Day 6 with zombies

Day 6 on BZK! wasn't as productive as I'd hoped.I happens sometimes and it's really no one's fault other than mine in thinking we can get x amount done in y amount of time. Some days we can, some days we don't. This was a "don't" day. We didn't miss much, just a couple short scenes and one pretty long one. Probably could've used another 3 hours - but given it was not the warmest of days, it probably worked out for the best.

And one thing, I've always known this, but I feel like admitting it, I hate feeling rushed when I'm filming. I can only think of how much time there is left and I can't focus on just getting what needs to be done, done. And done right. So as a result things get a little sloppy - and that's the other thing I think about too. Plus, I really hate having to drag everyone out for something we had planned on doing on this day - it just annoys the hell out of me.

Anyway, we did get some good stuff, I already edited the one scene I really felt was sloppy and it wasn't that bad. I might get a few quick insert shots to make it work just a little better, maybe not. I don't know yet.

So anyway, it's done and on with some pictures:

These shots, other than Julie in the jacket, make it look like it was pretty warm out there. It would've been okay, since it was 22 degrees, but the wind was rather brutal.

Our zombies for the day. My blood is getting thinned out so they weren't as gory as I'd have like, not happy about that but there's nothing I can do now.

This stuff was a pain to shoot. I hate fight scene or action scenes of any sort, they are really the hardest thing to shoot and shoot well. This was okay, not great, but passable at least. The insert shots might help though.

And the cast for the day, I think everyone seemed to have a good time, like they're really going to say otherwise I guess. Anyway, they were all awesome and did a great job.

And of course, the best line of the day:

Day 5 over and done with.

Day 5 on Bimbo Zombie Killers! Undead in the Water is over with, without too much fuss. It was a bit of a pain to schedule since one actress couldn't make it, but in a way it all worked, because there was no way we'd have gotten it all done and we got done the worst of it. So next time, much easier.

Here's all our crap, you can't see most of it actually, but it's all there. I realized once we got the location I'd forgotten the sledgehammer prop, so thankfully, Julia ran back to Hazel Grove and got it. That was pretty damned awesome of her.

A friend of Tim Wartman's came along as our zombie for the day - it wasn't until I was soaking him in blood that I realized what his shirt said. And even he didn't get the significance right away - but we got a good shot of it, so hopefully it read well under the blood onscreen.

The fake axe in the arm gag worked perfectly, pretty damned happy with how it turned out.

I think John is loving that shotgun, he does look pretty bad ass with it.

Okay, not so bad ass here.

and Tim Gormley showing off one of the props of the day.

Cast shot, from left to right: Mark Wells, Tim Gormley, Tim Wartman, Julia MacDougall, Julie Laforest, Mary Gaudet, John MacDonald and Bill Pineau.

To was the first time I was doing two shoots in one day, luckily the second was too big a deal, but I realized pretty quick how terribly unprepared I was for it. Hopefully it'll all turn out.

And finally, the best line of the day:

And don't forget, we've got 18 days left on the fundraising campaign, we need all the help we can get. There's a link on the right sidebar.

Piss Zombie

How's that for a classy blog title?"Piss Zombie" is actually a credit in the movie, a poor zombie that gets accidentally pissed on. This is not the normal kind of gag I would ever put in a movie, but it's a very slight homage to "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" - one of my favourite movies.

These pictures here, by pixbylorne, during the shoot show the perfect angle for this gag to actually work. It's not shown light this in the movie - mainly to keep the exact distance between the actors slightly obscured since they had to be decently close together in order for it to work, but in the series they'll be slightly farther apart.

All I used was a small $2.00 pressure sprayer from a dollar store and it worked perfectly. Even got nice and warm sitting in the sun. I haven't edited it, but the footage looks awesome and this was definitely another odd moment in movie making for me - specifically spraying blood on another man's crotch.

I normally don't have an outside photographer on set either, but Lorne asked and was understanding about not letting certain things out to the public just yet. Anyway, just wanted to mention again, these picture were by pixbylorne.

Day 4 on BZK! Undead in the Water

Today went off without a hitch and nearly right on schedule - that rarely happens. Even with a bit of delayed start we still only went half an hour (maybe even less) over schedule. Not too shabby with only 4 hours and 6 pages to shoot.

Today we did all of episode 2 and I think to date that put us at 1/3 of the way through? Maybe 1/4 at the worst. Pretty good for the major problems that cropped up this past week, like losing our lead villain. One major rewrite later and losing one full episode and 11 pages we got back on track pretty quick. The overall thing moves faster and I was able to remove at least 2 troublesome, potentially repetitive elements. And recasting was awesome. I couldn't be happy with our new lead villain, John MacDonald. He was brilliant. Just the right blend of huge scary motherfucker and campy cheese.

I finished the only real prop of the day just a few hours before the shoot, a foam sledge hammer. Worked great. Really happy with how it turned out.

We arrived a little, got to shooting a little late, but once things got going it was awesome. I kinda feel like I might've been a little out of practice until today. We hit a good stride and everyone seemed to really have a great time. Plus it was a perfect day for filming.

Vance getting hosed down for being a background corpse.

John and Jill as Bo and Daisy.

John reveals how rednecks take a leak.

James Davey as Piss Zombie - you'll have to see it.

Very quick makeup job on Dempsey as Vance

Mary, Amanda and Morgan as some hapless kidnap victims.

Most of the cast from today. Missing are James Davey and Troy Gallant.

Everyone did a great job, I think it's actually going to be pretty damned funny. And of course, the best line of the day:

And finally finally, thanks to everyone who came out today. Great job.

BZK! 3rd Day of Filming

Day 3 almost didn't happen, long story but it was due to waiting on finances - luckily it all worked out and it did happen, with an added shoot later in the day making up for the one missed on Day 2.

Another cloudy, damp, humid day - but what else could I really expect, the previous two movies took place under the same conditions. We were shooting in the forest with a pretty thick tree canopy so I wasn't too worried, so far rain hasn't cancelled anything.

Since the first scene was pretty simple as far as zombies went, I decided to just go with facepainting instead of full prosthetics - the zombies will appear for less than an minute and their involvement was only half an hour or so - in fact we were ahead of schedule upon finishing with them.

We shot out of sequence to accommodate the fact one of our actors/makeup artists had to get to work. Awesome of her to come out early and get covered in fake blood though and then have to go to work.

I decided to test out my new method of hosing down zombies with blood. Just a $7 pressure sprayer. Not perfect because it creates too much of a symmetrical spray, but still it does the trick.

Everyone seemed a little too eager to get messy - but that's what zombie movies are all about.

Today would have actually been cancelled if not for our lead actor, Tim Wartman, wrangling up enough zombies for us. I have nearly 60+ people supposedly who have signed up and most of them pretty much consistently ignore our calls for zombies. I'd like to say I'm surprised by that, unfortunately it's typical around here.

Upon seeing this picture I was rather disturbed that Krista's leg could do that with any discomfort - at least she never said anything and it was totally her choice to do it. Don't know how well it reads on camera, but it looks messed up here.

Shooting this was all based on that one severed arm prop Tim's carrying there - without it the shoot was pointless. I got it made in time and it looks pretty decent on camera. I actually have a whole post I was debating on about these kinds of props and their place in a movie like this. We'll see I guess.

The full cast from the first half of Day 3. A pretty awesome, eager bunch and hopefully what turns out to be one of the more memorable scenes from the whole series.

There are more images of the sequence we shot with Tim after the rest of the cast left, but I'm keeping them all under wraps until the series goes online - I don't want to spoil it, but I think it'll be pretty awesome.

We finished WAY ahead of schedule, 2 hours in fact. So I was a bit relieved and was able to take a break before getting back into things for the second part of the day. Which was pretty easy as well and turned out good I think.

We hauled most of our leads back to Scales Pond for a quick scene.

Here they all are - so far they've been a really patient bunch, putting up with most anything I've thrown at at them. I think they really hard stuff is behind us now and we're into the just regular stuff on dry land.

Overall it was an easy day. There was a bit of confusion with the second half, not sure what happened there still, but it's over now.

Now onto prepping for Day 4 - which is going to be a bit of a nightmare. Technically it should be easy, but there's just so much to do and too many zombies needed it could be a disaster. Here's hoping for the best. And I'm going to do that other post I was thinking about. See you next week and I'll leave you with the Best Line of the Day. Tim might've found his calling as a physical comedic actor.

Not technically the BEST line, but just silly out of context (and even in context):