Shoot Recap (LONG ENTRY)

Sunday: We loaded up the cars and headed to the location where we dropped off Ash and went to my dad’s to check out the props he built us. After that we cruised back to the Curran’s parent’s house for the best coneys I have ever had in my ENTIRE LIFE. Rodney is diligently working on getting the recipe for me. Holy cripes. Rodney’s mom’s coney sauce is legendary and it lived up to it. TRUST ME.

After stuffing ourselves silly we went to the “Military Compound” to set up props, hang tarp and unload costumes. We ended the evening by staying up until 3 a.m. talking about politics. I have no idea why since we had to get up at 7:30 a.m., but I think it was mostly to calm our nerves. Jen & I were a little anxious, to say the least.

Monday: Awoke squinty eyed and amped at 7:30 a.m. after about 3-4 hours of sleep to head out to get pick up groceries to feed the zombies. Kroger didn’t have brains so we settled on donuts and chips. Once at the “Military Compound” we finished some last minute things and then the zombies arrived promptly at 10:00 a.m! Make-up assembly lines started and lasted until about 11:30 a.m. This was pretty interesting...we had about 20-25 people there that had to have full make-up as well as black latex applied to their arms and hands and bleeding wounds. Everyone jumped right in and helped, but it was a little surreal painting people I had only recently met.

The guys finished some last minute prop set-ups and we were ready to film. Some of the actors had brought their kids along so during make-up and costuming, you could hear the kids running around pretending to be zombies, moaning and such. It was really really cute. We even recruited 2 of the kids to be in the movie. These parents were soooo cool, I can’t tell ya.

It was about 110 degrees in there but the zombies didn’t complain too much when we put them in heavy grease make-up, thick clothes and made them lay under thick blankets for at least 20 minutes while we shot. (Sorry guys)

Jen K. had storyboarded the scenes we were shooting and I must say, it helped!! We breezed right through the scene with minimal retakes and ended only 5 minutes behind schedule. When we originally planned the scene we hadn’t taken into account the corn being up. Turns out having about 20 zombies go through the corn aimlessly is really really creepy. Yay corn!

After we finished this scene, the pizza arrived and that’s when the fatigue set in for me. I couldn’t really eat and I was very anxious about the upcoming wedding scene. Come to find out Jen K. was feeling the exact same way. So we rushed through pizza, changed costumes (quite a funny scene when a bunch of people were getting dressed in the bathroom together) and did more make-up.

I was in this scene so I had Jen K. applying my make-up, while Ash lotioned and latexed me. The chick on the latex bottle is trying to be all sexy but let me tell you...that stuff smells like shit and the minute it’s on you, you desperately want it off NOW. Not to mention it was the hottest day of the damn summer.

We all loaded up the cars and headed to the cemetery. The cemetery caretaker guy my dad hooked us up with was a real character. When we pulled up he was all excited! This cemetery was off a dirt road and through some cornfields, if that tells you anything. Most of the graves were from the Revolutionary War era. When we pulled up there was some fresh dirt by a grave and the caretaker said, “Damn, Morgan got out again!” Yea, a character, but super freaking cool. At the end of the filming I was thanking him when I noticed blood running down his chin. He sheepishly smiled and said, “I had to try the fake blood. Sorry.” Give you a good picture?

Again the storyboards proved a lifesaver. We breezed through this scene (which was a HUGE one - 34 takes) in a couple hours. It rained when we first arrived...a really strange rain. Warm and it sorta felt like it was only on us. I don’t know how to explain it. theMan thinks it was the spirits testing us out to see if we’d leave. Thankfully they didn’t test us too long because we were losing daylight. Everything worked really well, no major malfunctions with the flesh eating or fake blood except one shot where blood was suppose to squirt up. The shot wasn’t ruined though, it just looks like a long shot.

I think everyone had a great time. I know we were laughing our ass off through most of it. After it was over we all headed back, cleaned up and some of us went back to Chi-town. My body completely shut down and I slept for like 12-15 hours. Sleep of the dead, but damn I felt great. Everything went perfect and the footage is exceptional for as much time as we had.

I couldn’t be happier. Now, don't forget. If you have pix of the shoot, please forward to me. I am sad because I got so few. I'll post what I do have tonight.

Only 10 more scenes to do in 2 weeks! Renegade film-making at it's best!