Archive for May, 2010
Zombie Movie Production Diary: Baby steps
Posted by Wilson in movies, production diary, zombie movie on May 26, 2010
Greetings fellow horror movie buffs and curious readers who want to see this project fail! Welcome to the first production diary for our upcoming zombie movie “Kania na yalo bula”. The previous post felt like a production diary section too, so I’ll name the previous post production diary 0.5. Not that you care. But as they say, God is in the details. Or in this case, the zombies. The…details. Not the zombies with God. That’s just too weird.
Script v2.0
The script has been progressing nicely, with refinement suggestions from several members of the Script Approval Council (big fancy name for our circle of friends). Initially there was a driving sequence in the beginning, but that idea was scrapped due to (a) main boy Albert not having a legal driving license and (b) not having enough time to fit in the car into the current storyline. “How were you going to do the driving part if Albert can’t drive?” was the general question being asked, to which I nonchalantly replied, “Psh. Greenscreen fixes all.” I would have added ‘except the failure to act’, but its abit too early in the production cycle to break a few spirits, so I’ll let this one slide.
/evil laughter
Fresh Meat to the Meat Grinder
As this movie production grows, so does the number of people needed to look after other aspects of movie making deemed too dangerous to attempt by either the Director or myself. Here are few more of the new unfortunates:
Feroz: Super technicality man/camera man/if we don’t have the equipment, he’ll probably have it guy/bad ass at COD guy
Dane: Test footage stand in/unwilling zombie extra/token white guy
Dani: main boy’s unfortunate girlfriend/make up artist/all round screamer
Willaine: Wardrobe stylist/awesome Cookie baker
Access Granted
Our movie has two locations in its shotgun sights, namely the Bilo Gun Battery about 5km or so outside of the Suva City, and Michael’s house, specifically his room. The Bilo Gun Battery is quite the fascinating site, with abandoned buildings, creepy dark tunnels, and deep trenches overgrown with bush.
A pity the actual guns the whole area was built for were removed. I had in my mind the grand finale where the main boy, surrounded by hordes of undead zombies, would somehow, in a flash of macgyver brilliance, manage to get the huge cannon working; Screaming and swearing in fijian, he’d violently taunt the zombies to ‘come and get some’ while he blasted them away, but then he’d eventually be overwhelmed by the numerous zombies. As he disappears beneath the frantic swirl of bodies, one hand still remains in the air, its hand defiantly held in a thumbs up pose.
Since the WW2 area is now a much hallowed Heritage site, in order to obtain permission to shoot there we needed to approach the Fiji museum. I was dreading a charging fee of some sort, or at the most, a flat out denial, but the people there were surprisingly happy to allow us to run around screaming and bleeding on their heritage site. Of course, we will be super careful. Think of it as a carefully controlled screaming and bleeding affair. With a camera. And hopefully lunch.
A big thanks to the Director of the Fiji Museum, Ms Sagale Buadromo, for allowing us access to shoot at the site.
Moody footage, moody music, moody test shots
Today Lawrence, Albert and Dane went to the Bilo Battery Site to scout the area and get some ideas and locations on how the movie would operate on the premises. While they snooped around, Lawrence, armed with Dane’s trusty mobile phone camera, took a few test shots to help decide on camera angles etc. Albert and Dane, being the usual suspects, were served the nigh impossible task of trekking through the silent, creepy buildings and dark, damp tunnels and trenches while Lawrence happily filmed away. It was a hard job to look purposefully, yet at the same time have a hint of curiosity mixed with slight apprehension while maintaining a certain aloofness above the whole affair. Yes, quite the difficult job indeed.
Here is the test footage of the afternoon trek, complete with said moody music to set the scene.
Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you – n00b Productions
All movies had some sort of production house behind it, and this movie will be no different. Spawned from aimless evenings around the grog bowl/beer carton, n00b Productions isn’t actually a registered thingimajigi, but a rather curious attempt to see just how many people actually get what the word means. Regardless of the fact that we actually are, all noobs with this movie being our first attempt at Hollywood millions, we felt that this movie needed a proper ‘movie house’ logo intro to let the audience know that this movie was going to be of the upmost quality. None of this painfully superimposed Arial white fonts with black outlines floating in the middle of the screen announcing the amateur standards yet to come. No. As Marilyn Manson says, “This is the real shit.”
A local zombie movie. In the works!
Posted by Wilson in movies, production diary, zombie movie on May 23, 2010
So we’ve decided to make a zombie movie. Yes folks, you read that right. A zombie movie. Here. In Fiji.
Granted Fiji isn’t usually associated with movie making (local crews making movie that is), let alone anything to do with horror, but hey, it’s all in the name of fun.
This is all happening thanks to the upcoming FAVC Kula Film Awards, which has two movie categories, one for the schools and one for the open category. Strangely, when the Awards first debuted, it was only for the schools, but they’ve recently created the Open category for us old folk.
Why a horror zombie movie? Why not? A cursory glance at the list of entries from the previous year shows a general list of romance, a hard life, peer pressure, suicide etc. I think this year, we could do with a little shake up. Most of the movies have this message at the end of the movie, like a parable, that teaches a lesson such as “Don’t do suicide.” I guess ours will be “Don’t fuck with zombies. Period.”
While the first prize of $1000 is certainly very attractive, ultimately in the end, we’re making this movie because we want to. The movie festival just happens to be a lucky outlet where we get to show the movie, since I highly doubt any of the local television networks would bother with this.
Over the course of the production of the movie, I’ll be posting a production diary, so you can get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the zombie movie. Mind you, I’ve never made a movie, not at the least produced one, so if anything, this’ll be a new field trip for the both of us.
The working title for the movie at the moment is “Kania na yalo bula”, which is Fijian for “eat the living”. As a working title it’s quite a mouthful (heh…mouthful), but it’s quite the scene setter, so we’ll be sticking with said title for now. The above image is merely a placeholder that I threw quickly together for the sake of this post. Heck, even the slogan is terrible; “This camping trip just got dead fast.” Queue the crowd groans.
Here is the list of people who are involved in the initial stages of the movie:
Lawrence Cass ( zombies in zen ): Script Writer/Director/Cinematographer/Editor/the one who wanted to make a damn zombie in the first place
Me: Producer (first crack producer or what)/one of the zombies (/fun)/Visual Effects (online tutorials ftw)
John Michaels: Location Scout/all round handy man
Albie ( awesome cake ): main boy/victim/running man
The script of the movie is in its 1st draft stages, with alot of back and forth between me and Lawrence, sorting out the pacing, details etc. We’ve got the location sorted out, although we’ll be seeking permission tomorrow from the appropriate people in charge, so fingers crossed there won’t be any (a) resistance and (b) fees. Because this movie is tamani low budget. Seriously. Infact, here’s our budget:
Camera: Borrow 
Location: Beg/Friend’s house
Actors, Actresses: “It’s for the love of the craft people!”
Lights: Study Lamp/Torch/The Sun
Special Effects: Corn syrup and food colouring ftw
Visual Effects: online tutorials to the rescue!
Food: French Bakery meat loafs
Stay tuned for more details!
And wish us luck >.>
Youtube Video of the Month: Caucau the Prop Winger
Posted by Allen in ...ofthemonth, rugby, sports, video on May 11, 2010
There are wingers in a rugby team, and there are wingers. Rupeni Caucau used to be a wing. And when he was the wing for the Fiji Team, everybody said this fucker could run.
Regarded by many as the greatest attacking player in world rugby, he has as many tries to his name as his no-shows, marijuana bans and failed passports. No other fiji player has garnered so much love and hate at the same time as Rupeni. Well. Maybe Serevi. But that’s sevens. We’re talking about the big boys here.
Speaking of big, Rupeni has recently gone the way of the whale, putting on pounds to place him in the running for both wing and prop. Personally I blame the french and their apple tarts. Seriously. As he is now, he surprised even me, and trust me, I’ve seen some pretty chubby rugby players in my time, but none as hefty as him.
However, while they may share the tipping scales element, there’s something they all lack compared to him, a vital point that separates the fat rugby players, from the others. They’re not Caucau. French apple tarts be damned, overweight or underweight, Caucau still possess the speed, agility and allround what-the-fuckery he had back when he was in his prime. He’s packing on the pounds, but he’s still running in the tries.
Watching the above video is an exercise in amazement as you see Caucau receive the ball, and like an eel, slips through the defense like a hot knife through butter. Oh the defense tries to stop him. I can see why they have hope. It’s just one fat dude right? WRONG. Fat dude is magically drenched in oil, you-no-tackle-me-voodoo and so much good luck he’ll make any Irish green with envy. And speed? As the second score demonstrates, fat don’t matter if you can still outrun FOUR rugby players. (Although it does result in a funny cartwheel at the end 
)
This man better be allowed to play for Fiji come the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Or no amount of french pastry is going to save the Fiji Rugby Board from the ensuing wrath of the fans.
Courtesy of Rugbydump.com
A pirate guide to pirate dvds arr: The Clear Cinema Copy
In my mind, pirate dvds are made by pirates. Real ones. Like the one in this photo...
Last time on “Pirate dvds and you: a love hate relationship”, we took a look at the first of 3 different types of pirate movie dvds, The Cinema Copy. And what a copy it was. An experience best saved for when you’re least interested in the movie itself, cinema copies are the stalwart of every self respecting dvd shop out there with the standards of a $5 street escort and the looks to go with it. And I hated it.
Moving on, the next category in the pirate dvd quality section is:
The Clear Cinema Copy
Wait – what? A clear cinema copy? Didn’t we just examine the crucial downfalls of such an abomination in the previous post? How is a clear, let alone steady cinema copy even possible? Is there even anyone else in the cinema when it was tape – err screened?
/shrug
If we have the technology, it can be done. Steady hands and all.
Movie: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Image Quality: Well now, we’re starting to get into the good stuff. The Clear Cinema Copy has a slightly wider spectrum of image quality, depending on how willing you are to forgive slight…discrepancies. On the one end of the quality meter, you’ve got the infamous “awesomely steady” hand, which, at beginning of the movie, starts out quite terribly, adjusting the camera to get the whole movie into view. Then, after the film is framed as best as can be, by some small chance of a miracle, the camera stays. Still. You almost forget you’re watching a pirate copy, it’s that good.
On the other hand, some pirates take that extra step and get access to a better vantage point then in the audience moshpit. A telesync works “…with a professional camera on a tripod in the projection booth and a direct connection to the sound source…” , so you get all the juicy, lovely movie goodness in one shot, the way it was meant to be viewed, minus the $5.50 (or however much you would have paid to see it in the cinemas, prices may vary from different countries…). Thus, you end up with an image quality that is close to its original, clear version:
The obvious pitfall to this method of film extraction however, is that the colours will sometimes come across as a little odd, and some scenes tend to slide towards washed out hues then the proper colour vibes it was meant to be seen in. This can be attributed to the quality of the camera, or the light leaks from the projector which the camera would be positioned next to.
If you’re finicky about picture quality, then give these versions a miss, as the (if you have the ‘awesome steady hand version’) camera adjustment issue at the beginning of the movie will most likely throw you off, as well as the (if you have the ‘i’ma just put my camera next to your projector’) washed out colours which do tend to happen almost throughout the movie.
Score: 3.5/5 (make it a 4 if you’re happy with what you’ve got)
It’s good. Not crystal blue skies great, not totally badly doctor horribly bad, just good.
Sound Quality: The copy that I had was terribly terrible. Which was ironic since the visuals erred on the side of a dvd rip. But, as we all know, a movie is two sides to a coin; visuals, and sound. And while the CC variety may be of somewhat improved quality visuals-wise, sound is almost always a hit & miss. In my case, I was the unfortunate receiver of a copy that had the sound placed in as an after thought, or after the visuals were done, or both. First it was low, so I had to crank up the volume to the ‘I hope there isn’t a sudden big explosion’ level. Secondly, the music was louder then the dialogue. Go figure =_= Right now I’m torn between a muffly, noisy, hollow and crowd murmur sounding recording of the Cinema Copy, and the messed up levels of the Clear Cinema Copy. Of course, there are always instances where the Clear Cinema Copy is of relatively good sound quality (God bless whoever was in charge of outputing that particular dvd), but again, they are often far and few between.
Score: 3/5
Overall: 3/5
Its less of a gamble then a Cinema Copy, but with the downside of slightly awful to goddamn awful sound quality to deal with. Worthy only if you’re (a) ok with straining your ears and potentially missing out on important plot developments via dialogue and (b) too impatient to wait for a proper dvd ripped quality version to come out, and you’ve judged it just about right so that the movie you’re after is a few months old from its release date, but is still quite awhile away from its original dvd retail release day, hence allowing the pirate distributors the chance to release a CCC.
Next: The “Original” Copy! (Inverted commas inserted to signify the ‘air quote’ use)
Photo of the Month: Can I please see your FailTicket?
Alternate universes exist. These universes exist independent of each other, the people in them merrily carrying on with their own little lives, unbeknown to them the reality of another version of themselves is alive, just outside their realm of reality. Science has always scoffed at the idea that there is more then one version of Mr Jone and his reality, but at last, we have real irrevocable proof that out there, hidden from all our senses and technology, is another universe, very similar to ours, in close sync with us, mirroring our lives with intimate accuracy, save for a few scant details that differ on a minute basis. This ticket…is from the other side. In the alternate universe, they are having the very same event, the Coca-cola Games. Their ticket is the exact same copy as ours, right down to the venue. However, the only (major) difference between their ticket and ours is this; their month of April has 31 days in it. That’s right folks, an extra day for the alternates. Isn’t it just amazing.
That…or it could be a simple typo. A rather expensively simple typo.
I think I’ll lay off the Fringe episodes for abit.
Thanks Gurumi!
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