tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1513346948044427982024-03-13T17:49:30.359+00:00Shooting the DeadHow to make a low-budget zombie film in the UK, the Andy and Jake wayAndy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.comBlogger156125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-25364920526771732532013-07-27T13:55:00.003+01:002022-07-26T12:21:35.571+01:00Letters from an Ordinary WorldHas it really been that long?<br />
<br />
Once upon a time you couldn’t shut him up, and then suddenly... nothing. Not a word since April. He doesn’t write, he doesn’t call, he’s just vanished into the blogosphere. Filmmakers, eh?<br />
<br />
And so we start with an apology. Sorry. It’s been way too long.<br />
<br />
Part of the extended radio-silence is down to the fact that Jake and I aren’t actually doing anything on the movie anymore. Once we had dropped off a hard disk with a (greatly pared-down) collection of finished stuff for our Sales Agents at the end of May, our work here was pretty much done. Rest easy, son – the experts are on the case.<br />
<br />
But mostly it's because this bit doesn’t feel like part of the same adventure anymore. If this was a movie, it would have faded out on the applause at the end of the cast-and-crew screening. This bit actually feels like the first act of the next movie, where we see our heroes go about their daily lives in their Ordinary Worlds, just waiting for an inciting incident to come along. Since the screening, we have both had to find day-jobs, while Jake is also busy planning a wedding and finding a place to move into. I've wound up with employers who routinely insist on shipping me out to the far-flung corners of the planet, and when you’re on corporate expenses time you never find yourself sober for long enough to throw a coherent five hundred words together. Oh, gidday from Melbourne, by the way.<br />
<br />
But, behind the scenes, stuff has been going on. Not at a rate that demands frequent blogging, but important stuff. And rather than apologise to every member of the cast and crew individually when they text me for an update, here’s where we are at.<br />
<br />
First up, we have now sold the Japanese distribution rights. I say ‘we’, but actually <em>Moviehouse Entertainment</em> did all the heavy lifting at Cannes. The first territory to fall marks a profound moment in the lives of independent movie producers <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;">–</span> it’s the difference between being a ‘filmmaker’ and a ‘distributed filmmaker’. Semantics to some, but absolutely crucial to the people that dole out UK and European film money. That's in the unlikely event that Jake and I ever manage to write a screenplay that crosses the necessary thresholds for art and decency.<br />
<br />
Being honest, I am more than a little surprised that the Japanese were the first to bite. 76 minutes of hostile, sweary nonsense for a more polite society. Presumably somewhere in Tokyo, an English language scholar is going to be given our dialogue sheet to translate, and will no doubt reflect for a moment on where their years of study and experience have brought them. If anyone knows the Kanji character for ‘idiot gentleman’, please let me know. I have a feeling it’s going to appear fairly frequently in the subtitle track.<br />
<br />
And it looks like we may have sorted out a festival premiere. Nothing confirmed yet, but anybody that’s going to be in Chicago at the end of September and fancies meeting Robert Englund and watching <em>Zombie Resurrection</em> lose its festival virginity should make themselves known now. As much as anything else, I’m looking forward to seeing whether the jokes that we wrote in autumn 2010 are actually going to get a laugh.<br />
<br />
Chicago? There must be some kind of work-related meeting or something that’ll warrant me being flown out to the Windy City that week, surely? Conniving.<br />
<br />Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-12851014002536072662013-04-21T19:26:00.005+01:002022-07-26T12:18:43.279+01:00Framed-up<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><div class="MsoNormal">Q: When is 24 not 24?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A: When it’s actually 23.976 <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;">–</span> a piece of the most irritating
kind of Final Cut Pro nonsense that has cost me half a weekend. And the sunny
half to boot.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">This is all about the frames per second: the number of different pictures that
get flashed up in front of the audience’s eyes every second. European TVs and
DVDs do it 25 times (well, they do half of a picture 50 times a second). Go
see a film in the cinema and you’ll be presented with 24. And Peter Jackson has
been known to go as high as 48. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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And in America? 29.97 frames per second. Not 30; 29.97. Who ever thought that was a sensible idea?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again, probably best not to start with the rant before
setting the context. You may have recently noticed some new pictures and links appearing
on the <a href="http://www.charmed-apocalypse.com/" target="_blank">Charmed website</a>, directing more enlightened distributors towards
our Sales Agents <a href="http://www.moviehouseent.com/" target="_blank">Moviehouse Entertainment</a>, who are proudly carrying the banner for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i> in its onwards march
into DVD emporia near you. The contacts are signed, a skip-load of DVDs passed
across to them to hand out at Cannes, and the unmanageable list of must-have deliverables
bartered down to the absolute necessities.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gone are the expensive HDCAMs and DigiBetas, to be replaced
by a single full-fat ProRes file delivered on a hard disk. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At 24 frames per second.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And while this was cause for some jubilation in Charmed
Central, it did raise one important issue. We didn’t shoot the film at 24
frames per second. Like all good Europhiles, we went for 25.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This was, I should point out, not an arbitrary choice on our
part. If you start to read the Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook it’s written there
on one of the commandment stones. On page 7, even before you make it to the
Contents pages, the decision has been take out of your hands: '<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thou shalt shoot, while living in PAL land,
at 25 fps on film, or 25p on HD, irrespective of what the other soothsayers
advise. They be-eth wrong!'</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thinking about it, it does make sense. Outside of the
festival circuit, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i>
was never intended for a cinematic release. It’s a low-budget zombie film that
doesn’t have Brad Pitt in it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so we plan for the DVD. 25 frames per second. Done.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So the question before us now is: 'how do we make a 25 fps
film into a 24 fps film?'. And the easiest answer is just to slow the whole lot
down by 4%. No one outside of the production team will ever notice, we are
reliably assured. Oh, and maybe the actors, who will wonder which slightly-more-baritone
replacements came in and dubbed all their lines.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Simple. On paper this should be a stroll through the roses. Conform
the video footage to 24 fps in After Effects, slow down and re-sample the audio
track, introduce them to each other again in the editing software, et voila!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Except Final Cut Pro was written by Americans. Americans
with their NTSC TVs and whimsical sample rates.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is, apparently, far easier to make an American DVD if your frame rate isn’t quite 24 frames per second. No <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;">–</span> 23.976
works so much nicer. But, hey, it’s close enough to 24 that we can probably name
all the software templates in Final Cut Pro as 24 fps. Round it up, why don’t we? Don’t want to
confuse the punters.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so somewhere in sunny Hampshire, a lonely vitamin-D
deficient film producer gazes sadly out of his window at all the other kids
playing in the street, wondering why by the end of his film everybody’s
dialogue is just a tiny bit out of sync.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">So endeth the rant. I’m
off to the pub. Spent.</div>
Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-57993271242089203102013-03-28T22:37:00.003+00:002022-07-26T12:13:37.377+01:00Body of Christ?<!--[if !mso]>
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'Moist'. Now officially my least favourite adjective.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s a convoluted story that starts with a simple request
from our Sales Agents, and ends with me in trauma counselling. However, persist
to the end of the post and you will be rewarded with the link to our brand
new trailer.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I say 'brand new', but it’s more 'variations on a theme'.
But for those of you that watched the trailer that we stuck up last January
just after our first pass on the edit, and were concerned by an absence of gore
or people running about, this might just be your lucky day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyway, I digress.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I mentioned in my last posting that Jake and I came away
from the meeting with the sales guys with some homework. An updated trailer and
a copy of the poster art for them to take to Cannes as bait for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i> distribution
mousetrap. And it all seemed so straightforward at the time – swap out the
shots from the original trailer with the shiny graded ones from the movie, and
send them the best quality JPEG of our picture of the zombie Messiah crucified on a cross of
blood.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Twenty minutes work and the price of a first class stamp. If
only every meeting was so simple.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That was until we got the details through. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our poster art was prepared originally for a bunch of flyers
and DVD covers to make ourselves appear slightly more presentable at last
year’s Cannes festival. It had to look arresting and intriguing. It had to give
potential sales agents and distributors the warm glow that there was a way that
they could eventually market the movie. And it had to look presentable on an A5
piece of card.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But our Sales Agents have bigger plans. A1, to be exact.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ll save you the trip to Google - 841 x 594 mm. Movie poster size.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyone that’s ever printed out porn that they've downloaded from the
internet expecting it to look like a glossy top-shelf mag will know exactly what
the problem is. The cracks start to show.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, while the face of our zombie Messiah was lifted from a
suitably detailed image shot by Rob-the-photo in his on-set studio, the rest of
him is appropriated from a screen-grab from the film. High definition, sure,
but not movie poster definition.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Bugger. It needs fixing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the quickest fix – sorting out a replacement shot of the Messiah’s
body to overlay on top of the unusably pixelated torso. And that means digging
out the costume that my brother wore continually for three weeks under hot set
lights for some proper photos.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is where being the person in the group with the least
technical aptitude really sucks. Jake is the camera guy. Andy gets to be the
stunt double.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Eighteen months hermetically sealed in a plastic bag in
Jake’s parents’ loft later, and the bloody costume was still damp.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it stank. My God, did it ever stink. A potent combination
of mould and re-animated sweat. I never knew I could trip my gag reflex so hard
and often without actually crossing the expulsion threshold. Although I did
come dangerously close when I stuck my hands into the pockets and
gushed into a collection of my brother’s old tissues, their summer 2011 payload
maintained in a perpetual state of liquidity.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh dear – it’s making me retch just typing this.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyway, by 2:30 AM last night, it was done. A poster fit for
a wider canvas, and I can’t say that it wasn’t good to feel a little bit like a
movie producer again after months in an office. A sensation that persisted up until
my alarm went off this morning and I realised that I still had to go to work.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimqvCHmfHPd61Q3ktaTDJstR1CUeqG_SSeAbQm4FZb0VNb1SpW9U0f6x7IpD5b2j3JbgzwdrY3SAycEoPHPbIpp-xfQWoQExFZl2JJVRYCMGw0Jhxvmey0SUbkLdyE-L8KO9IKSVaOZdep/s1600/Zombie+Resurrection+-+Sales+Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimqvCHmfHPd61Q3ktaTDJstR1CUeqG_SSeAbQm4FZb0VNb1SpW9U0f6x7IpD5b2j3JbgzwdrY3SAycEoPHPbIpp-xfQWoQExFZl2JJVRYCMGw0Jhxvmey0SUbkLdyE-L8KO9IKSVaOZdep/s320/Zombie+Resurrection+-+Sales+Poster.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
<br />
Only our mother can tell us apart, although I always imagined that the Son
of God would be taller. Stunted.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-64974926784990195452013-03-06T23:13:00.003+00:002022-07-26T12:10:02.219+01:00So, where’s our bloody movie, Phelps?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Fly free, my pretty.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today almost felt like being a filmmaker again. No alarm
clock, no creased shirt, no office peer-pressure to have a shave. Just a cheeky
midweek trip to London.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I should start this posting with an apology. To everyone
that has gone to the blog vainly trying to find out what’s happening with the
movie, to everyone that has called, texted or emailed me this year – sorry.
It’s not because we’ve been distracted by too much suckling at the teat of
the man, it’s because we’ve not had too much positive to report.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I blame HMV. The bottom has fallen out of the UK
distribution market since it went into administration. The distribution
companies are all, one imagines, creditors of the ailing high-street DVD
stockist. And some companies, such as Revolver, are <a href="http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/revolver-entertainment-is-uk-distributor-going-out-of-business/">faring
worse than others</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Besides, I’m a sucker for making the whole movie-making
process look easy. Easier, at least.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But today was an important day. Today we handed the whole shebang
over to a Sales Agent.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yup. As of this afternoon, responsibility for the sale of
all UK and international distribution rights finally lies where it should –
with the experts. And, rather incongruously, this is where the real hard work
starts for Jake and me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anybody that has been through the process of engaging a
Sales Agent to secure distribution for their movie will tell you all about The
List. The exhaustive catalogue of a hundred things you need to sort out to enable
the movie to get sold. A 16:9 version of the film on HDCam. Ditto a 4:3 version and a 1:2.35 version. Both PAL and NTSC equivalents on
DigiBeta. Music cue sheets. A hundred pictures. An MPAA certification. E&O
insurance. Re-written screenplays and every combination of music, sound effects
and dialogue delivered on ten different flavours of digital media.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s genuinely horrific.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, this is early in the process, and certain things
are more important than others at this stage. For them to take the film to
Cannes and start the selling process, we really only need a trailer, a poster,
a whole bunch of DVDs to give away, and a short synopsis.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh, and to be clear here – they’re talking about our
existing trailer and poster art.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yeah – the trailer that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEZhPcim914">we cut together last January</a>
before we had any sensible gore or grading. That one.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>I had, naively, imagined that this would be useful only to break
the ice with industry professionals, and, to be fair, it did that fairly
admirably – the Sales Agents that we are going with were people that we met and
auditioned at Cannes last year. But, at some point in the process I did think
that responsibility for a proper trailer and key art would be passed over to
someone that knew what they were doing. It may look like art, but it’s all
craft and experience.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh no. It turns out that this is up to us. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And this is where our hard work starts. A complete
re-working of the trailer to improve the picture, sound and blood content. Oh,
and losing the swearing and adding in more running. And if we can come up with
an easier-to-understand tagline, that might be helpful too.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But at what point in the process do we get relieved by the
professionals? Is there a possibility that whatever trailer Jake and I pull
together by Easter will actually be used to coax unwitting members of the
gore-buying community into purchasing the DVD? And will Amo’s temporary poster
art be on the box?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More importantly, what’s going to happen to the 18,000 hits
that the last trailer has already amassed? Don’t think that you’re not going to
be expected to help out once the new trailer is up on-line. Counting.<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-61117038104345419622013-02-26T18:04:00.002+00:002022-07-26T12:07:57.369+01:00From rush-hour, with love<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><div class="MsoNormal">If this was Hollywood, our story would have ended at the
cast and crew screening in November.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
CUT TO: Eric vs. the zombies. A crash to black and credits
start to roll. Silence from the room. The camera pushes in on the nervous faces
of the two filmmakers as the lights go up. The men glance at each other – they
slowly stand to face a barrage of flack from 180 unhappy punters. One of them
opens his mouth to speak, but a single clap rings out from the back of the
room. The men glance across, confused. The clap is joined by another, and then
by more and more people applauding, until the whole room are on their feet,
cheering wildly. The filmmakers are overcome with emotion. A celebratory fist is
thrust into the air in slow motion as we fade to a triumphal close.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This, however, is Hampshire. So we have ended up with a
dramatically-superfluous fourth act <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;">–</span> Jake and I try and sell the bugger.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m getting slightly ahead of myself. I haven’t contributed
anything to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i>
story since November, so we have some catching up to do. And from a production
perspective the two most profound events since the screening have been Jake’s
and my successful re-integration into the world of the day-job.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, the holiday had to end at some point.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And while I (at least) am quite enjoying my new daily
activities, I do appear to have wound up with exactly the kind of job that I
wasn’t looking for. And it’s all to do with labelling.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More specifically, it’s all to do with how you answer the
question 'what do you do?' Over the last two years whenever I felt myself
reaching for the answer 'filmmaker', I knew exactly what the next question
would be. 'Oh really? Anything I might have seen?'<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">'Um, well, it’s kind of in post-production at the moment…'<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ah – so you’re not really a 'filmmaker', you’re 'making a
film'. Semantics, yes, but there are a lot of people that we’ve met who are 'making a film'. Anyone with a good idea / screenplay / mate with a camera /
etc. is 'making a film', especially when they're trying to chat someone up. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Until your movie is available in ASDA or Amazon, it’s
your fault that there is a glaring cultural gap in their film-watching history.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I look back on my unsuccessful job-hunting
strategies at the end of last year, it seems in hindsight that I was guided by
ridiculous narcissism. Don’t go looking for anything that resembles a career,
Phelps, because that will label you as an 'engineer who happens to have
made a film'. Get a job that has 'temporary source of cash' stamped all over
it, and avoid the kind of nuanced conversations about where your working
loyalties lie that trainee baristas and shelf-stackers never get into.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And in this regards, I have failed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Failed, thanks to the actions of an eagle-eyed recruitment
consultant. I have somehow swapped my carefree lifestyle for one of alarm
clocks, freshly-laundered shirts, self-enforced curfews and a commute. And a
job that painfully resembles what I was doing when I got laid off two years
ago. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I once made a zombie film, you know? Back in that two-year
career break.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And here is where I get to stop whining. While I can feel my
life starting to speed up again, the novelty of feeding the mortgage hasn’t
worn off just yet, and there are plenty of jobs that I could be doing that
wouldn’t be half as entertaining. And it’s not like we’ve let
losing forty hours a week get in the way of selling the movie. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh – that? That’s a story for later. Back-peddling.<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-91903718640013554222012-11-19T17:28:00.002+00:002022-07-26T12:06:04.907+01:00The coming together <!--[if !mso]>
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<![endif]--><div class="MsoNormal">And relax.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What a weekend… Saturday was as much fun as I’ve had in as
long as I can remember, as we welcomed an insane amount of people to the cast
and crew screening of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i>.
Cast, crew, zombies, post-production guys, people from the various locations at
which we shot the bugger, the guys that did all our set catering, investors,
IndieGoGo supporters, mentors, friends and family. All in one place to enjoy 76
minutes of gore-laden sweary silliness.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it was terrific. 180 people laughing in mostly all the
right places, with the freshly-graded film looking and sounding lovelier than
it ever has done before. And we got to hang out with a bunch of pals that we
hadn’t seen in fourteen months. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not that anything ever goes completely smoothly. The cinema
was hosting the thematically-perfect Third International Death Day Conference
beforehand, and when we arrived to set up at 6:00 they were showing no signs of
letting up. And bitter experience insists that you’re never beyond the mercies
of technical SNAFUs until you hear the last strains of the end-credits.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But when the lights went up at the end of the screening I
could smell the stress evaporating.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sure, it’s a wedding audience <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;">–</span> a room filled with people
willing the best-man’s speech to be that much funnier than it would otherwise
be. Someone would have to be supremely un-classy to go up to a couple of
filmmakers at their first screening and berate them for the idiotic way that they’ve wasted
two years of their lives, but from my vantage
point at the back of the cinema people did genuinely seem to be enjoying
themselves. Jake and I lost all sense of perspective on the movie a long time ago, but until
we get told differently we’re taking Saturday as an indication that we’ve done
something right.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it was at this point that I may have slightly
over-relaxed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the audience de-camped back to the bar, and with our
responsibilities finally discharged, everything inevitably degenerated into the
kind of extended session that my body hasn’t been able to cope with since I was
25. Sat in my flat at 4:00 AM with the last of the stragglers pillaging the forgotten bowels of my booze collection, I should have known that Sunday
was going to be a struggle.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But that aside, it’s a massive Charmed thank you again to
Christian for organising the cinema, and to everyone that turned up on Saturday
night. We wouldn’t be here without all your support and generosity over the
last couple of years. You’ve made two happy people really old.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sadly, photographs from the evening are in short supply (and
if you have any good shots please feel free to post them on the Charmed
Apocalypse Facebook page), but I did get sent one truly disturbing MMS from my
brother yesterday. Blog readers with good memories may remember
<a href="http://shootingthedead.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/buttocks-of-living-dead.html" target="_blank">a rather foolish bet</a> that Jake and I made with each other in January 2011, a
bet that we were finally able to make good on last Friday.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjflM_xlavXW2m7OzilxPu3Zn209chTMx80x6lgtphPSAHu_clMaTA8TMP_2uzlWAPYwwuyXR014l2IRtKj6o_WjNzS3tgJ2mhp_RLbc-C_vmbJ0fb8WuIbppy5ZeuQ4zIIhpP3S8IFc-yq/s1600/IMAG0196.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjflM_xlavXW2m7OzilxPu3Zn209chTMx80x6lgtphPSAHu_clMaTA8TMP_2uzlWAPYwwuyXR014l2IRtKj6o_WjNzS3tgJ2mhp_RLbc-C_vmbJ0fb8WuIbppy5ZeuQ4zIIhpP3S8IFc-yq/s320/IMAG0196.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, so wrong. Please don’t this be the only record of an
otherwise excellent evening. Muted.<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-10460378034993320322012-11-13T14:18:00.003+00:002022-07-26T12:04:49.566+01:00Picking up the pieces<div class="MsoNormal">The only thing that you can be 100% sure of in
post-production is that no matter how much time you set aside to do something,
everything will only come together at the very last moment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s been three weeks since we arranged Saturday’s cast and
crew outing to the nicest bit of Hampshire. Three weeks, then, for the
very last tweaks to the picture and sound. Extending a zombie growl here,
making an exterior shot slightly bluer there. Plenty of time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And yet, with four days to go, we still haven’t received the
graded copy of the film or the final stereo mix-downs. Or, in non-techy speak,
‘all of the pictures’ and ‘all of the sound’.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There must be a secret post-production union somewhere that
has guidelines to ensure that movie producers are never allowed to fully
de-pucker. Let’s see how badly these filmmakers really want this. Enough to
cry on the phone? Enough to open an important artery?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To be clear, it’s not enough to get all the constituent
components through on Saturday afternoon and then wander straight in to the
cinema. There are a couple of days’ work at our end piecing everything back
together again, and this supposes that everything we get in works perfectly
first time. It’ll take a good eighteen hours just to crunch the film into a
format that the projector likes using my Mac, which the local Apple store
recently euphemistically referred to as ‘vintage’. No amount of prayer,
whip-cracking or sobbing is going to boost the processor speed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But we’ve still got four days. Plenty of time. *Clenches*<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the plus side, if everything goes to plan, Saturday night
is going to be an extraordinarily entertaining evening. 180 guests, all the
principal cast members back together again (with the notable exception of
Rachel, who is on tour with a show), and loads of our crew, zombies and
investors. And if you’re expecting an invite but haven’t had one through, check
your spam directory and get in touch.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And Plan B? Print out ten copies of the screenplay, dig out
the costumes from Jake’s attic, boil up a gallon of honey-blood and re-enact
the movie live.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thinking about it, that may actually be quite a lot of fun. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection – The Musical</i>,
anyone? Strained.<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-24612977468964819772012-10-30T10:18:00.001+00:002022-07-26T12:03:21.449+01:00How to look good knackered<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><div class="MsoNormal">The cinema is booked, the guests invited, and the fat-lady gargling
in anticipation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite my natural pessimism, it turns out that
the 17<sup>th</sup> November is very much on for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection’s</i> debutante ball. Three hundred people from the
cast, crew, hordes and their significant others, gathered back in Winchester to
reacquaint themselves with the zombie apocalypse. It’s going to be an
inordinately silly evening, and I can’t wait.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just under three weeks away. Tick tick tick.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are still the last few bits and pieces to nail down, but
in a break from tradition I am actually allowing myself relax a smidgeon. The tricky stuff is now done, and the potential to be unpleasantly surprised by
what we have yet to receive is greatly reduced. At the moment that we signed
off the last of the CGI shots we allowed ourselves to believe that home and dry
was a formality.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such hubris, Phelps. Surely there must still be plenty of
opportunities for it all to go catastrophically wrong?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ah – the unknown unknowns. The only constant in the life of
a filmmaker. Those arse-biting moments that come out of nowhere to
test the resolve and challenge the best laid plans. All you can do is keep your
eyes peeled, breath bated, and double the amount of time that you expect every
task to take. It’s going to be an interesting three weeks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But until we get told otherwise, we get to enjoy that rarest
of sensations – quiet confidence.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In fact, the mood in Charmed Central is currently so
unflappable that we’ve turned our attention to that other outstanding body of
work: the making-of documentary for the DVD.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Regular readers may remember the <a href="http://shootingthedead.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/transfer-windows.html">extraordinary
aggravation</a> that we had at the start of the process – digitising 21 hours
of behind-the-scenes footage, and then struggling to find the most sensible way
of getting them so they played OK on a PC. It was an unwelcome distraction from
our efforts to get the movie finished, but one that I’m glad we persisted
through. Because last week the finished cut of the making-of documentary
arrived in our in-boxes from the mighty Chris Marley, complete with intercut
footage from the film, actors giving earnest interviews while caked in
honey-blood, and some wholly awful chat from Jake and me holding the whole
thing together. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it’s terrific. Terrific in the way that only something
that doesn’t have Jake’s and my fingerprints all over it can be.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All those moments from the shoot that I’d forgotten: Danny
sitting on a balsa chair and instantaneously turning it to kindling. Shaun-the-boom-op
getting wrapped across the back with another stunt chair to celebrate his
birthday. Jade losing it mid-interview when a naked pair of buttocks appeared
at the back of her shot. Our lovely horde getting painted and gored up. And
long sections of various crew members sat around waiting for everybody else to
get on with it. One quick re-working from the ever-dependable Dale-the-tunes to
lay an authentic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i>
musical vibe over the top and we are in business.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And, after watching it back, I genuinely have no idea how we
managed to get a film shot at the same time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But shoot one we did. Better get those RSVPs in for the 17<sup>th</sup>
November if you don’t believe me. Unwinding.<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-87171854385837508192012-10-20T15:01:00.002+01:002022-07-26T11:58:48.123+01:00Glimpses of a brighter beyond<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><div class="MsoNormal">Oh, we are close.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I mean so close that we can almost smell the finish line.
It’s a bizarre feeling, like reaching the final chapter in a book that’s taken
two years to read. But it has cheered us up somewhat.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On paper, the day-job hasn’t changed too much. We’re still
taking daily receipt of the remaining CGI shots, and trading finesses to the
sound, music and title sequence with our post-posse, but we are close enough
now to the end of the tunnel to know that the light wasn’t a train rushing
towards us after all.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The tally: only four remaining CGI shots, 48 tweaks to the
sound mix and three minor changes to the titles. By this time next week we
should actually have a finished movie. I know I’ve said this before, but this
is the first time that I’ve actually believed it myself.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And to think that our initial intention had been to take the
finished film to Cannes last May. Only five months late, Phelps. I’ll leave it
to you to decide whether this represents poor project management, staggering
naivety or unwarranted optimism on our part.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We crossed an important threshold last week. There were four
bastard CGI shots that had been lurking in the wings for a couple of months, which
involved taking out green legs and replacing them with a knotted stump. Despite
our best efforts on set to collect all the useful footage of empty frames and
replacement elements, making these shots look good was always going to be a challenge. A challenge not improved when the compositor that was working on
them suddenly upped and left for Australia, leaving behind only a set of undecipherable
scripts on a flavour of software that no one else in the team was using.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, the shots have sat on a back-burner for a while, thwarting
all attempts to plan for activities beyond the end of the film as they waited
for someone with the requisite chops to come along. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then, as if by magic, along he came.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Suddenly our world gets that much brighter. The shots look so damn good now
that people are going to be surprised when they find out that actor Joe is
actually bi-pedal in real life (and people blessed with the Horror Channel can
check this out for themselves tonight at 9:00).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And we relax. Finally.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our initial approaches to the world’s finest horror
festivals have yielded a paltry return, but it does mean we can now start planning the most
important screening – showing the movie to the cast, crew and members of our
zombie hordes. There are still some logistical issues that need to be ironed
out, but what I can say at this point is that it can’t hurt to keep the evening
of 17<sup>th</sup> November free. And be in Winchester.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That said, the last two years have been a valuable lesson in
the perils of counting chickens… better write it in the diary in pencil, eh?
Hedging.<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-73782457767566117612012-10-01T21:33:00.001+01:002022-07-26T11:51:07.149+01:00Yawn of the Dead<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><div class="MsoNormal">It’s taken a while, but I am now genuinely sick of all
things undead.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fed up, pissed off, irritated and narked. No more runnething
over for Andy’s cup. It’s now officially half-empty.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And we are so close to being done. I mean, we're within a gnat’s
gland of complete. But why does the last 1% of the work take a ridiculously
disproportionate amount of time to finish? With all memories of our last moment of creative excitement firmly in the rear-view mirror, the process has become a struggle for the line.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I guess this isn’t unique to making a movie. A lot of complex
projects hit the moment of diminishing returns at some point, where the effort required
to make incremental improvements suddenly gets larger and larger. Nothing is
ever finished, only abandoned.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Part of my antsiness is plain boredom with the process. We get
sent something from someone in our post team. We slot it into the movie. We see
/ hear whether we like it or not. We send our notes back. We rinse. We repeat. Sure,
in and amongst it all, our lists of outstanding issues with the audio and VFX
shots are growing steadily smaller, but every day the curve is levelling off
further. A slowing trend towards finished, which sits tantalisingly just out of reach.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And perversely, we’ve never been busier. Trips to London to
snipe off moments of problematic audio and to swap across data because my
provincial broadband is useless. Hours spent analysing why a shot or sample
doesn’t work, or trying to translate an emotional reaction into a logical list of
fixes. Days when all I do is act as a digital sheep-dog, making sure data goes
to the right people and watching blue bars on my laptop slowly climb to 100%.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But actually, my disquiet is probably more to do with that
nagging voice at the back of my head telling me I really should be doing
something else. I don’t think I’ve learned anything useful about filmmaking for
a while, other than skills in diplomacy and project micro-management,
and it seems cruelly out of sorts with my experience of the last couple of
years. And with the tank of redundancy cash now down to fumes, it’s time to get
a proper job, feed the mortgage, and develop a sense of perspective about what the last two years have taught me and what I would do differently if I
go round again.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, no September cast and crew screening, I’m afraid. But
definitely October. Unless it’s not. And if you find that frustrating, imagine
how I feel. Whining.<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-6595296307062780462012-09-11T19:04:00.001+01:002022-07-26T11:45:32.156+01:00Y'all<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><div class="MsoNormal">No holiday to Texas for Jake and Andy. Not this year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yesterday the official word finally came back from Fantasic
Fest – thanks, but no thanks. It was one of the politest stock email fob-offs
that I’ve ever been sent (Texans are renowned for their good manners), but any
hope for a world premiere in the Lone Star State is now firmly quashed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the mood in Charmed Central? Mostly relief. Relief
because the thought of having to craft a completed movie from the current set
of best-guess jigsaw pieces over the next few days would spiral both of us into
the worst kind of depression. Twenty months into the journey, and putting
anything less than gorgeous in front of a paying audience will simply not do.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s not to say that we aren’t considerably closer than we
were last week. The music is, well… done. The sound is down to the final tweaks
and level changes. And a concerted amount of activity has delivered us the bulk
of our remaining VFX shots. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But it isn’t finished.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The tally as of six pm today: 116 audio tweaks, six more VFX
shots that we have yet to receive, another 38 that need playing with, an
almost-there titles sequence and a technical grade that should be ready at the
end of the week. But, as we found just before the shoot, it’s the little things
that swallow up all the time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So Jake and I get a couple of weeks reprieve.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Phew! But even so, it’s still a kick in the balls. I’ve
never been great at dealing with rejection, although to be fair I don’t take
compliments that well either. Fine – it was an early version of the film in
super low-res that finally uploaded 36 hours after the cut off, full of green
socks, sections of muffled dialogue and a confusing third act. Sure – it’s an
American festival and they may not appreciate the British humo(u)r or understand
Mac’s Scottish accent. OK – so this is the most prestigious event in the North
American horror calendar and we were in competition with a bunch of high-budget
offerings with big names and expensive cameras.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But this is the film about the zombie Jesus, people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, a small army of post-production elves allow themselves
to relax slightly, and a thousand Southern rednecks are denied the opportunity
to lynch two limey blasphemers before anyone else gets a chance to. Their loss,
it seems.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One down, three more to go. Packing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-65407453894231693242012-08-31T17:56:00.003+01:002022-07-26T11:42:02.872+01:00Fright-night<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><div class="MsoNormal">If hanging around on a tenterhook is your idea of fun, may I
suggest submitting a film to a festival?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With the Texas Fantastic Fest due to kick off on September
20<sup>th</sup>, we still haven’t been informed whether we’re in or out. And we
aren’t due to get the final word until the 7<sup>th</sup> September. That’s a
lot of house to get in order in under two weeks: pulling together a press-pack,
squeezing the movie onto an HDCAM tape, booking flights, finding a hotel. I mean, Fantastic Fest would be doing quite well just to get all their printing
turned around in time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But this is the way they roll, and until we get told
differently we need to keep the testicular cuffs wrapped tightly around our VFX,
titles and sound guys. And so far everyone appears squeakily confident.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not that anything ever works perfectly first time. There was
a trite project management sound-bite that my last employers used to bandy around – failing to plan means planning to fail. But
actually, I find planning to fail a much safer default. If we ask for stuff a few
days ahead of when we actually need it, it means that when the inevitable
internet issues and incomplete deliveries push everything past the deadline, it
doesn’t automatically drop us in the shit.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And with the Charmed-imposed finishing date of the 7<sup>th</sup>
September looming large, we had a bonus moment this week to reflect on our
progress. The FrightFest screener.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
God, I love FrightFest. What better way to spend a glorious summer
bank-holiday weekend than sat in a dark room ploughing through a mountain of
gore and monsters? It means I can switch of that nagging voice that tries to
tell me to get off my arse and head outdoors and make the most of whatever
fleeting sunshine there is. Hey, I paid good money for the opportunity to
sit indoors, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Five days, 35 films, ten KFC meals and five late night boozing sessions amongst the horror
faithful.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Heaven. And, yes – I do realise that FrightFest just
happened last weekend. Without Jake, me or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie
Resurrection</i> in attendance.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not this year, sadly. A mix of catastrophically depleted personal funds, an evolving production diary that doesn’t allow
us to plan time-off more than a week in advance, and all the work involved
in getting another cut of the film together.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But there is another. The FrightFest Halloween all-nighter.
A bonus selection of horror mayhem on the last Saturday of October, back in the
West End. The spiritual home for the UK premiere of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And they want screeners today. No rest for the peddlers of
the wicked – the poor FrightFest guys get to move seamlessly from watching
films in a cinema all weekend to watching more films from the comfort of their
respective sofas.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i>
has moved on substantially from the earlier screeners last month.
Glen-the-sound has a bucket-load of ADR to play with, Dale-the-tunes has had
another spin with his music, Ads-and-Matt-the-VFX have been sending through
plenty of updated splatter, Tom-the-foley has been tirelessly generating nastier zombie noises, and Marcelo-the-edit has fixed some of the more persistent
confusions from the test screenings. We can do so much better now.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And FrightFest deserve a better screener. Send us your
latest, gents, and let’s see where we are.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, after another mental couple of days, the DVD that got
delivered to them yesterday is that much happier. All of the ADR is in, all the
cracks in the music resulting from the final edit have been pasted over, and we
are now officially without a green sock to be seen. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Happier, but not quite there yet. There is still some way to
go before we can unleash it on the paying public: another 22 CGI shots, 23 more
that need attention, and 117 tweaks to the sound. So, it’s another busy seven
days on full alert as we snipe off these last moments, and only then do we get
to find out whether we needed to rush after all. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But in any case, September is when we plan on gathering the
cast, crew and horde together for the first mass screening, at an awkward time
of day on an as yet undetermined cinema screen that will be mildly inconvenient
for most people to get to.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And sadly, this will also be the moment when <a href="http://shootingthedead.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/buttocks-of-living-dead.html">rash
pub promises</a> come back to blight us on the arms – it’s almost time to start
looking for a tattooist in the Winchester environs to dispense a couple
of Charmed logos. Any recommendations? Stuck.<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-23952924337426362242012-08-22T15:19:00.002+01:002022-07-26T11:35:52.934+01:00Mac-spletivesAnd so, 34 bread-based lunches later with Dale-the-music,
Glen-the-sound and the eight <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie
Resurrection</i> cast members with sound to fix, yesterday we finally say adieu
to our ADR.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The final tally – 225 new sound snippets to improve our
aural landscape. The odd line of dialogue with too much noise on it, grunts and groans from various bludgeonings, swathes of zombie growls,
screaming, weeping and manic laughing. And three bonus lines of dialogue to assist the more
confused viewer through the final act.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hampshire has already said another fond farewell to the delicious
acting prowess of Rachel, Joe, Simon, Shami, Eric, Danny and Jade, and it was
the incomparable Jim Sweeney that was the last through Dale-the-music’s
Southampton studio, flying down from Glasgow yesterday just to swear into a
microphone. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of our deliverables for international sales is a
re-written screenplay, with the original dialogue swapped out with the actual
lines spoken in the movie. It's an essential document for subtitling and dubbing the
film for foreign markets. When I got onto this couple of weeks back, I had
naively assumed that this would be a fairly simple exercise – after all, Jake and
I went to a lot of trouble finessing the dialogue before the shoot to make the
lines trip easily and effectively out of the mouths of the actors. Surely a
professional respect for the written word would ensure only minor deviations
from the page?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This, it seems, is not how it works. Seven hours later and I
had effectively re-transcribed the entire movie from scratch. And it was a
hell of a lot better than the one we wrote.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But along the way I did get some interesting insights into
the acting process. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Regular attendees to the blog will know that Jim plays a
character called Mac in the film – a veteran soldier with a voracious appetite
for a very specific brand of zombie carnage. And an uncanny ability to cut
directly to the insult. My recent exertions transcribing the film into Final
Draft allowed access to some enlightening statistics: Mac has 888 words of
dialogue, and the highest swearing-to-rest-of-sentence ratio of any character.
And this was just the swearing that Final Draft’s profanity filter could
identify – the vaginas, head-raped cock-parks and cock-in-anuses have all
unwittingly passed through the algorithm with an official safe-for-PG-viewing
stamp.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so it came as quite a surprise to me to find that Jim
had somehow secreted another twenty 'fucks' into the film above and beyond
those allotted in the screenplay. Mac now defaults to dropping in expletives
where a lesser man would use a comma, and probably means that any future
trailer cut for universal viewing won’t feature the big man with his mouth open
at any point.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although, to be fair, Jake and I didn’t go out of our way to
help. After getting Jim to roar repeatedly at an empty Southampton graveyard to 'shut the fuck up' (Charmed Apocalypse’s new preferred quiet outdoors spot –
see the <a href="http://shootingthedead.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/building-sound-castles.html">earlier
blog entry</a> for the problems we had with Rachel and Joe), our final act in
the studio before dropping him back at the airport was to record some
personalised Mac-based ringtones for our high-rolling IndieGoGo contributors. It
was one of the perks we offered, courtesy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection’s</i> 'swearing connoisseur'.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4C2Ht89YF0FQxSD2Iw8-V97hLmKC_LwA0gsaRwfuVfi9I5gp7xHZLgUW0tt3dFaZRgBdA5yV45tWy_xloLKKjtCEXXr2-o84yF-SV0d2TwqVd18sLUVjN5DowqS8w4EdsZ3c-aQ75kfCY/s1600/Jim+ADR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4C2Ht89YF0FQxSD2Iw8-V97hLmKC_LwA0gsaRwfuVfi9I5gp7xHZLgUW0tt3dFaZRgBdA5yV45tWy_xloLKKjtCEXXr2-o84yF-SV0d2TwqVd18sLUVjN5DowqS8w4EdsZ3c-aQ75kfCY/s320/Jim+ADR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some advanced warning to Marty, Debbie, Adam, Andy and Chris
– better not assign these to anybody in your phone book that might call you
when you’re in a public place. One for when the mother-in-law rings, I
recommend. Incarcerated.<o:p></o:p></div>
Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-38856911212397154922012-08-15T18:48:00.003+01:002022-07-26T11:29:01.570+01:00Back in the loopAnd suddenly it’s all go again in Charmed Central.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After those long painful weeks of hearing about all the hard
work required to finish the movie only through despatches
back from the post-production guys, Jake and I have found ourselves firmly in
the mix again. Gone are the thoughts of 'is this the right moment to start looking
for a proper job before I default on my mortgage'. Making a movie has once
again become a full-time enterprise. Full-time, but with the odd eighteen-hour
marathon thrown in for good measure.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It seems that we are officially into the movie-making
end-game.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The September festival screenings have probably done as much
to galvanise everybody into making this last push as anything else, not that
we’ve heard anything back yet from the big three that we put in for last month.
But if Texas, Toronto or Sitges do come calling, we need to be ready to answer.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, we set a date for delivery of all the finished pieces –
7<sup>th</sup> September. All the VFX shots, grading, sound, music and titles.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And throughout the diverse <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i> post-production crew members, minds focus. Here is a digest of the activities of the last week or so: </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Tuesday – our second
test screening of the movie to complete strangers in Winchester (with a massive
thank you to Christian, Jeff, Adam, Ashley, Joe, Naomi and Becca for laughing in mostly the right places). </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Wednesday – a meeting with our VFX guys to discuss the CGI shots that we had already
received, and to agree a schedule for the delivery of all the rest of them.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Thursday – an audio scrutiny of the film to finalise all the remaining ADR
samples that we need to collect from the other six cast members, followed by a
thorough analysis of the feedback forms from the two screenings to look for
common threads (and a minor dialogue re-write in the final act to deal with the
confusion that some people were experiencing).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Friday – more VFX shots.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Saturday – Simon and Shami join the posse at Dale-the music’s studio in
Southampton to do all their ADR.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Sunday – Eric and Danny do likewise.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Monday –
St. Marcelo-the-edit comes to Winchester to undertake the final finessing of
the film down to our absolutely, totally finished cut, honest.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Tuesday – more
VFX shots, with another meeting with the guys in the evening.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And today – our
penultimate ADR session, with Jade.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And on the seventh day He rested. We, however, should be so
lucky.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But what the hell would I do with a day off? It’s not work
unless you would rather be doing something else. It’s a taste that’s going to
make my delayed search for a day-job that much suckier, but then again my CV
must have flight-risk written all over it anyway. Destitute.<o:p></o:p></div>
Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-45818390031578918622012-08-06T21:23:00.003+01:002022-07-26T11:22:02.481+01:00Credit crunchedI’ve no idea what’s changed, but it seems that we’re now
official.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Presumably some threshold must have been crossed in the arcane IMDb processes, but sometime last night our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i> entry into the Internet Movie Database suddenly
appeared. Twice, actually. No warning, no information, nothing. One day we were
considered to be a high completion risk, and the next we’re all buddies again.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It might have had something to do with the recent round of
festival submissions - the screener submission website WithoutABox is part of
the same organisation that’s responsible for IMDb. Although the database rules
state that you must have a verifiable premiere date before you can go up, it
looks like the $55 entrance fee was enough to buy us a bit of latitude (unless
the festival have good news that they’ve failed to share with us).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so there we are. A complete list of all our cast, crew
and zombies, for all to enjoy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It has taken a good couple of weeks to tidy the entry up
into something that almost looks sensible, with every change request taking a
reported 7-10 days to be processed. There are still spelling mistakes on a
couple of horde members’ names in the pipeline, and a few job titles that
needed fixing, but it’s close enough.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But something that we can’t seem to fix is the awful
synopsis, and a really strange tagline that must have been written on the spot
by the festival organiser. In the place where the pithy 'prey for
salvation' should be sits the slightly less manageable 'a zombie messiah that
can raise the undead from the dead...after they've died...again'.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So we continue to plug away, to trim and manicure. And
hopefully by the time that anyone can actually go and buy the movie it’ll be
coiffured to perfection. Although, if anybody knows the IMDb administration
password, we could cut out a lot of faffing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Go <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2267454/">take a
gander</a>, and we’ll see you again in 7-10 days. Immaculate.<o:p></o:p></div>Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-5795493806800028132012-08-04T19:47:00.001+01:002022-07-26T11:17:11.144+01:00Into the great beyond…Sobering times in Charmed Central.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, let’s just take a moment to consider where we currently are
with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i>. The first
pass of the music is written, the sound is tidy, and everything has been
coloured in. The current best copy of the film still has a long way to go
before it’s finished, but it does finally look and behave like a film should.
Prospective horror festivals will accept nothing less.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i>
is open for judgement.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With our eyes on an early September finishing line (to hit
the first of the possible festival screenings), this is now the last moment we
have to make it better. Over the 150 times that Jake and I have watched the
latest cut over the past few weeks, a couple of moments have jumped out at us
that need work. Tweaks. Nothing drastic. A finessed edit here and an extended
beat there.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But, really, what do we know? 150 viewings later
and the jokes aren’t funny anymore. The jumps don’t shock, the gore doesn’t
offend, and the emotional moments don’t move. For us the film exists as a
series of moments: shots needing light balancing, dialogue needing replacement, bludgeonings needing a coating with digital gore.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gone is the big picture. Gone is any concept of whether the
film actually hangs together as an entity.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And now is the last moment that we have to sort that out. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, now is also the perfect moment to get a bunch of people
together who have no previous attachment to the film, and ask them. The great
British zombie-loving public. These are the only people we can trust to let us
know where the problems are.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Time to organise a couple of screenings. Get in a load of
beer and pizza, sit a panel of people that we’ve never met before down in front
of the largest telly we can find, and watch them watching it. Our first
completely dispassionate audiences.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it’s as daunting a prospect as we’ve had to face since
the shoot wrapped. Well, more specifically, since I had to deal with the unwelcome
stains on my girlfriend’s floor after the wrap party.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first session was last night, hosted by hero-zombie-Ross
in his Winchester cathedral of technology. Having taken a slug to the head over
the course of the shoot, he isn’t allowed to have an opinion, but his pals are.
Grab a beer, sit down, and get comfortable, Simon, Louise, Row, Daren and Ormy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvuvmat2Socwt2ayd3TCjBUsmNB4o22ReUDwx0z3lElCbp4acnJHCYO28AH90yBNLVXL06SyjLckdRrqikw3dsRdBqbgRXh3Ba0oFR3nWuSpciXrgb7JldNTF7NfSmDz2AJhC06gJHLXTk/s1600/Ross'+audience.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvuvmat2Socwt2ayd3TCjBUsmNB4o22ReUDwx0z3lElCbp4acnJHCYO28AH90yBNLVXL06SyjLckdRrqikw3dsRdBqbgRXh3Ba0oFR3nWuSpciXrgb7JldNTF7NfSmDz2AJhC06gJHLXTk/s320/Ross'+audience.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Please don’t underestimate what a painful evening this was
for Jake and me. Sat to one side, the film suddenly seemed to race by without
ever catching its breath. Wasn’t that last moment meant to be funnier? Did
anybody actually find that last jump scary? Can anybody understand Mac’s Glaswegian accent?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the biggest laugh of the night? An overly-graphic sound
effect that Tom had added to his foley reel to accompany the premature ending
of some woodland coitus. It’s an immediate answer to the question that Jake and
I had been wrestling with beforehand – is that squelch just a little bit too
much? No, it turns out.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A braver man than me would have looked at the completed
questionnaires by now, but I may save that moment for a stiff scotch later in
the week. We have another screening in Winchester University on Tuesday,
bizarrely back in the same room within which we shot all our Chapel footage
last year. It’ll be interesting to see whether they’ve managed to get all the
blood out of the floor tiles.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, until then, I’ll content myself with the nagging
butterflies, and save the analysis until all the votes are in. But in any case
it’s a big Charmed thank you to Ross, Simon, Louise, Row, Daren and Ormy for
giving over their Friday night to make two grown men nervous. Suddenly I
understand where all the worry-lines on Andy Murray’s mum’s face have come
from. Tweaking.<o:p></o:p></div>Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-52510884957856672792012-07-30T16:19:00.001+01:002022-07-26T11:12:48.195+01:00Building sound-castlesBloody kids.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yesterday marked the beginning of the ADR process –
gathering all the replacement bits of bad-quality dialogue and miscellaneous
bonus grunts and groans from the cast. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Automated Dialogue Replacement, although I’d be interested
to know how the word 'Automated' found its way into the acronym as it was a far
from straightforward exercise. But Sunday was decided to be the moment to take
a day off from watching people running around on the telly to kick-start the
process of making Glen-the-sound’s life easier.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Step forward Rachel Nottingham and Joe Rainbow, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i>’s naïve teenager
Becca and officious party leader Gibson respectively. Good solid professionals
to call upon to play the part of cast guinea pigs. Nothing too strenuous
missing from their collection of on-set dialogue - just some extra sounds of
weeping, exertions grunts associated with various zombie bludgeonings, and long swathes
of the deranged kind of Tourette’s that arises during the slow transition to
zombiedom.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And a couple of lines from the first act of the film, where
the extraneous noises evident in pre-apocalyptic Portsmouth woodland simply
couldn’t be scrubbed out.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is, it seems, an adage in getting good quality ADR –
if you’re replacing lines originally spoken outside, you need to get the sound
recordings done outside too. Unless you’re doing all your ADR in a perfect anechoic
environment, there will always be a little room reverb evident in what you
record in a recording studio. It’s OK for all the inside stuff, as you’ll then be
adding a whole load more fake reverb to the ADR tracks to make them match the rest
of the dialogue from the shoot. But once even a little bit is on
there it can’t be taken off.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">In the great room-less outdoors, these lines will stand
out like a green sock on a bloodied stump.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so we face problem number one: is there anywhere
in Hampshire that is suitably quiet? Somewhere acceptably close to a car park,
but away from planes, trains, automobiles, dog-walkers, fields of livestock,
chirruping crickets or tweeting birds? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or, more importantly, bloody kids?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is something about the eager squeals of children that
carries for miles. Too much car noise? Just head deeper into the woods.
Aeroplanes? Hang back for 20 seconds and it’ll be gone. But the sound of an eight-year-old having fun anywhere in the same postcode? You’re waiting for
nap-time before that’ll get any better. And while I can’t blame any parents for
wanting to take full advantage of the few days of actual summer that we’re
going to get this year, please know that your selfish pursuit of fresh air and
exercise is making our lives really tricky.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But, a hundred takes of all the swapped-out dialogue later,
and Glen-the-sound was finally happy that he’ll be able to fabricate quiet
versions of all our troubled chat, even if it’s a syllable-by-syllable
Frankenstein agglomeration of acceptably noise-less moments.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so we get to head indoors, over to the recording studio
built at the back of Dale-the-tunes’ garden.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is where all the movie music magic happens. A grown-up potting
shed into which Dale can escape from the wife and kids, and actually do
something worthwhile other than sipping scotch and pretending to whittle away
at a piece of wood while listening to the Archers. Sound-proofed, covered in
acoustic diffusers, and with a bloody-great piano in the middle where the
lawn-mower should be.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it was at this point that everything took a turn for the
smooth. As Rachel screamed and Joe sweated, we powered through the rest of the
list with grace and agility. Outside in the garden no one was any
the wiser about the cacophony of shrieks and growls that have left me with
slight tinnitus this morning. Anybody needing to gut a pig or torture a suspect in
a residential setting could do a lot worse than phoning Dale-the-tunes up for
copies of his architectural plans.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And at eight o’clock last night we stepped outside into a
welcome cool breeze with 2/9s of our ADR firmly in the bag. To Glen-the-sound
and Dale-the-tunes, it’s an enormous Charmed thank you for giving over your
Sunday to our screamy silliness. To Rachel and Joe, it’s our eternal
appreciation for coming back to Winchester almost a year to the day after we
started shooting to re-enjoy the horrors of life on a zombie set. To all the
other cast members, prepare yourself for a phone call.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And to the parents of small children in the environs, what’s
wrong with the X-box or the cinema? If it’s fresh air and countryside you’re after, open a bloody window and buy a pot-plant. Incredulous.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKoXfa8zgQUL_zpnsP3mbo1_-XaVTPsvaxPilHWPwMC1ARyYwMGTW9syz9EJIRxEiC7loUBRQtSigrmQF7HMdT-aCNZkOspgWJJK87aaitNjoB52cA9ybbt8-R2Hp3fmboYPETJYVUjeSs/s1600/ADR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKoXfa8zgQUL_zpnsP3mbo1_-XaVTPsvaxPilHWPwMC1ARyYwMGTW9syz9EJIRxEiC7loUBRQtSigrmQF7HMdT-aCNZkOspgWJJK87aaitNjoB52cA9ybbt8-R2Hp3fmboYPETJYVUjeSs/s320/ADR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-56554657676540081302012-07-25T17:44:00.002+01:002022-07-26T10:53:09.650+01:00ZomtographyWith only a week to go, now seems like the perfect time to
let you know what you’ll be missing if you’re thinking of wasting the next two weeks
sat in front of the Olympics.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Down on the South Coast we’ve got better things planned for
the first half of August. The terrifically talented Rob Luckins, he of
photographic duties on the set of the movie last year, is having <a href="http://welcometothedarkslide.blogspot.co.uk/">an exhibition</a>. And
there’s not a discus, high-jump or sand-pit in sight.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unlike some of the key roles on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i> crew (I’m thinking of Director and DoP here,
particularly), taking photos is what Rob does for a living. Well. When he’s not
pointing a camera at somebody, he’s teaching other people how to, and so it may
come as no surprise that he’s amassed quite a lot of them by now.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Enough, it seems, to decorate Room 237, Portsmouth’s
premiere comic-book store, with some of his choicest cuts.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Disappointingly, it won’t be wall-to-wall zombie carnage,
although by popular demand last summer’s undead will be making a solid appearance.
This is the problem when you spend the rest of your time taking photos of Mike
Leigh and Wayne Hemingway – they tend to get grumpy when they’re bumped by a
bunch of nutters covered in blood. One sympathises.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyway, for those zombie-enthusiasts in the environs, it’s a
no-brainer. For everyone else, it’s a road trip. Catch it while it’s still
squelchy. Shot.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-77271184436175032982012-07-16T22:09:00.002+01:002022-07-26T10:51:15.725+01:00Beaten into submissionJesus H Ripe – that was harder work than I had imagined.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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To save you any angst and stress, I should reassure you all up
front that the screener did get finished, and was submitted in time (just) to
Fantastic Fest, in Austin, Texas. The US’ largest horror film festival would be
an awesome place for a world premiere.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, I say 'in time'. Actually, by the time that the film
had finally successfully uploaded to the extraordinarily flaky WithoutABox site
on about the eighth time of asking, it was about 36 hours past the deadline,
but a severe amount of apologising and mea cuplae to the organisers later and we are
officially locked and loaded.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But this was no easy ride. I haven’t had so little sleep
over such a long period of time since the shoot.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The division of labour broke down something like this:
Matt-the-VFX was pulling together the last of the VFX shots through till
Thursday lunchtime, and then FTPing the buggers across to us. Meanwhile
Ads-the-grade was making the whole movie look pretty and FTPing his bits across
in stages. Glen-the-sound was tidying up the last bits of problematic dialogue,
and Tom-the-foley was manufacturing some deliciously sick zombie noises.
Andy-the-dog’s-body was downloading everything as it came in and putting the
jigsaw together, while Jake-the-actually-knows-what-he’s-doing was grading the
bits of the movie that Ads didn’t have time to get on to, adding muzzle flashes
where appropriate, and plastering over as many cracks as we could. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An insane amount of juggling. But by the
time that I left Jake’s hive at 5 AM on Friday morning, we had all the right
notes in mostly the right places.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Friday’s activities were to be so much simpler – one final quality
check viewing, render the bugger off and fill in all the submission forms. And
we had until midnight before the deadline ran out. Masses of time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And relax…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ah no. Not in Charmed-land. Nothing ever goes that smoothly.
The forms were simple enough, but getting them a copy of the movie in the
format they wanted was an exercise guaranteed to confound even the most
patient of filmmakers. It was the initial promise of 36 hour render times,
and a website that just wasn’t interested in accepting our film, no matter what
browser, broadband provider or OS we tried.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But by 4 AM on Sunday morning it was there, courtesy of
Jake’s girlfriend’s parent’s broadband, and via an enormous amount of
industrial language.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it’s my sincerest apologies to Nik-the-zombie-extra,
whose fortieth birthday party on Saturday night was the final casualty of the
enterprise. Sorry, mate – I’ll make sure I’m at your fiftieth, if you’re still
talking to me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, it’s a couple of days to catch our breath, and then we
get to go round the loop again with a couple more festivals. Let’s hope that karma
takes stock of the credit that we’ve amassed over the past few days when
determining how easy a ride that’ll be. But, when all’s said and done, I’ve
got to tell you that the movie really does look and sound lovely. Sure, there’s
still the odd green sock, and we have gallons of digital gore yet to throw
about the place, but it doesn’t require a leap of imagination to see the
finished film that’s hiding in the mist.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hell – it’s not like we haven’t made it easy for them. Invisible.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Now you see it...</div>
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Now you don't...</div>
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Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-72621150555892981742012-07-10T12:52:00.003+01:002022-07-26T10:47:35.716+01:00The thin brown lineIt’s all going down to the wire in Charmed Central.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s the end of the long wait, as Jake and I try to assemble
all the first passes on everything that’s happening in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i> post-production into one place. It’s not going
to look perfect. There’ll be CGI missing, green socks aplenty, and all our
zombies will sound nothing like they’re going to in the finished film. But
it’ll be enough. Enough, hopefully, to secure ourselves a spot in a couple of
festivals.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All the best festival submissions happen in June and July.
The global horror silly season appears to run from September to Halloween every
year, and if you miss the boat there is a strong possibility that the US
premiere of your movie is going to be in front of twenty people at an obscure festival organised in a church hall in
Boise, Idaho. And there’s no way anybody’s going to let us out of a church alive after
seeing the film.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, it’s got to look nice. Not perfect, but nice enough that
the programmers can see beyond the next few months of manic post-production
activity at the finished movie lurking beneath the surface.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And, I guess more importantly, it’s got to be now.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Deadline one is at the end of this week. This is for the
largest and most prestigious horror film festival in the US. Which probably
then makes it the largest in the whole world. Within the extraordinarily vain
world within which Jake and I operate, this would be a satisfactory place for
the world premiere of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i>,
and getting accepted can’t hurt when chatting to distributors and sales agents.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And being the conscientious programme managers that we are,
we gave ourselves a week to allow us to bolt it all together. Everybody – can
we have your homework in for Friday 6<sup>th</sup>, please?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A week seems reasonable. There are going to be important
pieces missing, and the inevitable mistakes. A week gives people time to fix
any major problems, to dig out important elements that absolutely need to be in there, and
for us to fill in the remaining gaps as best we can. And then enough time for us
to upload an entire movie to the submission site over my woeful broadband.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, you’d imagine that we’d be just about done piecing
everything together by now. Er… not quite.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stand up Dale-the-tunes. Charmed Apocalypse’s star
performer. By Wednesday last week we not only had his first pass on the music
for the entire film in all its 24-bit mastered finery, but we’d also had the
opportunity to sit and watch the film with him, chat over a bunch of changes,
and he’s already managed to address every single one in time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The man is currently sat on a cruise-liner somewhere giving his
brain a well-earned rest. Just as well he works
so damn fast, as it wouldn’t be much of a holiday if he’d had to shlep his
keyboard and computer with him, and then spend his shore leave sat in a
Marrakech internet cafe.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the sound is also looking pretty good. About ¾ of the
dialogue has been tidied up, and we have plenty of the juicier foley elements –
the rips, hits and splats. It’s incomplete, and filled with what I can best
describe as temporary zombie noises. But what we have got in is fabulous
quality. When it’s finished the film will sound genuinely splendid.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bang in a couple of workarounds, appropriate some bonus
foley from the internet, revisit a couple of moments from the native audio footage,
and we’re in business. So far, so good.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the graded footage and the CGI. This is causing us
sleepless nights.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As of midday on Tuesday, we have nine minutes of graded
footage in our timeline. We are roughly seventy minutes shy of a sensible
viewing experience. And we are only about twenty shots into our CGI list of 88.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the problem at our end of the movie machine. The
guys that are pulling all our visuals together are all proper VFX artists. They
have day-jobs in the industry, and even though the CGI is the single largest
cost in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i>
post-production budget the whole thing still only equates to about 2/3 of what
they would charge James Cameron for a single shot. This wealth of craft and
expertise shows itself in the superb quality of the work that they are
producing; however, when JC needs something done quickly we find out just where
the pecking order starts and stops. Money talks, bullshit walks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Great for the finished film. An extraordinary stressor when
we’re also working to a tight deadline.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And from where I am right now, it’s touch and go whether
we’ll actually have something to upload in time. It’ll be a few days longer of
leaping out of bed in the middle of the night to start something downloading
that will then take fourteen hours to complete. It might just be doable if
everything works first time, but this is not the best of project management
principles.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So we wait, crossed fingers poised over the download icon.
Anybody know a good steak-house in Boise, or can recommend the best US health
insurance for trauma and burns injuries? Excommunicated.<o:p></o:p></div>Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-1293792001929604652012-06-08T14:01:00.004+01:002022-07-26T10:40:13.303+01:00ScreamersAcross the country, a team of post-production elves are busy
stitching shoes together from the threadbare rags that Jake and I have provided
them.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The sensible movie-related activities have all flown the
Charmed coop, and are now growing up with different parents until August. Every
so often a new piece of music or some tidied dialogue appears in our in-box,
like a postcard home to tell us that they’re all having a great time and not to
worry.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But it’s just that it all feels so, well… out of our hands. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These guys really know what they’re doing, and it is wildly
inappropriate to be micro-managing them. Jake and I spent some time a while
back detailing exactly what we were after from the sound, music, titles and
digital splatter, and now we’ve just got to let them get on with it. After a
year and a bit of being intimately involved in the minutiae of the film, this
bit of the process simply doesn’t need us anymore.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And with all this work going on, it just doesn’t feel right
to be sat around twiddling my thumbs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Distributors don’t want to hear from us again until the film
is finished, and we shouldn’t be going back to Sales Agents until we’ve secured
the UK distribution. Surely there must be something to do before August? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ah, yes – horror film festivals. Time to plan our strategy
for getting the movie out there.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For me at least, getting the film up on a big screen and in
front of the genre faithful is the pay-off for the last eighteen months of hard
work. In the most stressful moments on set during the shoot, it was the thought of being sat at the back of a cinema watching
other people reacting to our movie that kept me going.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s like planning an enormous wedding. Time to
organise the church, I think.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Horror film festivals are universally awesome places to hang
out. It’s a widely accepted adage that horror fans are the nicest audiences out
there. Most enthusiasts have a personal temperament completely at odds with the
gore and carnage that they sit themselves through for entertainment. At
FrightFest each year, after the last movie has screened, everybody with any
energy left decamps to the same bar till the early hours – audience members,
organisers, directors and stars. And it is a fabulously relaxed and
collegiate atmosphere. This was the first time that I met Johannes Roberts. I’ve shared a cigarette with Adam Green, talked sex scenes with Tony 'Candyman' Todd and bullied movie recommendations out of Kim Newman.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it’s a great audience. Every genre
fan there has sat through hours of really, really bad movies as part of their
horror education, and now they’re having to actually pay to watch the buggers
they’re determined to enjoy themselves.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Every gory death gets a round of applause. No one checks
their phone or walks out halfway through. And anybody with enough nerve has the
opportunity to go and chat up Emily Booth.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, this week Jake and I have been compiling a list of all
the very coolest horror film festivals across the globe, from Texas to Lapland.
When they run, and what’s the last date for submissions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And, given that we’ll be all done with the movie in August,
three particular festivals have emerged as contenders. But I’m obviously not going
to tell you where they are in case they turn us down and we look like a couple
of mugs. Just to say that the FrightFest biggie isn’t amongst them, as we’ve missed
the submission deadline by some margin. But, if everything goes exactly to
plan, October will see us tattooed, tanned and sat on a train to Glasgow with a
stomach full of T-bone and polenta.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And in the process we get to manufacture a completely new deadline for our post-production posse, principally as a way of artificially
involving Jake and me a little bit more in what’s going on. The festival
screener deadline.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The screener is not necessarily the cut of the film that
will play at the festival - it’s simply about securing a ticket for the big
party. It doesn’t need to be technically perfect, but it does need to give
someone on the organising committee a sufficiently warm glow that they’ll take
it on faith that you’ll not be embarrassing them later in the year. Some
remaining green socks are OK. Missing ADR should be fine. The light and chroma
balancing of the technical grade doesn’t need to be perfect. Sometime between
the screener going off and the final film being projected, we’ve got to tweak
the edit, get in some people that know nothing about the film to watch it and
tell us where it doesn’t work, tighten the score and colour it all in properly.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the whole thing is contingent on us getting a sensible version
of the movie together by the beginning of July. Three weeks back cracking the
whip. Damn, does that feel good. Overbearing.<o:p></o:p></div>Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-56097139175607978402012-05-23T17:39:00.002+01:002022-07-26T10:32:53.462+01:00Last Tango in CannesWow. Where to start?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, that was Cannes, in all its carefully-marshalled
insanity. Five days of meetings, trains, hasty sandwiches and
biblically bad weather. A plastering of Rutger Hauer and Christian Slater
movie posters, where every trip along the Croisette could be delayed by
a crowd gathering around Alec Baldwin, Coldplay or just a man that wears live
cats on his head. It was 24/7 game-face from the Charmed massive, an umbrella,
DVD and business card always to hand.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And I loved every minute of it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I really did – I genuinely loved it. I can’t think of five
more enjoyable days over the course of the whole <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i> production. It’s like an interactive movie
Glastonbury, but one where you get to hang out backstage and help pick the
bands. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
OK – let’s get the housekeeping out of the way first.
Mission number one was to sort out our UK distribution and get sales agent
representation for the movie, with a bunch of meetings that Jake and I arranged ahead of time. And while no one was going to commit to buying the movie based
only on a six-minute DVD, it’s safe to say that we now have a clear contender for both
roles. When the finished screener is ready, we know exactly who to send them
to. Mission accomplished.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, when I say that no one was going to commit to buying
the movie based on the six-minute cut, that isn’t strictly true. We received an
offer for the German distribution rights, based on a scan of the poster and around
45 seconds of the trailer that they watched on my phone.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Seriously. And it wasn’t even a bad offer.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It seems that this isn’t that uncommon. We heard of at least
two zombie movies that were picked up for frankly ridiculous amounts of cash
based on the poster and title alone. It seems we may have spent too much time trying
to make a watchable film when a weekend course in Photoshop would have been
enough.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, we turned it down. There is nothing quite like passing
up the promise of cold hard cash to make you feel like a player.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Which moves us onto mission number two – festivals.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This was quite a strange one actually, as through luck
rather than judgement we ended up meeting a bucket-load of people intimately plugged into the horror festival world: FrightFest, Fantastic,
Fantasia, Lund, Leeds. And nobody went home empty handed. It was an eight-sided pincer
assault on the festival world with the movie that they’re going to be referring
to as 'that one with the zombie Jesus'.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I love horror people. It’s a side of the industry that seems
to be run exclusively by fans. No egos, no bullshit, and a sincere respect for
the enormous number of genre enthusiasts there are out there. And we saw plenty
of people that fall into the other camp. Fittingly, the French have an
expression for it: 'péter plus haut que son cul' - literally 'to fart higher
than ones arsehole'. Unsurprisingly, Cannes is a magnet for high-farters.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I digress.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And this is even before I start on the Champions’ League
Final, or getting the seal of approval for our poster art and copy from the artist whose
zombie DVD covers we originally set out to emulate (and how bizarre is it that
we ended up sat around the same table with this guy anyway?) It was my very first and
wholly ironic Royal with Cheese, punctuated with the inevitable internal GPS fails that saw us
wandering around Nice completely lost at 5 AM, or walking up an emergency pavement on the side of a motorway the day afterwards. There were the early
screenings of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cockneys vs. Zombies</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Storage 24,</i> and I could go on. I’ll pop
some photos up in the next few days, or better still take Jake and me out for a
couple of beers and we’ll tell you all about it.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, it’s a much more formal thank-you to the lovely
Amanda-in-Nice for putting us up (and up with us) for the duration. She was
such an unfailingly good host that she even managed to procure a yacht-mattress
for the occasion formerly slept on by Marlon Brando. I should stress that this
was from anecdotal information and not because there was a Marlon-shaped dent
visible in the over-stressed springs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just the kind of night’s sleep you need before someone makes
you an offer you can’t refuse. Tangoed.<o:p></o:p></div>Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-25266381747232500552012-05-16T12:00:00.002+01:002022-07-25T18:15:40.749+01:00Achtung RivieraWell that came around quickly.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yup, this time tomorrow, Jake and I will be basking in the Mediterranean
summer heat at the Cannes Film Festival, swimming with the sharks and doing our
very best to stay away from the sharp bits. It’s our first foray into the world
of the hard sell to distributors and sales agents, and I can’t wait to test our
wares against the great and the good at the money end of the industry. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tomorrow we get to see why they call it show-business.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cannes is basically two separate film events happening one
on top of the other: the glamorous red-carpeted one filled with the beautiful
people and baying paparazzi that you see on the TV, and its idiot cousin (the Marché du Film) which happens in the bowels of the same building. It's an enormous
warehouse of stressed filmmakers, distributors and sales agents, all hawking
their B-movie fare around trying to secure that elusive Taiwanese DVD release.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Guess which one we’re going to be at.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Trust me, we’re going in armed. A gorgeous looking and
sounding 6-minute précis of the movie, wrapped in a suitably sacrilegious
sleeve, and with a skipful of A5 flyers. Come on, distributors of the world.
Who wants some?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiecM7ob0vCXJCx7IerO1MjN_t8n93yZwoN4bw9QcuMBmaxjC3Ib_iSAsAsAjYowB0hWfimdffrc2dGAFbZUIcc9RcUBb-FWzNw0U9vIp7a61OTdegat0pwT-5tMRWirQqlp1bSEbfy7SB/s1600/Fan+wank.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiecM7ob0vCXJCx7IerO1MjN_t8n93yZwoN4bw9QcuMBmaxjC3Ib_iSAsAsAjYowB0hWfimdffrc2dGAFbZUIcc9RcUBb-FWzNw0U9vIp7a61OTdegat0pwT-5tMRWirQqlp1bSEbfy7SB/s320/Fan+wank.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even though we’ll be dropped into the festival as a couple
of neophytes, we have dug out so much information about what goes on that I
almost know what to expect. We have sat through Chris Jones’ on-line seminar for Cannes virgins, devoured the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.sellingyourfilm.com/">How
to Sell your Film Without Selling your Soul</a> </i>e-book, and received advice from
just about every filmmaker that we’ve met along the journey.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Safe to say that there doesn’t appear to be one best way of
approaching Cannes and of finding distribution. People only know what did and
didn’t work with them. That said, certain universal truths have emerged: don’t
buy a drink in a hotel bar (€100 for three cocktails),
don’t buy a drink in a nightclub (€70 for two 33 cl stubbies), and if you find a
party that’s offering free drinks don’t leave before you’ve had enough to drink.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And, who better to give us our final steer onto the inside
track than the legendary Johannes Roberts, writer / director of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i> template <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">F.</i> He very kindly took time away from
distribution activities of his own on his latest feature <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xiWZmFEiug">Storage 24</a></i>
to hook up with Jake and me in a London coffee-shop. To even up the numbers,
Johannes brought along his flatmate James Harris, producer of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Psychosis</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Screwed</i> and the soon-to-be-released <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cockneys vs. Zombies</i>, and even before the Frappuccino had had time
to settle the two of them had launched into a torrent of distribution advice
that made my hand hurt.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Johannes and James have been around this loop so many times
before that they know practically all the short cuts. To go into details would
I’m sure jeopardise their respective futures in the industry, so let’s just say we
are now in possession of some very promising marketing strategies. It has to
count amongst one of the most productive coffee breaks that I have ever
experienced, where just one piece of good advice might translate to literally
thousands of pounds in sales revenue. Thanks again, guys – you left us with
spinning heads and all the better prepared for it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And in our last act as Cannes virgins, Monday night was
spent in the esteemed company of some of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie Resurrection</i> stars, in what we’re now happy to refer to as
the best boozer in London. Inevitably any festival conversation was soon
side-lined by discussions on the merits of yellow trousers (firmly pro), the
best kinds of adverts to be in, and cataloguing all the places that one of our prop guns
had been before Shami seized an on-set photo-opportunity to gave it a big
lick.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj-tXoW6Rx3dk_FnzDG7Bk067RWUZGh_rIw3UY1kRLzvqIlitAsiws9oF-4ad0xu9ZU7j1PZPDP4xybLBzJqFz74wCl7MTaN8Dt4XG08DcePeefdh9d5Fdw7TmIrW5UCqvnW9fSkoM6vq5/s1600/Shami.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj-tXoW6Rx3dk_FnzDG7Bk067RWUZGh_rIw3UY1kRLzvqIlitAsiws9oF-4ad0xu9ZU7j1PZPDP4xybLBzJqFz74wCl7MTaN8Dt4XG08DcePeefdh9d5Fdw7TmIrW5UCqvnW9fSkoM6vq5/s320/Shami.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The last fifteen months have been one extraordinary journey,
but tomorrow we finally get to approach the inner-most cave. I’ll try and post some
updates from the front, but let’s see just how much time we have. We go out as
boys, we return as warriors. Bravehearted.<o:p></o:p></div>Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-76023862229477461402012-05-08T23:28:00.001+01:002022-07-25T18:08:02.224+01:00Making the grade<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
On a gloriously sunny spring morning in early March, Captain
Jamie-the-marine must have thought that Jake and I were being a couple of
prima donnas for insisting that he wore a plastic night-vision headset.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To be fair to him, I did sympathise. You couldn’t see a
thing through the prop goggles. It was hard enough to negotiate the way around
my flat with them on, and we were making him run blind through dense woodland
with only the promise that we’d yell 'stop' if it looked like he was about to
career into a tree. It’s a level of production respect that’ll be responsible
for a thoroughly boring out-takes reel on the DVD.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Oz4n0wy88iPYpIOVIsRdVPap43PQhLP12ID3FEw03iSbYjE7Man3JGcMq17_4SZIHq25v_68pxmPg0nCY4OUakWOtNNTXj-72VoDK-X8hM6lotzaKxqGgzzOqqeQW9_BWiE1dXLh4bCI/s1600/Jamie+unprocessed.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Oz4n0wy88iPYpIOVIsRdVPap43PQhLP12ID3FEw03iSbYjE7Man3JGcMq17_4SZIHq25v_68pxmPg0nCY4OUakWOtNNTXj-72VoDK-X8hM6lotzaKxqGgzzOqqeQW9_BWiE1dXLh4bCI/s320/Jamie+unprocessed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But all the scariest horror movies happen at night. Sadly, even the happiest cast and crew get grumpy if you stand them outdoors at 4 AM in March while you
faff about trying to swap out the blown fuse on a generator just because you haven’t
got enough light. So this is where the movie magic comes in. Shoot it all
during the day and then turn the brightness down later.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sod it - we’ll fix it in post. The rallying cry of failed
filmmakers the world over. We can just paper over all our ineptitude and
incompetence when we’re grading the movie. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Grading is a massively complicated and laborious exercise.
First you have to adjust every shot to match up the light
levels, and balance out any differences in colour, hue and chroma. You're basically dealing with all the footage as it comes directly from the various cameras. And only then can you start to make the movie look like how you actually want it to look.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So when I say turn down the brightness, it turns out that it’s
slightly more complicated than that. This is why Ads-the-grade is on speed-dial.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
'The thing you’ve got to realise about Ads', his business
partner Matt-the-VFX assured us at the time of the first trailer, 'is that he’s
a bloody genius'. It’s complicated, but it’s well within his talent set.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Repeat blog attendees may recognise Ads-the-grade as
Ads-the-VFX. The man has been extraordinarily busy of late. And today he sent
through some screenshots from the graded Cannes trailer for Jake and me to
check over.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So this is what the film’s actually going to look like.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And in amongst the screen-grabs were some of Captain
Jamie-the-marine. But at night.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_WjVfMva72sABzLJ-CjUGcT2ojZdSM5H1fCcdx7QGMgNORQ3_h3AKqdP3vABJNuKCvu52aDtj3ErEq5NTsHIEfF-buCJXlB7_-guv1xE5me_H31kXYLnB_Kxr0em3EKcxjPDj-l3Vbqtj/s1600/Jamie.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_WjVfMva72sABzLJ-CjUGcT2ojZdSM5H1fCcdx7QGMgNORQ3_h3AKqdP3vABJNuKCvu52aDtj3ErEq5NTsHIEfF-buCJXlB7_-guv1xE5me_H31kXYLnB_Kxr0em3EKcxjPDj-l3Vbqtj/s320/Jamie.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jake and I have always wanted to go for a really bleached
out and desaturated look for the film. It’s all to do with the rods and cones in
your eyeballs. When it’s dark, a more sensitive set of photoreceptors take over, only
they don’t do colour very well. And, bloody genius that he is,
Ads-the-grade has made it so.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Before…</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6IYGTwG9Gis7Nk5s-A1448mUQVe7-fydXt3s_jtahfXk00y3sbQQNykSkU06D4oL83ve_vBnDeC_u_VdeXtNaQoKmXnTmJxMaoZQiS0QmDVwUxHD7jI1eOW5klZfG1J5e-X_5Yc8r7cU/s1600/Sykes+and+Becca+unprocessed.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6IYGTwG9Gis7Nk5s-A1448mUQVe7-fydXt3s_jtahfXk00y3sbQQNykSkU06D4oL83ve_vBnDeC_u_VdeXtNaQoKmXnTmJxMaoZQiS0QmDVwUxHD7jI1eOW5klZfG1J5e-X_5Yc8r7cU/s320/Sykes+and+Becca+unprocessed.jpg" title="Before..." width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
…and by moonlight…</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQAA_hfXRws1S1bUyBbLILKQJ7jMKnLwuEqMb3lU3-Wtih0xNXoUUyBxogulXDZFoNX31eLGg1GsqogGN1YUfTDYjFF6vnL7axuL_9j2NkS6omuwPUbl47K9hcL9Stl9UfQ0IZVm3kdoyN/s1600/Sykes+and+Becca.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQAA_hfXRws1S1bUyBbLILKQJ7jMKnLwuEqMb3lU3-Wtih0xNXoUUyBxogulXDZFoNX31eLGg1GsqogGN1YUfTDYjFF6vnL7axuL_9j2NkS6omuwPUbl47K9hcL9Stl9UfQ0IZVm3kdoyN/s320/Sykes+and+Becca.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This month has been conspiring to surprise and delight me at every turn, with the astonishing quality of stuff that's coming in from our post-production posse. It seems that the less that Jake and I are involved in the minutiae of making the film, the better it gets. Contrary to popular belief, these guys <u>could</u> polish a
turd. I just can’t wait to see my face in it. Reflective.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151334694804442798.post-21023990764843493342012-05-02T10:05:00.002+01:002022-07-25T18:01:18.793+01:00BatmannedWith the considerable firepower of Ads and Matt-the-VFX,
Dale-the-tunes, Glen-the-sound and Tom-the foley all laser-targeted onto the
extended Cannes trailer, in a distant part of London at least some work on the
actual movie continues unabated.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not that the work that the others are doing won’t make it
into the final movie. It’s all about prioritising their activities. All the
right notes, but in the wrong order.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But in the darkest recesses of Brockley, London SE4, <a href="http://www.glintstudio.tv/">Rup-the-titles</a> is currently sat
surrounded by unpacked boxes calmly plugging away at our opening title
sequence, unaware that elsewhere on the zombie rollercoaster people are
manically throwing digital blood about the place and learning French.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve known Rup-the-titles since I was a kid, when he and his
brothers were known to all in the area as the under-age drinkers. Thankfully,
things have moved on. He got older.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In some ways, Rup has wound up with the hardest
story-telling challenge of the whole movie. We open the film on day zero of the
apocalypse to show the Kate-the-scream falling foul of Captain
Jamie-the-marine. And then we re-join the
action 15 months later. As you can imagine, quite a lot has happened in
this time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And there ain’t nowhere else to show it except in the
titles.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, in 1:45 seconds, Rup has been tasked with the
responsibility of showing a load more soldiers going zombie, a bunch of people
getting bitten, the total collapse of civilisation as we know it, the scary
zombies slowly rotting away to shambling bags of pest, the start of the
fight-back, and the establishment of the enclaves within which the survivors
all congregate.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh, and he should really try and get the names of the cast and heads of departments in there too.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the chosen medium? The animatic. A living comic with
bits of animation, camera pans and zooms. Not our idea, but his, and judging by
the early test footage that he has sent through it’s a stroke of genius. This is
going to be a lot of fun on the big screen.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But it was only when Rup mentioned that he had hooked up
with a comic book illustrator for some of the more detailed punch-ins that cogs started
turning in Charmed Central.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Being the flighty London socialite that he is, Rup doesn’t
just know any old flavour of illustrator. Enter the formidable <a href="http://www.mikedowling.info/Mike_Dowling/Comics_home.html">Mike Dowling</a>,
with titles such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">2000AD</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Batman</i> in his artwork canon.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Damn!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">But wait a minute. We’ve got a moment in the title sequence when
we see humanity reassert itself against the rotting zombie plague. A ragtag
band of wannabe soldiers running and gunning through the badlands. Isn’t this
basically the same backstory we had written for Mac, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zombie</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Resurrection</i>’s
unhinged bane of all things undead?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You know, wouldn’t it be quite cool to see Mac getting his
gun off in the title sequence?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes. Yes it would. Can Mike make it so?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so once again we shamelessly drag the <a href="http://shootingthedead.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/muppet-of-man.html">newly
muppeted Jim Sweeney</a> back down to our level. Any attempts to try and escape
the clutches of the zombie horde by working with Ken Loach will ultimately
prove futile.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX0zsfoDfaNcyaPx44pacDc2fhyphenhyphenQA0zNVvAx9J8ne_G5i5KB-vhUYJqnyLqBBRLPbJNc9sKChZygYpbLKKFEVRcT8QfpEKTDJpQterH4rbm9BAIBkErc9mCsIIxusBWqPnfrZZU2hN6Kez/s1600/Batmanned+Jim.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX0zsfoDfaNcyaPx44pacDc2fhyphenhyphenQA0zNVvAx9J8ne_G5i5KB-vhUYJqnyLqBBRLPbJNc9sKChZygYpbLKKFEVRcT8QfpEKTDJpQterH4rbm9BAIBkErc9mCsIIxusBWqPnfrZZU2hN6Kez/s320/Batmanned+Jim.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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There are very few things out there that go beyond cool - becoming a cuddly toy is just about the only thing that comes to mind. But into
this tiny list we now need to include getting your face drawn by the guy that gets
paid to sketch Bruce Wayne. We always knew that Mac was going to be most
people’s favourite character in the film, but I had no idea that Jim was going
to be bogarting all the after-dinner treats like this. Immortalised.<o:p></o:p></div>Andy Phelpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798842013653813241noreply@blogger.com0