Review of 2008

If you're one of the thousands of avid followers of My DDR T-Shirt, you'll know that about twelve months ago I made the following New Year's resolutions:

1. Finish the film (to a satisfactory standard)
2. Organise a screening
3. Have My DDR T-Shirt screened by someone else

Admittedly, these were deliberately achievable targets, but that's easy to say now, having achieved all three. Twelve months ago, the whole idea for My DDR T-Shirt was about two years past its original deadline. There were many, many periods between March 2005 and March 2008 when I thought I would never finish the film. It was certainly labour of love.

Finishing the film was great. There are things I'd like to do to improve the edit, smooth a few rough edges, cut down a bit of content etc, but I could probably spend the rest of my life tinkering. I think it is best to draw a line, learn what you can and use this for future projects. Even so, having the complete film on a DVD, having 'a product' that I could send to people and sell online, was a massive milestone.

The DVD has sold quite nicely with retail sales in Australia, Sweden, Germany, Luxembourg, Puerto Rico, the United States and the UK. It won't make me rich, but for me, this constitutes a worldwide audience. Not only that, I have had some great emails from people, healthy web traffic, growing numbers of fans on the Facebook page and some amazingly good reviews posted on www.myddrtshirt.co.uk/reviews.htm.

Resolution two was nailed by the free screening at Fuel Café Bar in Withington, Manchester. This fantastic evening was packed to the rafters . I don't think it's an exagerration to say it was one of the most rewarding nights of my life. Thanks to all who attended.

Resolution three was ticked later in the year thanks to Salford Film Festival. Having been rejected by a handful of festivals, Salford's enthusiasm was very welcome indeed. The fact that they deemed My DDR T-Shirt worthy of a place in their programme was cool. Thank you very much to the festival organisers.

So, in a nutshell, that's it. That's 2008. Promotional activity will continue in 2009, so thanks for your interest and keep watching this space.