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…

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