If necessity is the mother of invention, who, may I ask, is the father? He’s got a lot of ’splainin’ to do.
My Memorial Day weekend was a typical raucous affair, with the usual piling on of events in the normal, explosive method. I flew to Fort Worth, Texas to spend time with my two brothers. It’s a tradition to visit my older brother and his wife. In previous years, it has been my dad and I, but this year, my younger brother Noel made the seven hour drive from Fort Riley, Kansas.
The big plans included relaxing, trying to outdo each other in movie quotes and other male bonding techniques, and most consumptively (is that a word?), shooting a zombie movie. You know, just like that, like all other zombie movies, right?
We succeeded admirably at the first, never once stressing out or exerting ourselves, other than through the occasional rock throwing contest. The second was a bit of a draw, as we were all at the top of our games, having apparently ingested the entire Leonard Maltin Movie Quotes volumes 1 through 4 the previous week. We were loaded, though the bulk of our conversations seemed to revolve around Star War.
Speaking of which, I sacrificed myself for the greater good and watched Revenge of the Sith a second time with my brothers, which further solidified my belief in the idea of life after death, where one version of hell is watching the prequel trilogy on repeat for eternity. In a THX certified, digital sound and and picture theatre, allowing every cell in your eardrums and eyes to know that what you’re watching is pure grade digital suck. Oh yeah, and the seats are those pain-in-the-butt, uncomfortable jobs that leave your neck cramped after 5 minutes. And everyone around you is wearing Jedi robes or flashing light sabres, and it’s all you can do not to SCREAM as you try to paw your way out of the inky blackness of the horrible, horrible nightmare…
Picture of an eternity of pain, or life as we currently know it? You decide.
The third, which I mentioned as almost a footnote, was the most time-consuming activity, took the most toll on my psychic being, and was, by far, the most fun. I’ve never attempted to film a logistically challenging movie, but if this were in the running, it was quite an introduction. Fourteen zombies in full dress makeup, two character actors, and a third minor character, shooting with a target of ten to fifteen minutes running time, with a rapidly waning clock and inclement weather shadowing the entire process.
It confirmed my suspicions that I am either a sadomasochist or just enthusiastic about the craft, if not the art, of filmmmaking. What a rush. I had some rudimentary storyboards covering most of the non-dialogue action, plus shot lists and a schedule which was composed on the edge of a knife. There was some question whether we would even manage the relatively simple task of filming all the dialogue scenes in under two hours. I’ve found I nearly always overestimate on budgetary and time needs, for whatever reason. This was no exception.
Over a three day, twelve hour period, we shot roughly 78 minutes worth of video, some of which was test footage, but most of which is at least semi-usable material for the final film. And to top it off, we completed all the first team footage (second team footage can be filmed at leisure, on greenscreen) in plenty of time, despite a few hitches on the final day. I’ll save most of the dramatics for the eventual DVD release, but suffice it to say, it was a valuable and exciting experience which I got to share with my two brothers, and that’s not an experience that can be taken away.
Call it success!
At any rate, I am back in the saddle, working hard on our latest contract and trying to remain creative in my free time. It’s a task I feel more than up to the challenge for, and I look forward to relaying all my summer adventures as I attempt to put together what could be a very funny and somewhat scary zombie film.
Glad to be back.