ZACH of all trades

The beginnings of what will later become a best-selling autobiography

HISTORY

Zach Bowman is a survivor of childhood cancer.  He was diagnosed with a form of rhabdomyosarcoma at the age of nine.  Two years later, the radiation treatment of the smooth muscle cancer at the base of his brain would permanently stunt his growth.  Fortunately though, his creativity remained intact.  Since this incident, he has dedicated his life to being the best he can be at his passion and profession: art.

Zach’s talent as a visual artist was recognized in elementary school, when he was placed in the gifted program.  He would constantly be doodling on his homework.  His obsession with drawing included vast, unique-looking landscapes, as well as monsters, demons, and epic scenes of action, horror, and mayhem, because, of course, all of that goes so well together.  His inspiration for his creative concoctions was primarily action, sci-fi, and horror movies.

After cancer, Zach decided to explore…movie-making!  What had transpired in his head to lead him on this path of life-changing proportions?  Some say it was destiny.  Some say divine intervention.  Actually, the real reason is that Zach realized that movies are the most complex art form currently in existence.  He wanted to tell stories, provide compelling visuals for those stories, and connect with people using the most profound art available.

His first “movie” was a LEGO stop-motion “Mission: Impossible” story that he made for his elementary school social studies class. A summer or so later, he began attending TV and multimedia production classes, where he got his first lessons in professional filmmaking.

In middle school, there was no filmmaking, multimedia, or television program.  So, following in his father's and sister's footsteps, he decided to join the school band, as a percussionist.  However, he just didn't enjoy the kinds of music he was playing in band class, nor did he enjoy practicing.  Instead, he enjoyed improvising on the piano, making his own music and playing themes from his favorite movies at the time ("Jaws", "Jurassic Park", "Mission: Impossible", the James Bond theme, "Forrest Gump", "Halloween").  He improvised more often on the piano than he did on his drum set.  He may not have liked learning and reading notes, but he certainly liked playing them, and that interest/something of a talent endured to this day (see "Videos/Professional Videos/2014 Lexus IS Teaser and Series Commercial 1.1" and "Videos/Other Videos/And The Boy Was Happy").  Zach still, sometimes, not very often (okay, not at all) reminisces about playing his snare drum.  However, he can still play "Wipeout" on a snare...or a table. 

With middle school coming to close, Zach knew he didn't want to continue with band in high school.  So, one day, he went to go speak with his counselor to discuss what his future in high school would have in store.  For some silly reason, "filmmaking" never came up in their discussion.  But, his counselor did make a suggestion that had never occurred to him before: Theatre.  Immediately, Zach was horrified by the idea of "acting" on a "stage".  He thought he would be providing a venue for peers to mock and ridicule him.  Why?  Zach, growing up, was socially inept.  He had very few friends, if any, and less knowledge of how to make them.  He only lived in his head.  So, he was a victim of constant bullying and harassment.  Throughout junior high and high school, he would come to fear what other people thought of him, while, unfortunately, having very little concept as to how his behavior was affecting those around him.  He felt that by becoming the center of attention, by being thrown onto a stage, he would only make things worse for himself.  But, he took a chance and discovered how incredibly wrong he was.  Theatre had changed everything.  It was the cure to his shell.  In theatre, Zach came to recognize the potential - the spectrum - of his behavior, through the practice and replication of behavior of fictitious characters.  He was able to learn and more easily discern what kinds of behavior were pleasing/displeasing, acceptable/unacceptable, humorous, etc, and he began molding himself into a new person - the person he is today.  Along with assisting him in shaping his personality, Zach just grew to absolutely adore acting.  He loves being able to leave his familiar life and enter the attractively strange, silly, intense, or obscure world of the characters on the page.  It was, and still is, immensely freeing.

Zach was involved in theatre for the first three years of high school, during which time he was also accepted into the film program at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.  Feeling that he could combine both his illustrative and theatrical talents, he transitioned back to filmmaking and visual arts in his senior year, taking advanced classes in TV and multimedia, film study, and AP art.  That year, he directed and edited the first feature-length film ever made at his high school.  "A.L.I.C.E. (Artificial Lethal Intelligence for Complete Eradication)" was a film about a high school computer geek who accidentally comes into possession of a thumb drive that contains a virus capable of wiping out the memories of every computer in the United States.  The film's completion is a proud achievement for Zach and it made him more confident in his filmmaking abilities.

Zach attended Interlochen during the summer of 2007, where he excelled at video editing in the filmmaking program.

When high school ended, Zach had a choice to study illustration, acting, or filmmaking in college. It remains a mystery to this day as to why Zach didn't just pursue all three. He very well could have done so. The best explanation he has is that he felt he could educate himself on acting and illustration. Filmmaking, on the other hand, was different - more complex. There were still many details Zach could learn about filmmaking, which he thought he would learn more easily and effectively in a studio/classroom environment. So, he capped his formal education with two degrees in filmmaking: BFA Film and Photography, which emphasized experimental and documentary filmmaking, and BA Cinema, emphasizing narrative filmmaking. BFA Film was a major that allowed his creativity and imagination to run wild, and explore the possibilities of filmmaking. He also learned a lot about the technological aspects of filmmaking, particularly lighting, cinematography, and video editing. These series of classes helped Zach discover his filmmaking style. The second degree, BA Cinema, was a program that taught him the value of teamwork and professionalism when faced with the "real world" of filmmaking. This was extremely important, as BFA Film was more about expanding the voice of the artist (finding the auteur in the filmmaker) rather than developing strategies to work with a crew.

EVOLVING INSPIRATIONS

Zach was born in late October, his birthday occurring in close proximity to Halloween.  This led him to appreciate and grow fond of dark subject matter.  He was a big fan of horror movies at an early age.  His first favorite horror icon was Freddy Krueger from the "Nightmare" movies.  Zach also saw "Jaws" at some point during the end of elementary school and became obsessed with sharks for the next two years, particularly with drawing them.

During this time, Zach also became acquainted with James Bond through "GoldenEye" and "Never Say Never Again".  After watching many other Bond films, and a year or so after "The World Is Not Enough" came out, he began drawing his own James Bond comic strip.  The comic contained pre-existing villains (e.g. Alec Trevelyan, Jaws, Renard, Oddjob, Baron Samedi) and a couple hundred thugs, ripe for the slaughter at the hands of Bond.  There was no plot.  It was just James Bond fighting bad guys, and doing it in the most ridiculous and theatrical way possible. This project would continue through the beginning of middle school, with each chapter getting crazier and more action packed than the last.

Near the beginning of middle school, his attraction to intense graphic horror slowly changed, drifting towards a thirst for suspenseful psychological horror, like “Jacob’s Ladder”, "Silence of The Lambs", and "Hannibal (2001)".  Dr. Hannibal Lecter became, and still is, his favorite fictional villain (particularly Sir Anthony Hopkins' portrayal).  Like the Bond comic, Zach's fascination with Hannibal's character led him to begin writing a novel.  This novel was about a detective that is tracking down Hannibal's unknown brother, Compton Bartholomew Lecter.  Zach's Boy Scout troop got wind of this writing project, as he was working on it during camping trips.  Eventually, he earned the nickname "Compton".  Everyone in his troop had nicknames.  His moniker could have been a lot worse.  There was one scout named "Juice Box" just because he accidentally sprayed juice on his shirt.  Anyway, the story was becoming a cross between the Hannibal movies and the 2002 Resident Evil video game that Zach was playing so often at the time.  Cannibalistic zombies and criminally insane cannibals - it made sense to him.  Indicative of the Resident Evil game, he prepared maps, primarily of the most interesting locations, in which the story took place and would, hopefully, continue to take place.  This project stopped when Zach realized he was trying too hard to replicate Hannibal through Compton.

In 2005, Zach saw "Frank Miller's Sin City".  It was heavily influential, and he immediately fell in love with the concept, look, and feel of this film.  It was groundbreaking for him, not for what was done in the film (murder and other forms of violence), but how the material was handled.  The film took typical action scenarios and elevated them by ignoring many crippling realities that would make a film like this fall flat.  The film flaunted bizarre physics and human strength - establishing the surreal nature of the world of Basin City (Sin City) and the characters within.  The scenes were very carefully and artistically crafted after the graphic novels, with epic camera angles and incredible cinematography using vivid light and shadow.  It was this movie that made him excited about the potential of film noir: an excellent combination of both the dark and action-packed content with vivid light and shadow.  He now also appreciates film noir’s subtleties in less over-top-works of fiction, like the Coen Brother film, “The Man Who Wasn’t There”.

In 2009, Zach was introduced to Guy Ritchie's work through "Rock'N'Rolla".  This led him to see "Snatch." and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels".  All three films ignited his interest in crime comedy.  Guy Ritchie's crime comedies were later the primary inspiration for Zach's sophomore film, "Paper Running".  The film was about a college dropout turned "paper dealer", Crazy-Case Casey, and the ensuing comedic difficulties that take place in his line of work.  Casey acts as a middleman between lazy, rich college kids and poor, desperate smart students to create fabricated essays for the lazy rich kids to turn in as their own work.

For a year and a half of college, noir was at the forefront of Zach's inspiration.  But with the seeming lack of resources and time, his work was becoming less story based and more experimental, surreal and dependent on the meaning he could possibly pull from virtually nothing.  During that time, he became acquainted with works of Stanley Kubrick, Darren Aronofsky, and, most notably, Charlie Kaufman.  After seeing Charlie Kaufman's "Synechdoche, New York", Zach quickly developed a newfound passion for hyperrealism and surrealism, particularly hyperrealism.  The word "hyperrealism" is interesting.  When it relates to the mundane reality of the real world, it means the exaggeration of reality.  When relating to artistic expression, however, it pertains to a dualistic form of realism that is even more "real" than that of the real world.  In other words, real world reality is warped and shaped to complement the recesses of one's imagination of the world in front of him/her, creating a metaphorical truth that only exists for the individual experiencing it.  Basically, you're going crazy with clarity...and it is magical.

Zach's thesis film, "And The Boy Was Happy", which was screened at the Summer 2014 James River Filmmakers' Forum and received high accolades for cinematography, heavily incorporates hyperrealism. It conveys the vicious cycle of a son inheriting his father's obsession with a lost loved one.

STYLE

As far as filmmaking and screenwriting, Zach’s personal work is inspired by his own life experience, and from the stylings of Stanley Kubrick, Charlie Kaufman, Joel and Ethan Coen, David Cronenberg, Guy Ritchie's crime snafus, Edgar Wright, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Alfred Hitchcock.

He likes creating dark, comedic, existential, hyperreal, and or ambiguous dramas.

Zach’s visual style is mostly intense and dynamic, with usually dramatic lighting and composition.

CURRENT ENDEAVORS & INTERESTS

Zach continues to advance himself professionally and independently, with a broad focus in video editing, cinematography & lighting, graphic art, and acting.  He also writes screenplays, but mainly as a hobby at this point. 

He currently works as a video editor and graphic designer for an education non-profit in Virginia.

Zach also does occasional weekend freelance work as a photographer, videographer, actor, and video/photo editor.

In his spare time, when he has it, Zach writes, illustrates, listens to music while he does either, and contemplates the future.