Tao Of The Dead

Our new film is here!

Fresh from not one but two premieres in Hull, we proudly present Tao of the Dead, our new (you guessed it) Zombie film.  The making of this film could fill several volumes all by itself - it's been a bit of an epic slog to get it from our brains to your eyes, but it's here now and I hope you think it's been worth the wait.

Tao originally started life as 'Candy Jones - Zombie Killer' - a fake trailer for a non-existant horror film about a girl with a shot-gun, who quips, looks good with fire-arms and makes the undead's heads explode.  With this staggeringly original nugget of cinema lodged in our sights, we duly recruited any drunkard who could stagger on command, or who owned a suit of armour, and headed out to Hull's less salubrious locales to start shooting.

Several wet and windy afternoons later (including one where I forgot to take off my make-up after filming and went to the pub, drawing more than a few double takes, and another where we crashed a wedding reception to wash off fake (and not-so-fake) blood (that's real raw liver I'm eating in at least one shot - yummo!)) we were finished, so that means the film would be out soon, right?

Well, that was October 2010, and the film kind of mutated between then and now, first becoming a 'proper' short film, and then changing its title to the one it has now, then losing its original voice over - a kind of Buffy-esque teenage girl's ramblings and gaining the more zen script.

And so we arrived at it's more-or-less finished version two days before it's original screening, which went okay, but after polling the audience and getting some feedback, it was drastically re-edited before the 'real' premiere (the one the previous post was about).  Talk about leaving it until the last moment eh?

All the graphics, blood splats and gun-shots were done on After Effects, most of the filming was done by me, Ed did the editing, along with stirling support and creative input from Pete, a new inductee to Cheapass Films, and judging by his thousand yard stare on exiting the edit suite here at Cheapass Towers, he will probably never touch another film as long as he lives.

Still, we couldn't have pulled it together without him.  And yes, we had zombies at the premiere!  (Big thanks to Janey and Off The Road for putting that on / putting up with us)

Keep it zombie!

Aaaaand, we are back...

Well, that was quite a leave of absence, wasn't it?

Anyway, I just thought I would bring this to your attention...

That's right, it's the premiere of our latest zombie movie.  Two years in the making and anticipated by almost no-one, Tao Of The Dead is yet another no-budget affair with some awesome c.g.i. effects courtesy of yours truly, and some rather nice cinematography, also by me.  

I'll be posting linkage once it's been shown in the real world, but until then enjoy the poster (which is in no way ripped off from Grindhouse) and if you by any chance happen to be in Hull on the 8th of June, then pop down to the Adelphi and check of Tao Of The Dead!  (Half price on the door if you dress like a zombie...)

Also, on a completely unrelated note, if you are feeling hungry (and let's face it, who isn't?)  then point your browser to my new blog Soup Tuesday which has all the foodly goodness your stomach can stomach!  

Tell 'em I sent you...