Director’s Update 11/15/09

Filming has been going along really well. Sorry for the pause in updates, but here’s some more amazing images from Genevieve Williams:

I apologize in advance… I’ll have to add names in a bit because I’m away from character list. If you comment thought I’ll correct it right away.

Michael

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Dave was a really great sport. He came up with Georgi and Rob for the shoot and was recruited for the horde. We promptly removed one of his arms, and sent him off after some brains.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Annie and Michael dove right in to the pile of clothes for the shoot and came out as an amazing duo. I have to give them full credit for pulling their wardrobe together, and creating an impressive zombie couple.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

The green dress definitely created an aire of sophistication. And what a fantastically elegant zombie she played. Brains on a silver platter anyone?

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Not everyone gets infected while running away. Some just wake up to there “new” persona.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Ben was a fantastic zombie, especially juxtaposed against Janelle.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

O’neil has been really excited about this project since I started contacting people. His enthusiasm was fantastic and he really brought a lot to the set.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

I wondered who would be able to pull off the tie-dye and David did a great job with it, even with that terrible bite on his neck.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Here’s Janelle in her dilapidated sweater. Ready for what else? Brains.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Liv Earle is always up for a good zombie shoot. First she did some makeup this day, and then decided to join the horde… shhhhhhhh… don’t tell anyone.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Hey Jen Burger! Nice Muumuu. Somebody had to wear it. But could have anyone have done it better?

Below is our “team” of zombies. A great group of soccer players from Wolcott who were roped into this by one of their friends, but I won’t give her away. They were a really fantastic group and were really easygoing about learning to shamble.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

A Little Late But…

as promised some new images.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Phil holds on to a replica of Alec as Scott attaches the wig….. hmmmmm…. so this is what all that head casting was for….

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Phil gives Alec’s head a prehammer pep talk….

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Getting the head all ready…

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Alec shows the head just how easy it is…

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

“They lie! They always lie to me!”

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Jake fresh on the hunt for some more brains….

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Kelly takes a moment to pause for the camera…

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Alec also taking a break from all the head smashing to pause for the camera.

The Horde

As promised we have images from our shoot on October 25th. And even more tomorrow!

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Here Jason Weeks is preparing Alec for the horde. As the parasites infest the body we want bruising, decay, exit wounds, and infection marks.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Jason Weeks also did a tremendous job with Jake (as seen above). Jake went all out for this shoot and Jason took full advantage of it making by far our goriest and freakiest zombie.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Liv, who also plays Tegan, is helping with makeup. Here she’s finishing up Dave’s face who’s not “looking so good” anymore.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Rachael Hetzel stopped her pursuit of brains to pause for the camera and add a little more crunch to her diet.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Michael Murphy is having a little neck work done by Scott.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Georgi, working the steadicam, is keeping a keen eye on the action. In the background I’m preparing our soccer team with advice on how to walk like a zombie. Just moan and grrrrrrr….. a whole lot.

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Dear Phil,

We’ll Miss You.

 

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Jason Saxe finishes up makeup on one of the newly infected.

Behind the Lens

Genevieve Williams

Name: Genevieve Williams

Preferred weapon of the apocalypse: Banana peels and rocks

Where I’ll race to when the zombies rise: Uphill

Who I don’t want to be stuck with: Kanye West

One Item I’ll grab on the way out the window: A cat

Favorite Zombie/Apocalyptic Movie: The one we’re making

Well if you’ve been wondering who is responsible for all the brilliant images we have of this movie making experience, here she is on set. Like any true photographer we find here in the midst of apocalyptic chaos avoiding being bitten, dodging corn syrup, watching for peeled latex, and still ever conscious of the DSLR’s shutter noise.

In her words “Genevieve Williams is a fourth year photography student at RIT and is expected to graduate in February 2010.  Originally from Virginia, she stumbled upon the zombie film through a couple of her peers who she meet her first year in Rochester.  Soon enough, she found a place in her heart for creepy/bizarre/gory things.  Her life has never been the same since.  She plays the ukulele.”

… and a kick ass ukele I might add. Tomorrow I’ll be adding a large gallery of her images from last week’s set. She’s so seldom in front of the camera that I couldn’t delay introducing her any longer, though. So come back tomorrow for more zombie eating fun.

Director’s Update

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

That’s me. No. Not the guy with the plastic spoon and big red beard. That’s Aaron Bidwell and you’ll hear more about his zombie ass kicking skills later. I’m the one covered in blue plastic goop courtesy of Scott Randall. (He’s the amazing unofficial leader of our special effects team. His two fingers are coming in from the side, and you’ll hear more about him soon as well.) The blue goop is a two part silicone mixture that’s used to form a negative of my head. This process is the first stage in making the false heads that will oh so delicately be hatcheted, sledge hammered, and kicked around in whatever imaginative ways we can dream up.

This image is a little older as we made this mold in preparation for the last shoot. Right now Scott is in the process of making a skewered human, Phil’s head, and a few other surprises for our Halloween shoot. Here’s Phil:

Courtesy of Scott's Cell Phone

Jason Saxe is in the background giving him a good shot of goop. It’s cold, not quite wet, and leaves you wondering often enough if your eyes are open or closed. The final stage is a layer of Plaster gauze that makes you feel you were buried alive. The scratching sounds in the vacuum are what I would imagine dirt on a coffin to sound like.

Speaking of, I haven’t heard from Phil since Wednesday…. hmmmmmm… well at least Scott will have a copy of his head. We have another big shoot this Saturday, but no helicopters. I’ll be in touch on the other side of Saturday with more stills from last weekend, some crew profiles, and lessons on how to suspend a zombie upside down…

One Bloody Zombie

Bloody Self Promotion

This image comes to us courtesy of our makeup artist Jason Weeks and Pistachio Press. The zombie featured here is Jake, and he was quite the intimidating creature on set. Though he did drool an awful lot.

Introducing James Eles

Image courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Name: James Eles

Preferred Weapon of the Apocalypse: a flail!

Where you’ll race to when the zombies rise: It totally depends on the capabilities of the horde, are they sea worthy? If not, I’d take to the sea.

Who you don’t want to be stuck with: Anybody with a bad ‘tude!

One item you’ll grab on the way out window: as much warm and durable clothing as possible.

Favorite Zombie/Apocalyptic Movie: 28 Days Later
James Eles, endurance zombie extraordinaire, brings an extensive history of stage acting and tolerance to our cast. Not only is he the first human to be infected with the parasite, but he endured a grueling 8 hour shoot in wet clothes and 40 degree temperatures. His commitment shows that he may already have been reanimated.

From the Director’s Chair (10/26/09)

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Just in time for Halloween the parasites of taken hold and our production of Gangeous Green (working title) is well on it’s way. We had an amazing shoot on Sunday and everything went off on schedule. We had 20 zombies for our horde including several members of the Wolcott Girls High School soccer team. Picture in this image is Jake Massey and Rachael Hetzel emerging from their run in with the effects team.

The helicopter lifted off with Rob right around noon and we started the aerial shots. Ray from BAC Helicopters was our pilot and did a fantastic job of fighting winds over Lake Ontario to hold our position.

Our Horde on the ground (more on them in a post to come soon) did a great job of keeping our woodsman on his toes, but you’ll have to see the movie to find out what happens to him. Yeah, like you can’t guess. We had everything from Prom zombies, Soccer zombies, couple zombies, and Muumuu zombies. We’ll be giving the horde more closeups soon as well as a bio on Phil Dodds who plays our woodsman.

Our crew has grown in size with the movie and I feel lucky to be a part of such an amazing team. Our effects team includes Scott Randall, Jason Weeks, Jason Saxe, and our own Liv Earle jumped in to help with makeup. Jay and Jason jumped in a few days before the shoot and were absolutely essential to completing the look.

Thanks again to everyone who came out. Sunday was a huge success and we have a lot of incredible footage to prove it. I’ll be in touch soon with more images.

Michael

Introducing Joshua Pearson

Image courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Preferred Weapon of the Apocalypse: A shovel. It may be a tad heavy, but the poetry is worth it.

Where he’ll race to when the zombies rise: To a small island in the south pacific.

Who you don’t want to be stuck with: Someone who needs to be coddled all the time.

One item you’ll grab on the way out window: My camera bag. Someone’s got to document it.

Favorite Zombie/Apocalyptic Movie: Dawn of the Dead, the original.

Joshua Pearson plays George, the filmmaking counterpart to Tegan. In his role as the haughty hipster of the apocalypse Joshua is creating a movie within a movie. His improvisation on set has been perfect and probably stems from his interest in film. In Joshua’s words, “I love movies, have since I was a kid. There was this movie filmed in Upstate New York in the 80’s called Lady in White. It starred Lucas Haas and Katherine Helmond. They were filming in Lyons NY one day, when I was still in a stroller, and my Mother was locked in a store that they filmed in front of. So by proxy, I was in that movie. Once I found that out I knew that I wanted to make movies for the rest of my life.”

Introducing Daniel Lilly

Image Courtesy of Genevieve Williams

Name: Daniel Lilly

Preferred Weapon of the Apocalypse: The cure

Where he’ll race to when the zombies rise: Greece

Who he doesn’t want to be stuck with: Gavin Price

One item he’d grab on the way out window: Carl Jung action figure

Favorite Zombie/Apocalyptic Movie (or play!): God Costume by D. Welser Carroll

Daniel Lilly is an avid writer and eccentric in Rochester, NY. And by eccentric we mean the perfect harbinger of the apocalypse. While not warning lost souls of the dangers of hell and impending doom Daniel is putting energy into St. Fortune Productions. He is the co-founder of St. Fortune Productions which he describes as ” a new theater/music/improv production company based in Rochester and focused on the production of original, local, inspired and innovative work.” We welcome Daniel to our cast where his acting has been inspiring and prolific.

Previously Daniel was highly involved in stage acting while attending SUNY Geneseo. His favorite role was that of Doctor Horace Gifford in Jack Frederick’s nature dramedy Unloaded For Bear.  His favorite short story is Irish Girl by Tim Johnston.