i made a silly zombie movie

HBlack

HBlack

Underage Member
A little back story: upon the conception of this several months ago, it was going to be a 12 minute horror/thriller. I tried for months to get it going, and the whole process was riddled with failed shoot dates due to people being unreliable. Then, the leading actress dropped out. Due to being unwilling to re-cast, general laziness as well as the realization my original plan was a bit too ambitious, I shortened it considerably, cut some roles out and made it a comedy. More internet appeal in that anyway.


The Link


Technical Info
-Shot in HD on a Sony HDR-V1U
-Mic used was a Rode NTG2
-Lights were an Ianiro three piece 1k redhead kit
-Budget was approximately $550
-Took about 8 hours to shoot, we ended up with only 36 minutes of footage

We had the help of the extremely talented composer David Ricard (http://www.thebrickhithouse.com/) of this forum, who was easy to work with and created a score I'm extremely pleased with. The makeup artist was Justin Gateman, who did a tremendous job working in our disorganized little environment. Both worked at far below their normal rates, out of the enjoyment of working on a zombie movie.
Joe Vercillo is a talented new actor who donated his time to the project, and gave a great performance despite my inexperienced directing. We owe him a lot for his professionalism.

So please, I'd love to hear what you guys think of it. Any comments at all are appreciated. I haven't gotten any feedback from people really involved with film, so any technical advice would be fantastic.
 
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GREAT job Yo! Keep those steady reliable people close, and make them your close friends.

I've made so many no-budget pieces thanks to the tight knit attitude.
 
It was a cute little film. Fun.

Not sure how well the jokes sat with me to be honest. There were times where I thought "if it were well timed, that joke would have been hilarious." An example would be the "they can't open doors" line followed by the zombie opening the door. Or the "that happened way too fast" line. They're both funny, but maybe the dialogue wasn't well timed, maybe it was too wordy, maybe the performance didn't pull it off, or all of the above, but something about those scenes felt like they could have been funnier.

The survivor's performance was... okay. You could see some talent, but again, it didn't work for the jokes. Sometimes he was phenomenal, very natural, and other time he wasn't that great, especially for the "what were you thinking!?" scene.

Audio was a bit wierd. When they were in the garage it didn't sound like it was mixed properly. The talking was a bit too low at times, mainly for the "what were you thinking!?" scene.

The ending was great, but left me wondering "so are there actually zombies, or were his friends playing a joke that went too far?" mainly because of the cops. But you could see the survivor guy's performance really come through in that final shot.

Anyways, I find the good outweights the bad in this film by far, but since we're all trying to help each other.
 
Thanks Nick. It's true, the perservering patience of Joe and Justin is what made this possible. If I learned anything from this, it's that reliable people are ESSENTIAL for no budget stuff.

Thanks a lot for the advice Jon.
Yeah, it's at the point where I've watched it so many times I don't know what's funny or not anymore (but I'm sure that happens to everyone), so that's helpful.

To Joe's credit, he doesn't have very much experience that I know of and I have no directing experience. I agree with you on the acting points, but I'm still really happy with the job he did with it.

haha I'm glad you at least sorta got the ending. The joke was supposed to be, that there are three dead zombies in the other room and he's going to have a bit of difficulty explaining that away to the police (who don't believe in zombies). But jokes kinda die when you dissect them.


Anyone, I would really love some pointers for the audio mix. This is the first time when I've done the sound (sort of) properly and mixed it in a dedicated program (audition). In this case, all SFX (footsteps, gun handling, zombie noises and some dialogue) were dubbed. But I have no experience or education on that, so advice on things to adjust would be great.

I'd really appreciate some honest opinions on what I could do with this too. I haven't paid much attention to festivals or anything like that for a while. Could this be submitted to any worthwhile level festival or competition? Or should I just keep it as a fun internet video and move to the next thing? Don't worry about hurting my feelings or anything, but I wouldn't mind having this shown at a short festival of some sort if it's good enough.
 
Cute little film. Reminded me a bit of how Shawn of the Dead starts.

Your actors did a good job. You had a good looking prop gun. The window break was a nice touch. The editing worked well with the shooting and bullet holes.

A couple of things that I think you could improve on the next one.

Lighting: making things look like they are motivated by sources. The basement worked well, but the living room was pretty bright and even.

Sound FX: The gun shot sounds were a bit flat.

It was a fun piece, good job.

V
 
I agree with Visugeek.

I too felt the editing and in fact the whole sequence with the gun worked very well. Great cutting and shot well, blocked well, etc. Very believable.

Also the living room thing was something I was going to bring up. I feel the living room is well lit, but just too even and too fake. Reminds me of sitcom lighting. For the mood of the piece I would have gone with something at least a bit more low key, and... to repeat, think of light motivation.

As for sound mixing, well my best advice would be to just find someone to help you with sound. Sound is a beast in itself, and takes a lot of practice and talent, and is very very important to your piece. A good sound designer should be on the priority level of finding a good DP when putting together a crew... at least in my opinion. After all, 50% of what you see is what you hear.

As for festivals, maybe. I mean I've seen things in some festivals far worse than this. But honestly, I would focus on other things, and once you have something really worth showing, go the festival route. You may find a much bigger audience here on the net than you ever will with festivals. It's not like people line up to see short films in festivals. But I'm no expert in that, just my few experiences from here in montreal. I had a film in a big film festival here in montreal, I think the people watching that night were just the filmmakers themsevles, and a friend or two. Didn't feel worth it.
 
that was a lot of fun. i liked the little Evil Dead 2 style moment of unlocking the toolbox for the gun. looking forward to seeing more from you hblack.
 
Thanks visugeek and Jon again. The shooting sequence is definitely what I'm most happy with. And for the criticism, agreed on all points. The gunshots were just what I threw in initially planning on filling them out later, but I thought they sounded alright and left them in. Could probably have used some worldizing.

The lighting overall was very amateur, and consisted only of pointing lights at the ceiling. haha I don't really have the gear or knowledge to do much more. I did tape some foil to the ceiling in the work room (clearly visible in one of the shots...:embarasse), but that's about it.

Thanks a lot Zak.
 
Looking into starting a short zombie flick of my own and came across this. That was definitely fun! I enjoyed it a lot. The jokes weren't missed at al by me, and I loved that he's playing Dead Rising. Awesome, man!
 
yea, i thought it was hilarious. I don't know what star is talking about. the jokes were great. and the main actor was the man. all around good job. this could really just be the opening scene to a longer short film. you shouldn't give it up after that, think it has a lot of potential.
 
Hey pretty good.

Excellent sound (was there some ADR?).

A little attention to some more atmospheric lighting could really put this over the top (and add another 8 hours of shooting.)

Pet peeve - zombie arm makeup. I know there was some - but it was just gray, not effed up like the face. I'm sure in your case you thought it would read well enough, but my eye goes immediately there because of seeing so many of these where the arms (and sometimes even neck!) were just not even thought about. Anyway - sleeves. Simple solution. But the Zombie makeup on the face was solid and would have even looked better under some more filmmic / genre lighting.

I was definitely entertained and kudos for being short and sweet.
 
I really liked this. I showed a few of my crew members last night before we started work on a short im doing. I really appreciate the type of performances you got from all your actors. I know its not oscar winning but from someone who is currently working with a cast of 7 non-actors, i know first hand how difficult it can be to get performances from people that have no experience doing it. Whats even harder is to convey the inflection you want on certain lines of dialogue especially if its something that the actor wouldnt normally say in real life. So just the fact that all your lines seemed delivered in the right way seemed good.

What camera was this done on? What did you do the sound with (what recorder?)

How did you do the blood effects?

I really wish i could see what your original vision was to be, maybe do the serious 12 min thing you orignally envisioned and do it for real? Maybe get some additional cast? Id love to see it. You could consider this short as a proof that your concept works.

I really loved the quick zoom in the main actors face shots (you had 2 or 3), with a sort of errie sound to create some tension, how did you do it? (just zoom the lens?)

My main complaint was the opening shot. Ive always been taught that the average shot on a film is about 7 seconds. You can of course go over in certain situations, but your opening shot of the two guys lasts what seemed like a while. I was starting to get bored, until the film picked up. For a first time viewer you never want to bore them at the begining, id mix in a nother quick cut away shots in with that opening footage.

ONe of my fav sequences was grabbing the box, entering the combo (great sound effect on that), and pulling it out.

jon
 
Quite enjoyable. The effects with the gun was well done. Lead actor did a good job. Sounded good. Overall very well done. Also liked how the survivor was playing Dead Rising when the zombies came. Keep up the good work.
 
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