The Zombie Film
So, yesterday I took a look back at some of the earlier movies that we all had a hand in. It was nice. It even made me a bit nostalgic and prompted me to consider revisiting some of them, either in a DVD release, a wider web release, or even following them up with something new. But, that'll be later, because right now, the focus is what I've been building up to... a look back at our most recent project "The Cutting Room Floor."
Ryan and I had made movies under our Monster Club Productions title, and Paul and I had done work under his PK Films production company, but everything we made always had that kind of "inside joke" vibe. By that I mean, they were all movies that we found funny, and our close friends found funny, and sure even a couple random strangers on youtube found funny, but they were never really made with a wide audience in mind. And that seemed like kind of a shame, because together, we had so much talent and prospect at our disposal. So, I got the itch to make something that could appeal to a wider audience. You know, people who might be asking, "Who the hell is Troy Potter?" (if you're asking this as you're reading, shame on you.)
How did we settle on a horror film? Well, it's simple. Horror films are easier to make, and they have the luxury of even if you failed at it, you can still fail successfully. Some of the greatest horror films of all time have that very cheesy, B-movie quality, yet they're still a blast. If you make a horror movie and people laugh, it can still be enjoyable, whereas, if you make a comedy, and no one laughs, you've just subjected your audience to an hour and a half of torture. It was also a logical movie because I'm a massive horror fan. Seriously. Quiz me. I know it all. Paul is more of a sci-fi guy, but try making a sci-fi movie with no budget... (which, at some point we hope to, because I'm writing something as we speak for one...)
Okay; so horror film it is. What will it be about? Right off the bat, I wanted to make it an anthology piece. Something of a throw-back to classics like Tales From the Crypt or Creepshow, where there's one unifying story with several short, unrelated stories sprinkled throughout. This afforded us a chance to really experiment with different techniques, actors, and themes. I'll get to the individual shorts later next week, but the first order of business was establishing what the central storyline to hold everything together would be.
Well, everyone loves a good zombie flick. Now more than ever (although some may argue that the zombie fad has worn out its welcome. Not me personally; I mean, we're living in a time when the number one show on television is a ultra-gory zombie drama... what a time to be alive!). Anyway, we're all big zombie fans, and a zombie invasion is something everyone can relate to. Who hasn't envisioned that post-apocalyptic scenario where you're hunkering down, fending off the undead and trying to survive from day to day? Especially when you're really bored at work. However, between all the zombie flicks I've seen, I didn't recall ever seeing one where the main character gets bit and is slowly becoming a zombie himself. At least none that I recall. So, for an original take on a familiar subject, we figured that was a pretty unique idea.
We cast Neil Potter; brother of local legend Troy Potter, as the lead. For one, he's a pretty entertaining guy, with lots of improve work. Two, he's skeletally thin and would look good in zombie make up. With the lead cast, we needed a place for him to hide out, gradually transform, and still somehow be able to incorporate other stories. We had always intended on premiering the finished film at Mindframe Theaters, so we decided, why not film it there too? The owners obliged, and we had our location. A creepy, nostalgic cinema. Perfect place to hide out from the zombie invasion.
The script came together pretty quickly from there, and in August of 2011, we began preparations to shoot the first scenes of the movie. I don't think we had all of the individual short films scripted at that point, but we had the gist of everything worked out. Paul created a hastily thrown-together facebook group asking if any local Dubuque-ians (?) wanted to swing out and be a zombie extra in our movie. That day, we got together early, preparing the shoot list, mixing fake blood, and helping Troy Potter (make-up effects maestro) assemble facial prosthetics. Then, at about 11:30, we started arriving at the theater, and holy shit, were there a ton of people there ready to help out.
We were blown away by the turn out. Close to 45 people arrived, half of them already dressed in full undead attire. We set up a table and Troy got to work on prepping extras while Paul and I scrambled around trying to get our shots set up. It was an experience. All these people came out, excited to play a zombie in a little movie they had never heard anything about. They entrusted us that we knew what we were doing, and quite frankly, that was a sobering realization. At that moment, I told Paul, "Okay, we seriously, have to finish this film." There was so much invested in it before we filmed the first shot. But what a great way to start filming. Our first real movie, and we were working with a full crew of extras, in an awesome location, with a gang of friends helping with production.
We filmed well into the morning. I think we left the theater at about 5:30 am. Even more amazing was most of the extras stayed with us until we told them there was nothing left we needed to film. It was dedication. There's no way we could have made the movie without everyone who lended a hand that night; it was amazing.
The zombie portion of the film took three separate shoots. The first night at Mindframe with all the extras. Then a couple weeks later, we started at the crack of dawn to film the downtown scenes before traffic picked up on a Saturday morning. Everyone met at my house and we headed down to the Port of Dubuque area to haunt the alleys of local business. We were about an hour in when the police showed up. You know, right when two characters dressed in camo were holding fake guns. Real looking fake guns. Thankfully, Paul had called the city the day before and alerted them that we'd be filming, and using fake guns. The cop was cool with everything; even came over and chatted with us a bit (although I think he had to just double check that the guns were fake). He said they had gotten like 4 calls from concerned citizens that a group of people were downtown with guns. I can't imagine what would happen if we tried this today.
Anyway, we knocked that scene out. Some standout moments were Andy Rang (soldier #1)'s excruciatingly long death scene, where he screams and complains about his friend leaving him to die for about a minute and a half. All while being eaten by zombies. His fake intestines were constructed by the Potter family by filling sausage casings with died oatmeal. Apparently they sat around the kitchen table and did it as a family the night before. I think even their grandma was there. I hope a photo of this exists somewhere.
We finished that shoot by wandering around the deserted downtown trying to avoid getting cars in the shot while Neil journeyed to Mindframe. A couple of us doubled as various zombies over the course of the trek, and Paul had food poisoning all morning, so the shoot ended with him rushing to the Mall to shit his brains out. Then we all got Pancheros.
The last zombie portion we filmed was some reshoots inside Mindframe. We had gotten all the zombie footage we needed. More than enough actually. There's seriously, like 3 hours of zombies wandering around the theater on Paul's computer. However, we didn't have time to get all of Neil's lines as he sits in the projection booth and plays DJ to the crowd of undead patrons. So, we went back and spend another night filming Neil inching his way through the script. In his defense, my scripts can get pretty wordy. As we edited this, Paul told me he had to turn the volume down because Neil's blaring voice was giving him a migraine. The Potter brothers are a loud bunch. And very excitable. This was also a key moment in the grand scheme of things, because it was the night Neil and Sarah first hit it off. She was new to the group; just some girl that showed up to the first zombie shoot, but she seemed cool, so we asked her to come back and we added another part for her as a chick Neil had a crush on. Who would've guessed they would still be together? (well, us, since that was the plan all along. That's two Potter's I've had a hand in setting up. Both over the course of making movies. (I had introduced Troy to his fiance, Chelsea back in high school while filming a movie (but that's a story for a different day (holy shit, do I have four open parenthesis going? ))))
Soon enough, we got the zombie stuff done. Which was good, because it was by far, the most taxing to shoot. And it was the framework for the entire film, so it was nice to have that done and over with so we could concentrate on the other three movies. Never would've guessed that this would be the biggest pain in the ass to edit either, but it sure was. Most of the movie Paul and I edited together in his basement, and by that I mean, I sat over his shoulder and confused him by saying, "No, move that clip over there... no before that part..." However, over the summer Paul hit the road to film the Colts documentary, so I borrowed a computer and pieced together the entire theater sequence in my basement. I still feel like the beginning of the movie isn't our strongest work, but it was some of the first footage we shot, and we were on a pretty tight schedule, so it's understandable. If I could go back, I'd change Neil's encounter with the soldiers, but oh well, what's done is done... it only gets better from there.
One last thing to mention; the music in the movie. Since we wanted to show this and essentially make some money for our hard work, we made sure to avoid using any copyrighted music. Which left us having to scower royalty free sites for scores and themes. I'm actually really happy with everything we used, but it took some time. I would search through sites at home, jotting down title tracks and where I thought they could be used in the movie, then I'd go to Paul's and we'd start fitting them in. One standout, is the song "Fixing My Brain," by the Canadian artist, Brad Sucks. Brad Sucks is a one-man band who has a bit of a following. He's released 3 albums, all of which, rock. Seriously, check him out. He's also s huge supporter of independent artists, so I emailed him and asked if we could use a couple of his tracks in our movie. He responded with "Yeah, no problem." Awesome guy. I feel like the song really sets the tone for the whole movie, and as soon as I heard it I knew I wanted it for the opening credits. I was originally going to have it resume again at the end once Neil goes full-zombie, but we ended up going with a badass version of the classic funeral march, which I think was a better choice.
Overall, what a project. And this was just part one of four. We still had three full short films to shoot. And edit. Stay tuned, because next up, we're talking about the first short: Tagged.
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