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 >.>

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