New year for new adventures!

Well what can I say, 2010 was by far one of the most difficult years of my entire life as a human being as well as a struggling filmmaker. The amount of horrific ups and downs I had gone through although tough, were not tough enough to stop or kill me! 2011 is a brand new year for success and it is definitely one that I will remember forever as I push forward in bringing Bong Of The Dead to the light.

Now that the film is officially complete I am in the tail end of some final technical stages in which I will be creating DVD menus, art work and more art work for promoting Bong. I have already began my festival submission phase and have been sending Bong off to some of the worlds top notch film festivals in hopes of getting accepted to one. While the festivals look over what I have accomplished in the last 2 years I will take the waiting time and get educated on distribution negotiation tactics.

With the new year it looks like Germany is still interested in Bong of the dead and my potential partners there are willing to work with me to get Bong to their markets. I will also be touching base with a Hong Kong distributor as well as China in hopes of getting Bong to Asia in the new year. The following week after that I will be at a couple local meetings with other production houses who may help with Canadian and US distribution offers. All of this mumbo jumbo about distribution is exciting and scary as hell at the same time! This is the moment where a filmmaker can either be made or be slayed!

For those that dont know, a distributor can be your best friend or your worst nightmare depending on who and which contract you sign. I am trying my best to make all the right choices to ensure a successful end for Bong after the last two years of painstakingly creating it in post. I will be hiring an Entertainment lawyer in the next week as well as shopping around for a foreign sales agent who will help me get the most out of my almost 3 years of hard work. I will also be looking at hiring a publicist who will also help with my PR and campaign for promoting Bong even further. These are very exciting times and I am thrilled to finally be at this moment in time. 2011 will be my year and I will make my mark on this earth and finally achieve the goals I have set forth to achieve. By reaching one goal I will be setting out to achieve a hundred more for that to me is the purpose of life, love and passion for what I do.

All the best to everyone in the New Year and I hope you too achieve all the goals and dreams you have set out top achieve!

Peace out!

The count down begins!

Well, I cant believe I’m about to write an actual date which Bong will be done by! It has been an incredibly exhausting trip from day one of pre production to filming and then especially post. I must say I have had more near death experiences while in post than I did during pre and actual filming of the film itself. I guess the majority of my stress has come from bizarre software related issues in post which caused my film to not be accessible at some point or another. The amount of technical glitches and mishaps were honestly enough to make me want to quit many times and find the nearest bridge! However having been through many sleepless nights which blurred into days then weeks, I can say that it has been worth it. I never expected to take a film which I shot for only 5 thousand dollars and then turn around and make it look like a couple million all in post. The truth is I have done my best with what I have had available and I believe Ive succeeded in proving that I can do it. Along the way I have made a few new close friends and lost a few but some how through it all I managed to end up exactly where Im supposed to. Im glad to have had the help and support of all my friends and family who contributed their efforts to help me pursue my passion and dream. The film will be finished at the end of this month and ready to hit the circuits. November 30 th is the official completion date of Bong Of The Dead. Since I am at the end almost I decided to celebrate by designing a final film release poster which I will post here. Its almost the same as the last one but has a lot more grit. Ill keep you posted!

Bong Of The Dead Film Release poster

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!

Pick ups for Bong finaly done!

Yesterday was the last chapter in capturing the final pick ups for Bong Of The Dead! Why did I want to shoot more one year later? Well I always had some really cool shots in my head and of course because of the tight schedule I had put together for the actual shoot, I had to let go of some shots. Well, now that the film is technically finished and I’m tweaking it I thought heck its a perfect time to get those inserts I always wanted for some added gore! I called Mike Fields and his lovely assistant Mandi, Gabriel Medina, Andres Santana who are the usual suspects in making these things happen. Once the micro crew showed up it was time for some really disgusting movie magic. I have a couple pictures here but nothing that truly shows what we were up to. Im sorry but you will have to wait for the movie to see that.

Try to keep your real hands in tact!

Looking good!

Thats using your head!

Still trying to deliver!

Well its January 2nd and I had promised to have my first Blog done before today with a cool behind the scenes video look! Continue reading ‘Still trying to deliver!’

New Bong of the Dead Zombie Blog

Hello and welcome to the new Bong of the Dead Zombie Blog!

We will keep you updated about the movie and all the latest happenings through the use of this new blog. You can register an account on the Zombie Blog and take part in discussions or just leave a simple comment on anything you read here.

Look for video clips, a ton of photos, movie updates and so much more.