It's a real wild west in the teachers' lounge.

Our 2018 48Hours Film Competition entry.

Genre: High School movie
Compulsory elements: shadow or silhouette, puddle, slamming door

Learn how to be down with the kids in this 48Hours comedy.

Our 2019 48Hours Film Competition entry.

Genre: Cringe comedy
Compulsory elements: Overhead shot, laughter, wind

A look behind the scenes of Dunedin's famous Hyde Street Party.

Produced for the Otago University Students Association.

A couple calls an odd house doctor to diagnose their ailing home.

Script by Robert j. Lee from twopagesaweek.com

Sophia broadens her horizons in the pursuit of romance.

Our 2017 48Hours Film Competition entry.

Genre: Supernatural
Theme: Love
Compulsory sound: Wilhelm scream
Compulsory physical element: a collision
Compulsory Cinematic Technique: Smash cut

Two criminals stumble into a bigger caper than they bargained for.

Our 2016 48Hours Film Competition entry.

Genre: Comedy of Errors
Character: Charlie Flowers, thoughtful
Prop: Wool
Compulsory Line: "One more time"
Compulsory Cinematic Technique: Rack focus

We are very pleased to be able to finally show you our 48Hours entry for 2015.

48Hours is done and dusted for another year! You can check out our 2014 time travel film below.

Damian has been hard at work over last wee while putting this together. Based on a script from Two Pages a Week.

The music video is almost done! Come celebrate with us and the band at the release party.

Catch our 48Hours 2013 film Closing in Five. Winner of the audience favourite award. Nominated for best cinematography.

We've finished our first draft of the music video for The Prophet Hens! Another screenshot is below.

Here's a sneak peak from a music video we are working on for The Prophet Hens.

Watch this timelapse video of us dressing the set for Countdown.

The end of the year approaches, and we are putting the finishing touches on our holiday vid. Watch this space...

Our two entries to the 50 Kisses competition - Countdown and Nothing Ventured - are now available for you to watch online.

Our two entries to the 50 Kisses competition - Countdown and Nothing Ventured - have now been submitted!

A big thank you to everyone who has been involved in the production over the past three months. We are all looking forward to seeing how we get on in the competition!

We've submitted three photos from the production of Countdown to the 50 Kisses team for the competition's gallery. Check them out below or view the gallery on the 50 Kisses website.

We've got two entries in progress for the London-based 50 Kisses film competition: Nothing Ventured by Nina Haerland and Countdown by Oliver Drew. We've recently wrapped shooting on both. Post production continues at pace, with our deadline being the end of this month.

View more information on the Coming Soon page

We've entered the London-based 50 Kisses film competition, and are on the lookout for talent to take part.

Auditions are being held next week.

To register your interest, and for more details, head over to Facebook:

Auditions for 50 Kisses Film Competition

The 2012 48Hours shoot weekend compressed in to just 2 minutes and 40 seconds of timelapse. Watch us make Captain Crimson!

Behold: Captain Crimson - our 48Hours 2012 entry - in all its glory.

Our 30 second team intro video for the 2012 48Hours film competition. We went with the class photo / yearbook style.

48Hours is over, and we've got a brand new superhero movie as a result. We'll be posting more details as the competition allows.

Our entry screens tomorrow: 7pm, Castle 1, Castle Lecture Theatre Complex, University of Otago.

Location on Google maps

We've got a quiz night coming up to raise funds for our next project.

We'd love for you to come along and have some fun!

Full details on Facebook

The site has been redesigned! After a bit of toil, we have revamped the entirity of busoftheundead.co.nz

Take a look around and explore some of the new stuff on offer:

Try out the Facebook like buttons
Hover over the showcase for more info on our best shorts
Watch some awesome movies in the films section
Check out some of our side projects like our annual Christmas videos in the extras section

Happy holidays everyone! We've got our 2011 Christmas video up for you to take a look at, inspired by sitcom clip shows.

A few of the BOTU crew went up Skipper's Canyon for the weekend. We shot a bunch of stuff with the awesome GoPro cameras. Check out our exploits in the video below.

We've put an entry in to 'Make My Movie'.

One team will win $100,000 to put their idea on the big screen.

You can help by heading on over to our entry: Seed and liking the page.

Check out our 2011 V48Hours entry.

We can't post our 48Hours film yet, but we can post our gag reel.

48Hours 2011 is over. While we have to wait to impress you all with our film, you can check out our Team Intro video.

We have a new toon online called Pengjuan Pengwang. Today it got daily 5th on Newgrounds.

Watch Pengjuan Pengwang

The Vodafone competition is going well so far. We took a pic of this nerdy milestone below:

After struggling for a day with the Vimeo uploader, our entry is now online. Behold: Cruise Thompson Presents

We are still waiting for the all clear to post our brilliant (but disqualified) 48Hours 2010 film - Cruise Thompson Presents.

In the meantime, enjoy our gag reel!

Apparently we are suckers for punishment...

48Hours 2010 dates are now available:

April 16 - 18

You know the drill - cancel your reservations, swap shifts, book leave from work, do whatever you have to do. See you all in April!

The highs. The lows. The stunningly good looking presenters.

All this and more in the Bus of the Undead 2009 Year in review Christmas video!

Merry Christmas, and thanks to everyone who has helped out this year!

Engine Trouble in its 10:30 glory:

Oh my goodness! An update?

Shocking, I know. We finally finished Engine Trouble with the last shot being filmed on the day before submission. I worked on it for 37 hours straight with no sleep. Good times.

We got an award for the film at the Mothra Film Festival earlier this month. We've got lots to show off - we just need to get it all online.

The Exit Clause page is up (and has been for months, I just forgot to mention it here).

Watch Exit Clause

Yep, we are still working on Engine Trouble.

Yesterday was a big scene for us, shot out at Momona Garage. A big thank you to everyone who gave us a hand.

The scene required a police officer - enter Stephen of Sidekick fame. Doesn't the uniform look good?

Exit Clause was voted third in its heat by the Audience which is awesome. Still waiting to hear what the judges think, but I know that the competition is VERY stiff this year. I am working on a page for Exit Clause, which should be up in the very near future.

48Hours was this past weekend, and once again we had a damn good time (in amongst the mess and sleep deprivation induced minor disputes). We drew the genre of 'The M Night Shyamalan Big Twist Movie' and ended up going the more serious route with the film. Went with the name Exit Clause, and it seems pretty good so far. A big thanks to all of our cast and crew involved, we couldn't have done it without you. Expect to hear more after the heats.

We had our first big shoot for Engine Trouble today. There were a few hiccups and delays as we tested different things, but for the most part I'd say it was a huge successs. Our actors did a fantastic job, and we got some nice shots too.

After many years we have finally got Hank Nova: Galactic Defender online. In other news, roles have now been offered and accepted following the auditions for upcoming film Engine Trobule. Scott is finishing work on the script, while Ben and myself have been working on a spiffy new Cable Cam rig which we will use to glide through the forest. And on top of this we have 48Hours registrations for 2009 opening tomorrow. Awesome.

We held auditions over the weekend for our upcoming short film project, and we have another round tomorrow night. We have had some high calibre candidates so far, which bodes well. Pre-production continues with storyboards and refined dialogue scenes high on the agenda. Other than that, just some minor tinkering with the site - fixing a few dead links, updating the Coming Soon page and testing some funtime scrolling for the anchored links.

I've got confirmation from OUSA that they will be playing Gentleman's Guide to Orientation at some of their Orientation events.

In other news, after a bit of trouble with the computer crashing (repeatedly) I have now finished the aforementioned director's cut: The Gentleman's Guide to Orientation Extended Edition.

This version has a few more jokes which I chose to cut from the version I gave to OUSA. My reasoning was that it needed to be snappy to hold people's attention at Orientation events. The extended edition has a glorious 4:07 of Orientation advice for you all.

On that fateful day they gathered. Jeans, leather, black tees and sunglasses were their uniforms and under the BOTU banner they did mass to pay homage to the mighty rock gods and punks of the glorious eighties. The landscape was tortured and scarred, an industrial wasteland reminiscent of the dying heartland of Britain in the seventies. Yes, this would do. And so the shutter did fire and the crew posed splendidly. Their tribute was befitting and the gods were appeased. Behold all and know that they stood firm on that day for us all.

Hi everyone, great news - there is a new page up for Gentleman's Guide to Orientation for you all to check out. Also, here is a picture from Scott:

A little bit sooner than expected:

Watch The Gentleman's Guide to Orientation

I made a mad dash this evening, and we now have our fast-paced version online. A director's cut is in the works, incorporating a few more jokes which were removed for pacing reasons. I will continue tinkering with this over the coming days, and hope to have it completed next week.

We've got Gentleman's Guide fever around here... we are currently working on our third in the series - The Gentleman's Guide to Orientation. Filmed in the wee hours of the morning only a few weekends ago, post production is now in full swing. It is expected that we will have it online in the coming week.

Prepare yourself for another lesson - Cadgeworth is back, and this time it's personal.

...I mean this time he's educating us on Cell phones.

Watch The Gentleman's Guide to Cellular Phones

In February last year BOTU was approached by COW TV to animate an opening sequence for their TV show. We had less than a week to cobble it together, in the midst of our regular employment and other commitments. Mike and I pulled it off, and after a year of appearing on the show I finally have it available for you to view online.

I have put together a 2008 Night of the Stars page for all of you in the wide land of the interweb. It has an overview of the festivites, a few photos of the official event and our own celebrations, and a complete list of the awards from the 2008 Mothra Film Festival.

Getting off my lazy backside, I finally cobbled together a Sidekick page for your pleasure. Many of you will be pleased to note that the movie is now online:

Sidekick can be viewed online.

And for those of you who are really astute, you maye notice a few changes to the usual page format. Think of it as a taste of things to come.

The 2008 Night of the Stars was held on Saturday 27 September. Once again we came, we saw, we conquered. Our haul of awards has been described as enough to make even Steven Spielberg jealous.

A total of six trophies including the coveted 'Best Mothra' award. We even got a tasty cheque for 500 smackeroonies - thanks OUSA!

Thanks to everyone who made the night great, had a laugh, a drink and a sense of humour.

The tequila shots made it a wonderfully social night, full credit to the barkeep, and our man Jose. If only we had another bottle...

I will leave you with a photo of our booty (I've always wanted to say that).

We have our hands on the screening information for the festival:

Gentleman's Guide to Cellphones screens on Tuesday 30 September

Sidekick screens on Wednesday 1 October

Cause and Effect screens on Friday 3 October.

All screenings will be held 6.30pm in the Red Theatre, University of Otago Medical School. Tickets and further information available from OUSA.

And now, an early and unfinished clip from Sidekick:

Hand in day for the 2008 Mothra Film Festival was on Friday September 5th, and I am pleased to say that we have entered a total of three films in to the competition:

Our 48Hours effort - Cause and Effect

Our Superhero extravaganza - Sidekick

And a brand new educational film - The Gentleman's Guide to Cellular Phones

Now that post-production is finished, We've finally got time to post about the latest happenings, so updates will be reasonably regular over the next wee while.

Night of the Stars is on September 27th, and for those of you in the know, festivities will kick off at Casa de BOTU at noon.

And now that you've sat through all of the boring information, here is a reward: a brand new shot of a matte painting by the ever talented Mike:

We are working on Sidekick at the moment, with considerable effort being put in to costuming. The script is pretty much finished, and we've storyboarded the whole thing which should make filming a bit easier to do. The aim is to shoot the film in very late July or early August, depending on other commitments. In the meantime, we've started on some of the post-production elements. Check out a shot of the newspaper article which will be used in the opening sequence.

As mentioned earlier, Cause and Effect won the Audience Favourite Award for our heat. Sadly we weren't as appreciated by the judges and have been knocked out of the 48Hours competition. But it isn't all bad news: firstly this means that we get to put our film up online - so now you can check the movie out on the Cause and Effect page. Secondly this means that we should be able to re-work the film a bit more and give it that final polish we didn't quite manage to achieve in the 48Hours weekend. And hey, we've come out of it with a fine looking certificate which you can see on the right. Not too shabby eh?

The Cause and Effect page is now online, and it is packed full of stuff. We've got a whole bunch more photos taken on location, we've finally got some screenshots from the film (including the infamous topless Higgins) and the page will eventually have the film itself when we are able to put it online. But perhaps most importantly it has a painting of a goose-stepping nazi smashing some poor kid's sand castle. I love the absuridity of that image so much it freaking hurts. Check the page for more info.

What have we been doing over the past two and a bit months? (Other than playing GTA IV) We've been working on a new Gentleman's Guide, we've continued experimenting with our Good Friday zombie shot, and last but certainly not least we've participated in the 'V 48Hours Furious Filmmaking' competition. The audience awards for our heat have gone up, and I'm pretty stoked to announce that our film, Cause and Effect, is the audience favourite for our heat. I have promised a few people that I will cobble together a page for the film tomorrow, but in the mean time here are a couple of quick pics on location.

Due to popular demand, we present to you the work in progress video from our first zombie shoot. The key word in that sentence was 'work in progress'. Looks good though huh?

Yesterday was Z-Day! Taking advantage of legislation prohibiting trading on Good Friday, we had our first official shoot for Safe Haven. The crew shuffled, hunched and limped their way around a carpak for a few hours, with a total of about 17 or so costume changes each.

But it wasn't all hard work. Highlights include the Zombie Macarena, and being pulled over by a good natured police officer who 'just had to know' what we were up to. A big thank you to everyone who was involved! Rest assured that we are working hard on the shot, and that we will keep you posted on what is going on. To give you an idea of the complexity of what we are trying to do, check the screen shot below which displays just a couple of the 60 or so rotoscoped masks that will be involved the final shot.

Battle Squid Birthday Cake. Need I say anything else?

Continuing with my recently renewed interest in Newgrounds.com, I have sourced the original Vive La Dugong flash files and fixed it up for online display. It is infinitely superior to the flv video we previously had available, and also includes the 'deleted scenes' from the DVD. So far we are getting mixed reviews, but Vive La Dugong has always been either loved or hated.

Be sure to check it out on Newgrounds.com

So I have gone and made a ridiculous animation and submitted it to Newgrounds.com. It's essentially a rant based on a true story of what was overheard as we walked out of the theatre after watching I Am Legend. This animation stars the ever charming Fresh Prince... I mean Will Smith. It was made in a hurry so don't go expecting Battle Squid 2 - the animation is rudimentary to say the least. It seems to be getting a positive response on Newgrounds which is nice. Click here if you want to see this shining example of unadulterated ranting.

Happy New Year! As mentioned below, we have a few projects in the pipeline. The first that we will mention is our new super hero movie: Sidekick. The story follows an established super hero as he auditions for a new sidekick from a pool of applicants. The script is currently in development, but we already have a list of super heroes that we are seeking to parody, but we expect that this list will continue to expand as inspiration hits us. We began casting for roles last night, with one potential actor impressing us with his authorative super hero voice. In the short term, we don't have too much to show so we will have to leave you with an early shot of the film title and our Sidekick application form.

Looking for older news items? Check the archive.