Bombdotcom Productions

Extracurricular Projects

2008-08-21T19:38:00.000-07:00

Things have been quiet around the Bombdotcom Productions offices (which is perhaps best described as the "Video Projects" folder on my D drive) of late. But that's not because we're lazy, it's because we're doing other things. And only some of those things are lazy things.

Enoch Allred and John D. Moore have ventured to shoot a feature film, Legends of Minigolf: The Flamingo's Challenge, which has a website that's updated even less frequently than this one. Some Bombdotcom acting alums show up, including the only actor with a line in Scoring Big, the illustrious Gene Ledbetter. Camilla Whitney, who shot Mr. Daily, is editing. Production wrapped last Monday; John and Camilla are in the thick of editing. Hopefully coming soon to a festival near you!
Enoch's new short film, The Green Knight, is planned to premier at the Tower's Open Mic Night on August 27th.
Congratulations to Miriam Allred for publishing her first short story in tjavascript:void(0)
Publish Posthe zine, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet! You can't read it online, but you should totally buy the issue. It's very good.
The Importance of Tolerance star William Stewart has been producing fantastic new daily content for his blog and both acted in and crewed for the feature.

Someone else is probably up to something else that is totally awesome, but I can't remember right now. Sorry, someone else!

Check It Out!

2008-05-14T04:22:00.000-07:00

Check out this hilarious video I found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfZKTejzRqY

Ode to 2004

2008-03-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

Bombdotcom Productions was founded in the Summer of 2004 when we shot Lord of the Rings: EXPOSED for a faux exposé contest over at Film Fights. It was also our most productive year, with a total of five films (six if you count the trailer for Samuel Butler Runs Across America), including the behemoth that was Hopscotch Hotshots.

It was at the premier for that film the following bit of spontaneous lunacy (featuring Stephen "Box Jacobs" Gashler and writer-director Patrick Svensson) took place, which I edited for our 2004 DVD album. It includes a closing credits sequence that serves as a head count to everyone who made that awesome first year possible.

The Importance of Tolerance

2008-02-22T15:16:00.000-08:00

Wednesday's screening of The Importance of Tolerance as part of the Tower Theatre's Open Mic Night seemed to go over fairly well. However, it did confirm something for me that I'd always kind of know: this one's for the insiders. If you've been a part of or near the Mormon community in your lifetime, particularly during your youth, this is going to make a lot more sense to you.

The style that I adopted in writing and directing this project was one emulative of short, instructive, and intendedly uplifting videos produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Is it parody? Is it satire? Is it spoof? I'm not entirely sure. However, it is a comedy. If you don't understand what iconography we're cashing in on with this shot of Daniel praying in a grove, you're probably going to be missing out a lot.

I'd love to be able to show you what these videos look like, but the dedicated piracy artists that populate YouTube seem none too eager to upload the contents of LDS Family Home Evening Videos. Especially, I'd like to share "The Joy of Missionary Work," which had particular influence on the style of this film. I assembled a brief primer over at my personal blog that might give you a little bit more of a clue as to what we're drawing on.

Much thanks to everyone who worked on this project. The film just wouldn't be the same if my long-time friend William Stewart hadn't traveled to town to start. His chemistry with our own Joseph Schlegel was a wonder to behold. Also, WiL Whitlark wrote a positively wonderful score and theme song featured on the soundtrack here.

Learn Something About Tolerance

2008-02-16T13:16:00.001-08:00

John here. I've just finished putting the last touches on what we're calling the first final edit of The Importance of Tolerance. It's been a long time in post-production, but I'm feeling really good about where it is right now. WiL Whitlark has composed a beautiful soundtrack for the film and I'm eager to show it off to you.

But first, if all goes according to plan, we'll be premiering it at this Wednesday's Open Mic Night (February 20th) at the Salt Lake Film Society's Tower Theatre, playing alongside an assortment of other local filmmakers' shorts. Admission to the screening is free and--in its freeness--is so totally worth it.

If you miss it, I expect to have the film posted online within a week. However, this may be your only chance to witness it on the silver screen.

What: World premier of new short film The Importance of Tolerance
When: February 20, 2008, 9:00 PM
Where: Tower Theatre, 876 East 900 South, Salt Lake City, UT
Why: To grow your faith and support your filmmaking community.
How: By any means necessary.

If you attend, please feel free to seek me out, say hello, and exchange a few words.

UPDATED 2/20/2008: The Tower Theatre is no longer charging admission. It's free, baby!

Son, you best keep that fork of yours.

2008-02-13T01:03:00.000-08:00

I remember an oft heard complaint in the first half of the year 2003 was that basing a movie on a theme park ride was a terrible fucking idea. Then the movie made a zillion dollars, buoyed by a good performance by Johnny Depp which convinced the public that the film wasn't complete shit (even though it was still mostly shit).

Well Walt Disney Corporation, in association with Jerry Bruckheimer, I one-upped you. For I made a film based off a novelty poster, a move even stupider than basing a movie off of a theme park ride. I haven't made as much money as theirs did, but I didn't spend as much as they did either, so I think it's a wash.

The film was done as an assignment for my beginning film class at the University of Utah in the spring of 2005. The assignment was for an entirely in camera film, no editing allowed. Hence some of the rough edges. So please forgive me internetland.

The Mustrack Soundstache

2008-01-01T00:58:00.000-08:00

The tracks I wrote for The Mustache are now available for listen. I would embed them here, but blogger is refusing patently to do so. So all I can do is link you to the film's page and hope to God you click. Maybe you click out of pity. Maybe out of love. Maybe just out of curiosity. But click, click! Click, you masses!

A Painless Extraction

2007-12-31T14:20:00.000-08:00

If you've watched Jon Fairbanks's release, God Hates Me, then in addition to enjoying Jon's remarkable performance, you probably found yourself grooving to that wacky track playing throughout. And, say, aren't those the lyrics to the Full House theme song... old-school rap-ified?

The track in question is "A Painless Extraction," a wonderful confection put together by Mr. WiL Whitlark. It just kind of happened one night about four years ago while Patrick Svensson and I were hanging around WiL in his basement studio. Patrick did some freestyling, rapped the most awesome rendition of the Full House theme these ears could ever hope to hear, and threw in some Family Guy and Brak Show references for good measure. WiL spiced it up with some bizarre cackling noises I'd made earlier in the evening. You can now listen to it in all its glory independently. Happy 2008!

EDIT: For some horrible reason, the Flash player that I'm using refuses to work with Blogger (or vice versa... probably vice versa). So to hear this delectable track, head over to the God Hates Me page.

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Shoot

2007-12-28T16:27:00.000-08:00

Mark Andrus, Jon Fairbanks, and I wrote Terror Drives a Van on the set of Hopscotch Hotshots in 2004, with the intent to shoot it in 2004, in time for Halloween of that year. When we missed that deadline, we said to ourselves "2005, then." But 2005 didn't happen. Nor did 2006. Then, toward the end of September, Enoch told me that we could totally do it this year. Initially, I laughed and said "No, we don't..."

"Yeah, we could totally do it this year."

When something's been gestating as long as three years, it begins to feel like a pipe dream, like that awesome themed party you were totally going to throw in your junior year of high school that still flashes across your mind in your twenties. Hell, it would be a good excuse to invite Sarah Wilson... née Smith, now. Suitably, then, when the camera was rolling and I had my face covered in white makeup, it was something of a surreal experience.

The shoot was even more rushed than we'd intended. The part of the werewolf was written for Patrick Svensson. While out location scouting for the project, Patrick got a call that his wedding date had moved up... and now conflicted with our shooting date. That Sunday, he'd be moving to New York. So, in turn, we pushed up our shoot date by a day.

Thus, on the eve of Patrick's wedding day, we got dressed up like a vampire and a werewolf and commenced a ten-hour shoot. In the rain.

Utah's funny like this. As we get into Autumn, the days are nice, cool, and sunny. It truly makes for some of the best weather we get during the year. But that's only during the weekdays. I wish I were exaggerating, but I've observed the pattern this year: the only bad weather comes on weekends. As Enoch and I drove down to Provo, we saw the clouds coming in over the mountains. It was going to rain. And most of our shoot was to be, by necessity, outdoors.

But we made do. I wish I had a picture to post of Enoch sharing a wildly flapping poncho with the camera, sitting uncomfortably in the back of Andy Whittaker's truck as we drove down University Avenue.

I am not an acting powerhouse, but it was concluded that I pretty much had to play the vampire: it was part of the original plan, and I more or less had the look for it. So, I was trying to direct and act at the same time, a challenge that I managed, but not one I'm inclined to tackle again. Midway through the evening, I had a dreadful realization: I was losing my voice. It was the beginning of a week-long illness, with queasy digestion, miserable fever, and pounding headaches. By the end of the night (3:00 a.m.), it had crested. We shot the last bit of my dialogue mere minutes before my voice was nothing but a hoarse whisper.

Most fortunately, for the very last bit of the night--some of the most complicated shooting we've ever had to do--the rain let up right before we arrived on location. Even more fortunately, the second shoot the following week was completely rainless, abating a few hours before we shot.

The title of this post is a misnomer, though. Despite the rain, the disease, the tiredness, and the minor drama that has tactfully been omitted from my account, we actually had a pretty good time. And it doesn't really matter whether or not we had a good time, anyway. What matters is whether or not we got what we needed to get. Which we did. Expect to see a completed Terror Drives a Van before too long.

The Long Lost Jon Chronicles

2007-12-27T20:54:00.001-08:00

Updated: The long lost movies I did in '06 are now up under the bdc logo. Hurrah and Huzzah forever. These two movies are titled "Battle of the Sams" and "God Hates Me". God Hates Me was filmed at Utah Valley State College and was intended to be a one minute movie but turned out better as a three minute movie. Battle of the Sams was my try at doing fight scenes and it turned out well enough but I know now what to do better next time. Have a good look at them and be happy that we now have more content for the '06 season.

Battle of the Sams

Newly Interconnected

2007-11-23T16:48:00.000-08:00

Many of you faithful readers have no doubt been anticipating the release of our newest film, The Interconnection of Mr. Daily. Well, we're pleased to announce to you, and to our not so faithful readers as well, that we have finished all of the post-production hoopla associated with this film, and it is now available to view online by clicking on this link, or following the link to the film's page under the film header above. The film is available in two forms, the long form, which consists of a roughly 26 minute story culminating in a final 7 minute confrontation between Mr. Daily and his interconnection, Jennifer, and a short form, which is only the final scene alone. Both versions of the film are valid and enjoyable, and both deserve to be watched when you have the time to do so.

This movie was a bit larger in scale than some of our other projects, and the finished film reflects the hard work and determination of the cast and crew. It was truly a film that could not have been completed without the help of very many people who put forth an additional effort and found ways to work through difficulties. Thanks to their hard work, this video is now available for your enjoyment.

As the writer of the screenplay, I was pleased to see my very conceptual and ambiguous script turned into an actual film. The script was begun back in late 2004, while I was working a sinecure data entry job that offered me lots of downtime. I was able to write a number of scripts on the clock, Mr. Daily being the first of these. I began with the final scene of the film, not intending to write anything else afterwards. However, after some positive feedback from some of the members of Bombdotcom Productions, I decided to try and add some backstory to the character of Mr. Daily to improve on the final scene by adding buildup and meaning. The final version of the script, apart from some later pre-production tweaking, was completed in early 2005.

The idea of attempting to film this story was brought up only this year, when it was decided that we had the means to do so. The shoot extended over a number of weeks in order to accomodate everyone's schedules, and to have access to our necessary locations. It was by no means an easy process. It taught us a lot about the filmmaking process and ended in a project that we are proud to make available to all. We hope you enjoy it, and we look forward to offering you more films in the future. There are some great films on the horizon, so keep your eyes peeled for more updates!

Addendum

2007-11-22T17:54:00.000-08:00

Obviously we missed Halloween for the release of Terror Drives a Van. The film is currently held up in post-production. We expect it'll be done by the end of the year. Just in time for the spoooooooooky New Year.

The Interconnection of Mr. Daily at the Tower Theatre

2007-11-12T15:33:00.000-08:00

Salt Lake City's venerable Tower Theatre is holding its quarterly Open Mic Night upon this coming Wednesday, the fourteenth of November, at the hour of Nine in the P.M. Those attending will see many a fine film, the short version of The Interconnection of Mr. Daily being one of them. The director will be on hand for questions afterwards, though not from the audience, as the format of the event does not allow for such things. But if one should approach him personally after the event, he would be sure to answer any question about the film, as he is an obliging sort.

This Halloween, Beware

2007-10-17T23:55:00.000-07:00

Be careful out there on the roads this October the 31st, because this year...

Patrick Svensson as a werewolf; yours truly as a vampire; a host of others play their prey. Post-production began in earnest today.

Production Wrapped

2007-10-14T23:55:00.000-07:00

Last night, we finished principal photography for our Halloween horror-comedy short, Terror Drives a Van, which was originally written over three years ago during the shooting of Hopscotch Hotshots. We have a large cast in this one, calling on a large number of our regular actors. Gashler Media again lent us production equipment, which enabled us to actually make our night shooting work.

Brand New Game

2007-10-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

Greetings, poetry lovers! If you've been here before, you're probably noticing how different it is (unless you're now on a subsequent visit after the relaunch). If you haven't been here before, you're probably noticing something else entirely. What that is, I cannot say.

At any rate, the website has been completely reformatted and retooled. News posts are now going to chronicle development of projects, not just the all-too-infrequent release announcements of new movies. This is also going to be a team blog, so other members of the Bombdotcom Productions staff can more easily contribute content.

So, beyond the cosmetic, what's new around here? First off, we've uploaded all of our work onto a YouTube channel, the videos from which can be seen on the individual film pages. Downloads for most movies are still available, but the modes of media distribution on the Internet have changed since we initially started making movies three years ago. Please do feel free to rate and comment on the videos on their YouTube pages.

Additionally, a new animated film, The Frog Prince was completed and released a couple months ago. That's now here.

Currently, we have three projects in production and post-production. Stills are available for The Interconnection of Mr. Daily, a Joseph Schlegel-penned project that should see release by the end of the month, and The Importance of Tolerance, with some more news related to the latter available on my personal blog. There's also some tantalizing plot details regarding our three-years-in-development Halloween film, Terror Drives a Van.

Over the next few months, I'm going to figure out a way to get online some of the additional content that was produced for all of our 2004 productions, including commentary tracks. Stay tuned.

We've been dead for a while. But now we're moving forward and not looking back. Isn't that nice and inspirational?

Testing Post

2007-10-10T11:15:00.000-07:00

Let's give 'er the ol' college try!