
Randal
(Randy) Greenwood
Born March 5, 1949
Randy
was born in Liberal, Kansas and lived most of
his life in Hugoton, Kansas. He graduated from
Hugoton High School in May 1967. During his high
school years he was active in plays,
photography, wrestling, and 4-H. He was in the
local rock band, The Night Walkers from
1966-1967 as lead singer and rhythm guitarist.
when the band broke up because of Graduation,
some of them headed to college and half in
different directions. He also was racing
motorcycles during this time and into college
reaching as high as the number seven plate in
the state of Kansas. He Attended Kansas State
University from the fall of 1967 until the
Spring of 1972 when he graduated from Kansas
State University in Manhattan with a B. S. in
History.
He
was married to Gayle Kingshott of New Buffalo,
Michigan on August 8, 1970 in Michigan. To this
union he had a son Evan L. Greenwood born on
August 8, 1978 and a daughter Amber A. Greenwood
(Taylor) born on March 4, 1982. He moved to
Pueblo, Colorado in the summer of 1972 and three
months later moved to Denver, Colorado where he
work for L. D. Brinkman company (a wholesale
carpet company. He started out on the cutting
floor, moved to delivery truck driver, then
night foreman, and finally receiving clerk all
within a little less than a year. During this
time in Denver he raced Hobby Stock race cars at
Denver International Speedway. At that point he
had enough of city life and took his Dad's offer
to come back and take over the family farm in
late 1973. He farmed from 1973 through most of
1978.
In 1976 he
began working for Raycolor in Hugoton as a full
time professional photographer for about a year
after the owner had a heart attack. By 1977 he
was working on his own as a professional
photographer out of his home while farming on
the side. In November 1978 he opened Greenwood
Photography at 623 S. main street in Hugoton,
Kansas and has operated as a full time
professional photographer at this location ever
since, now close to completing his 29 year in
business. He stopped farming in November 1978.
In 1985 he was
forced to divorce his first wife after 15 years
of marriage. In 1987 He married Rebecca
Richmeier of Garden City, KS. To this union he
had one daughter Ciara D. Greenwood born
September 29, 1988.
In 1988 Randy
began writing and selling articles to magazines
including the Professional Photographer, Action
Pursuit Games, Paintball International, and
others. Gratified by his success after
publishing over twenty paid articles in as many
different monthly publications, mostly about
paintball and paintball products, he decided to
try writing novels.
It had always
been a dream for him to write and sell a novel.
He ambitiously set out to write his Gone With
The Wind Civil War Novel and called it Burn,
Missouri, Burn. He wrote this in the early
nineties. He completed the book and sold it to
Tor Books in 1994. The book was so large the
publishing house in 1994 asked him to break the
novel down into three separate novels as a
paperback trilogy.
These three
books, Burn, Missouri, Burn; Kansas, Bloody,
Kansas; and Ride, Rebels, Ride were published
from November 1995 through September 1996 under
the Forge Label for Tor books, a division of St.
Martin's Press in New York City.
He was asked by his editor to write another
three novels on this same family from Missouri
after the Civil War and completed one and nearly
the second one when his editor quit Tor books to
write his own novels. He was then dropped down
on a science fiction editor for Tor who was
already overloaded. Not interested in historical
novels and already overloaded, this editor
turned down his books without reading them.
Randy then tried to sell the two unpublished
books to other publishers, but they didn't want
to buy books in a series that they didn't own
the publishing rights to the first three
published books. Discouraged after investing
nearly two years of writing those two unsold
novels, and figuring out writing novels pays
poorly for the time involved unless someone
makes a movie of it, Randy concentrated on
Photography, with thoughts of attempting to
write screenplays, as they were shorter than
novels and paid much more if sold.
In 2005, by
accident he met Joel Trujillo. Joel and Randy's
son Evan, both shared a love for Star Wars and
Evan as a storm Trooper and Joel as Darth Vader
were both in a Halloween costume contest which,
Joel Trujillo (Who goes by his everyday life
name as Christopher Garrison) won. It turned out
that Joel was working on filming his second
short Star Wars fan film and Evan joined him and
was an actor in the film.
Interested in
the filming process led Randy to team up with
Joel to co-write and co-direct their first film
together by writing an all original script. It
was a film based on the legendary George
Romero's Night Of The Living Dead, only set in
Western Kansas in 1968 called
Dusk Of The Living Dead. Casting calls
were made in March of 2006 and filming began in
April 2006. The first movie,
Dusk Of The Living Dead was filmed in
Hugoton, Liberal, and Beaver, Oklahoma on a very
low budget with a very talented volunteer cast
and crew. It has a run time of just under an
hour. The World Premiere was held in Hugoton
Kansas at the Memorial Hall on July 3, 2006. A
second showing of the film was held, Friday July
28 in Elkhart, Kansas at the VFW Hall. Other
showings are being considered. The DVD's are for
sale at $10.00 each. Contact Night Walker Films.
Meanwhile,
JFT Productions owned by Joel Trujillo, and
Night Walker films owned by Randal
Greenwood, Teamed up to make a sequel to Dusk
called
Fields Of The Living Dead. It is nearly
a two hour movie and I feel an improvement in
the script and filming because we continue to
learn and improve. The World Premiere of Fields
Of The Living Dead will be at the VFW Hall in
Elkhart on March 30, 2007. There will be
additional showings scheduled later and the
DVD's will be available for sale on March 30th
and professionally made.
This turned out
to be the last film Randy And Joel wrote and
directed together. Because of creative
differences in what direction to go with
additional films JFT Productions and Night
Walker Films decided to go their separate ways,
but have parted as good friends who try to help
one another.
Randy has since
written a script by himself for Lost
Treasure Trail which will be set in the
present and will be the first feature filmed in
Color for Night Walker Films. This is a
comedy-romance-adventure film. Casting is
completed and filming on
Lost Treasure Trail is currently under
way. Other script ideas are being developed for
Night Walker films, including ones for possible
sell to Hollywood as well as more for local
filming. I'm looking into a possible western
movie next. I have bought a better digital video
Camera, a boom microphone system and other
improvements as I strive to make better and more
improved films with each outing. If you have an
interest in acting, working on the film crew, or
behind the scenes, please contact me. So far we
have worked exclusively with amateur talent who
have donated their time and skills to help us
make these movies. They of course get in the
credits, get practice at being in a film, get a
free copy and and free entry into the showings.
If I can ever make a direct to DVD deal then I
will share a percentage of what I am paid to my
cast and crew depending on the size of their
part, but at this point can't guarantee such a
sale.
For now it is is more for the
fun, love, and experience of making movies. "I've
sold magazine articles and novels, and truly
believe with a little practice I can sell
scripts too!", said Randy. He intends to start
entering the films and scripts into film
festivals later this year.
"I'm learning
while I'm having a blast making my own films and
movies. I have already worked with some talented
actors and actresses and hope to discover many
more. I'm really excited about my
Lost Treasure Trail cast and think I
have some major undiscovered talent among them.
Randy intends
to keep doing Photography for a living and doing
films and scripts on the side in the future.
This is the third film and script I have worked
on and wrote in the last year or so. I hope this
is just the beginning!