Burlington Free Press - Living 
Sunday, October 9, 2005 
By Sally Pollak, Free Press Staff Writer

WATERBURY CENTER -- George Woodard crouched in the back of an old pickup truck, his movie camera focused through a hole in the bed on a stunt double of his son's legs. When the truck moved, these dummy legs bumped along the rutted road beneath it. Henry Woodard, Woodard's boy, was at school this fall afternoon, but his stand-in lower half was dragged and bonked in the name of art. 

A friend of Woodard's drove the truck that day; another man gave the "action" signal with a walkie-talkie. This alerted an actor to walk down the road apiece from Woodard's sugarhouse, a structure whose exterior was converted to a mechanic's shop for the movie. After two takes, Woodard had the shot he was looking for. "Four Grown Men," Woodard said with a smile, as his crew climbed into the truck. "Four Grown Men."

The phrase was Woodard's periodic mantra for the afternoon film shoot at his dairy farm on a hillside in Waterbury Center. "Four grown men" describes the people involved in Woodard's shoot that late-September day. It hints at the wonder and delight Woodard derived from these men working on this project. 

A better description of Woodard's movie-making might be One Grown Man who has the imagination and sense of fun of a kid, and the ingenuity of a Yankee farmer. Or One Grown Man and His Kid, who stars in the film, and says he'll NEVER do it again. 

Woodard is a dairy farmer, actor, musician and theater  director. He plays sad songs on his guitar at bedtime for Henry; he runs an organic farm because he's wary of rBST, a synthetic hormone that boosts milk production. In between  milking, haying, fixing machinery and moving fences for rotational grazing, Woodard made a movie: organic in its own right. 

 It's home-grown, farm-shot and industry-free. Even the gimmicks are straightforward. Woodard expects to complete filming the movie, whose working title is "The Summer of Walter Hacks",this weekend

 Directed and co-written by Woodard, (co-writer Gerianne Smart is also the film's producer), the movie is about farm brothers in the 1950s who attempt to carry on the farm after their father, played by Woodard, is killed in a farm accident. Their plan to keep the farm going, attend school and otherwise go about their lives, starts to unravel in mysterious ways. 

Woodard's innovative movie-making involved building a dolly and hitching it the front of truck. Woodard perched on this contraption with his camera to capture certain shots, and left  the steering to a friend. He simulated driving by rockin a still pickup and waving big maple branches in the driver's face, thus creating patterns of shadow and light and the appearance of movement. He created special effects with a pair of blue jeans and old shoes nailed to a board. 

As rudimentary as these methods might seem, this is a serious and well-conceived project, one that Woodard has been thinking  about for more than a decade. The opening sequence is a strong, captivating scene in which a character called Walter, played by Woodard's son, sneaks out of bed and rides his bike to a mechanic's shop, where he gives a furtive fiddle lesson. This scene is enriched by the soundtrack of Hank Williams singing "Lost Highway," and a taped broadcast of the 1950s Congressional hearings on the Red scare. 

Woodard, 53, milks 25 cows on the farm where he grew up. The 200-acre farm, with stunning views of Camels Hump, was  purchased by his grandfather in 1912. "No matter where you go on this farm, it's beautiful," Woodard said. He re-started the farm 30 years ago, when he began milking cows. His father, who was born on the farm, sold the cows when George was 10. He drove a bulldozer and helped build Interstate 89. "He was quite possibly the best guy on a bulldozer you could see," Woodard said. 

Ten years ago, Woodard converted the farm to an organic dairy.  And in the summer of 2004, he converted it to a movie set. Actually, that conversion began quietly, in a stealth-like manner, 12 years ago, when Woodard renovated his ranch house. He based the renovation on drawings he made of a classic Vermont farmhouse. Even then, he had it in mind for the set of a movie he wanted to write and direct. 

"If we're gonna put that much money in the house," Woodard said of the renovation, "let's make it look old so we can use it for something besides a house." 

Woodard is one of Vermont's most renowned farmer/actors (remember Fred!), a performer who has long been involved in creative projects around the state. He has played central  roles in films by Norwich filmmaker Nora Jacobson. He was also featured in a Disney film, "America's Heart and Soul," about  citizens around the country and their ordinary and  not-so-ordinary achievements. Apart from the farmer/actor genre, Woodard is considered a first-rate actor among actor/actors. 

"George has a laid-back honesty coupled with an underlying  intensity that makes him really interesting on film," wrote Paul Schnabel, a Burlington-based actor, by e-mail from London, where he is performing in the award-winning play, "Switch Triptych." "His style is a study in simplicity, and he never appears to be acting. He comes off as the real deal, because he is." 

 Two summers ago, Woodard understood that the time had come to get "The Summer of Walter Hacks" from his head to the screen. If his son was going to be in the movie, he needed to make it before Henry turned 13, Woodard said. The boy, who stars in the movie, turned 13 Sept. 5 -- about a month before filming was set to end. 

"He's got to carry the movie, and I think he does," Woodard said. "It's kind of wondrous that it happened. Henry's got a knack for naturalness that a lot of people don't have in front of the camera." 

Henry, a seventh-grader at Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury, was a natural for the part because he knows farming and he knows fiddling, two important aspects of his character. His father told Henry that he was not compelled to be in the movie. He warned him that it would be tedious and probably not a lot of fun. But he told Henry that if he started the project, he had to finish it. 

Henry said he thinks the story of "The Summer of Walter Hacks" is  very good. He thinks the final product will be great. And he has one final thought: "I think I'll never do it again in my life." 

"I thought it was going to be fun, and I've had no fun at all," Henry said, citing the tedium and repetition of  movie-making ... "I wanted to be famous, and I can now see 
that I don't." 

Some things didn't need to be changed: The cows were the cows; manure was manure. "I'm a farmer and I don't find manure funny," Woodard said, "though it's a major staple in farm humor." 

Woodard wanted the portrayal of farm work to be straightforward, not comedic or exaggerated. This is one  reason his son and his nephew, Matthew, were cast in major roles. Both are familiar with the grittier elements of farm  life. 

"That was important to me," Woodard said, wearing a ripped Organic Cow T-shirt and watching film rushes after the morning  milking. "The boys didn't have to learn anything. They know how to milk cows. They know how to run machinery." 

Although Woodard expected to complete filming last fall, it took about a year longer. One of the actors, John Kiedaisch, is a 67-year-old retired architect from Hinesburg. His flexible schedule accommodated the prolonged shoot. Like the other actors, he worked for free. 

"It's for fun, enjoyment, and future fun. I haven't done anything more fun," Kiedaisch said. "George is extremely innovative and extremely creative in his ability to think all this stuff out." 

Woodard plans to edit the film this winter, finish the soundtrack and fine-tune other production pieces.  "It would be nice to have it done before I have to start the spring push," he said.