Archive for category zombie movie

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…