By day, Michael Poirier is a videographer and technologist in the Marketing and Communications departments at St. Clair College, capturing special moments and accomplishments, while highlighting more than 100 programs offered at the College.
But this man of many hats twilights as a filmmaker, and his latest venture is getting a big stage at the upcoming Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF).
On opening night of WIFF, Poirier’s first ever feature film, ‘Thundersnake,’ will be screened at the St. Clair College Centre for the Arts’ Chrysler Theatre.
“I love, absolutely love, putting on shows,” said Poirier, noting he’s been in plays and bands before, but this is a different sort of performance. “There's nothing in the world more thrilling, I think, than building up to that one- or two-hour window. And then hopefully, if the reaction is good, the excitement putting on the show and having everyone enjoy it, it's really exciting. I'm really looking forward to it.”
Thundersnake follows the misadventures of a group of middle-aged has-beens who team-up with one failed producer after another to launch a video podcast dedicated to 1970s glam rock, with the hope of getting rich slowly, one social media “like” at a time.
“Thundersnake is the name of a fictional band that is kind of a stand-in for KISS, or like a glam rock type band from the 70s,” said Poirier. “In this film, the characters in the film are obsessed with the band Thundersnake, and so they start a podcast about glam rock and glam metal, and Thundersnake just happens to be the focus of a lot of their attention.”
“One of the members of Thundersnake, the fictional band, is a resident of Windsor, so the climax of the film involves them getting him as a guest on their podcast, and that's how it goes from there,” said Poirier. “I'm the hero of my own story, and I cast it with some hand-picked friends as well as some auditioned actors from Toronto.”
The filmmaker first started a feature film 20 years ago, but never finished. After years of admitted waffling on the project and hunting for inspiration, one day he just sat down and started writing.
“You sit down one day and treat it like a job. Like, okay, I'm going to write for eight hours today, no matter what happens. And that's what I did,” Poirier recalled.
“And I just kept writing and writing and writing,” he said, noting it took about three years to complete the script.
The shooting of the film began in 2021 and took about three months, wrapping up principal photography in the summer of 2022.
A large portion of the movie was filmed at St. Clair College’s campus while the school was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with shooting locations in the Health Sciences Building, The Ford Centre for Excellence in Manufacturing, the SportsPlex, MediaPlex and the Chrysler Theatre at the St. Clair College Centre for the Arts.
“We really appreciate (Senior Vice President of Communications and External Affairs) John Fairley for letting us have our run of the place,” said Poirier. “It was tricky, because it wasn't just a matter of walking in, we were all masked up, and it was also a ghost town. There was nobody here. So, in one way, it was good because we had access to everything.”
“It made the film a lot bigger than it would have been if we didn't have access to St. Clair, because it would have been just all filmed in my living room, which would have been boring. No one wants to see that,” Poirier joked.
Not only was the College heavily used for sets, a number of St. Clair College staff members and students past and present were either cast in the film or worked behind the scenes.
Poirier was joined by his brother, Shawn Poirier, who did the sound and AV for the production. Shawn also works as the AV Technologist at St. Clair College.
Acting in the film was Roger Faubert, who worked at the College for more than 30 years, Miranda Underwood, a former employee and Student Representative Council President, and Joe Logan, a former instructor.
Alyssa Horrobin, a Journalism and Media Convergence graduate and current employee did some cinematography, as did Kyle Van Dongen, a Journalism program alumnus.
Also contributing to the film were Allison Gemeinhardt, an Entertainment Technology program graduate, Ashley Klepacki, An Esthetician program graduate who did make up for the film, Jolie Inthavong, a former instructor, Roman Kovalev, a Human Resources program graduate, and Joey Lesperance, who graduated from Entertainment Technology.
“It was kind of a family affair in this production, for sure,” said Poirier.
While his passion is filmmaking, Poirier said his decade of employment working at St. Clair College has helped in many ways.
“I feel like working here has really made me sharpen my skills, as far as everything, shooting, lighting, and editing,” he said. “Also, it's almost like having a giant pool of clients that you're constantly creating content for, and each one of them has different feedback, different input.”
Poirier had years of experience producing the local television show ‘Comic Book Syndicate,’ and had previously released the short film ‘Gary Blaze,’ but still found the task of producing a feature film an arduous one.
“The script took about three years to complete, bouncing my ideas off of Marshall (Sfalcin), and Fil Premrl (writer, Saving Grace), then ultimately working nights and weekends, completely by myself, typing away at my laptop.”
Poirier took his time with editing, spending two years fine-tuning the film.
“I did get some help with audio mixing, but otherwise, I did all the editing myself. I do prefer Golden Age cinema, so I decided to shoot the film in black and white. That allowed me to focus on characters and story, rather than flash,” Poirier said. “It's been a mountain to climb, for sure.”
“This movie is designed to entertain an audience. So far, the feedback I’ve received from viewers has been positive. They all agree it’s hilarious, and one person remarked that it was the funniest film he’d ever seen. Granted, he was a camera operator on my crew, and my roommate, but I’m sure he’s not biased,” Poirier said with a smile.
Other actors on the project share his excitement.
“It was such an amazing experience being able to be a part of this project,” said Jeff Kavanaugh, who plays Aiden, the film’s antagonist. “I’m glad to share the spotlight with such talented, creative people. It’s an honour to have some of my friends and family involved, and I’ve made some new lifelong friends along the way.”
The film has been nominated for several awards in the film festival circuit, including Best Cast and Best Comedy and Best Drama at AltFF (Alternative Film Festival), and Best Editing at Hollywood North Film Awards. The film was also accepted to the Detroit Independent Film Festival and the Chicago Indie Film Awards.
Poirier has already started working on his next project, a 30-minute short-film titled ‘The Gentle Art of Making Enemies,’ featuring many of the same actors.
For now, he’s relishing in the release of his first feature film and is overjoyed to showcase it in front of a home crowd at the Windsor International Film Festival on Oct. 24 at 9:00 p.m. at the Chrysler Theatre.
“I think the acting is up to snuff. I think the writing is good. I mean, I spent years doing it, so I hope it's good,” said Poirier. “And I just think that the people who worked on the production all were on the same team. We all had same idea.”
“Everyone in the movie contributed, I think, as far as ad-libbing, as far as ideas, and so hopefully that passion and that joy comes through, and people will enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.”
