Scottish Screen Roughcuts Magazine Nov 2009 Shooter tells the story of a returned battle fatigued sharp shooter (sniper) to his native home in Scotland. The thread of Ronnie’s troubled years runs through the story within a vein of flashbacks reflecting the protagonist’s guilt, dark lost time, disregard for human life, resilience and living at the forefront of life at a hundred miles an hour. Our character accepts this fact. He understands that to survive in his own world he can’t switch off and has to be true to himself, and takes to roaming the tamed lands of his home, hunting enemies, stalking victims with the high tech equipment he was trained to use.

Clydebank Post 2010 The founder of the Swansea Bay Film Festival said, Shooter - filmed around Loch Lomond - showed Ronnie's "genius" and was the first short film in the festival's history to win Best in Festival award. Dumbarton Reporter

Flickering Myth and Live for Films Jan 2011 Independent film maker Ronnie B. Goodwin dropped us an email recently to let us know about his latest film Shooter, a rather impressive and thought-provoking short inspired by Ronnie’s own life experiences. It’s certainly an interesting piece, with some striking imagery and superb cinematography as we follow a weary and battle-hardened ex-soldier (Paul Hunter) through the mountains, lochs and forests of Scotland, torn between visions of the inhumanity of war and the natural beauty that surrounds him.

Celluloid Heroes Film Review On this week’s show, we interviewed film maker Ronnie B. Goodwin about his award winning short- Shooter. Seven months in the making, the film is a semi-autobiographical piece about a military veteran, wrestling with his conscience in the breath-taking surroundings of Loch Lomond. Driven by a first-person poetic narrative, confidently delivered by Paul Hunter, the film boasts some stunning areal shots and excellent special effects. Shooter provides a moving and very personal insight into its subject’s existential turmoil, a confident and stylish piece of work.

Cinehouse Film Review Shooter, a compact pleasing interior journey through the scarred mind of an ex-soldier. Paul Hunter stars as the eponymous Shooter — a solitary voice wandering the beautiful mountainous plains of Scotland. Sensibly quick and unobtrusive flashes of CGI help convey the war left behind and there is an ominously drained colour palette which helps put us in the head of the character, but what struck me most was the keen sense of sound production, with searching wind-pipes acting as a gentle canvas for the soldier’s narration. The technical economy and story arc created in just over 4 minutes is impressive.

Eternity of Dream We should see more short films. A less-than-five-minutes piece can become a great discovery and a real treasure. The mood and the pace of this short film were well-balanced, accompanied with an appropriate original score that brings more to the story. The narration was heartfelt and candid, so that it appeared that the narrator spoke directly to a viewer, while many lines were memorable that immediately grasped my attention and made me watch closer. Overall, 'Shooter' is an amazing example of a short movie. It focuses on the feelings and emotions, and even if the audience didn't experience those of the same kind, this story can't leave us indifferent.

David A. Calder It can often be harder telling a story in a short film than in a documentary. But Ronnie B Goodwin’s film “Shooter” achieves more in under five minutes than many a much longer video. The link is to a review rather than to the actual film — you can see that on IndieFlix. However, its subject is an ex-serviceman who’s found some form of escape from the demons of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the wilderness of Highland Scotland. The film itself is beautifully shot and, by using a mask to blur/blacken out the edges of the frame, manages to convey some of the mental claustrophobia that such people can feel. It’s blended with occasional shots of war, ghosted in over what the hero is actually doing, just to hint at the flashbacks he’s getting on a daily basis. It’s the kind of unwanted vision that those affected by combat stress say they can still get 20-30 years after their experience of battle. This film should be more widely seen.

With little or no money, I had to produce this story and still deliver a short film with high production value.
I never lost track of what I was doing as I had to do everything on the film, from production design to DP, then in post, I was able to experiment with different elements until I had the clips nice and tight.
I also wanted to produce a short that would, hopefully, not loose my audience, so I had to find a balance, where the narrative, music and visuals, would keep you in the story, without getting messy.
I also tried 3 different voices for the narrative, Canadian, English and American. I had used my own voice to help create the structure and work the timing of the short, and after showing to my students, we decided to keep my Scottish accent.