This may be old news for some of you, but a rough cut of Chapter 2 and one scene of Chapter 3 was shown December 1st at my birthday party. The majority of the cast was there including Michael Harthen, Michael Empson, Matthew King, Devin Cameron and Hannah Gaff. Of course they were having a good time watching the movie, but I was paying much more attention to a couple of younger guys I had never seen before. They had no idea what this movie was, who was in it, and who made it, but they were loving every minute of it. By the end of the rough cut one of them stood up and said, and I quote, "It was zombified! It was apocalyptic! There was knives and guns and violent shit! I loved it!" I can see that going on the back of the box.

The feedback from the rough cut screening was exremely helpful. While it wasn't very direct - it just wasn't the place for it - I'm making numerous changes based on people's reaction. I've seen the movie a hundred times, so I watched people's faces instead. One scene that I was 99% sure I was going to cut is now staying based on the amount of laughs it got, while another that I was on the fence about is being cut for sure - people just stopped paying attention. I will definitely be doing more of these screenings as the edit progresses. I don't want to create a movie that I'm thrilled about, but nobody else is going to enjoy. This movie is for you guys!

School has been a priority over the last few weeks for myself and much of the ZA crew, as we've been scrambling at the buzzer to get our final film projects turned in on time. This deadline turned out to greatly help the Zombie Apocapylse post production team as Joe Zook, desperately looking for a subject for his After Effects class final project, voluenteered to add some muzzle flashes and blood to the movie! I haven't seen any clips yet, but I hear from his classmates that he's doing a fantastic job. Clinton Jones is also officially back working his visual effect magic on the second two chapters of ZA. I just sent him his first scene and cannot wait to see what this whiz can do with it. Clint and Joe will also be going back and adding additional effects and fixes to Chapter 1.

Composer and sound guru David Fienup is going to be spending a couple of days with me here in Grand Rapids finalizing music and preparing sound effects. It'll be fun to be able to work with him face-to-face for a change - we've been working over e-mail for the last few months, and while it's been very effective, its always more enjoyable bouncing ideas off somebody else right there in the studio.

Oh! And how about that teaser trailer, eh? You can now watch that again in the Previews section along with the Chapter 1 promo video.

-Ryan Thompson

Since Zombie Apocalypse’s wrapping in July, I’ve been spending all my spare time editing - which hasn’t been much.  Voluenteering for the Grand Rapids Community Media Center, Open Concept Gallery, and The Haunt, as well as getting Lynx Media Productions up and running has put a dent in my post-production productivity, but I’m back in the swing of things now.  Now with my new Mountain Dew powered nocturnal editing schedule, the movie is coming along extremely well.

Current task – sound effects.

First thing yesterday morning I showed Matt King some punch, kick, ricochet, splat, stab, slash, squish, and scream effects I had been working on.  The punch sound effects during Axel’s battle with the zombies drew exclamations of, “Outrageous!” from Matt, which is a reaction that could go either way.  He then went on to clarify “These sound like they’re out of a Bruce Lee movie.”  We decided that ridiculous sound effects like these ultimately compliment the over-the-top tone of the movie, but something was still off.  Maybe in the mix?  I went to an expert.

Adam Goron and I met to tweak his current film, Satori, and afterwards watched the  rough cut of the twelve minutes of absurd action at the end of Chapter 2.   “Some of the kung-fu punches might have to go,” he said between laughs, “but maybe with music...I think they could work with music.”  I agreed. I can't wait until Fienup lays down a track for these scenes.

Late last night Scott Watson and I screened the most recent rough cut, which goes for one hour and twenty minutes not including Chapter 1.  We both had a great time watching the thing, cheering at the cheese and discussing changes and possibilities.  “I think the action sequences are really well edited,” he said. “It’s fun seeing all these shots cut together.  I rarely get to see the editing process.  This is exciting for me.”  With that, we went and cut a good seven shots from the climatic battle scene effectively speeding it up. It's almost up to speed.

I left the office yesterday feeling extremely positive about Zombie Apocalypse.  The collaboration and feedback from so many people is what’s made this movie possible and keeps driving me to get it done.  This has been fun, and we’re all going to have a great time with the final product.

-Ryan Thompson