There’s something slightly twisted about how Austen Hoogen sees things, or perhaps it’s just the twisted stuff he shares.

On his MySpace page (www.myspace.com/rockzombiemovie), he shares an odd little changing table symbol found in a Green Lake Park, in addition to information about the movie that he’s hoping will put him, Tacoma, and the group of individuals who put the movie together on the cinematic map via awards at film festivals.

“Rock Zombie,” his year-long labor of love with Brian Parker, who directed the film, Jason Ganwich, actor and co-producer, and Stefani Nichols, producer of the film, is nearing completion, with post production sound work and potential 35 mm film transfer left to complete, pending the raising of enough funds to enable that to happen. Since the film has been produced on a “miniscule” budget, according to Hoogen: “We had a no budget budget, is what we had. … Everyone volunteered their time.”

“I’m so thrilled with what we’ve done; considering how it was made, I’m surprised at how well it turned out,” he adds.

Jason Ganwich, sipping his white wine, adds, “We wanted a film project that was nice enough that we could use it as a calling card.”

Hoogen, who acted as director of photography, cinematographer and executive producer, wasn’t so sure of working on a zombie movie. “I wasn’t so thrilled, actually,” he says while nursing an iced tea, “I’m not a big fan of the genre.”

But zombie moviemaking grew on him.  “One of the first things that surprised me was how easy the genre was to accept story.  You don’t have to worry about genre getting in the way of how the story develops.”

“It was a brilliant idea … the creative gates just opened and ideas just flooded out,” He adds.

In the movie, these ideas played out through subtle political commentary, some homosexual subtexts, some really funny moments, and a couple of character surprises — along with possibly the sweetest dachshund on the planet, all within the context of a Goth band working on its first video.

Not bad for a 24-minute, 26-second movie, formatted as such so that it can live on in a 30-minute TV slot at some point.

But the first plan is to raise the funds to complete the post-production, and particularly to get the expensive process of 35 mm film transfer completed so that the film can be distributed to those larger festivals that require the film format.

For now, Hoogen has started the process of submitting the film to 35 different festivals, some of which are Oscar qualifiers.

“It’s a great little film,” Hoogen emphasizes.