Curriculum Vitae

email: geordie_telfer@sympatico.ca

If you’re looking for a basic résumé please go to my Linked In profile. Otherwise, get comfy and start scrolling.

2023

Slang Inc. (my company) – Searching for Ambrose Small • 60-90 minute one-man show
• 45 mins of original songs self-accompanied on guitar / 45 mins of reading from Hogtown Empire
• Ongoing engagements in southern Ontario retirement communities and Toronto’s venerable public houses

A.K. Prakash and Associates Inc. – Researcher / Contributor
• Various art catalogues for private sale of works by Group of Seven and other prominent Canadian painters
> The Best of the Early Canadian Impressionists – Works by: Paul Peel, Frederic Bell Smith, Laura Muntz Lyall, Helen McNicoll, and others

Sinking Ship Entertainment – Ongoing • Writer / Researcher
• Occasional Sound Designer (Dino Dana World Games App)
• Video Editor (for social media and awards submissions)

2022

A.K. Prakash and Associates Inc. – Researcher / Contributor
• Various art catalogues for private sale of works by Group of Seven and other prominent Canadian painters
> Seclusion and Inclusion: The Best of Tom Thomson, The Group of Seven and Emily Carr
> Small Sleighs – Works by: AY. Jackson, Cornelius Krieghoff, Maurice Cullen, Maurice-Aurèle Suzor Coté and others
> Individual contributions for works by: Lawren Harris, A.H. Robinson, James Morrice

Sinking Ship Entertainment – Ongoing • Writer / Researcher
> Quick Facts for Planet Ice AR app (in partnership with the Canadian Museum of Nature)
> Documentation for various Tax Credit applications through OIDMTC: Dino Cam AR, Odd Tube Season 2 DM, Fossil Hunt AR, Dino Player, Artifact Adventure, Dino Vision
• Video Editor
> Social Media Promos for Dino Cam Augmented Reality App • Captured AR footage of virtual dinosaurs and edited 2-3 min videos for various ‘Dino Packs’: Diverse Dinos 1 & 2, Hungry Hungry Herbivores, Prehistoric Creatures, Tiny Terrors, Small But Mighty, Dino Trek, Dino Flyers, Dino Dana
> Various Awards Submissions Reels for Interactive Projects: Youth Media Alliance Awards, KidScreen Awards, Canadian Screen Awards, Rockies Awards, BAFTAs, etc.

2021

A.K. Prakash and Associates Inc. – Researcher / Contributor
• Various art catalogues for private sale of works by Group of Seven and other prominent Canadian painters
> Romance of Early Canada: Horses, Sleighs, and Ice Carts – Works by: A.Y. Jackson, Cornelius Krieghoff, Maurice Cullen, Robert Pilot, James Morrice, and others
> Women at Leisure: The Feminist Revolution, 1860-1970 – Works by: Frances Hopkins, John Wilkinson, Paul Peel, William Brymner, James Morrice, Henri Beau, William Clapp, Lilias Torrance Newton, and others.
> The Timeless Moderns – Works by: The Group of Seven (all members), Emily Carr, Tom Thomson, Sir Frederick Banting, Robert Pilot, Albert Robinson, Jean Paul Riopelle and others.
> Individual contributions for works by: Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, A.J. Casson, A.Y. Jackson, J.E.H. MacDonald, William Armstrong, Clarence Gagnon
> Canadian Women At Home and Abroad – Research and 40K words of partial ghost draft for sections of proposed book by principal author Katerina Atanassova

Sinking Ship Entertainment – Ongoing • Writer / Researcher
> Dino Player – VO scripts and direction during recording sessions
> Dino Fossil Hunt – voice direction
> Odd Squad Mobile Unit 1.5 – scripts for mini web-throws airing on PBS
> Odd Squad Artifact Adventure – VO scripts and voice direction
> Tax Credit Documentation through OIDMTC for various projects: Odd Squad Agent Academy, Odd Squad Van Dashboard, Odd Squad DM3, Endlings Origins
> Awards Submission Write-ups: Emmys, Japan Prize, Youth Media Alliance Awards, KidScreen Awards, Canadian Screen Awards, Rockies Awards, BAFTAs, etc.
> Featured at Fred Rogers: Meet Our Neighbours

2020

Sinking Ship Entertainment – Ongoing • Writer / Researcher
> Odd Squad Oddstacle Course – VO scripts and voice direction
> Home4School – Copy Editor, VO coordinator – This was an enormous project that Shaw commissioned Sinking Ship Entertainment to create. At the beginning of the first lockdown, SSE chose three of their existing TV properties and built extensive remote learning modules around them. Annedroids, Dino Dana, and Odd Squad served as the basis for the interactive modules. I was the copy editor and VO coordinator; I copy-edited the text supplied by the educational consultants (This largely consisted of removing the exclamation points that completed EVERY sentence!) I also formatted the scripts for reading by the actors – each line has to be assigned a file-name for recording – and then coordinated the recorded audio files, ensuring that the recordists and editors named and sorted them correctly upon creation, finally assigning the filenames of the selects to the correct spreadsheets – this always had to happen, in a hurry, every week for five weeks – for hundreds of audio lines.
> Endlings Origins – Fictional planet, galaxy, and species names as well as in-universe creature ‘facts’ for top-down vertical scroller.
> Tax Credit Documentation (OIDMTC) for: Odd Squad Build-A-Squad, Dino Quest, Dino Craft, Dino Vision
> Awards Submission Write-ups: Emmys, Japan Prize, Youth Media Alliance Awards, KidScreen Awards, Canadian Screen Awards, Rockies Awards, BAFTAs, Webby Awards, etc.

2019

Slang Inc. (through Amazon KDP)
• Hogtown Empire: The Disappearance of Ambrose Small – researched, wrote, and published 120K words, non-fiction account of historical Toronto mystery • Held two promotional events in historic venues with readings and live music (original songs, self-accompanied on guitar) • Produced and presented second short season of companion podcast.

Lopii Productions (with Sinking Ship Entertainment)
• My Home My Life – Digital Producer / Liaison between LP and SSE • Directed inaugural digital shorts (ramped-up craft/how-to segments)

Sinking Ship Entertainment – Ongoing • Writer / Researcher
> Dino Vision VR – Writer, Voice Director, Greenscreen Director for Stereoscopic video segments • Researched and sourced stereoscopic video attachment for SLR Camera; initiated and conducted filming tests with same before the shoot day.
> Odd Squad Mobile Unit (S3) Digital Suite • Games: Agent Academy, Van Dashboard – Writer • Voice Director • Liaison between TV Post and Interactive Dept to gather various assets • Booked ACTRA talent • Scripted dozens of 1-line throws that could be recombined in any order with respective game capture footage for PBS on-air ‘web pushes’ (pushing viewers to the Odd Squad site at PBSKids and showing a selection of games) • Compiled extensive spreadsheet for artists and developers w/ synopsis of each episode and other notes.
> Tax Credit Documentation (OIDMTC) for: Odd Squad Games – Agent Academy, Sector 21, Puppy Quest, Oddmented Reality • Dino Games – Dino Dino Daycare, Dino Vision
> Awards Submission Write-ups / Paper Edits for Video Submissions: Emmys, Japan Prize, Youth Media Alliance Awards, KidScreen Awards, Canadian Screen Awards, Rockies Awards, BAFTAs, Webby Awards, etc.

2018

Sinking Ship Entertainment – Ongoing • Writer / Researcher • Digital Producer
> Odd Squad: Oddmented Reality – Producer, Writer, Co-Game Designer, Green Screen Director • Started in 2017, the post and finishing on this project involved coordinating between SSE’s Post, VFX, and Interactive Departments. Among the many elements to juggle were: 360º video of Odd Squad sets that had not been shot with any distinct purpose (in the end we stitched together stills from this footage into spherical containers); 3D models created by in-house artists; purpose-shot green-screen video w/ the actors; hundreds of audio elements; UNITY-created interactive and gaming functionality; hundreds and hundreds of decisions and communications to get these elements to align properly; two helpful, but very busy departments, each with a unique workflow. Oddmented Reality was released as an app for iOS and Android.
> Odd Squad: Build-a-Squad – Writer, Voice Director • This was a major game for PBS as part of the Odd Squad suite. I helped to shape the overall game narrative that PBS requested and helped find the least obtrusive way to integrate it. Also liaised with the PBS / Fred Rogers Company producer around wording for math curriculum and game instructions.
> Dino Dana: Dino Quest – Writer, Voice Director, Unofficial Tester • This Augmented Reality (AR) app involves digging up virtual fossils, cleaning them off and then revealing a lifelike animated 3D dinosaur. Besides the usual sparring to fit in the required educational content, I also sat across from the lead developer and so became the de facto tester, often sent out into the hallways and wider world to test during development. In late-stage meetings I contributed to streamlining the play-flow, largely by virtue of being the person who had spent the most time actually using the app.
> Tax Credit Documentation (Creative) for various projects.
> Awards Submission Support Material (video paper-edits, hi-rez jpgs, write-ups etc.) for Emmys, Japan Prize, Canadian Screen Awards, KidScreen Awards, etc.

Slang Inc.
> Hogtown Empire (podcast) Researched, wrote, presented and produced eight episodes of promotional companion podcast for same-named book. The couple of lines required to itemize this project belie the months and years of work that went it to it.

2017

Sinking Ship Entertainment – Ongoing: Writer / Researcher • Digital Producer 
> Odd Squad: Oddmented Reality – Producer, Writer, Co-Game Designer, Green Screen Director • See 2018 above for a fuller description, but much of the last half of 2017 was spent in prep, including: shot lists, storyboards, co-writing the script with game designer Christopher Coey, and starting to coordinate the Interactive and VFX departments to work smoothly together. The prep this year culminated with the green-screen shoot in late November.
> Dino Experiments – Writer • This was the main interactive module for this season of Dino Dana (the original TV IP on which the game was based). The previous year I had written the successful funding application for this project and had early input into the basic ideation of the game which had to meet specific curriculum goals. Once funding was secured, the game designer and programming team made it into the Canadian Screen Award-winning production that it became. I wrote the game script and directed the VO sessions with Michela Luci, who played Dana.
> Giver 150 History Mystery – Writer, Researcher, Producer, Voice Director •  Sinking Ship’s TV property, Giver, was a live-action docu-series that chronicled groups of children building or improving playgrounds in their local communities. For Canada’s sesquicentennial in 2017, SSE built Canada’s largest playground in Ottawa and so the digital property had to reflect this. The resulting digital experience was a hidden object game that gave a sense of what daily life would have been like for kids at different times – and in different communities – in Canada’s history. Since I had chosen the specific periods and environments, I also delineated what the hidden objects would be. Accordingly, I worked with the artists as a visual researcher, providing image references for everything from spinning wheels to ooloos, from rotary telephones to lodestones, from 8-track tape machines to Haida totem poles.
> Odd Squad: Sector 21 – Writer • This was one of the major games for this season of the Odd Squad TV show, focusing on reading a map using coordinates and directional language. I collaborated with the PBS producer to write the script and also facilitated the inclusion of lore from the TV show in the game itself.
> CHIRP Photo Missions – Liaison, Copy Editor • Using characters from SSE’s animated CHIRP TV show, this was an expansion of the original 2015 app in partnership with Parks Canada. After downloading the app and visiting the park, the app showed kids photos and fun-facts for sites and artifacts in that specific park. Users were then encouraged to find those same sites and artifacts and take their own photos which could then be shared to social media. As with the original edition of the app I liaised with the point person at Parks Canada and reps from the individual parks to give the fact blurbs one voice and make them age-appropriate / kid-friendly.
> Dino Exhibit – Writer / Researcher, Voice Director •  This was a lesser interactive game associated with this season of the Dino Dana TV property. The challenge here was to create fast, fun-facts that related to a particular section of dinosaur anatomy (e.g. head, torso, tail, legs) to correlate with various fossil groups being assembled into a complete skeleton. It was the usual scuffle to include science that actually tied-in to the curriculum (contractually required) as opposed to what was considered “educational” (anything that was even vaguely “factual”).
> Dino Digsite – Writer / Researcher, Voice Director • This was a re-vamp of an existing property to bring it into line with the new actor (Michela Luci) who was the central character of SSE’s dino franchise. The usual slate of activities.
> Chip Fits – Proposal / Funding Writer • This was a successful proposal for a property created by Leo Kouvaris that SSE submitted to the experimental stream of Ontario Creates (then OMDC) to secure development funding for a game app in which the user’s face served as the map for an AR avatar to which the player could throw treats and snacks.
> Awards Submissions – Case Studies, Paper Edits for Submission Videos • KidScreen, Canadian Screen Awards, Japan Prize, Prix Jeunesse
> Tax Credit Documentation – Assembly • Playdate, Dino Collector, Giver 150, CompuBot, Odd Squad DM Season 1