When I head to NY in a few days to finish the remaining production on the first season of Butterknife, I will not find Ronald Bronstein.  He will be in Austin, TX, attending the already sold-out screening of his multiple-award winning film, Frownland, which hours ago claimed a victory at the Gotham Awards for “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You.”

A few years ago, Caveh Zahedi called this award a backhanded compliment, after receiving it for I Am a Sex Addict, and I’m not sure I disagree.  But in Ronnie’s case, it’s just the beginning of a wave of attention he will be receiving over the next year for his film.  He worked on Frownland for several years before presenting it at SXSW in March, and the 9 months it has taken everyone to catch up will have been worth the wait, as he should never have to suffer another rejection letter from a cowardly Festival programmer who needs external validation to justify presenting this excellent film to an out-of-shape audience.

Welcome to the Butterknife blog! This will be a combination production journal/random thought catcher. We are shooting the second half of the season in December, and I will post plenty of pictures and thoughts from the set of the show, but for now I’m excited to present the trailer, featuring scenes from the episodes we’ve already completed.

Butterknife is my idea of a “genre” project. Obviously we’re doing something really different with our private-eye, but we’re still tapping into some of the conventions and hopefully adding a memorable new character to the long list of great on-screen investigators.

We’re very grateful to spout.com for sponsoring the show and making it available for free to everyone. The first episode will premiere in January, so make sure you sign up for email alerts. You won’t want to miss it.

-Joe Swanberg