End of 2011

So, after a very quite year as far as paid work and employment is concerned, all is good on the creativity and advancements of my new film material.

'FLY', a 93 second short film that I created during the summer, has taking on wings of it's own, sporting a major brand in the form of ORVIS, my first ever sponsor.

The films formal title is now 'FLY a Legacy' and is currently winging it's way to the USA to start a full on tour of the states in January with the F3t Film Tour, a very exciting time for the little film that now runs an epic 5mins 40secs, link below. 'FLY a Legacy' is in Official Selection, and very proud of it:)

KING

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece on this blog about a 1 minute short I wanted to make called KING, featuring my good friend Paul Hunter, and with help from David Clements
You can see it here




David shot this little piece with his fuji and created the making of KING

KING had it's first screening on the 30th November 2011 at Scotland Directs, organised by Lizzie Gray at the BBC.  

The processes we went through to make the short are a couple of posts below, hope you like:)

FLY has Global Audience Nov 2011

In the last few days FLY has really made an impact on the fly fishing audience and web sites, over the last few months it has been steadily making progress, not viral, but certainly getting a bit of attention.

The Orvis Fly Fishing website picked it up, and there was an immediate surge in numbers, followed by GoFISHn and The RockyRiver.com who wrote a terrific piece on the film and a little biography on myself, very honoured.

I am now adding the finishing touches to 'FLY a Legacy', which is looking for a sponsor to take with it on it's journey in the near future. If you want to get on board, drop me a line at ronniegoodwin@hotmail.com subject FLY

A One Minute Movie

The International One Minute Film Festival, which is looking for submissions right now and into the new year.

I have written a short piece, which will involve my good friend Paul Hunter in full Robert the Bruce mode. The story came to me in the middle of the night durning my sleep, and as soon as I woke, I had to tell him my plan for the film.
So I took a quick trip to The Rest and Be thankful, and beautiful spot just North of Arrochar. I shot a few stills and set the project in concrete. 

We should be able to capture all the required scenes in a day, as we have 3 locations to visit, and I would like to capture all the brief shots in the same light.
There will be no music, just dialogue and ambient noise.
I have also been experimenting with a look for the short film, which will incorporate a technique which I developed a few years ago on a film called 'Children of the Mist', I must look it out and post.


This picture shot by David Clements, has the colour and soft tone to it that I am looking for, with rich blacks, and a slight blur. We used to picture to create the effect from this original.
Original on the top. The difference is very subtle.

After talking to Paul about the project, I took a picture from his Facebook profile, and did a quick edit, to create a poster and title for the project. The picture is HDR, and I am trying to create the footage to look as hard and detailed as this, as it is only a short piece, it shouldn't be to tiring on the eyes.

The Title is 'KING'

Meanwhile, 'FLY' is still doing very well, and 'FLY' a Legacy is looking and sounding good, very pleased with it.

Shooter is still generating interest, but for now, I am concentrating on new projects, generating sponsors and backers

I connected with David Eustace, after seeing his advert for the Linux G3, I found him on FB, and I dropped him a line, we are going to meet for a coffee around Christmas, and we shall see where this story goes.

FLY makes the number 1 spot

Fly has reached number 1 in the Global Fly Fishing Video Channel charts, the most exciting news to date, with the new version almost finished, I am really excited to see where the film will go, click here
The Global Fly Fishing site is hosted by Martin Joergensen, a terrific resource for Fly Fishing and everything that goes with it:)


Also very proud to have been published on the Film Courage Independent Film makers and Creative's web site, thanks to Karen Worden and David Branin for publishing my little story here



Raining outside, but who cares when the news is good:)

FLY at the GFF Video Channel

My little film FLY, which is now being made into a longer version, has made remarkable progress at the Global Fly Fishing Video Channel, very pleased to announce that it has been viewed many times and is in 3rd position of the Most Ever Viewed section of the site, you can see it above this post, and it can be seen here Global Fly Fishing Video Channel

Thanks to all the great people who took part in the making of this little film

The extended version of FLY is to be submitted into the Drake Fly Fishing Film Tour

Shooter is also having a great deal of attention at the ShortsTV Channel in the USA, very exciting:)

Dream come true

It has been a two and a half year experience, that has pushed and pulled my emotions, creating a learning curve that I could have never experience on any movie set.

In May 2009, I released my short film 'Shooter' into the festival circuit, and with only my limited festival experience gained from working with Basil Khalil, and our feature documentary 'Replay Revenge', the film was to take me on a journey that I could never in a lifetime, hope to experience.  And boy, did I have to start learning, and start learning fast.

If you read this blog from December 2009, it will give you the full story. Start here

My dream of screening my work, was becoming a reality, and to be frank, I didn't think it would make it all the way, as I was competing and networking with the most incredible film makers from all over the world, the competition was and will always be very tough.

So I celebrate this week, with a smile, and a big thank you, to everyone who was either fully involved with 'Shooter' or helped to push the film with social networking, and thanks also to the great festival curators that I was able to meet and the festivals that I was able to attend, also the incredible review sites that took on the task of writing such magnificent reviews about  'Shooter'. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart:)

So, this month, August 2011, ShortsTV broadcasts 'Shooter', with AT&T, DirecTV and DISH, having already broadcast on SKY, and with 3 radio broadcasts to it's credit, I can honestly say, my film production dream has come true.

I am concentrating on creating new material from this date on, and I do hope you continue to view the new stories that I have created and will be creating, with more news to come very soon.

Shooter's broadcast on Shorts TV

My last correspondence with Shorts International was a few months ago, they told me that Shooter had been broadcast in Turkey on STV, and that my film was being prepared for broadcast on Shorts TV in the Best of Festival section in HD.  http://shorts.tv/

Today I have allocated a little time, as I do each week, to search the web and see if other organisations are embedding my work. I was scrubbing through Shorts International web site, which has a new look, and am very excited to announce that Shooter has been broadcast from the beginning of August 2011, it will be broadcast with DISH, Direct TV and AT&T, a very satisfying feeling.

You can also see Shooter here, as for the time being, Fly is taking centre stage on this blog, above, and on this subject, the closing date for the competition that Fly is currently running in is the 31st August 2011, so please make your mark here

Happy Days:)

Film School Rejects

On checking my vimeo account today, I see Shooters numbers have suddenly made a jump, and on checking the statistics, I see that Film School Rejects have embedded the film into there site, so I check it out, and what do you know, they have made 'Shooter' the film of the day, now that is a nice surprise, and a very well written piece to go with it, thanks Film School Rejects for the push

Another film competition

Time to vote again, visit this link http://www.g-technology.eu/competition/870  and vote for latest short film FLY, there is a short piece below about the film, many thanks and pass it on.

Also take a minute or two to visit Ticker Talks Movies and read the latest review on FLY , thanks Raghav for the terrific write up:)

Possible Futures results

It has been a long wait on the Possible Futures Film Competition, using social networking to push a voting campaign accross the world.

Both 'Shooter' and 'Orla the Golden Eagle'  were in competition, with a total of 317 entries from 44 countries, with some extraordinary stories being told..

And on the 26th July 2011, the results came through, 'Shooter' had been Nominated in the final 5 of the Peace and Freedom section, a very proud moment for me and all the people involved and who supported the film from day one.

Fly

While I have been waiting on results, replies for jobs and applying for positions on other projects, I decided I should make another short film about the two things I love most, film making and fly fishing.

It took more than 10 days to gather the little moments for this film, with one of the sequences that I shot last year, but it had to be seen again, the piece where the Dragon fly and the Damsel fly bump heads, a special moment, and here it is http://vimeo.com/26802494
The short film is called Fly, and it has been complimented by the 'Wait for Me' track, composed by Moby, and supplied from the Mobygratis.com web site, a place you should visit.

Big thanks to, David Clements for the assistance, and to Angelo, John, Kevin and Johnny from the Carman Trout Fisheries for the support during the filming of this little piece.

Since I posted this little video a load of magazine sites have hooked up with the film, driving traffic to my material, see what I did there, Hooked up:)

http://flyfishingfantasies.blogspot.com/
http://mouching.wordpress.com/
http://flymage.net/blog-en/
http://southsoundflyfishers.org/
http://blogg.fisking.no/p/video.html
http://www.moldychum.com/
http://thehammockpapers.blogspot.com/
http://blog.fishingmegastore.com/2011/07/fly.html?spref=fb
http://www.troutu.com/blog/rare_blue_trout
http://tickertalksfilm.blogspot.com/2011/07/fly-short-by-ronnie-b-goodwin.html?spref=tw

Please feel free to share Fly

Possible Futures Film Competition

On the 28th June 2011, two of my short films will be open for the public vote at the Possible Futures Film Competition.

I will be pushing a Facebook and Twitter campaign a couple of days before voting commences, and I hope that all the followers and friends of the films will do a little bit to help spread the word with shares, likes and re-tweets about the event, please also ask your friends to take part.

The two films taking part, are 'Orla the Golden Eagle' (in the Sustainability and Beyond section) and 'Shooter' (in the Peace and Freedom section)

Have a look at the site to familiarise yourself. If you hit the vote button, and Early Bird panel will pop up, the site will ask for your contact details and send you a reminder email when it is time to vote.

Thanks, in advance, for taking part :)

COMPETITION, Hosted by Ultimate Review

Congratulations

Kristine King

You won the 'Shooter' competition

Hosted by Ultimate Reviews, and thank you guys for all the help

 

COMPETITION

Hosted by Ultimate Review web site, answer the questions and win Shooter merchandise http://ultimatereviews.co.uk/?p=3608

 

Ultimate Review of Shooter

To reflect on the reviews that Shooter has received since January, all the reviewers and sites respectfully, have been amazing with their responses and choice of words that have contributed to the short films quest. Today I received a review from Ultimate Review , written by Raghav Modi, and my goodness, it almost knocked me off my feet, it contributed to me burning my dinner, and I had a tear in my eye when I finished reading it, about 8 times:) I wont quote anything from the site as you should read it yourself, but I do have to say, that when a film maker reads this kind of thing about their work, it only makes you more determined to produce better and more personal work, and to read the words 'great piece of cinema' only makes my journey more joyous. I am smiling from ear to ear, at my laptop, in the dark, all alone :(
Thanks to the reviewers for everything said, I won't forget.

The Ultimate Review Site 

Ultimate Review sent me a series of questions to be published on their site, read the interview here
Ronnie B Goodwin Ultimate Review Interview

News Just in

Shorts International have just informed me that 'Shooter' has broadcast on Turkish STV, brilliant news, and the short is currently in the process of being prepared for US ShortsHD channel and France, very pleased.
Interesting to find out that ShortsHD launched yesterday on DirecTV, I will update news as it comes in.

Taking some time out

This last couple of years has been the most amazing trip I have experienced in my life, with one of my short films travelling the world, and a number of my creative designs and movies moving forward. With a new script being developed and some other projects on the horizon, all looks very encouraging. However, even though I feel I am moving in the right direction, there are always down moments, and they supersede everything at the moment.

So when a friend of mine from NYC dropped an email to say she and a friend were on there way to visit Scotland, I was quick to say, I will happily take a couple of days out, and be your guide and driver.

So the road trip began.  We travelled to Culag the same morning that Heidi and Rocio arrived, and within an hour they were on the seaplane, taking a short flight to the Cameron House on Loch Lomond, I picked them up in the car and from there we headed to Tarbet, where we met Caroline selling her ice cream from here mobile ice cream bicycle, delicious.

The sun was splitting the sky's, and then it was the long haul drive all the way up to Drumnadrochit, at the top of Lochness, we were to meet my good friend Ro Goodwin there, but we missed each other by a couple or three hours, oops, sorry Ro, next time. So we proceeded on to a hotel where we were going to see the Loch Ness Monster. The scenery didn't let us down, just magnificent.

The next day we headed to Balmoral Estate to visit my sister, friends, and Wee Walker:), for lunch and a bit of sight seeing, where we were witness to the brush fires in their infancy, it was like watching the early morning harr coming in from the sea, but it was climbing over the mountain, very strange sight, very beautiful, but also very frightening and menacing.

We were volunteering to help my sister put the fire out, I am so glad we didn't now, as they have been fighting the fire for 2 days.

So, off again to St Andrews, and I must say with the sun out, and the sea air, I was slightly blown away with this little town, and I feel I should go for another visit soon.  Then Glamis Castle for a brief tour, and back to Bowling for my meeting at the BBC. A great couple of days away with good friends, great food, sun and some amazing little moments that won't be forgotten, thanks you guys for a great vacation:)

Shooter's TV premier

Very proud to have managed to have my multi award winning short film 'Shooter' broadcast on Sky Super Shorts Channel 219. The broadcast was on the 18th April 2011, at 9.30pm with a repeat on the following Sunday.

Shooter was released on the 15th May 2009 at the Short Film Corner Cannes, you can see the video diary here
So the film to this date has not yet reached it's expected 2 year festival tour, I managed to rake up 27 festival Official selections, 2 jury nominations, 4 International wins and 1 Best in Festival accolade. On this blog you can read the very encouraging reviews that have been written about the film over the last 3 months, and to have it's first TV broadcast in the 2 years time scale is very exciting and a little daunting. Also looking forward to being interviewed by Claire Bueno of Premier Scene which means a little trip to London town in the next couple of months.

The learning curve that I have endured with this project has been very steep indeed, with no choice but to pursue the project to the end, with the lack of paying jobs and a very poor year due to the credit crunch, I still feel that it has been a very successful journey and would gladly live the experience again. However it is time to regroup and assess the future.

The second draft of the poster for my new film 'The Rape Fields' is ready for a look at. I wanted a plane look, with only 3 colours, with scope to expand.
With a Sci-fi movie, we expect to see explosions, space ships, monsters and planets, but with this I wanted to create something that is a more suggestive design, that is explained once you are immersed in the story of the movie.  More to come on this soon.
There is now a Contact Tab on this blog should you have any questions, please drop me a line

Mofilm and Possible Futures film contests

With a 1 hour window of weather opportunity a couple of weeks ago, David Clements and I trekked out with the camera and shot a short story line for the Mofilm Pepsi Challenge, and with what we thought was a very strong contender for the challenge, we waved it goodbye as it uploaded to the Mofilm judges, yesterday we received the news that the little film was not successful in getting through to the finals, you can see the finalists here, once we have clearance I will post the short film that we entered.

The Possible Futures film contest has just opened, and I received a youtube message from the Possible Futures crew, saying they would like me to enter the short film Orla the Golden Eagle, I promptly contacted Stewart Robertson at the Loch Lomond Bird of Prey Centre and asked permission to enter the film, he said yes, so the little film about Scottish Birds of Prey is soon to be judged:)

Facebook and Twitter have proven to be a great asset to my campaign, and helped to have my award winning short film 'Shooter' recognised, but little did I think it would get me in touch with a great friend of mine from a few years ago, Kevin Harrigan got in touch using the social network, and last Saturday we took a drive in his amazing car and reminisced. What a fantastic day, the sun came out at the Culag Guest house on Loch Lomond, a complete stranger gave us some food, we took some pictures and planned some projects for the future, including dusting down my ski's ready for next winter.








Ro Goodwin, a good friend and film maker, dropped me a line a few weeks ago, saying, a new feature film is being planned in the Shetland Islands, called 'Between Weathers'. On studying the web site, I found a name that I had associated with quite a few years ago, so I contacted and managed to organise a brief 'one on one' interview with the films director, if anything develops from this, I will post details soon.

A couple of days ago, a beautiful young woman from the USA, called Judi Ward, hooked up with my Facebook page and watched Shooter, she then shared the post and opened it up to her FB friends, at this point an actor called Bill Oberst Jr,  left me a great complementary message on my Vimeo account, saying he had been pointed to the film by a guy called Vincent Deporter, so of course I had to track down the name, and there he was on FB, I checked out his links and low and behold, he is an awesome photographer, cartoonist and artist, having worked on a plethora of very impressive projects from Scooby Doo to Spongebob, and coincidently, Gregor Narholz, who wrote the score for Shooter, is also responsible for Spongebob Square Pants, his website is here Vincent Deporter and for all my students who are into comics, give this a guy a visit on Facebook 
More to come soon

A most exciting review of Shooter

The sun came out today, and yes it warmed my shoulders and took some of the pale winter complection from my head as I drove down the road from Killin today. Having had lunch with my Mum and cleaned up a little round the cottage, it was nice to blow the cobwebs from my winter recluse.

I returned to sunny Bowling, and fired up the laptop to find a number of interesting messages, one of which I will speak of in the near future, and one from Brett Gerry, who wrote a very impressive review on my wee film Shooter. I have listed all the recent reviews on the right of this blog for you to read , however I want to put this review on this page as it made me very proud of the accomplishments of this little film

'Shooter' Review from Brett Gerry Films

Honesty, they say, is always the best policy – and here Goodwin successfully marries his own life-story to an effective short film, at the same time forging an innovative visual style that demands the long form treatment. Shooter has already won some impressive awards, and been a firm success on the festival circuit, so is therefore perhaps the quintessential short film – initially anonymous, provocative and brief – which could possibly also be its undoing. Many filmmakers and theorists insist on the importance of ‘story’ in cinema, but, as demonstrated here, many of the best short films can only suggest story in their runtime; often they are only slightly longer than modern commercials, and feature about the same amount of narrative information. Such innuendo, schtick and bravado that many adverts and short films contain do not add up to a story but a sketch that only implies more.
But we could likewise imply that, in an exacting cinematic sense, this suggestion of story is what gives Shooter its depth and apparent popularity. Goodwin, acting as director, producer and writer as well as cinematographer, treats his film with a visual style that is nothing short of brilliant: a digital collage technique that blurs the lines between past and present, and marries some impressive nature photography with abstract stylized imagery. It’s a fascinating way to disseminate narrative information (that suggestion of story) which reaches, with the full power of the cinematic spectacle, through the screen and into the audience, and cries out for a feature length exploration. Hopefully, the attention given to Goodwin and his achievement will bring such an exciting possibility for the man who has chosen cinema as his weapon of choice.


Just great Brett, thanks for putting so much into this review, totally blew me away
You can read the entire review here Brett Gerry Films  and please leave comments

Loch Lomond Seaplanes and Jordan Bayne

Great news from Loch Lomond Seaplanes. David West dropped me a line yesterday to announce that the seaplane features in the new Visit Scotland TV advertising campaign sneak preview at this link, top right. This is fantastic for the Scottish Tourist Industry and Loch Lomond Seaplanes. The magnificent footage of the 208 as it works in the beautiful highlands of Scotland, will surely attract people from all over the world to experience the majestic scenery and awesome hospitality.

I meant to mention in my last post, that I had the pleasure of meeting, very briefly, on  Facebook, the award winning Director and Actor Jordan Bayne, who had a great feature on the Cutting Room Floor Radio programme hosted by Casey Ryan, talking about here new movie 'The Sea is all I Know', you can hear it here,  I am very excited about seeing this movie

Working on my new movie material today, just getting over a horrible cold, but the solitude of being a little sick has pushed me to write fresh material. Title 'The Rape Fields', and with a little luck it will take you on an adventure that you have never experienced on the big screen before.

How social media can make an instant change

Yesterday, whilst nursing a sniff and drinking a hot medicine for my streaming cold, a message came in on twitter, just on the normal stream, not to me personally, it read:

CuttingRoomMRB Casey Ryan

Going on air soon - which one of you fine #indie #entertainment people wants a free on air #promo? Polls are open..................NOW!

ronniebgoodwin Ronnie B Goodwin

@CuttingRoomMRB free promo eh, My film can be purchases here, and how it was made http://ronniebgoodwin.blogspot.com/

CuttingRoomMRB 

@ronniebgoodwin Done! Promo for the Shooter.

Half an hour later, Casey Ryan was on air talking about 'Shooter'. You can hear the show here  Cutting Room
and a second plug on this link Cutting Room Sunday 6th March

So the power of Social Media is really starting to pay dividends, if you have a product that is specifically on line content and an opportunity comes along that can highlight your product to a wider audience then take it.

You never know where it may take you.

Another story about the power of social media,

David P Baker and Oklahoma Ward, have made an indie film makers pact. Through their meeting and developing friendship, using the Skype, Facebook and Twitter networking programmes, they have joined indie forces and are going to produce both their movies, together, yes, both separate movies, but made with each others resources, so David is going to go to the US to make his movie SCREEN, and work alongside Oklahoma on his movie CRAWL, the power of the social networking tools, magnificent

Meanwhile I have a cold and and I am  feeling sorry for myself:)

Good news

Sky Super Shorts have just connected, and want to broadcast 'Shooter',

'Your film is incredibly good!

I loved the ending of it. It is very smart and the images are great.

It will be a pleasure to air your film on our Super Shorts program.'

Also some promising news from the Screen Machine

'At present we don't normally screen short films in Screen Machine but I'm hoping that we change this in the future and regularly include short films, mainly from Scottish film makers. I'll keep note of your film and if we go ahead with the new policy - as I hope we will - I'll get back in touch with you.'

A good day:)

Moving Forward

For a long time, I have been pushing my career, and the way things are developing with my film projects and scripts, things are moving forward. 

This morning, I drove out on a beautiful day to Luss, to put the poster for Shooter up, at the Luss Tourist Centre, where Dane the minister has agreed to show the film in the centres little cinema. I met him during the winter months to prepare for screening, and now looking forward to the film screening for tourist that pass through Luss.

Yesterday, I met with Steve Mackay, who runs his production company Red Zebra, a like minded film maker from Edinburgh, we had a great meeting with lunch, and a never ending torrent of ideas that kept flowing, very exciting, and enjoyable. It's great to talk about these ideas without people looking at you as if you are some kind of crazed lunatic. One word, Productive.

A couple of days ago, Eddie Millar, who you may have remembered from an earlier post, dropped by to get me up to speed with his development. He has now stepped up to the digital age, and ventured onto the highway of knowledge, in other words, he bought a laptop:) He is now registered with Withoutabox, the awesome tool for film and script, that gives you instant access to the world festival circuit with your script of film. So we loaded his script, 'Woke up Banged up' onto the system, and he is currently studying the festivals listed.

Basil Khalil from Code 81 Films, informed me last night that Shooter has been delivered to iShort in Prague, iShorts Evenings are organised by FAMU students and present amazing Czech and foreign short films. Basil also sent a script this morning called 'A Gaza Week', which I am very excited about, and will spend the dark hours of the weekend reading, and hopefully not writing notes, more of this to come soon.

No word from Peter Mullan, after the chance meeting at the FilmG awards last week, I guess he is really busy, so may be a while before he gets a chance to see the film, fingers crossed.

Paul Hunter has just informed me that one of his short films is ready for the festivals, so I will need to spend a little time with him and the withoutabox service, great stuff.

The Dynamo system that is embedded at the top of this blog, is proving to be a great resource, as I can follow the amount of times that people look at the link, and even break it down to the countries that they come from, so currently, after 4 days, I have people from 10 different countries looking at the film, very exciting times.

Thanks to all these review sites for the great work they put into writing very in depth pieces on such a short film.
Flickering Myth
Cinehouse Review
Eternity of Dream
Live for Films
Celluloid Heroes
David Calder
Jack L Film Reviews
Virtus Productions
Suspend Your Disbelief
Terra King
Brett Gerry Films

I managed to get the film reviewer Robbie Collin to look at Shooter, using Facebook, and he wrote this

"Hey - just had a chance to look at this - loving your work! The sequence with the seaplane especially I thought was excellent - some really nice compositions there. And you have a great voice for v/o. Sadly I've got no space to review shorts in the paper thanks to the constant churn of features on wide release, but please stay in touch and do give me a shout if you're ever up to anything that might work for a NoW piece".

I hope you don't mind me copying and pasting this into my blog Robbie, but it is a great little review never the less, Ta.

Should you want to review 'Shooter', please email me at ronniegoodwin(at)hotmail.com and I will arrange an on line screening.

Reviews and Dynamo

Another fine review has been posted on Jack L Review Site for my short film, and once again I am so happy with the response that the film is receiving, each review has hit on element that I never even considered within the films story or structure, very encouraging.If you would like to review 'Shooter', drop me a line and I will arrange a screening.

I was also contacted by James Adkin a film making friend who runs Virtus Productions and he posted a juicy little link to Shooter's trailer, and this blog site, James wrote this great piece about 'Shooter'

"It was late last year when I was first made aware of Ronnie B. Goodwin. I noticed a poster for a film he had directed and was intrigued by its content. The film, entitled ‘Shooter’ tells the story of how people effected by human conflict, re-adjust, as best they can, to normal life.
The effort and passion put towards this film are evident from the start. No aspect of the story is overlooked and the images are rich detail.
Few films are able to capture the beauty and innocence of the Scottish landscape, few films are able to tell a story that affects so many, yet is known about by so few, ‘Shooter’ however does both and so much more…More of the same please Mr Goodwin" 

I have added a new player to the header of this blog. It is the Dynamo Player, which allows me the opportunity to sell my film without handing it to second and even third parties, which basically leaves the film maker with not a lot at the end of the day, this system allows me to market the film and have a few more pennies in my pocket than the other distribution models, not that there is anything wrong with them, it's only very difficult to create a revenue stream when you have to wait for six months between any payment, if any:) So I feel I have to at least give Dynamo the benefit of the doubt and give it a try. Currently I am looking at how to make the Dynamo system work with IMDB, any thoughts?

FilmG and Peter Mullan

My good friend Ro J Goodwin (picture) came down from Inverness on Friday 18th February 2011, and asked me to accompany him to the FilmG award, where his short film 'Sgiath nan Treubh' had won a MG Alba Visions Award 2011. What an honour it was to sit with him and watched as he received his award.
I recorded the event on my little Fuji camera, and sent the footage back to the North with him the following morning, no doubt the cut version will be posted on Youtube soon, I will post a link here when it is complete. 

David Hayman and Peter Mullan were in the audience and also presenting awards, which was very exciting for us, as they are such huge ambassadors for Scottish film, and to be only a few tables away was very exciting. We were also in the company of two very beautiful girls, they told me their names, but I forgot, other things on my mind I guess.

After the event, I thought I must try and get an introduction with Peter Mullan, I had an opportunity to meet him when his short film 'Neighbours' was screening alongside my short at the Lochness Film Festival a few months ago, but he couldn't attend, so I thought I had missed my chance. As soon as the proceedings ended, I made my way to the bar on the look out for Peter. That's when I was asked by a lovely crowd of people, if I would take their picture, I said yes of course, but still keeping one eye on Peter, as I didn't want to miss another chance meeting. We finished taking pictures and just at that, Peter and his friends started to move out of the building, that's when I took my chance and tapped him on the shoulder. He was very polite and listened to my story, accepted the DVD with the film on it and said he would drop me an email after watching it, at some point.


Next day I left Bowling to visit my Mum with our mutual friend Len Pankhurst. On arrival in Pitlochry, it was cold and wintry, so I got on with the fix-it list from my Mum. I mentioned to her that I had seen an add on Facebook for people wanting their houses remodelled, and suggested to her that we register the cottage with them, Mum agreed, so I did all the emails to make it happen. This morning when I was checking my emails, I had one from the crowd of folk that I met at the FilmG event, they asked me if I could send the photos that I took of them, and here is the application to the Property Series, so by complete accident, I had met the people from Tern, Mr Peter MacQueen and friends, how freaky is that. Such a small world sometimes.

The new Dynamo Player has been installed on this blog, at the top of the page, and if you want to use the embed link on the film to add it to your own blog or web site, please be my guest           

Prague and Mofilm

How exciting, Shooter has just been invited to screen at BIO OKO (http://www.biooko.net/en/) in Prague. 

iShorts Evenings are organised by FAMU students and present amazing Czech and foreign short films.

"After going through the British Films 2011 catalogue that we got from Britfilms, I must say that me and my colleagues from iShorts programme are intrigued by your film Shooter "

Up to this point in the short films career, 'Shooter'  has probably been to more places and travelled more extensively than I have, quite jealous of it actually. Maybe I am just getting a little stir crazy.

The results for Mofilm are out and this time, no joy with the 2 short ads that I sent to them, the competition was extremely tough this time round, with over 1000 shorts in competition. Still, it was a terrific way of producing new, quick projects over the winter months, keeping the creative juices flowing, and experimenting with new techniques. I will be posting the films in about 6 weeks time. 

Also, January proved to be an excellent month for movie reviews, and I have had my share, they are listed below.
To be reviewed in amongst films like Black Swan, The Kings Speech and True Grit, is truly awesome.
Thanks to, Flickering Myth, Celluloid Heroes, Cinehouse, Live for Films and Eternity of Dream 

Another review from David A.Calder, this one came as a complete surprise, he connected with me through face book, and told me he had watched Shooter on Indieflix.com, and as I was getting our profiles up to date, I noticed he had posted a link to his blog and this is what he wrote, David A.Calder

I got a very short but amazing email from Lloyd Kaufman, he said 'The Shooter is great', that was it, short n sweet, but extremely exciting to receive a cool email from this legend of a man.

The weather has been a real problem the last couple of weeks, with very dark days and huge gale forced winds, it has relegated my camera to a dusty patch on the floor, however this morning, the birds are singing, and the wind has stopped its raging. Fresh start...

Eternity of Dream: Shooter (2009)

Eternity of Dream: Shooter (2009): "4 stars 'I wanted to shoot. I wanted to kill.' (Gun Man) We should see more short films. A less-than-five-minutes piece can become a great ..."

Thanks so much to all the review sites that have given such praise to 'Shooter', and especially to 'Eternity of Dreams' for writing such an honest and memorable piece for me to enjoy with my readers. The link above will take you to the review.

Cinehouse: REVIEW: Ronnie B. Goodwin's Short 'The Shooter'

A fantastic review for 'Shooter' from Cinehouse
Cinehouse: REVIEW: Ronnie B. Goodwin's Short 'The Shooter'

So the first month of 2011 has been very productive as far as the reviews are concerned, with no negative responses at all. Now lets hope someone can see the potential, and help out by getting on board with the next projects. If you are interested, drop me a line.

Celluloid Heroes review 'Shooter'

It's been a while since my last post, well to be frank, I have been busy making new conceptual ideas come to life, and not had a lot of time to write about the specifics.

So firstly, Yesterday the 26th Jan 2010, I did a Skype interview with Celluloid Heroes, hosted by Ed Prior and Jack Pelling. You can hear the show at this link Celluloid Heroes
There is a short clip of the show or you can tune in and listen around the 1hour 12 minute mark
And what an honour it was to be the first Film Maker to be interviewed on the show, as I listen back, I can hear myself sniffing a lot, just getting over a cold:)

Yesterday I was also selected for the Sony Production Awards with a short film that I made for their themed competition called Fusion, now this one needs some of you to participate in, in other words I need your votes to help me win the audience award, her is the link

Maybe, if you are reading this, you may be alble to help me. I am looking to get in touch with the AD Tommy Gormley, if anyone knows how I can get in touch, please private mail me at ronniegoodwin"at"hotmail.com, thanks

Award-winning short Shooter available now through Indieflix

Award-winning short Shooter available now through Indieflix

First Review for 'Shooter'

How exciting to wake this morning, 4 days into 2011, and I get my first review on Flickering Myth, a site dedicated to reviewing films of all genres, and my wee film 'Shooter' has managed to get a mention, you can see the review here. Also got a great mention on Live for Films

I have always wondered what it would be like to be reviewed, and really is a bit daunting, as you read all sorts of material written about peoples work. But this one has made me very happy, and will be treasured. Thanks Flickering Myth, made my day.

Off to Helensburgh to a meeting with Peter Montgomery, and he happily handed me a DVD copy of the master of 'Carter's Nightmare', his second feature film to date, I was so excited about seeing it, as I am usually immersed in the post production process, but with this film, Peter was at the helm. You can watch the making of clips and film sequences HERE

The film runs 1hr 21mins and looks great, has a good pace to it, and as I started taking notes, I found my self in the story, and chuckling away at some of the witty one liners. His work on the composites is also great with a very cinematic feel to the whole production process, it makes me wonder what kind of world beating material could be produced if we had money behind us, so if anyone reading this would like more information on what is being made and what has been achieved in the last 2 years, please drop me a line at ronniegoodwin@hotmail.com and subject (indiefilm).

This afternoon I got a call from a guy, who simply said, I have made a script, would you like to read it, I said, OK, he appeared at my door, handed me the 102 page script, and I am going to read it in the morning, I will post details later.

Meanwhile all is good on the film and ad production front, could do with a paying job for a while, freelance compositing or second unit DP, even DOP, so if you need something made, drop me a line.