Archive for June, 2010

Note: In a move that nobody alive or undead saw coming, today’s production diary was hijacked by our Director/Editor/Zombie Master Lawrence Cass in a swath of blood, gore and colour corrected chase scenes. With chainsaws at full throttle, a fully stocked bomb shelter, several guns of varying head-damaging degrees, and a shiny axe recently acquired from the handy dandy stores of RC Manubhai (Can you buy zombie killing axes at Manubhai?), Lawrence was chomping at the bit for a chance to be heard at the next production diary. ‘No more of this being referred to bullshit!’ He declared. ‘It’s time to hail to the Real King baby.’ And with a flourish of his one handed chainsaw, he proceeded to clean out the zombified town, one disagreeing zombie at a time.

A long time coming

I’ve wanted to make a zombie movie ever since I started enjoying watching them. Being a fan of not just zombie movies, but films in general, going into the processes of penning out a short film project for the Kula Festival was a little more than sorting through the dozens of ideas and visuals that had cluttered my infested brain over the years, and arranging them to suit our short film need.

After we had finalised a script for the short, I chewed it over for about a week or so, just sitting there visualising the whole thing. I wanted to make sure that the look and feel of the project showed some semblance to the films that inspired my friends and I to make it.

This lead the way to an extensive story board that detailed every shot right down to what angle we’re shooting at, or what we want in the back ground. Seeing as how we had a very unique location at our disposal, I also made sure that the shots we used showcased this as best as they could. It really helped that we visited the shoot location before any of this began, and I had taken like 40 pictures of the whole place at various angles specifically for storyboarding, even going as far as to drawing a small isometric map of the area to give the crew an understanding of how the shots will be laid out and where they will be and were the camera was going to be.

We also decided to give the short film a sort of guerrilla/ documentary style, with the shots constantly part of the environments and the action.

Sight and Execution

On the day of shooting we actually went through the movie chronologically, shooting the film scene for scene in line with the storyboard, often doing the same scene over and over to get the multiple cutting angles we were after.

So when it came down to the actual process of editing the film, it was pretty much like putting together a jigsaw puzzle while looking at the picture of it, because the whole film was already drawn out for me.

It all came down to timing the shots and deciding how long this bit lasts or that bit lasts. This was easily done according to the sound track I had laid out for the film, and just the visual style of other movies that I really wanted to incorporate into ours.

…into tiny bloody bits.

I didn’t really let the time constraint of the film project hinder any decisions in terms of lettings shots breath or pacing bits of the film. At first I was putting together what would essentially be a director’s cut of the film, thinking I would go back and edit it down for the copy we’d actually be submitting. But because the guys and I had spent so much time flushing out the script, and then laying out the story boards specifically to the script, at the end of the first edit the film was exactly the length we needed.

Mix this in with opening and ending credits, plus the killer pseudo company titles that Wilson made, we had a running time of exactly 5 minutes, which was the maximum time allowed by the festival rules.

And this was great considering we had left nothing out of the film, and all the shots that we set out to get were achieved, which was not bad for 10 first time film makers.

To further add to the look of the whole project, Wilson and I went over several colour filter choices which we would take screen shots of and flick over to the rest of the crew. In the end we settled on a slight blue/ white washed look for the film, which gave it a nice sense of gloom. It also helped with a few shots where we had lighting issues caused by the different time of the day we took the shots. It’s amazing what a difference the right colour idea has on a finished film, and having such a specific idea in mind, I was glad we were able to achieve it.

Scream if this hurts…

One thing I knew I really wanted to pay particular attention to during the editing was the sound of the film. So often sound is neglected when it involves a visual medium, but having worked as both a video and sound editor in the past, I knew if done right together, it would only add to bringing the scenes to life.

Everything from the atmosphere of the outside environments, to the groaning ambiences of the interior shots, I wanted everything to have its own “living” sound. So that even when the camera passes an object or looks at the scene through a window or a doorway, it felt as though the viewer was right in there seeing and hearing everything first hand.

Aftermath

At the end of it all, the film came out better than I could have imagined it. There are normally so many factors that determine what happens between the conception of a shot and then actually shooting it. But even when planning these shots, we had kept in mind things like equipment constraints, aside from time and budget constraints. And because I was working with close friends and not strangers, I knew exactly what I could expect in terms of acting and such. But I must admit that the team reached expectations and then went even further.

Eight hours of shooting on a budget of eighty dollars, every one worked so well together, never complaining or slacking off. Even when we had to shoot an exhausting scene multiple times, all anyone would ask for was a moment to catch their breath before getting right back into it.

Ultimately at the end of all this hard work on every ones part, all I can hope for is that the audience has as much fun watching our little film as we did making it. And like anyone who truly enjoys creating anything special to them, I hope that we get a chance to do it again even bigger and better.

See you at the 2010 Kula Festival!

We were dead tired.

The shoot at Bilo Battery, while successful in its own right, was tamani exhausting. I joked to Feroz about getting our exercise for the whole month just running around growling our heads off.

“Me too boy,” Feroz added, shaking his head slowly, “Holding the camera with that bloody big stand make my arms sore.”

“Seti don’t worry,” I patted his back reassuringly, “by the time you’re done with this shoot, you’ll be buni buni (muscular) saraga.”

4:21pm: With joints groaning and stomachs growling, we arrived at Mike’s place. The whole crew, zombies and crew members alike, looked ragged enough to have survived 3 zombie apocalypses. Although we were ready to call it a day, there was still one more scene to shoot, which was the climatic hold out against the zombies inside an abandoned (Mike’s room was always looking apocalypse ready) room. But first…lunch.

5:00pm: After a hearty chow of tuna & onion sandwich, as well as baked beans thrown in for good measure, we sat around for a bit longer savoring the break. The zombies had changed back into clean, albit raggedy shirts, and were not looking forward to getting all gooped up again. Especially since during the course of the day shoot, the shirts had acquired quite alot of blood, gore and dirt. Yes. Dirt. As in “go roll around in the dirt abit, make it look like you’ve been zombie’ing around for awhile” dirt.

5:12pm: Milling around outside, we waited while Lawrence went to get the blood make up. Much aimlessness ensued.

When the blood makup kit arrived, the zombies groaned, but had to put their game face on. “Better hurry up guys,” Clarence glanced at the setting sun, “it’s getting dark. We need to get these running shots before it gets too dark to see anything.”

So off came the clean, dry shirts. On went the soggy, sweaty, sticky zombie shirts. Lawrence held the bottle of coloured syrup, smiling evilly. “Need to…uhh…refresh the blood aye.”

So…on went more drippy, sickly sweet smelling red syrup. Yum.

5:30pm: Shooting begins for the final scene. It was mostly a blur when I think back, but a few memories do stick out, like a defiant decaying hand bursting out from beneath the cold, damp earth.

“Moar blood.”

“Run it like you mean it aye?”

“And…action!….aaaaand que zombies! …….(thud) looool aye…you ok?”

“You know I can catch you right? Faster boy…faster.”

“That was good…good. I like how you split up as you came closer to the camera. Good. Now. One more time. For good luck.”

“Moar blood.”

“Which hand am I using to hit the door? This one? My wanking hand? Ok set.”

“Ok again. And hurry aye. It’s getting dark now.”

“But thats ok. Since like, the two main gang have been running all afternoon saraga.”

“Sa super fit or what.”

(Drumming noises on the door.)

“Set. That was awesome. Set. Now…let’s move inside.”

“Push aye? You need to push some more. Push hard saraga!”

“We need more hands.”

“Aaaaand…action…..queue door!….zombie at door? Oi! Where’d he go?”

“I thought you needed more hands?”

“Ok…pull….caaaarefully.”

(Bump) “Ouch. Watch your head yeah?”

“Moar blood. And you too.”

“The way I held you, thing sa off saraga.”

(Thud) “Oh. You ok?”

(Thud) “Ouch. Set?”

(Crunch) (Eating noises)

“That. Was awesome. Aaaaaaand…yeah. I think that’s it. That’s it? Yeah? Set? Set? You? Any more ideas? No? Set? Ok.”

“Set.”

7:03pm: And with that, the shooting for the movie “Kania na yalo bula” was done and over with. There wasn’t any champagne drinks to pop, thanks to our super-duper limited budget. Tired, sticky, messy and just generally over the whole movie thing, we were nevertheless happy that we got what we needed.

Mike’s room was a mess. Blood, shifted furniture and red-splattered doors abound conveyed a messy scene that made my head sore with the prospect of cleaning up.

“Just leave it here,” Mike nonchalantly smirked, “I’ll clean it up when I get back. Drink first aye.”

On the ride back to our various homes (lucky for us, we all stayed near the general Suva and Lami area), the Production Van was surprisingly quiet, with mostly the occasional snore heard from the more tired members of the crew…

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention. No champagne, but we did have a bottle of Fiji Premium Bounty Rum waiting for us at my place. If anything, the alcohol would serve as a great soother for the troubles of the day.

Who am I kidding. Yes. We had a wrap party ca. Rum & coke aaaaallll niiiighhtt loooong baby.

Because hey. It’s not every day you do a zombie movie. Especially if you’re in a little country called Fiji.

NEXT: Getting down and dirty with editing…

First off, for the record, let it be said that I am DONE WITH SYRUP.

With that out of the way, let us begin, shall we?

Who knew making a bloody (literally) movie would be such an exhaustive process? We were under the illusion that the whole shoot at Bilo Battery will take no more than 2 hours. “We’ll just swoop in,” Lawrence calculated, “shoot our shit, and be out before you know it.” I nodded my head, my naivety misread as supreme confidence. Boy were we wrong.

In retrospect, nothing didn’t exactly go super wrong. For instance, nobody died. Like. On purpose. Aside from a few scrapped knees and palms (that would be mine), no one was injured. We were also quite careful to clean up our bloody mess when we left the premises, in case the next bus of tourists be scared off by the pools of blood left behind. “It’s not real blood!” The guide would yell, “It’s syrup and food colouring! See!” He runs his fingers on the red patch on the ground then licks his fingers. More screams and panicking tourists run over each other as they exit the site.

The shoot day was Saturday the 5th of June, and the build up towards the shoot was cautious yet exciting. After a week of practicing our runs, figuring out camera locations, and shopping for ingredients, by Friday, Saturday could not have come any slower.

On Saturday morning…we began.

9:21am: Lawrence and Dani arrive at my place. Lawrence is in the zone. He even brought his Steven Spielberg cap. Well. Not really. But the impression was there.

Albie arrives later, and we all await the Mystery Van. I attempt to do a few zombie growls, but decide to keep my virgin state voicebox for when we actually need it. And when I want to ask for juice.

10:05am: Feroz arrives, and brings with him the much hallowed Production Van, as well as the Production Driver, Zaeed. Without Feroz, Zaeed and his van, this shoot would have been a whole lot more difficult to get going. We all pile eagerly into the back, crammed amongst the gear, food, bags and pointy tripods that made sitting arrangements slightly awkward.

10:22am: We stop off at MH Lami to make a few last minute purchases. 2 more bottles of red food colouring. 5 loaves of sliced bread. 3 tin cans of mutton. 2 mutton pies provide a quick breakfast for Lawrence and Dani. I kindly decline the offer to have some. I had Weetbix for breakfast. And as we all know – Fiji kids. Are Weetbix Kids.

10:40am: We pick up Dane and Mike on the way. Dane was seriously in the method acting swing of things. “Fuckin’ went out to the clubs till 5am. Only 3 hours sleep mate.” He looked surprisingly fresh for a 3 hour sleep person. “I’ma be a real zombie for this movie thing.” Mike loaded 2 buckets of stuff-to-make-blood-with. “Here, have a taste. I made some last night.” I took a small swig. “Sa, thing tastes nice man!” Famous last words.

11:01am: After much dirt road traversing, we arrive at our destination. The Bilo Battery. As we stumbled out of the van, joints sore from the seat-less ride, a lone guy was seen on the hill cutting grass. When he saw us, he cut the engine and jogged down to greet us.

“Bula,” Solomone smiled, waving us to a small hut next to the gates. We showed him our admittance fee group receipt (it helps that we paid our admittance fee as a group the day before at the museum) and permission letter, and he gladly nodded his head, permission granted. As we thanked him and started the process of unpacking our gear, I realized we were one zombie extra short. A quick conference with Lawrence, and I was hunching underneath the entry hut infront of Solomone again. “Vacava. Want to be one zombie?” He smiled, unsure exactly as to what this ‘zombie’ would entail. “Oh you just have to run ga, like the horror movies ga, run and move your hands like this -” I flailed my hands emphatically, “and thats it. Set?” A cautious nod, and he was in.

11:15am: Lawrence took us on a quick tour of the site, pointing out where the shoot would take place. Camera positions, walking shots, specific dialogue queues. The first thing that got to me was the scenery. Situated on the top of a hill, you had a clear look towards the Suva harbour. Something tells me this location wasn’t just for its sight seeing vista.

11:30am: “Ok – set. Let’s set up.” We broke up into smaller groups, each with their own sense of purpose and direction. Mike, Dan and me began the paint/blood make up. Albie and Dani walked slowly off to the entrance to ready the opening sequence while Lawrence helped Feroz help set up his camera. We were readying ourselves ontop of a pillbox, which proved to be quite the defensive spot to defend against…I dunno….zombie soldiers?

11:55am: Putting on zombie makeup is quite the messy affair. Since Lawrence was the authority on all things zombie (as well as having watched zombie makeup tutorial videos online the previous night), he took it upon himself to be the Chief Zombie Makeup Artist. So how does one go about making a gut-tearing, bone-chilling, blood-soaked zombie?

As a base, use standard black paint (water colour), and paint large swabs onto the front of the shirt. Then paint red on top of the black, which should lead to a big, wet, dark red spot, right where the zombie dribbled his first deluge of human blood. It also helps to wear a shirt that’ll throw out the red. In this case, white. As a funny side note, all the zombies wore white. Great. Just what we needed. A colour co-ordinated horde of zombies.

Using that same paintbrush, throw bits & pieces of red paint all over the shirt and face. The spottier, the better.

With the syrup+food colouring mixture on hand, take a mouthful of the ‘sugar blood’ and then let it dribble out and down your chin. The messier the better. Take care to equally distribute the fluid on both sides of the chin, so as to get an even flow down both your chin as well as your throat and shirt.

Profit.

12:10pm: The shoot begins. The beginning sequences are shot without much fanfare, or problems, with the only pauses in the shoot due to camera position switching, thanks to the one and only production camera. But hey. It’s a pretty damn good camera.

1:10pm: With the intro sequence out of the way, it was time to dress up the last zombie convert and get him ready for his closeup. Or…guts out.

“Just remember, when we’re there and shooting,” Lawrence said sternly, “everyone should be focused. Try and get the shoot done as quickly as possible, no monkeying around or making fun.” We all nodded in agreement. Get your Game face on. Focus. No fooling around.

Well. Perhaps just abit.

2:22pm: In-between takes, we all take a breather. Albie thinks the zombies aren’t zombie enough. “You need more hand action.” He raises his hands and claws at the air, grimacing angrily and stumbles off into the distance. “See? More movement. Like – real angry spazzed out.” The zombies are not impressed.

3:40pm: During a take where the horde of zombies rush madly out through the tunnels and into the open, a strange thing happened. Since this was the scene where we needed one more zombie extra to sort of fill up the scenery, we got trusty Solomone to run with the horde.

While we were waiting for the camera to be repositioned, a man suddenly appeared through the tunnels. Short, smiling, sandals and a school backpack, the Fijian stranger happily strolled through the group, smiling and saying bula as he passed each of us. Recognising Solomone, he strolled over, shook his hand, and launched into conversation, oblivious to the rest of group’s puzzlement as to who exactly was this guy.

“Us gang making one movie boy.” Solomone proudly pointed to the camera crew and the zombies. “Us gang have to run through this tunnel and make noise, like in the horror movie.” The stranger’s eyes lit up. “Sa dina!” He nodded his head, smiling and waving at our puzzled but polite looks. “Vacava, you want to run with us gang?” Stranger guy (who, for the sake of I’m-tired-of-typing-stranger-guy, shall be henceforth referred to as Happy Extra) didn’t have to be asked twice. He quickly threw his bag into the corner, took off his sandals, and raised his hands in the pose of a somewhat happy-go-lucky zombie. “Io boy. Just like that.” Solomone nodded and patted his back.

I shrugged, and looked at Lawrence. “Meh. The more the merrier I always say.”

We do a few shots of running through the tunnels, zombie cries echoing throughout the site. I secretly hope that a few tourists visit the site, and get scared away by the ‘local’ undead. Sadly, Saturday was a slow day, and we had the whole area to ourselves.

Happy Extra happily runs with the rest of us as we do our zombie run sequence. We have to stop, and instruct him to try and wave his hands abit more. “Io io set.” The same nod, a smile, he gets it. When we move to reposition ourselves outside, he quickly pulls Solomone aside, “Hey au sa fire eh.” As quickly as he appeared, he collects his sandals, backpack, and heads off into the distance, once again leaving the rest of us in a state of confusion.

Once again I shrug, and look at Lawrence. “Oh well. At least he enjoyed himself.”

Much later, when we had left the site, I realized we had forgotten to get his name to credit under extras. I guess Happy Extra will have to suffice for now.

4:01pm: Exhausted, bloodied and starving, we wrapped up the first stage of shooting. “How much shooting we did today Lawrence?” I asked. Lawrence mussed, and stroked his chin. “About 60%. The rest of the 40% we’ll be doing at Mike’s place.” Whew.

For the zombies, the taste of fake blood had lost its sweet allure. Seriously. After a gazillion times of holding blood in your mouth and letting it dribble out just to refresh your makeup before the next take, the sweetness (or saltiness, since we also had soy sauce + red food colouring) had worked it’s way all the way to the top of the “NEVAH AGAIN” list of things to stay away from for the next month or so.

As we were packing our gear and mess, Viliame, Solomone’s brother showed up. “Sa, you gang finished?” I shook his hand and tiredly nodded, “Wooo boy, if you came half an hour early, you would have been another zombie running with us gang man. Ah well, we’ll just put in your name in the credits, since you two gang brothers.” He smiled, then went back to staring at the bloodied floor inside one of the rooms.

“Hey remember we have to clean up our shit before we leave aye.” Grabbing a few shirts (come to think of it, whose shirts were those?) we wiped the blood patches, our tiredness aggravating the process. “Hey don’t worry, us gang will clean it up,” Solomone offered. “Fire set,” we heroically scrubbed away at the cement, “us gang made the mess, we’ll clean it up.” Much sore backs were had.

4:15pm: And with a wave to Solomone and Vili, we departed from the Bilo Battery site. Even though we were sore and stiff from all the running around (bunch of unfit zombies we were), we headed eagerly to Mike’s place for…lunch.

NEXT: The last 40%  of the shoot. At Mike’s house.

PS: Some people have questioned my need to reveal the production process of this short movie. “Why not just post a few pics before the day you release it, then just show the movie the day after? Otherwise people reading the blog are going to expect something big. You going to hype the thing saraga, and might set them up for disappointment.”

True. A good valid point. However, I feel that while the element of surprise makes for a great advertising push, the whole purpose for making this production diary wasn’t to raise people’s expectations on our movie, let alone anything we make. I’ll admit. We’re all first time n00bs here. None of us have ever made a movie before. None of us have ever done a full day shoot. And we most certainly are under no illusions that this movie is going to be Academy Award material.

So I’ll get that bit out of the way first of all. We’re not making a brilliant, Adrian Brody acting, Michael Bay awesome, Romeo classic film for the movie critics to get a hard on for.

Nope. We’re making a 5 minute zombie film. For fun. That’s it. Just a bunch of friends, with an opportunity to make something cool, and be proud of it. We’re going to make as good a zombie movie as we can possibly make. And leave it at that.

And the production diaries? Why, so that you too can have fun with us as we go about making the damn movie of course!