recognized this aspect of the appeal and that stepped up my interest. The interesting twist is that now, after being a rural doctor for 20 years, this artistic identity has come full circle and is feeding my doctoring. The jolly jumper project has coincided with a community health project that i started about the same time. And that community health project is soon going into it's second phase. The amazing thing about this is that the health project is now getting support from the health care system because it is creative and innovative, and I was able to develop those aspect because of all the play I had put into developing the jolly jumper. So the full arc of the story is that this play has become the basis for a community health project that is trying to address the major problems in rural health. - Dr. Blair Voyvodic |
About Us  A collection of field notes, interviews, and reviews from Algonquin's Documentary Production Class of 2012
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