Thursday 24 March 2011

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

Tuesday 8 March 2011

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.

Sunday 6 March 2011

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:

Casey Ryan
Going on air soon - which one of you fine people wants a free on air ? Polls are open..................NOW!

Ronnie B Goodwin
@ free promo eh, My film can be purchases here, and how it was made

@ 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:)