Today we’d like to introduce you to Gerald Godbout.
Hi Gerald, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Born in Washington DC and raised in Miami, FL. I’ve been writing stories since I was a child and always kid-friendly scary stories. That changed after I saw 1978 Halloween and I understood what scary truly was. From there, I digested everything scary I could find from Alfred Hitchcock to the Universal Monsters. I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s so the music and films of that era influenced me greatly. By ten, I had written my first movie script and by 12, I had written my first novel and by 15, I self-published it. I always wanted to be a filmmaker but I couldn’t afford to go to school for it so I read everything I could about filmmaking and watched every behind the scenes making of that came out. In my late teens, music had taken up much of my life as a friend of mine introduced me to DJ’ing. In my early 20’s I started producing music and opened my own record label. I produced five albums and dozens of singles and had my music chart on Dance Magazines and record pools and had songs played on radio stations in the US, Canada and Europe.
For ten years, I worked in the music business until technology in the film world started making digital cameras that shoot like film. At this point, I moved to Orlando, FL and started making music videos for local artists and short films with a friend I met in Orlando. I taught myself how to produce, edit and direct these first few projects and even on 2 Telly Awards for a short film I shot & produced. After a few years, I started working in Television as an editor and was mentored by the program director of the network Bill Suchy. The first show I was assigned to was called Sports Zone, I created the look, music and editing style. It was fun creating the show in the editing room. In 2008 the producer of the show asked me if we should enter the show for a local Emmy Award. I said yes why not and to my surprise, we won the Emmy Award and I got to take home an award I’ve only seen in TV. The show got nominated one more time for an Emmy before I moved on to other projects. In 2009, I started producing my own show called Indie Cinema Showcase a show that will focus on the filmmaking world in Orlando, Fl.
I produced Indie Cinema Showcase for three in a half years until I felt the show ran its course and I wanted to get back into Films. I worked on several award-winning short films that I wrote, produced, directed and edited. I also wrote two feature films that I hope to produce one day soon. I also co-produced, edited and directed a trailer for a feature film that won multiple festival awards and a Silver Telly. As I continued to work in film editing other projects for friends, I was approached by the new program director of the tv network I worked in. We talked about bringing back Indie Cinema Showcase it was the end of 2019, I asked my two hosts Christina and Nando if they wanted to do the show again and they loved the idea. Then 2020 happened and we were locked down. So not to stop the show from coming back, we decided to do the show on the iPhone from Christina’s house and I would edited the show from my house. I looked for filmmakers who wanted to show their shorts on my show. So season 4 was completed done from our houses.
Season 5 in 2021, we started shooting field pieces making sure we followed the rules of Covid and Indie Cinema Showcase was back shooting outside. Now for season 6 and beyond, we are expanding ICS to a full entertainment show so it is not just for film but we will cover everything in the entertainment world and for 2022, I will be producing a sister show Indie Music Showcase. I will be writing and directing more films in the for see able future and continue producing my TV shows.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
There are always obstacles and challenges in life but I’ve always moved past them when they happen to me. I take them as a learning lesson and I never repeat them. There will always be dishonest people in any business you’re in. These lessons are there for you to spot them and move far away from them as possible.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I love creating….. From music to writing, bringing something to life and sharing it with the world is my lifeblood. I love working with people and collaborating because you can get some of your best ideas from bouncing it off other like-minded individuals.
People sometimes call me if they need help solving a problem or looking at a scene in the editing room to see if I can help them. I love editing because you’re seeing the film come together frame by frame and you can change a scene’s tone and even an actor’s performance.
But I’m mostly known for my horror work. It is the world I know and the world I love. Scaring people for me is like taking them on the greatest roller coaster ride they’ve ever been on. If I’ve done my job right, they will be willing to take the ride again. As a kid, I was known as Stephen King Jr since every story I wrote dealt with the macabre and ghostly horror. I’m an 80’s kid so the video store was my library of knowledge, and I checked out everything that was Rated R. I even worked at Blockbuster, so for me it was like I had the run of every horror film in the store.
My most proudest project was a documentary about the W.A.S.P. The Women Airforce Service Pilot. This documentary introduces me to a part of WW2 I never heard about… Written, produced and directed by Bill Suchy, Silver Wings / Flying Dreams: The Complete Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots is a feature documentary that tells the story of pioneering women, who for a brief moment in the darkest days of WWII, were able to shatter the glass ceiling and defy the convention that women had no place in the cockpit of a military aircraft. I was the editor on this project and learned so much thanks to its director. We got a Local Emmy nomination and won a Silver Telly for documentary. It is definitely a documentary I suggest people to watch and is available for viewing on Amazon Prime.
Contact Info:
- Email: godboutfilms@bellsouth.net
- Website: www.godboutentertainment.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/icstvshow
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/godboutentertainment / www.facebook.com/icstv
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/GODBOUTENTERTAINMENT
- Other: www.indiecinemashowcase.com
