First Official Trailer Released

Well we’ve been in post production for a good 2 months now and I’m happy to say the first official trailer is complete and ready to blow some brains! I mean minds!

Ninja Zombies (2011) Official Trailer HD from noah cooper on Vimeo.

Now please be a badass and help us spread this like a zombie virus all over the interwebs! VIRAL, baby! VIRAL!

Post Production Diaries: Scene 11 Done!

Well it’s about 4:45 AM now and I’m happy to say that scene 11 is good enough to be called a rough cut! And it’s still pretty rough… no sound effects, for one… but for now at least I can MOVE ON!

It was really challenging to find the best order for these shots, since there was a lot of action that wasn’t shot in continuous order, vs action that was continuous… and somehow that had to be going on at the same time and it all had to make sense. At any rate we’ll have a critique tomorrow and see if it actually DOES make sense.

Post Production Diaries: Scene 11

I’ve been editing for a few weeks now and still have just 25 minutes of a VERY rough cut done. I’m about to start working on the first epic fight scene between samurai and ninjas (no zombies yet as this is a flashback scene). We had 7 fighters in this scene, and shhhh… we reused the ninjas so that it would seem like even more! The sheer amount of footage is so daunting. I guess it’s just like every other scene, though… just one shot at a time …

The good news is that the first official trailer, “Rise of the Ninja Zombies,” is almost completely done! Just need to sync a tiny bit more dialogue audio, insert some credits and some special effects shots and we’ll release it to the world!
By the way, the wrap party was an awesome time! Big thanks to everyone who came through!

Ninja Zombies Store

Where did they get that cool Ninja Zombies gear, did you ask? Well friend, look no further!

We have a store set up at http://www.cafepress.com/NinjaZombiesShop for all your Ninja Zombies merchandising needs! We only get a tiny percentage of the sales, but what we do get will go towards our film festival budget. More importantly, when people see you with your sweet-ass stuff, they’ll want to know more about the flick! So start spreadin’ the undead love!

A Successful Sneak Preview

EDIT: I just wanted to thank Jacques and the Mark Twain House once more for having us at their event! We all had a great time and it was a big help towards making this a better film!

After getting just under 3 hours of sleep the night before, it seemed like a rough cut of the first 20 minutes of the film was just about ready last Saturday for a screening at The Mark Twain House and Museum.

I woke up with a few quick tweaks that still needed to be done, but of course that ended up taking juuuusssst long enough to be running late for the 2:30 tour we intended to go on. But that was ok, the actual event itself didn’t start until 4! Plenty of time. I made a few more tweaks and then set the project to render and compress for DVD. Mike was the one who pointed out my computer was telling me it would take 6 HOURS for the process to finish!

In a panic we brainstormed solutions, everything from exporting a data file and bringing a laptop to just bringing my whole computer there. Ultimately, we ended up exporting a standard def quicktime which we threw on a flashdrive and also burned onto a DVD. The DVD was plan A, but as burned discs can often be glitchy we brought the flashdrive and Joe’s laptop as plan B.

We got to the the event a little late, but they were having A/V problems of their own so they were running late too. When we arrived, authors Don Borchert and Joe R. Lansdale were still speaking for the panel. We tested playing the movie and quickly found the DVD would not work.

When it came time for the screening, it was Joe who saved the day with his laptop (the one that was already hooked up to the projector had no way of playing Quicktime files). We plugged it in and got the film to play!

Screening it in front of an audience was nerve-wracking. Mike and I hid in the back of the auditorium, paying close attention to every reaction the audience had. Overall I was pleasantly surprised! There was more laughing at our jokes than I had hoped for, including laughs at parts I didn’t expect. On the flipside, there was also dead silence at some parts that were supposed to be funny — apparently jokes about pedophilia don’t really fly… who knew?

I really appreciate everyone who came out to show their support — you guys rock! And big thanks to Rob Young for taking these pics! As nervous as I was, I think it went really well for a test screening and I’m looking forward to having more audience tests as the film comes together. In the meantime, I’ll be finishing the rough cut!

We also previewed a rough trailer, which went over really well. It will soon be finalized and released to the world!

Oh and we got a quick mention on WTNH News! I thought that was pretty cool… it starts at 2:20

A Little Action From Lloyd Kaufman

As you could see below, we had a shoot with Godfather of Gore, the creator of the Toxic Avenger, the Purveyor of Fine Butt Plugs, Lloyd Kaufman! We drove out to Long Island City in Queens, NY for the shoot, and ended up filming right in the basement of Troma Entertainment! Throughout the basement and the upstairs we were surrounded by Tromemorabilia…

Lloyd was a helluva character, as you can see from Michal’s video post below. His improv was frantic and hilarious. We had the hardest time not laughing while the camera was rolling…. I don’t know how Mike kept a straight face while acting with him! Big props to Michal, Tigi, Derek, and Michael for being able to capture all the craziness! And thanks to Arun for helping us prepare lines and blocking (though Lloyd certainly put his own spin on things).

We had precious little time to shoot, so we blasted through the scene. Luckily the footage looks great! I learned alot from letting go and letting Lloyd improv. First of all, he is not at all afraid of controversy (I guess I knew that already from his films, though). Being PC is not really of any concern to him. But hey, I won’t ruin it for you! You’ll just have to see the finished scene when it comes out! (and the outtakes, of course)

When the cameras were off, Lloyd was extremely nice to all of us. He gave us all autographed pictures, let us take Toxic Avenger posters, and he even had one of his interns go get me an assorted collection of his films on DVD! These included “Poultrygeist,” “The Sexy Box,” (a box set of 4 of his teen sex comedies), and the box set of the entire “Toxic Avenger” Collection! Before we left, his daughter Lily Hayes did a quick interview for her blog, “Tromemoir,” which documents her life as Lloyd’s daughter, and as Toxie’s sibling!

HUGE thanks to Lloyd for helping us out… He really loves independent film and it shows! So please show some love back by checking out his films! (there are a TON) A lot of them are up on Netflix, but they are also on Hulu for the low, low, cost of FREE!