It's Been a While

Yes it has been a while since I last posted on my blog, and a lot has happen, some good and some bad.

So lets begin with Outlander, the amazing book series created by Diana Gabaldon and fronted by show runner Ronald D Moore, and not to mention the massive cast, crew and awesome talents of Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe.

My experience on the show began over a year ago, I play a horseman, no name, just a supporting actor, and it was an extraordinary ride. 
I was browsing the web way back when, and happened on an add on FB for bearded horse rider for a TV show, I ticked the like box and soon after I got a private email from Seoras Wallace of the Clan Wallace, he asked me if I still had a beard and do I still ride, 'Yes', a few days later I was at a horse riding audition in Cumbernauld. 2 or 3 auditions later, and we were at a fitting having whittled a bunch of riders down to 4. Roy Ramsay, Thomas Straw and Alan Torrance. This was where we all got to mingle and introduce each other.

The journey had begun, and it was to be epic in my lifetime, freezing cold days, a few warm ones, lots of rain and still we managed to have, on reflection, a great experience.

In the picture above you can see I don't have my long grey main on my baldy head, and soon after the above image was taken, I had a wig fitting, now that is a painful experience, nice n warn, but man it would pull on my short hairs, and of course after hitting low branches and wrestling, you can imagine the rest'

My horse is called George, he is a beast of an animal, and getting on him was always a task, especially when its 2am and the rain is real, very real. Trying to get your leg over a Portuguese saddle in the slippery cold wet, is almost embarrassing, there was one occasion when I was already mounted, and Roy had to get on the back and we were to ride out of frame in tandem, he climbed aboard and the girth slipped, yes we both ended up upside down, made the crew smile :)

You can see Roy's foot and leg behind me

There are plenty more stories that I can talk about, I will post the later.

We finished shooting in I think September, it was a one day shoot and the short piece was for Time Warner, the Director came up to me and said, take a look at this, he showed me the story board and said, this is what I need you to do, how exciting, it was my own face on the board, and quite well drawn too

so after the shoot was over, I headed home, a few weeks later I started to develop and nasty head ache, and my energy went out of the window, I stuck it out for another couple of weeks, then I finally had to go to the doctor, he told I had the flu, take these pills, so I did, getting worse, then I moved up to my Mums for a while, sweating, sleeping, loosing weight, sore body all over and these eye pressure head aches were just the worst. I went back to the doctors and asked to have my blood checked again, as I found a small lump in my groin, I figure I had broken the tic body off when washing at some point. So it was confirmed, I have Lyme Disease, a course would probably not help, but I did it anyway. I am almost 100% fit again, the odd sweaty night and  that was six months that I really don't want to remember,

So I will post more of my experiences shortly, I think this is enough for now

More stories below :)

And if you would like to own one of my photographs, pleas go here, pay, download and print. https://ronniebgoodwin.selz.com

and my site My site

'FLY a Legacy' is now available

'FLY a Legacy', was released on tour with the Fly Fishing Film Tour in 2012, it screened at 110 cinemas accross the United States, bringing memories of childhood experiences back to all the fly fishing audiences that viewed it, and at the end of that year, the little film qualified for the 2013 Oscars, it never made the short list, however I am the proudest man to have had that amazing experience.

Today I was informed that 'FLY a Legacy' is available to buy at Amazon and iTunes, and should you want to own a copy for your collection, here are the links

'FLY a Legacy' at Amazon

'FLY a Legacy' on iTunes


More updates and films to come in 2014

'Shooter' is also still working well, it is entered into the Sundance London film competition, and needs the support of all those following, you can register here
 Support Shooter at the Sundance London Film Competition

'KING' my one minute film featuring Paul Hunter, and also help from David Clements, is also doing very well, with 5 festival wins under it's wee belt already. and acceptance into the Sony PROduction awards, it is very exciting for the little film. To help vote for KING, please go here



Thanks to ShortsTV and all of you for the amazing support :)

Emerger

Whilst I have been creating my short films, I have always had a fascination with water, and a few months ago, I shot a piece for one of my films as a poster. I fell in love with the images the camera can capture of moving water, that the eye cannot see, so 'Emerger' was conceived. If you visit the Gallery tab on this page you can flip through the collection, and if you want a high resolution copy or copies, drop me an email ronniegoodwin@hotmail.com  "subject 'Emerger' please", and would love to hear your thoughts on them

Meanwhile, I am on another project, which sadly, I can't talk about at the moment, but believe me it is very exciting. Meanwhile I have delayed 'Big Sky' for the time being, and I will post news as soon as I know more.

News from the last few months:
Our Academy Qualifying short film 'FLY a Legacy' is now available to buy on iTunes, and should you want to download it please go here and follow the 'View in iTunes' link FLY a Legacy on iTunes

'KING' our 1 minute short film, with Paul Hunter, is in the final of the RenderYard film festival, see KING
 
The sequence that the 'Emerger' poster was extracted from can be seen in this short film EMERGER

looking forward

The last year has been very testing, full of little jewels of achievements for my films. I guess the only way I can explain it is 'a memorable trip, that I don't think I will ever experience again', however, the goals that I reached with them, are reachable, and I always think to myself,  'if I had a reasonable budget behind the next project, then maybe I could get that little bit further?. 
So this last few months have been focused on developing the new film 'Big Sky', script is drafted, a great Director of Photography has been found, all the assets for the film are in place, and a cunning plan to get a short version of the film seen, has been hatched. The poster is looking pretty good too

So now it is a bit of a waiting game, the weather broke long enough for Tom Dobbie, my DOP and friend, to go out into the wilds, and test the camera and his knowledge, I wrote a small script, and we set out to film the piece in as high a resolution as possible, testing both equipment and software. The short film we created is called 'Second Wind', and can be watched by clicking on the poster below

So even although a lot has happened, it is still looking bleak, this recession is making it very hard to make a living, lack of funding and even the film funders are reluctant to invest, truly sad days, and I wish they were over,,,that's all for now,,, looking forward.

'FLY a Legacy' makes the Long List at the Academy Awards 2013

Normally I write quite frequent blogs about the journey's of my short films, but the last few months have been spent working on pushing the films further, so not a lot has been said on this site, however I am now able to talk about there developments and very exciting they are.

2013 Academy Award qualifiers on IMDB http://www.imdb.com/list/ia6ec_BCC5A/

Since 'FLY a Legacy' screened with the F3t, the Cannes Film Festival and ScreenHi, things have moved to a higher plane. I signed with Shorts International in July, to distribute the film, having built a good relationship with them, as they also distribute 'Shooter'.

On Friday 7th of September 2012, I received an email from Linda Olszewski, she is vice president of global acquisitions at Shorts International. She asked me if I could have a DCP (Digital Cinema Packet) of the film made, as she had a slot for the film to screen. So I had to very quickly find someone with the knowledge to make the film into a DCP. Firstly I thought, OK, maybe I could study the process and do it myself, then as I started the research, I find that it is a very complicated and time consuming process, and I didn't have any time to do the study, and especially, make the mistakes that come with this kind of undertaking. That's where I found Darren Eggenschwiler of Production Attic, (a real top bloke, he and his team), he had published a blog on his site about creating DCP's, and first thing on Monday morning he had the file on his machine, and by Wednesday afternoon, we had a DCP on a hard drive and in a Fedex plane to LAX.

This morning I received this

Dear Ronnie—

Congratulations on this unique opportunity to be part of ShortsHD At The Movies Academy qualifying screenings - launching this Tuesday at the Manns Chinese 6 Theaters at 6801 Hollywood Blvd in Hollywood, CA for three consecutive days – September 18, 19, 20.  Tickets can be bought at the door or at the link below:

http://www.fandango.com/mannchinese6_aaqdh/theaterpage?date=9/18/2012

Three programs of fantastic short films will screen twice daily. Please spread the word to your fans! 

PROGRAM ONE - FAMILY FRIENDLY (83 min)	TRT		RATING	Genre
Recess	4	Live action	PG	Kids
Lunch Date	11	Live action	PG	Rom com
Being Bradford Dillman	11	Anim	PG	Anim
Kubla Khan	3	Anim	G	Anim
Lost and Found	3	Anim	G	Anim
The Wind Girl	14	Anim	PG	Latino
Sea Meadow	12	Live action	PG	Experimental
Oroverde	18	Live action	PG	Foreign
Fly - A Legacy	7	Live action	G	Fishing

So 'FLY a Legacy' is now eligible for Academy qualifying, now that is something to write home about.

Featured in the November 2012 issue of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Magazine http://www.flyfishing-and-flytying.co.uk/

PS, the happiest guy 

Meeting Colin Salmon

There has been a lot of time past, since I wrote my last blog spot. However a lot of ground work has been covered, and a couple of opportunities that have germinated from seeds planted a long time ago.

About a month ago, I got a call from  my good friend Andy Isaac, we met 3 years ago at the Cannes Film Festival, when Shooter was screening. His call was strait to the point, can you be in Oban to record a short sequence for a friend of mine, his name is Colin Salmon, and he is doing some work to promote Cage Cricket at the sports centre in Oban, I said, I can be there with my kit and an umbrella:)

On arrival in Oban, I met up with Colin, he was sitting with a friend having a coffee, and as I introduced myself he stood up and towered above me, his awesome voice introduced himself, and all I could say was, Man, you are huge, and your voice is awesome:)))) he he, ice was broken and on with the film. Since then, he has kept in touch and given me great feedback on the short films that I have produced, with nothing but positive comments and praise, should you read this Colin, thanks for taking the time to feedback in such a positive way, makes everything worthwhile.

Click on Colin Salmon's picture to see his very impressive resume on IMDB, and be sure to look out for him in the new movie 'Resident Evil: Retribution'

This morning, I packaged and signed the contract for 'FLY a Legacy' sponsored by ORVIS  The little film will be in the care of Short International for the next 7 years. Thanks go out to Lesya Hearst, who wrote a terrific review on FLY a Legacy, read it here Eternity of Dreams film review site

I made a little film called KING, last November, designed to fit a series of festivals dedicated to 1 minute films. It was such a pleasure to make this little film with my good friend Paul Hunter, and David Clements was there to practice his still photography, great job to both of you, and congratulations, as KING is in Official Selection at the Aarau 1 Minute Film Festival in Switzerland, August 16th-19th 2012. Good job boys:)
Link to Aarau Festival Catalogue

Basil Khalil, a great friend, who I created 'Replay Revenge' with a few years ago, was up for a visit with his young brother, we had planned to shoot another short film during his visit, but our Scottish summer soon put an end to about 1 months planning, rain, rain, and more rain. And like I said once before, 'I love summer in Scotland, It is probably the best day of the year':)  



More to come soon...