The road to completion is a constant uphill grind

Its hard enough trying to do a film on your own in post with no crew but then throw in all the digital errors and glitches that come along every other day and its enough to want to hang yourself with your computer cord! I have had to endure so many silly glitches even though I spent $ 5000 on the latest and greatest Mac Pro Quad core in hopes of being able to breeze through my editing. The fact is no matter how much you spend you will always have to spend more! The computer does not like the codec, the video card does not like the filter, the Camera codec does not like the video card and on and on and on! For every problem you have to spend countless days without sleep trying to figure out why? why? why?!! I am a huge fan of MACs and have been for over 15 years but I must admit the new intel chips have taken them to a new low! I have never had so many crashes and stupid little glitches in my life. It sometimes feel like Im editing on a PC with the amount of problems I face on a daily basis.

NOW….all that BS aside I am still grinding and I refuse to be beat by a bunch of 0′s and 1′s! This film will get completed the way I want it to and on time! I just have to keep my sanity and hope I dont have a heart attack every time I turn on the mac. Im trying to get the film off to a submission for a film festival in the next couple of days and hope I can without any more trouble.

Big thank you to Video Copilot and Andrew Kramer!!

Its been over a year since I’ve been working on Bong OF The Dead grinding away and learning some new tricks as I push forward. One of the biggest challenges for my movie was not having the budget to get the exact shots I wanted with exact locations during the filming process. However knowing that I was limited in the real world was not at all discouraging given the proper tools for post production. I was guided to a great website called Video Copilot which was founded by one of the coolest and most original Digital video Production gurus known to man! Im talking about Andrew Kramer the man who has dedicated a web site to the art and technique of post digital effects. The web site is not only incredibly helpful for learning great FREE techniques for creating stunning visual effects, but also an incredible resource for independent Film makers such as myself who have the ideas but not the budget. I have learned so many incredible techniques from Andrew Kramer, that with out him this film would not be possible. The film itself cost me 15K but the look and feel I am able to create by using Andrew Kramers online tutorials has given it the big budget look I was going for. Here is a small sample of a scene in which the heroes are preparing for war against the hordes of zombies to come. I had initially hung a homemade green screen beside the cabin we were filming at in order to hide cars and the house in the background. By using the techniques I have learned from Andrew Kramer I was able to remove the background and place in a deep wooded forest in order to make them seem isolated.

Before shot with green screen in background.

Forest with no lighting.

Final composite with Tommy as he walks out of cabin in battle gear.

Creating some cool advertisement for Bong Of The Dead!

Hello to all you fellow Bongers! Its been a while since Ive posted here but its because I am unbelievably busy with editing and creating the final look of Bong Of The Dead. There is literally so much to say so instead of writing it all here I encourage you to check out the Tweets and Blogs which you can access right fr…om here:

http://www.bongofthedead.com/blog/

Most recently I got together with my Co-Producer and great Friend Mike Fields who surprised me with a totally cool design for the new Bong shirts! My jaw dropped the second I saw the shirts and jumped at the opportunity to get them made so that we could get the message out to the world while trying to raise a few bucks in order to pay for more shirts! Basically everyone who is a fan and wants to help support this film can purchase a shirt for $20 and the money raised will just buy more shirts. The circle will continue until the entire world is infected!! You cant be a real zombie if you don’t have a shirt! The coolest thing aside from the designs on the shirt is the fact that they were each hand made by Mike Fields himself and me. Every one has tremendous TLC go into it so you will be happy if you chose to sport one of these limited shirts. The more we get out into the world the more people will know about this special indie flick that will blow them all away! I am working towards a realistic deadline now to submit to an upcoming few festivals! As always please keep in mind the reason its taking a year and a half or more is because I am only one person doing an entire film by myself in my basement just like my mentor Robert Rodriguez. Only difference between Robert and myself is I dont have millions of dollars or a post crew. Not yet anyways!

So in closing if you want a shirt please send me an e-mail or a note and I can figure out how to get one to you with payment process and things. Also please help keep the Bong lit by telling as many people as you can about it so that they too end up infected! Bong has now spread across over 87 countries around the world and been translated into 13 languages on the web with promo material downloadable in over 4 major languages.

Keep on Bonging!

Sincerely
Thomas Newman

New limitted Bong OF The Dead shirts!

Still grinding!

Well It has been a year and counting since I finished Bong OF The Dead on a remote location in Langley BC with a crew of friends and family. I have been in post production editing, compositing, color correcting, scoring etc. etc…I realize it is taking a long time to complete but when you are one [person doing an entire film with Block Buster look, sound and feel it is no easy task. Your mind begins to play tricks on you to the point where its tough to tell if you’re doing it right or wrong, or if you’re on the right track at all. I know that there is no right or wrong though, there is only the fact that you must keep doing it and keep on working towards the end. It is soooo easy to give up and say this is too much or Ive had enough. The truth is I will always find ways to stay inspired and to continue pushing on even when some people around me have given up or quit! I have been let down a hundred times over by those who make promises but keep none. Those people are the ones that have one purpose in life and that is to stop those of us who have passion and drive and dreams which they know they can never have so they try to stop us from succeeding. Dreamers know who they are and the ones who want to crush those dreams know who they are as well. The way I see it is when I finally finish Bong and turn it over and launch my career to the level I dream of, I will thank everyone who has been there for me but most of all I will thank those of you who let me down! It is because of you that I push on and find the drive to fuel my passion. Its not in me to quit and I am not someone who gives up easily especially when I am standing at the gates of my dreams. All I have to do is finish this film and when its finally done people will see what one person can do with talent, drive and unstoppable passion. I will try to blog something with a video soon! Thanks for staying in tune.

Bong Of The Dead Movie inspired by Richard Branson!

Ive been working my butt off to say the least as I push towards a deadline which always seems to move further due to unexpected delays or life in general. I have recently had to find a full time job in order to be able to pay my bills so that I could continue working on my film with little stress. Only one week into my new job and I am introduced to Sir Richard Branson the eccentric Billionaire! Yes the real Richard Branson as in Virgin Mobile and Virgin Galactic. I sat not even 6 feet in front of him as I listened to his message about life, the environment and his new ventures to come. I finally built up the courage to ask him a question in front of hundreds of people. My question was how I could find myself in his seat in a few years? He smiled and told me that he has breakfast, lunch and diner just like me and that I should love my life as it is now and love all those around me including other people. To top it off he simply told me to “Just have fun”. I was in awe of his simple yet great answer because he is right! We should love our lives for the now and try to work on loving one another and through that positive way of thinking and acting we shall can all be successful. Afterward I met him in the parking lot and gave him a Bong Of The Dead T-shirt and said , “I signed it for you”. He smiled and gracefully said thank you before he jumped into his ride with his lovely virgin entourage. His simple yet powerful message is all I needed to help me carry on and work even harder on my film.

The Final chapter in zombie gore!!

Well its been a few days since Ive blogged because I have been very busy working on Bong and building a fence at the same time. I know the fence has nothing to do with Bong but it gave me a nice break from it. Anyways now that I have the edit locked and I know exactly where everything should be I am going to finally bang out a few pick up shots that I always wanted to get but did not have the time for. Im talking about some extra special added gore such as heads being crushed, guts being torn out, eyes being gouged…you know the usual good stuff. I have a micro crew of loyal friends coming by today a year and a half later to pick up where we left off with some really cool gags. Mike Fields is bringing the magic once more to help wrap up the final shots. I will post the pictures after Im done editing them into the sequences I have waiting!

Editing is great but the weather is NOT!

I cant really complain about editing at this point because I have been pumping out shots and compositing like a mad man. As a matter of fact I have been going so hard that my arm feels like its going to break off from clicking the mouse so much. Continue reading ‘Editing is great but the weather is NOT!’

The first wave of Composites start today!

Now that Ive finally finished the 3rd and final edit of the film, the fun begins! I started the first series of complicated composites for the whole film. Its very tedious work and extremely time consuming but well worth the efforts. Im able to enhance certain shots and add elements to others seamlessly. As soon as I plow through the Vis FX shots I will then start on getting sequences ready for my Sound FX wiz Andres who will then do the magical post sound engineering. I will post some of the progress before and after shots as they are completed.

Bong is finaly done!

Its is almost 6 AM PST and I have just finished the official picture edit of BOTD! I actually finished it at 3AM on Jan 9th. This means that the hard part is now out of my way and its time to do the fun stuff like sound design, Vis FX as well as a few other touches and tweaks such as color correction and so on. Its been a long year of grinding and I must say it has finally paid off because now that I can watch the film from start to finish and its a great feeling. I will now spend the next couple of months filling in the blanks and polishing the movie for final delivery. I will keep everyone posted as always. Thanks!

Thank you James Cameron for making Avatar!

I just took a break from my own movie to visit the IMAX and watch James Cameron’s Avatar for the second time. I am blown away even more this time then I was the first time. The film is an inspiration on a Moral level as well as technological. What I mean by that is that it not only is a great film with a powerful message but its a stepping stone in technology which only gets better. It reminds me of why I want to be a filmmaker till the day I die…then reanimate as a flesh eating zombie who will continue to make movies of course, Duh!