Non-film people probably think Directors parade around the set all the time in nice Euro-clothes, tossing out creative decisions like Mardi Gras beads while escorted by a harem of voluptuous ingénues angling for the role of the virginal farmer’s daughter--sorta like Francois Truffaut in DAY FOR NIGHT, only without the subtitles.

Still, every Zombie Make-Up Test, every choreography meeting and dance rehearsal, every song we get recorded brings us that much closer to our ultimate goal of making this the singingest, dancingest Zombie flick ever!

Along the way we DID manage to log our first shooting day…a silly little commercial that plays on Z-TV (Zombie Television, natch) for a product to get rid of those pesky Human blood stains.

We only had a single actor and a few set-ups, but the commercial gave our brilliant Production Designer, Beth Gosnell, a chance to strut her stuff…and it allowed us to record real footage with our Sony Z1U High-Definition Camera. (By contrast, all of the pre-release trailers found in the “Lights! Camera! Zombies!” ARCHIVES and on the Official Z Site were shot with Elizabethan-era technology, viz., a Canon XL-1, which we now use as a counter-weight, duct-tapped to the end of our Cobra Crane!)

For such a modest first day of shooting, we had quite a large crew--which is utterly normal, since people wanna finally get on set after all the long weeks and even months of getting ready to play on the project. At one point we probably had a dozen or more crewmembers present…all of whom I’m hoping to see again on those big days to come when we truly NEED a dozen or more crewmembers!

The commercial featured a Zombie Mom finding a human-shaped bloodstain on the floor of her son’s room. Since we shot the bit at someone else’s house, we couldn’t exactly throw down our nasty concoction of wine, salt and ketchup on their carpet and expect to get away with it. (Well, we DID contemplate making a big mess and then just slipping out the back door before they noticed we were gone…but cooler heads prevailed and we decided to go with a more user-friendly option!) In the end, Production Designer Beth Gosnell came up with the simple, yet elegant, solution of finding a matching chunk of cream-colored carpet, which we brought to the set and unfolded on top of the other carpet. We made our mess on the 2nd piece of carpet and it looked just fine on camera. Clean-up was as simple as rolling up the 2nd piece of carpet and tossing it in the dumpster of the nearest Walmart--from whence it was probably retrieved within the hour and now sits proudly in the living room of one of those lonely ladies you read about in the news who have 145 cat or something.

LESSON LEARNED…

Shortly after our first day of shooting, I captured the footage into Final Cut Pro 5 (HD) and it looked great, except…

…for one very major problem!

I discovered a flickering row (or two) of black pixels right at the very top of the frame, in every single shot. I panicked when I first saw these little rows of black pixels that kept flashing on and off every few frames. At first I feared all our footage was ruined and we’d lost an entire day of shooting.

But then I made myself some coffee and calmed down enough to realize that shifting the picture frame by a few rows of pixels at the top is a simple enough task in FCP…so all the footage was still quite usable. At the same time, I didn’t want to have to do this for the entire movie, so I jumped on several of the digital movie tips and tricks websites you find all over the Net and wrote notes to the tech wizards who run and post on these sites.

I told them I was an independent filmmaker in Austin and what I was shooting on and described the resulting problem with the captured footage. I got responses from virtually everybody I wrote within 24 hours. Ironically, they all said exactly the same thing: if I had opted for the pseudo 24-frame mode called “Cineframe” that Sony puts on the Z1U (which I HAD), that was almost certainly the cause of the problem. Every single digital filmmaking pundit strongly advised me NOT to use Cineframe mode on the Z1U--or any other Sony camera, for that matter.

Turns out they were right. During subsequent tests, I turned off the supposedly film-look 24-frame Cineframe option and the problem hasn’t repeated itself. The footage from the camera now looks fantastic from every angle!

MUSICIANS AREN’T LIKE YOU AND ME…

Another Major Milestone in the production happened this past weekend when we got the very last of the music recorded for the songs in Z!

The last song we recorded--a ditty called “Zomboy”--was played and sung by legendary Austin rocker, Joe King Carrasco…and was one of the easiest pieces to record. Dude simply sat down with his guitar in front of the microphone at Ben Blank Media and did a run through, then banged out a perfect version on his first try at a real recording! In the back room, huddled over the giant mixing board and array of computer screens, we all looked at each other and informed Joe King over his headset that it was perfect, that was all we needed.

But Joe King, being Joe King, said, “Lemme do it one more time, I can do even better.” We were all dubious about improving upon the bang-up version he’d already delivered, but naturally we let him go on. And, sure ‘nuff, it WAS better--played a bit tighter and with even more passion than the previous time around!

Not every musician was so easy to work with, to be sure. While recording the music for all the songs in Z these past few weeks, we’ve had our share of nuttiness. Musicians, I have discovered, tend to be a little more, uhhhh, temperamental than even your standard filmic types.

As a general rule, I’ve found that if you treat your musicians like highly precocious, slightly spoiled children, everything will be just fine. (Serendipitously, this is also exactly how I like to be treated--even though I’m not a musician, nor have I ever played one on TV!)

FILLING IN THE GAPS…

This past week also saw us filling out the last couple roles in Z. We now have all 65 speaking parts accounted for, along with 10 or so Featured Zombie Extras, the oft-mentioned Zombie Dog and even the “living” Zombie Hand that plays a small part in the picture.

Oh, and we finally landed our Male Lead!

Previously we’d had troubles casting this role, entirely because it entailed a small amount of nudity. We’d find good actors who were the right age and had the right amount of acting experience for the role, but once we mentioned they had to drop trou, they’d run away, arms flailing like a marionette in TEAM AMERICA.

But these apparent set-backs often have a way of working themselves out for the benefit of the production. Sometimes your first choice for a cast or crew position doesn’t work out, whereas the next person to come along is actually even more creative, more personable or more whatever you need--and the entire show benefits because of it.

No sooner had I posted the previous column about our travails in finding a male lead than into our laps dropped local actor extraordinaire, Rob Faubion. Rob’s been on Broadway. Rob’s played Henry Higgins in a National Tour of MY FAIR LADY. Rob’s appeared in over 100 plays, TV shows and movies! (About the only thing Rob can’t do--so far as I’m aware--is out-skate Brian Boitano!)

HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION…

So this is how we’re spending our summer vacation! While all the decent, “normal” folk around us are hanging out by the pool or driving up to Canada for a fly-fishing expedition--or whatever it is people do when they’re not making movies--we’re gearing up to spend every weekend outside in the 140 degree temperatures of central Texas making our Zombie musical.

Even as the vocal sessions wind down, we’re already busy scheduling as many weekends ahead as we can for our production. I can’t wait to finally spend all my free time on set…and I’m especially eager for the arrival of the parade of ingénues desperate to be cast in the picture. (Please, nobody tell ‘em there’s no parts left!)

Until then…

Release Your Inner Zombie!

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