All gone dead ...

As Xmas and my MSC take over things go very quiet ......

info@zombieundead.com

Day 12

Well, well, well - an interesting day this one to say the least. For starters we had two awesome signature zombies. First off was MORRISSEY ZOMBIE portrayed by my DMU co-student Joe. Nice one fella. secondly we had COCK ZOMBIE - which needs no explanation. James, a DMU drama student, stepped up to the plate and barred his buttocks and prosthetic member.

After a couple of pick ups we moved to a corridor scene which involved a cast member, Sandra taking a fall. Unfortunatly after a couple of excellant trips she actually fell and hurt her knee. Have spoken to her since and she is OK - take care Sandra and you'll be pleased to know your part is more sedate from now on.

The final scene of the day was FRANKS death. Really enjoyed this one as cast and crew chipped in ideas and his death scene became a collaborative blood fest. The days shoot ended for me with a trip to the toilet to be sick. After this joyful event i came back and we nailed the last shot. Packed up, went home and spent the evening in bed as sick as a dog,hence this is being posted the next day!

Cheers also to Viraj who did came in at late notice as a runner. Nice one.

info@zombieundead.com

Day 12 Coming Up

Day 12 appraoches. Over the half way point now and charcaters are beginning to die off.... Havent filmed for over a month so looking forward to this.

Behind the scenes work is being done to recover so audio. In a lift scene for the last days shoot we seemed to looses the audio to a very low level. Russell is working hard to get the sound to a reasonable level without it sounding like the lift is underwater. Heres hoping we avoid those reshoots or ADR. It was a seriously bad feeling to potentially loose 3-4 minutes of footage so heres hoping.

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Next Days Filming

Ok - back on track with another days filimning tentivly penned for the 16th. Having to shift some scenes around to compensate for some scheduling difficulties but its all good stuff. Need to schedule a day in december for the pick ups we need from last days shoot as well.

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Day Of The Undead 2008

News of an awesome event here in Leicester. Saturday 1st November sees the dead rising at The Phoenix Cinema ( did you see what i did there, did you see ? Rising, Pheonix, zombie? ). The Terror4Fun people have put together a day of zombie madness with short films, features, make up demos and zombie caricatures. Don't miss this one dudes!

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DAY 11

Well, it had to happen sometime. This was a day of pick ups mainly which should have been fairly straight forward. Famous last words. I am going to bed.

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Goresome Picture

Had to post this, an in-camera still of the footage shot on Sunday. What a freaky zombie. Awesome!

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Day 10

Wow - what a mad day(28/09/08). Biggest zombie day so far this one - 27 i think. a tough one for Gav, Rachael and Nateal but aided by Steve and Jim and perhaps Kit (?) they pulled it off. As is often the case hold ups led to shot changes in terms of order which means quick rethinking. Looking through the footage we got some great shots but will need some pick ups on Saturday.

Hopefully you can see the latest photos on facebook here.

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Day 10 Approaching

Indeed a day of zombie glorification approaches. Hoping to get 20 zombies for this one - keep Gav and his crew on their toes. Also a magnificent head crushing scene to be nailed and some tasty scenes by torchlight. All in all its gonna be a big day!

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BBC Radio interview

Just posted online is a BBC Radio article on Zombie Undead. Kris and I were interviewed on radio a couple of weeks ago (14/08/09) by Leicester DJ Chris Baxter. Check the article and the interview itself out here.
Excellent fun and, we feel, well worth a listen ;-).

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More concept art

From the twisted mind of Kit Cox comes some more zombie images. More will soon be added to the Media section of the Zombie Undead website.

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Day 09

Whoopps forgot to post this entry. Day 09 was 29/08/08 but better late than never. Another glorious day of zombies when we shot three separate short scenes.

Firstly was a new section written by Kris for Chris as Phil. Its a little vignette giving hints of a conspiracy and that Phil knows more than he's letting on.

Secondly was a dialogue free scene for Barry which joins together scenes already shot.

Thirdly was a scene which we may add as a prologue to the opening sequence. After showing the opening sequence to people several commented that it wasn't clear what we were trying to show so we filmed a very short sequence of the bomber putting a bomb into his backpack then walking out.

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365 Days of the Dead

Intriguing site i stumbled upon the other day can be found here. A fellow blogger this diaries a bloke who , for 1 year, is watching one zombie movie a day. Now that's dedication.

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Blackpool Zombie Walk

All around the world, zombies are gathering - in certain places at certain times. Crawl of the Dead documents all the zombie walks planned in the upcoming months. An email has alerted me to the Blackpool Zombie Walk which is on World Zombie Day - so register and join in!

A nice feature on the site is the Google Earth powered Worldwide Zombie Walk Outlook and Worldwide Zombie Locator.

info@zombieundead.com

DVD printer

A printer which prints onto DVD's is something I've been after for a while after an entry Chris Jones's blog prompted me on the necessity of such an item. First impressions really do count and any DVD of your work sent out needs to look professional. As Chris said at the very least it needs to have contact details.

A trail of the internet later and i found a bargain on ebay. Search for :

Canon Pixma iP4300 Photo Inkjet Printer - BRAND NEW

Seller is Clearance Bargains who are Argos' returns, old stock etc. Its a great printer and i got mine for £30 plus £5 ish for postage. Prints on to DVD's and also has built in duplex facility.

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Next Days Filming

Plans are underfoot for the next round of filming. We are approaching the half way mark which is an awesome milestone for all involved. Hopefully these days can be scheduled quickly with the google calendar making this easier. We're looking at end of September and start of October and the first date requires quite a few zombies ...

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NOTLD Reanimated

Well worth a visit is this site - NOTLD Reanimated. "Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated is a mass collaborative re-envisioning in which artists from around the world select scenes from the original 1968 film and recreating them through their own artistic aesthetics. This is opened to all media and processes both still and dynamic. Works will be assembled into a new video track thus giving the film new life through a process called 'reanimation'. Submissions will be accepted until 9/12/08".

Check it out.

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Shoot Scheduling

Ah the joys of scheduling. For me its the most frustrating part of the project and i'm sure its true of blockbuster films as it is of no/low budget fare such as Zombie Undead. An extra problem at our level, however, is that the lack of budget necessitates multiple roles for crew. So while i direct I produce as well and have the joy of scheduling. To make things easier ive created a Google calendar. These things are pretty nifty.

I set up a calendar and invited cast and crew to join giving them read, write or admin access. After that I set up a proposed next shooting date and invited cast/crew to accept/decline. This way everone can see who can make it and who has yet to respond. Ive added a map and set an email reminder for 7 days before. Text reminder can be added but not to all networks yet. Users can add comments - such as any questions they have, or reminders for props etc - and admin can add desciptions : in this case which script pages we are shooting etc.

In addition i shall add names to dates that i know people cant make. Hopefully this will smooth the process out - we shall see ;-)

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Lost Zombies

A great venture i joined a while ago is Lost Zombies. The site is a repository for a community generated zombie documentary. You take videos, pictures etc then post as if zombies were real. Worth checking out as is there new trailer here. Short and sweet - nice one.

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BBC Radio Leicester Interview

Stay tuned to the airwaves 104.9 Fm at 3 ish today for an interview with Kris and myself re the film.

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Trailer Online!

A week of late nights after work and the kids have gone to bed and the trailer is born. I believe its looking damn fine and captures the spirit of the film. It was hard work but i really enjoyed the process. Its the first trailer i have done and is a completely different editing process to a normal film edit. This was most apparent to me on the sound side. A trailer needs to evoke emotions in a small time and the layering up of audio and tracking down samples was a tough learning curve as this is territory i have no experience in. Having said that it is the cinematic sound which i am most proud of.

Anyway check it out in the Media section of the website.

info@zombieundead.com

New Trailer

Started work yesterday on a trailer for the film. The Paypal donations page is bringing money in, and our heartfelt thanks to those who have donated, but if we are to raise the required amount we need to raise the game. We need to show what we can do, and how well we can do it. And the trailer is sure gonna do that. Hope to have the trailer online by the end of the week. Its the first trailer ive done so fingers crossed.

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Zombie Undead Wallpapers

Our resident web guru Matt has knocked out some ZU desktop wallpapers - and very nice they are to. Check out and download for free here. My personal favorite is The Fistful Of Zombies the two awesome zombies shuffling round the corner, although Chav Zombie is damn fine.

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Executive Producer Wanted

With 25 minutes shot and edited we are now at the stage whereby we need a producer. The aim all along was to get to this stage and then get completion funding. While i have produced the project so far and am happy to continue the production side of things as well as directing we need a dedicated producer who can finance the film to completion. While experience in film making ( whether shorts, music or features ) is a plus, it is the ability to source funding that is key. An individual with funding skills from outside of the film industry are welcome.

A belief in the product and independent film itself is essential. As with all roles this position is unpaid and is being used as a springboard to further the careers of all involved. This is a great time to join the project as we are beginning to attract attention and a large chunk of the film is complete. Email to the below address in the first instance.

info@zombieundead.com

Online British Film Magazine

A site definitely worth checking out is British Film Magazine. This is shaping up to be something special and deserves a big hit count. British Film Magazine covers shorts, features in pre, post and release, interviews, news, training course details and more. As a British film maker its great to see a site like this and we wish Terence Doyle all the best.

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Revenant Film Festival update

Revenant Film Magazine have a news post re Zombie Undead :

"British director Rhys Davies has been in production on a new self-funded feature length zombie film entitled 'Zombie Undead'. So far the production has about 25 minutes of footage. I've seen about 5 minutes of the short film version of Zombie Undead and it was absolutely brilliant. Amazing cinematography and high-level special effects really make this film stand out. "

Goresome stuff indeed.

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Nice write up on the progress of the film in local paper The Leicester Mercury. Awesome picture as well ;-).

Leicester Mercury Article

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Zone Horror

Spent the last couple of weeks sorting out my application for the Zone Horror competition - hence the quietness of the blog front. Had to tweak the film to get under the 2 minute mark which was a cool experience. Dave Sinclair offered his services for streaming the edit from Premiere Pro CS3 to DVCAM a necessity as the competition requires this format and our FX1's don't have this facility. Took us a while to sort this out as we didn't RTFM. Seems like a good competition and a pretty awe4some chance to get your film noticed.

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ZU Short Revenant Film Festival

The short film version of Zombie Undead is in competition at Revenant Film Festival. Sounds like an awesome day.

"Spend the night with the dead as the walking dead convene upon the Northwest for the 2008 Revenant Film Festival! The Revenant Film Festival was founded in 2007 by the creators of Revenant Magazine. The festival was established to showcase the talents and filmworks of independent directors the world over who are crafting original zombie films that exemplify the independent spirit of film making."

Check out the magazine site here.

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Day 08

All done and dusted by 3.30 - sweet. Great days filming. Had a dolly, circular tracks and Steadicam. David Sinclair joined for his first day. Thanks to Sarah, his daughter, and everyone else. Going to be fun editing this as the camera was tracking back and forth. Lets see what happens...

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The Day Before

The madness of Day 08 approached and have to admit I'm feeling a bit apprehensive about this one. Its a tough one to shoot and a pivotal scene in the film. Also our usual sound guy, Carl, is unable to be with us - which just adds another bit of pressure. Still we can take it ......

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Day 08 Preperation

All systems go for 6th July. Big thanks to Mambia, again, for arranging use of DMU. Its gonna be an awesome day with a big scene with 6 characters. This is a pivotal scene in the film where these characters decide whether they are going to stay or leave the evacuation centre. It'll be a great scene to film. We're taking a high risk strategy by using steady cam and/or circular tracks ( by kind permission on DMU ) to revolve around the cast who will be in a group. Dave and Neill will bounce back and forth to get random movement to match the indecision of the characters. Getting a character on screen while talking is not a priority, in fact avoiding this will work well with the camera catching up as a character speaks. Its the kind of scene that will either look awesome or pants. Lets see!

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Day 08 Runthrough

Had an awesome script runthrough tonight for Day 08. Day 08 is a 6 character/6 page dialog shoot so a practice for this was essential. A few tweaks were made as the actors and myself felt how the characters would talk and act. No major changes but the actors have to be happy in delivering the words they say. Overall an enjoyable and valuable process which we shall use again on dialog heavy scenes which will save us valuable time on shooting days.

New camera op Dave Sinclair came and recorded the evening. When we get time we'll bang those on a behind the scenes. Big thanks to all who came late in the evening, especially to Sarah who read Ruth's part and stood in at late notice!

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Constant Alert

Speaking to an old friend of mine from college, Bob Mitchell, yesterday. He said something which brought a smile to my lips and kinda summed up the whole no budget film making thing. We were talking about the roles i have in the makng of ZU and how much has to be done. To him Bob said that it sounded like i was at constant degree mode - meaning always deadlines, things to be done, people to call etc. He got it spot on. No budget film making is not for the faint of heart - its hard to take time off and relax. But hey it'll all be worth it ;-).

info@zombieundead.com

Sinvision Steadycam Operator joins crew

Cameraman Dave Sinclair joins the ZU crew for the next days shoot. Dave brings his steadycam to the filming which can raise the quality of Zombie Undead even higher. Dave is based in Leicester and is available for hire - see his website.

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Orson Well pea commercial - awesome

Yeah ok nothing to do with ZU but this is awesome. From Citizen Cane to method acting a frozen pea commercial. Check it out here.

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Dark Knight actor in Zombie Undead

ZU actor Barry Thomas has a role in The Dark Knight, and whats more hes in the trailer! Awesome news. Barry, Steve in Zombie Undead, is one of The Jokers goons, playing opposite Heath Ledger. When i spoke to Barry earlier today he was full of praise for Heath saying he made time to speak to everyone, extras included, and was not your typical Hollywood actor.

The Dark Knight is released in July. For those who cant wait to catch a glimpse of Barry watch the trailer here. When The Joker enters the room look bottom left for the big guy in a maroon suit. The question is - did you get to keep that awesome suit Barry?


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Help Fund Zombie Undead

Zombie Undead Paypal system now online! Self funded so far we are now looking for completion funding and you can help! With SFX Supervisor Scott Orr ( Da Vinci Code, Children Of Men ) recently joining the crew this is a great opportunity to help fund a British film. All you have to do is go to www.zombieundead.com/bmad/ and follow the simple instructions. No donation is too small - or too large ;-)

Every contributor will receive a credit on the film. Also your name will be shown on the site and you can add a link back to your website. In addition to the above all Associate Producers will receive an invite to the premiere - please remember to leave your email. Last, but not least, is the kudos you'll get from helping fund a British zombie movie !

The Zombie Undead crew would like to thank you in advance for helping push the film towards completion. To view the associated funding document click here.

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Day 07 Stills

Courtesy of The Bear.

www.epicdream.co.uk



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Day 07

Whoah - what a mad day. We had a serious number of setups to complete yesterday as we were shooting all the scenes to link up the footage we had shot outside of DMU. At the end of the day we needed to nail all these scenes as we were to move to the Queens building for the next shoot. Multiple set ups take time due to lighting and this added to a goresome gore set piece meant we were tight for time.

Already in a tight schedule when a double whammy hit us. Prepared for a 2 camera set up we lost one camera due to a technical problem. Stuart - 2nd camera - had to lose his rig so Neill could use it. Secondly our lead actress's train was late and then she had to wait outside as we all had our phones off trying to get some cut away shots!

All this resulted in the shoot starting at 12 instead of 10:30. From this point my main concern was coverage and some shots had to be lost so we could shoot the scene. The day become one of setting the shots, shooting a couple of takes and moving on. Not the most relaxing day from a directors point of view - nor a DOP's - but the choice was made as a return to the building at this time would have thrown the shoot off schedule.

On reflection i learned a lot yesterday. Firstly having a second or even third camera is a must. Secondly to switch my phone on between takes! Thirdly to have a Floor Manager/First AD. A lot of my time was spent doing this job - getting people organised for times etc - which is a lot on top of directing.

End Note - as usual stay tuned for shooting stills.

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Blockbuster SFX Make-Up Artist Joins Crew

Scott Orr has joined the ZU crew as SFX advisor. Scott has worked on blockbusters such as The Da Vinci Code and Children Of Men as well as well received indie fare such as The Zombie Diaries. Gore is his speciality and while Gav Pate remains SFX Lead Scott's years of experience will raise the SFX of Zombie Undead even further.

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Editing update

Post by Kris Tearse:

Myself and Rhys have been chained to our desks trying to get through as much of the editing as possible. The majority of the footage captured has been edited and things are moving along nicely. Hopefully once shooting is finished Sunday we should have the majority of the first 4 podcasts edited. Obviously this isn’t including any further post such as sound but we’re getting there!

For the opening scene we went for a ‘Man on Fire’ approach using time ramping to give it a quite crazy effect. Cameraman extraordinaire, Neill Phillips, recently added a few more effects and cuts to the scene and we can confirm that it’s looking pretty damn sweet.

Further editing updates appearing shortly!!

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The wonderful world of scripting by Kris Tearse

I had the fortune of hooking up with Rhys (ZU Director) not long after a project of my own burnt down in flames due to the great British weather and other niggling issues. I think it worked in our favour with ZU as I was able to bring a slightly pessimistic and realistic mind to the table, with knowledge on how not to make a movie! This combined with Rhys’s energy and optimism works well I think. I originally joined as Assistant Director but ended up taking up script writing duties as although the original script was quite fun, it was unrealistic in terms action sequences and props we would need. So after 6 weeks of getting home from work and sitting in front of my pc until 12ish I finally managed to get the first draft done – 5 drafts later and we had something that finally resembled a script! Originally we were looking to shoot this as a feature film but then decided podcasts would be a good way to promote the movie (I have to say I had a really fun time taking the script from 90 pages down to 65 pages and then converting the script into podcasts – it was a testing time!)

We tend to edit the script as we do each shoot. I guess when I write lines it’s easy to imagine how I’d say it, but obviously this isn’t necessarily how somebody else would say it so the script gets changed. I’m not precious with the script. As long as I can see the amendments I’m generally quite happy with cast members changing lines to suit. My advice is: do not write a script if you’re not prepared to allow people to pull it apart – it will happen! So far we’ve filmed the majority of the first 4 podcasts and should hopefully have the majority of the 4^th podcast dialogue finished by the weekend.

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Actor Needed

As the shoot progresses Zombie Undead is in need of another actor. The role is Phil a 20-30 year old male who is out for himself, doing what he can to look after number one. Any ethnicity and look.

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Daniel Day Lewis

Kris was conjuring the spirit of DDL for his performance as Jay on the last days shoot, sneaking off for a bit of Gangs on his beloved iPhone. On his recommendation i just watched There Will Be Blood. A good film made awesome by DDL's performance. Simply stunning.

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Day 06 Pictures

Just back from holiday so, better late than never, here are some pictures from the toilet scenes shot on 13th April. Fantastic work from Gav and Rachael.



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Planning Ahead

Currently trying to plan ahead shooting dates for June and July. Its a tricky business to organise especially when everyone is working around their 'day jobs' so hopefully this advance notice will make it easier all round. Next shooting dates will, is all goes to plan, be the 25th May. We will be back at the university for this one.

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Day 06

Had a last minute panic, again, last week. On Wednesday i found out that the location for Sunday Day 06 of the shoot had been withdrawn. Spent a mad day rushing around trying to source another set of toilets. Matt at The Firebug in Leicester came to the rescue and generously allowed us to use the upstairs toilets at the pub. Nice one brother.

An awesome days shooting was had with the first day of interaction between the main three characters. It was great to see the naturalistic relationship develop between the three actors on screen. The cramped conditions worked to our advantage and Neill nailed some great claustrophobic shots with his wide angle lens.

Lastly some fantastic gore from the SFX team. And rest assured I shall be posting some stills as soon as I get them.

info@zombieundead.com

Planning for Day 06

Had some good news today. Matt D has sorted out our next location. At the moment we are shooting the stand alone scenes before going back into DMU - our main location. We are now able to shoot at the toilets of a local cricket club who i shall mention if Matt allows me to ! Just got to get everyone together on one of the next weekends now and then plan the return back to DMU. As for this weekend i am off to Manchester for some much needed non-film time. Meeting up with old Uni mates and can't wait!

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Shooting Day Cancelled

Had to cancel todays shoot as still not well at all. Damn this is frustrating !

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Day 05.5 zombies

Heres the zombies from the courtyard scene. Nice one people.

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Day 05.5

Just a short day this one but it just about killed me! Has a bad bout of illness coming on and stupidly carried on with the planned filming. We've so much invested in this that its hard to so no when everones allready lined up and ready to go. A simple shoot with the camera pointing out a window as a person attempts to escape from the facility. Grabbed the shot, came home, collapsed.

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Gorezone Issue 30

Dark Waters Entertainments very own Kris Tearse writes in the current issue of Gorezone. Monte Kristo reviews Argento's conclusion to his Three Mothers trilogy Mother Of Tears, with the issue cover asking "Has Dario had his day?". Find 0ut for yourself and check out this awesome magazine.

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Free Filming Software

Any free stuff has got to be good to low/no budget film makers so check this out:

In a post a while ago while creating a funding document I was getting frustrated by Publishers lack of exporting to pdf without buying a pdf export plug-in. After a search I found a freeware version CutePdf but the experience made me search out a possible alternative set of desk top applications which were free. OpenOffice is a great freeware alternative to Microsoft Office. It is a fully-featured office suite which is compatible with leading office products. The main components are Writer, Calc, Base, Impress and Draw which are a word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation creator and graphics package respectively. While it doesn't have a specific desktop publishing programme Writer appears to have much of Publishers functionality - and has an export to pdf function built in. As for Mac users I believe there is a port of the programs - which is nice.

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Screen Goblin Set Visit

Screen Goblin ( formerly The Big Movie Review ) visited set today to record the days shooting. Check out the visit here ; its a site well worth a visit not only for the Zombie Undead stuff!.

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Day 05

Another cool days shooting. After last nights panic it all went to plan. Cast and crew were assembled at a secret location by the leisurely start of 9:30. The location was sorted by a member of the crew who shall remain unnamed and myself and Neill hadn't seen it before the day. After a choice of two rooms we settled on the boardroom which suited us perfectly. Matt took a photo so we could replace items as we found them, then the room was cleared. Both Alex and Sandra were untested for us as this was there first scenes. Alex did a consummate job and held his own in the shooting environment. Sandra's performance was stunning - she nailed her character off the bat and gave a powerful performance which shone on camera. Expect to see more of these actors as they both deserve to progress in the film world.

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Sound Drama!

Just before Day 05 filming starts I'd like to thank Keith Allott from Line Out (an East Midlands film making organisation) for his 11th hour help. Due to unforeseeable circumstance we were without any sound equipment. After much frantic ringing Farid accessed a mixer and Neill a Beachtek adaptor to input XLR feeds to the FX1E. Still without a mic and boom I phoned around on the scrounge. We had a great bit of luck as Keith had a boom, XLR lead and mic which he had been using for shooting that day. Nice one brother! So anyone in the East Midlands looking for any film making help be it a course, equipment rental or general advice then check out Line Out.

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Day 05 Tomorrow

Looking forward to shooting after a long break! We've got an interesting day ahead. A 10 year old lad, Alex Sell, is shooting his scenes with his screen grandmother, Sandra Wildbore. Not gonna tell you what the scenes are about but it will be goresome!

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Neill Phillips, M2 and Brevis - The Film Look

Last Sunday i went to see Neill Phillips ( Epic Dream Productions ) who, as cinematographer, is the man behind the look of Zombie Undead. We now have a Brevis 35 mm adapter as well as the M2 and we wanted to see what it could or couldn't do.

The picture here shows Neill's awesome lighting which goes a long way in creating that 'film' look. This is an in-camera still using a Sony FX1E with the Redrock M2 adapter. From the outset we planned on shooting in as cinematic way as possible with a distinct visual style, high production values and a cinematic appearance. For me shooting on film is not enough to make it look like 'film' - camera moves, framing, shot transition and lighting are all vital to this. If you use a 35 mm adapter than this helps enormously and both the M2 and Brevis do the job. So ... go buy a 35 mm adapter!

The fact its a zombie film to me is irrelevant. The quality of the film needs to be so high that it could be a thriller, comedy or horror. Myself and Neill Phillips, DP, had many discussions prior to shooting on how to get the look we wanted. We did a lot of camera and post-production tests. Also making Zombie Undead - The Short Film was indispensable as a learning exercise.

Funding Quest Continues

Met again with Karl - our business guru. He's confident our funding scheme will go live by the end of this week and hopefully bare fruit very soon after. Heres hoping so we can book more filming dates and ramp up production.

info@zombieundead.com

Editing Continues

Kris, Matthew Gyngell and myself worked on transferring the Panasonic footage to Final Cut Pro last night. All the steadcam shots were taken with the Panosonic HVX 200. We've been having problems as although v. 5.01 has the menu choice to import P2 footage when you click on the link nothing happened. A quick web search later and we found that FCP 5.14 was needed. In stepped Matthew with this version and imported the files no problems. After flipping the images - due to the Brevis rotating the image 180 degrees - we are ready to edit. The titles are complete and ready to put into the opening sequence.

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Funding Document Complete

Finished the document which hopefully will help us gain completion funding for Zombie Undead. A lot of work went into this as it was vital we get it right. Looking at it now its looking darn impressive and I'm happy with it especially as its the first work of this kind that I've done. Thanks must go to Rod Duncan who proof read the copies and made some great suggestions to enhance it. Thanks Rod!

We're holding back on distributing this as work is currently afoot on an innovative way to access funding.

info@zombieundead.com

Planning for Day 05

Busy in the middle of trying to sort out Day 05 for 9th March - props list, script breakdown, effects list, shot log. Been a bit of a break so everyone is chomping at the bit. The day is going to be scenes which are self contained - Mary and child, a courtyard scene and a goresome zombie attack. Unfortunately we're unable to access De Montfort University on this day so are trying to source another location. Just need a room or two so fingers crossed. Even if we cant film then it'll be good to have everything in place for when we can.

As we speak Gav is working on the zombie death for this day. Its gonna be a tough one to nail effectively but iwe'll see what happens.

info@zombieundead.com

Technorati

Just a note to say the ZU blog has joined the Tecnorati site. Technorati is basically a blog portal where people can search for blog content in one place - well worth subscribing to if you want to raise your blogs profile.

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Gordian Knot And Post-Production

A Gordian Knot is a historical legend of a knot tied by Gordius, king of Phrygia, held to be capable of being untied only by the future ruler of Asia. The term has come to refer to an intricate problem, especially a problem insoluble in its own terms; a question that keeps leading you endlessly in loops, circling back around to the origin.

Does this sound familiar to those of us who have tried to export our movies to different formats ? The endless options and check boxes ? The bitstreams and bit rates ? You've made your film, spent countless hours shooting, editing and grading not to mention the dark art of colour correction and now you want to get it on to the web. Well fear not as whereas Alexander The Great had to cut the Gordian Knot with his sword to solve the problem you can rely on Auto GK.

AutoGK is a simpler version of Gordian Knot. It is an integrated package for DVD to DivX/XviD/x264 encoding which combines multiple free software packages to perform the various tasks needed to rip, demux, encode, multiplex and split to size. It thereby attempts to combine most tasks with a single frontend and is largely automated.

This is great for creating files for Stage 6, You Tube etc and takes away a lot of the pain. Jamie from Whiteroom Productions recommended it to me and passed on John, his colleagues, formula for usage.

total time in seconds x 0.16 = size in MB

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Producers

As you may all well know as well as directing i've produced Zombie Undead so far. Well thats fine but the film is becoming too big for me to produce alone. To that end a while ago i asked Martin Hargreaves at De Montfort University for any possible candidates for the role. His colleague Marie came back with a short list and from there we narrowed it down to two names. Sunny Matharu and Matthew Gyngell have been working with the funding proposal and brainstorming completion funding ideas. Matthew has also designed some awesome web banners so keep an eye out for those.

Great to have you on the Zombie Undead team lads.

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Kit Cox Art

The Tony Hart of our generation Kit Cox has come up with the goods again. Asked to produce a one shot picture of the three main leads in the film he's come back with this awesome picture. From left to right - Steve the Paramedic, Sarah and Jay. Kit always comes up trumps with his art and is a talent to watch out for.

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Funding Inspiration

Had awesome meeting earlier in the week with Karl Craig-West. Karl runs a training and advice consultancy, is a professional speaker and, just in case he's got a minute spare, a website designer. Karl has come on board in order to help Zombie Undead with PR and fund raising and i can tell you that in just this first meeting alone Karl came up with some exciting ideas to push the project forward. Karl provided a brainstorming session around the film and how to secure completion funding. Conventional avenues were explored as were some out of the box ideas so watch this space.

One thing Karl said was a must was the film getting a PR agency on board who will be willing to get involved in exchange for free advertising. So any PR agencies or individuals wanting to push the project get in touch.

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Script Writing

Further to previous posts regarding script changes heres something else thats occured to us as the script devloped. This is one thats always bugged me when i see it in on low/no budget films so i have to rant about it here.

To me something that always emphasised the lack of budget in a low budget film is plot exposition. Not only is this poor writing ( show don't tell ) but to me it telegraphs the viewer that you don't have the money to back up your script ideas. Having 2 men in lab coats looking at a computer screen does not make a high powered nuclear bunker scene. The average cinema goer is very film literate and we shouldnt fool ourselves otherwise. The audience subconsciously understands the narrative conventions of cinema in an extremely advanced way so it was important we didn't patronise them.

Lastly it also has the effect of slowing the pace down for no reason. Sure moments of calm are needed but use them to create tension, develop character and push the film forward.

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Blog Changes

After residing elsewhere the ZU blog comes over in new updated form. Entries are being posted back to July last year so expect out of order entries on the rss feed while we catch up. Thank you for your patience as normal service is resumed shortly.

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ZU On Stage 6

"A place for people who love video to post videos, share videos, download and watch streaming videos. Free videos downloads available." Thats Stage 6 in a nutshell. The Zombie Undead team are putting up the teaser trailers and watch out for Zombie Undead - The Short Film. Shot last year ZUTSF showcases the style and format of the feature all in a 7 ish minute package. Watch the blog for when its online and download it for free. Search Stage 6 for 'Zombie Undead'.

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New Website Launched

Cool new look website launched. After weeks of hard work from Matt, from a goresome original design by Lee Milmore, the site is up and running again. Some great concept art by Kit Cox (more on him later) is on show as are the first behind the scenes production stills. Keep checking for regular updates on the progress of Zombie Undead.

White Room Productions

Met today with Jack Everard of White Room Productions. WRP are a Leicester based start up company who create mobile phone based games, band videos, short films and more. Jack, Jamie and John will be working in partnership with Dark Waters Entertainment to help secure funding and push Zombie Undead in the marketplace.

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Funding Proposal Advancing

Spent the last week working on the proposal. After a first draft I emailed it to Rod Duncan, Frank, who cast his expert eye over it. As mentioned before Rod is not only an actor but an author and he also proofreads. He suggested some amendments and the document progressed from there.

After I was happy with the document it was time to export. What I wanted was the proposal in PDF format. Portable Document Format (PDF) is the standard for the secure and reliable distribution of files which is platform independent therefore a great choice for distributing to as many people as possible. However I found out that Publisher cannot save to PDF - you need to buy a plug-in. Ah the joys of computing. So i went on the hunt and found Cute PDF Writer - a freeware program. After installation open
the file that you would like to print to PDF in any program - Word, Publisher etc. Select the Print option and select "CutePDF Writer" from the list of available printers to print. Select the destination directory and filename for your output file. Job Done. Now why couldn't Microsoft have done this ?

While this was a few hours wasted its also given me the incentive to find any software that can do the same as publisher but with pdf export and which is free. Lets see what i can find.

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Funding Proposal

As we are now in Stage 2 of the film, accessing completion funding, its time to create a Funding Proposal. This needs to be as professional a document as possible which conveys the project as a viable proposition. Potential funders need to see the quality of work we have produced and the vision we have. We need to be clear that it is not an investment opportunity but that those who contribute would receive a credit on the film, a copy on DVD and the kudos from being involved in such a high quality film.

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Sickness And Christmas

Ah the joys of Christmas. The Zombie Undead team took a week off for festivities which became a longer period away from the film due to a nasty sickness bug that swept through what seemed like the whole of the UK. Still we're back now and raring to go. The first of our CGI effects tutorials is being worked on as we speak. Also we're looking at accessing completion funding - trying both the standard ways plus more outside the box concepts. Lets see what we can make 2008 bring!

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