The big one!!! Well what can I say. Supendous! Stunning! Fantastic ….Goresome!!!! The zombies invaded Leicester city 17th April 2009 and fun was had by all. There was a bit of pressure on today – firstly we had to get up at half five and secondly we were going to have a mass (gaggle?, flock?) of zombies around the centre of Leicester.
I set up a Facebook group for this and by a few days before we had over a hundred signed up. With extras i usually ask for twice as many as i want as often you have a ratio of no shows. Well .... just under 100 dedicated zombie fans turned up. Couldnt believe it - awesome! And you know what - we loved them all. Social media dont you love and hate it?
After the madness we vacted to Aylestone Meadows and a quick hop and jump across a fence to an industrial estate and the jobs a good one.
Cant believe how lucky we were weather wise - both days it threatened rain early on, which thankfully never came - and also with all the extras - a great atmosphere, a great bunch, a great day.
7th and 8th of February saw a weekend of filming - are here's the belated writeup.
I have to say, tiring as it is, how much more you can get done in a weekend. Consecutive days filming keep everyone in the mood and helps actors stay in the zone. Also the sense of comradery increases which helps on the set vibe. I was a tad nervous before the shoot as snow was forecast. With crew coming from Cambridge and snow would have made the shoot a no no. After putting in a serious amount of planning for every day thats the last thing i want.
Day 13 had three scenes. We needed to nail these as it was Rod's last day andi didn't want to inconvenience him get him back the next day just for a few hours. The first was a walk down stairs for the main cast - Rod, Chris, Kris, Ruth, Sandra and Barry. Fot a simple sequence of shots this took far too long. Will we ever learn to pace things out rather than going slow and rushing at the end?
Next was when one of the charcters gets bitten. Myself and Gav had worked on this one before, shots, angles etc. Unfortunatly as we had taken spo long on the first scene we were rather rushed on this one. As i said Rod's departure was imminant and i think this played on my mind. Just about got away with it though, ionically with too many shots while looking back we should have stuck with our planned angles. This is a by product of directing/producing and AD'ing myself. I have no room to manourver - always planning who i have to chase up for the next shot before the current one is even done.
Last scene for the day was the charcters holed up in an office. We seem to have used every room in DMU that was usable and ended up in a wide corridor type sapce. Initially the plan was to have the zombies banging on the doors throughout. However as the doors had windows this seemed to make litle sense - the characters sitting around talking while zombies stared at them. I pushed the zombies back so they arrived later in the scene. This gave the scene more room to breath as the dialogue and not the zombies were the focus.
Day 14 - and we're back in the small room. Lots of zombies in this one and an action scene to boot. See above picture for my good friend Martyn Quinn as one of the zombies. Some great performances from all - zombies and humans alike - made this scene a winner. Time flew by and we needed to lose a corridor scene and move on to yet another toilet. Mike Cimpher came all the way for London for this so we really needed to shoot this today. The toilet ended up covered in blood and my nerves were shreaded at the fear of it not washing off. info@zombieundead.com
On the eve of Day 13 I'm just waiting for the morning to see whether its snowing. All shots are indoors but have cast and crew coming from Cambridge and London. We've had the worst snow in 20 years here in Blighty and while other countries shake it off Britain comes to a standstill. If trains are off and grit doesnt reach Cambridge villages then its going to be an early rise for nothing, and a lot of ringing round. The most frustrating thing is the amount of planning just one shooting day takes - postponement is damn hard to take. Fingers crossed for sun, sun, sun.
Heres the outstanding Joe as Morrissey Zombie. Being a serious Smiths fan i just had to get Mozza in the film somewhere. Even sacrificed my Meat Is Murder long sleeve tee. Now THATS dedication.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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. info@zombieundead.com
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 ...
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...
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 ......
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!
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.
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!
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.
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 Sandrawere 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. info@zombieundead.com
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.
