Jim McQuaid

About Jim McQuaid

Filmmaker, writer, producer and thinker about the problems of communicating, convincing and connecting. My experience makes clear the old adage,\"It\'s all about the story.\" Filmmaking has lead me to spend more and more time working on film writing before I jump into production. TurnipVideo.com is my commercial work website. TurnipFilms.com deals entirely with my creative film work. For commercial projects, the mixture of my high tech background, my love of story telling and my teaching background enable me to tackle any kind of communication or training video project from planning to delivery. I have years of experience delivering customer-driven product requirements and effective sales support & communications. My ability to quickly grasp new subjects has been particularly useful in the work I\'ve done on a variety of medical topics. For film projects, in addition to pursuing my personal vision and personal projects, I am always available to mentor folks thinking about their first film project or to read your script and give feedback. I have helped as Assistant Director on local films, and I have been DP on several short films. Always interested in meeting local filmmakers. If things are working right, my Directing Reel may be visible on this page. Or find me on Vimeo. I am co-moderator of the TFC Screenwriters Group which meets twice a month during the academic year. We have been meeting since 2016. Open to anyone serious about screenwriting. I also have more than five years experience teaching in the arts at the college level. I\'m always interested in helping, explaining, mentoring or just doing lunch with other filmmakers at all levels of skill and experience. For the techies in my audience, I am co-author of RFC 1944 (revised as 2544).

Experience

1. Filmmaker & Writer

   Turnip Llc

   Jun 1999 — Present · Raleigh-Durham, NC, US

   Since making films, telling stories, and helping people create the media they need has been a joy and a passion. Film projects are always in the pipeline. Commercially, I\'ve done policy and procedure training videos for the Wake County Board of Elections, and a variety of educational and training videos for groups within Duke University Medical Center. I have shot video of simulated patient handoffs and I\'ve been in the OR during heart surgery for a training video. Check out for details.In my film work I continue to create short, personal films and write scripts. I have also enjoyed working as Assistant Director for a variety of long-form productions; I guess I\'m good at \"adult supervision\" on a wild and wooly indie film set. While the gory details are not in my LinkedIn profile, I also taught art and photography for more than five years on the college level. I\'m always happy to help out other filmmakers.I co-moderate a local screenwriters group. If you\'re in the Triangle and interested in participating in a writers group like this, contact me. We went to zoom when the pandemic hit and zoom actually works fairly well for this kind of meeting so we are planning to stay with zoom indefinitely at the moment, supplemented by occasional in-person social events.

Education

• Maryland Institute College of Art

  Photography

• Ohio University

  Master of Fine Arts - MFA

• University of Michigan

  BA