Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 30

Fourth Day of Shooting - John got up at the crack of dawn (or probably before dawn) and made the 3+ hour drive over the pass to meet us at Marie's house early this morning. Incredible.


Tom was instrumental in choreographing a couple of cool fight scenes today in tight quarters in an entryway and a bit of the kitchen.

We shot the severed hand on the counter scene today and it is amazing what a little foam rubber, some red paint and butterscotch pudding can do to gross people out!


Amanda stretching her face as she puts on her make-up.


John, captured through a window, taking an important phone call outside.


You gotta catch some sleep when you have the chance with a shooting schedule like this.


Setting up a shot on the stairs.


John directing from the crawlspace access.

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 29

Third Day of Shooting - Today we were out at Marie's house and John had to drive back over to Bend to work, so I had quite a full plate - directing, shooting, special effects, make-up, food, etc. Thanks goodness for Ariauna - she worked the boom mike, held an umbrella over my head and countless other things to help me through the day. Actually everyone was really a trooper today as we ran into all kinds of problems.


Even though the house is way out in the country it is on a busy road so traffic noise was constantly causing us to stop (since in the movie the house was isolated in the middle of the woods). Add to that a table saw and tractor a at a nearby farm plus airplanes flying overhead and it was just crazy! After trying for close to an hour, we finally gave up on the 'pile of bones' outdoor scene and decided to try and pick it up later.


I made up the two female zombies, Lisa and Marie, based on Rob's instructions.


I love this picture!

We took care of an outdoor fight scene and then it started to rain. I called John in a panic and told him about having to scrap one morning scene already. I suggested that I move one big scene with all of the characters from the back yard to inside the shop to avoid some noise and stay out of the rain. John said he could make that work.

Once inside the shop, the rain poured down on the metal roof. DOH! We added a few lines here and there about the rain coming down and even a throw away line where Tom comments on an airplane flying overhead, in hopes that they could somehow cover plotwise for all of the noise!


The big scene in the shop involved a rotting zombie soldier and I'd made a paper mache' skeleton head and torso for it. I dressed it in fatigues and borrowed Tyler's hat and covered the face in pudding. It was gross enough already but then someone brought in a big fat worm from the yard so I was able to shoot it squirming out of the zombie's eye socket. It was a fabulous happenstance in a day full of snags. Tom built a fire in the wood stove to we could all keep warm in the shop.


Morgan showed up around dusk and thankfully Rob was able to come out after work to do zombie make-up on her kids. The shoot went well and they sure had a good time fighting over their mom's fake bloody guts! John would eventually tell me I missed a few shots he'd wanted and boy did I feel bad. We ended a little late, but I felt like such a failure having run into all of those problems. I know I did the best I could, but just had hoped it was going to go so much more smoothly.

With John out of town, and my out-of-town guests gone, Tom slept in my kid's playroom and Ariauna slept in my kid's room. I think the stuffed Creature From the Black Lagoon made her feel right at home.

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 28

Everyone hangs out on the deck on a rare break.

Second Day of Shooting - Second day at the Corvallis house. Today Ariauna had to stand in as a dead zombie soldier and to save make-up time I had to shoot her scenes such that you didn't see her face as Tom dragged her around. It was a little tricky, but it all worked out OK.

A few weeks back John asked me if I could connect him with any National Guard folks in town in hopes that they could come to the set to play zombies and bring all of their own outfits and gear. I connected him with a coworker of mine and it turns out that John knew Lewis from years ago. Small world. Lewis joined us today, but none of his buddies who said they could make it showed, so we scrambled to rethink some of the shots. Our garage full of zombie soldiers turned into just one. A few other shots were done just of boots so the good guy soldiers could stand in (literally) for the zombie ones. Lewis pitched in with behind-the-scenes shooting and other tasks and Ariauna and Amanda were recruited for boom work.

One fun scene today was Tom getting splattered with zombie goo, aka butterscotch pudding.


Ready for the pudding shot - Rob is on the floor ready with the giant syringe of butterscotch while Lewis gets some behind the scenes shots. It was messy but a great-looking effect!


The aftermath. Note the plastic grocery bag protecting the camera on the left.


We all scatter, leaving John with clean-up duty!

We shot several scenes late tonight in the garage which required a lot of make-up effects. Boy howdy was it cold.


Wee hours of the morning...


What scene are we doing again? What time is it? Who am I?


Poor Tom had to spend most of the night with his shirt off. Here he tries to keep warm by cozying up to a halogen lamp.

We took care of Ariauna's death scene tonight, so her character wasn't needed for the December weekend shoot where we'd shoot the very end of the movie. Another very late night (I'm not even sure how late - it's all a blur) but we got some amazing things on camera.

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 27

First Day of Shooting - We shot at a house in Corvallis today and it was a looooooong day.

I brought our visiting friends' teenage son with me today to shoot behind-the-scenes video.

I brought a few pieces of artwork I'd commissioned from Marie a while back to dress the set as we were pretending that rooms at this house were part of her house that we would be shooting the rest of the movie in.



John wasn't able to get any extras cast to play zombie soldiers, so Rob had to make up Tom as one and we had to shoot creatively a bit.

Tom the zombie attacks Ariauna then Tom the soldier shoots Tom the zombie. Got it? Trust me, it all works in the final movie.

The severed arm effect was today and took a lot of set-up time and trial runs, but the result was fantastic.

Tom had to stand on a stack of firewood outside the window to be high enough for the shot.

The rest of the cast had a lot of waiting around during make-up and effects, which was nice to build a bit of comradery and shoot some cast interviews in the kitchen. It also allowed for a fair amount of snoozing in the living room. Call time was 7:30 a.m. and we shot until sometime around 1:30 a.m. the next morning, and still had to push some scenes off to another day. Ugh.

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 25, 26

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 25
2 Days Until the Shoot - I met with two potential actresses on Tuesday. The first was fine enough, but had some conflicts with the schedule. The second actress, Amanda Bounds, had read the whole script, had no conflicts with the schedule, has done zombie make-up before and did fantastic on the tiny bit of a scene I had her do. I recommended her to John and said the first girl may work well as a zombie, which she said she was also interested in.

I was assembling my boom pole last night and broke the extension mechanism and the top where the adapter screwed on. Great. So picking up another pole tonight to work with. Stopped at Bi-Mart on my lunch hour and picked up a few things and will probably go shopping tonight for lunchmeat, bread and fruit. Was up until 2 a.m. the other night making a huge pot of chili. Going to make a gigantic batch of minestrone soup tonight.

Last night there was a horrendous wind storm that cracked two enormous branches off of a 100-or-so-year-old tree in my back yard, taking out 2 of my apple trees and part of a pear tree. Luckily it just barely reached the fence and didn't hit my nor any neighbors' houses. The breaks revealed a lot of rot inside though, so we're going to have to have it removed so that the next storm doesn't take out anything! Crap!

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 26
Day Before Shoot - I spent the today visiting with our out-of-town friends. John picked up Tom Stedham and Ariauna Albright at the airport and met everyone at a coffee shop tonight before heading over to a nearby office for a read-through. John decided to just have Ariauna and Tom sleep at his house instead of getting hotel rooms.

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 22

Five Days Until the Shoot - Holy crap. Things are getting ridiculously busy as I try and get things ready for the shoot at home and have a major project due at work the day before I leave for the week off for the shoot. Have tested the camera and microphone and everything seems fine. Still working on getting a boom fixed up. Put a new bulb in my broken light and repaired some connectors on the light kit poles. Planning to buy a new set of worklights as my old set are broken. Started gathering stuff for my "box" - flashlight, towels, gaffers and duct tape, etc. Going to use a toolbox to carry it all in. Need to set that up, clean up/out my car, get the cooler down from the loft, and a zillion other things!


I worked most of Sunday getting the food plan together. Once I did the math, the amount John hoped it would cost for food averaged about a buck a person per meal. My wife helped with suggesting some cheap meals to make for big groups - chili, sloppy joes, spaghetti, lasagna, etc.


We went shopping at Winco and I bought a ton of stuff and only spent $108. Plan to buy lunchmeat, bread, fruit, and other stuff that doesn't keep too long right before the first day of shooting...which is this Saturday! John is picking up bottled water, soda, paper plates, cups and plasticware at Costco. Tonight my wife and I cooked 12 pounds of ground turkey! I originally volunteered to plan and handle the food to make sure we didn't eat bologna every day. Note to self: never do this again! It's going to be way more work than I had thought about. John didn't get the money when he thought he would so I'm having to front all the money to buy the food. John said should be able to reimburse me the first day of shooting.

John said that the hotel refused to take his reservation for Ariauna's room over the phone - they said he had to come do it in person. Bizarre! He said he considered asking me if I would do it for him, but didn't want to impose. I told him since I was already fronting the money for the food, I just couldn't front the money for the hotel room as well. He understood and just plans to go to the hotel when he gets to town on Friday.

Had dinner with Rob last night and he asked me to bring over that effects list I'd put together. He asked me a ton of questions about the effects - but I mostly had to tell him I didn't know exactly what John had in mind and that the two of them should try and talk about it before the shoot. With his limited time, Rob's not going to read the script - just wants to know what the effect is and when he needs to do it. After I got home, I e-mailed John to tell him to call Rob right away to get all of those details worked out. Sounds like most of the make-ups and effects planned during weekday shoots will fall to me as Rob can't get any time off.

Talked to John several times on the phone and a flurry of e-mails have been going back and forth, working out small details. John is having trouble getting extras to commit to certain days to play zombies and zombie soldiers. He may cut a few scenes down from several EMS (living room full of them, several trying to get in bedroom window) to just one, depending on who he can get to show up. John picked up three toy guns this week for the soldiers. I asked about what we were going to do about the big zombie war scenes and John just said the gun budget is spent, so we'll just have to pass the guns around to whomever is in the shot.


John cast Morgan Mayhem (whom I worked with recently with on DEADLY PREMONITIONS) and her kids as a victim and zombies respectively on the Monday that I will be directing. They are thrilled to death so it should be a fun time.

I'm set to meet potential actresses for the part of Jill tomorrow night after work. I was going to meet three but one has had to cancel before I even met her! The track record of meeting actresses down at the deli is awful - all have been no-shows thus far. I hope someone shows up as we shoot in five days and this major part is still open!

Well, it's after midnight again - need to take a shower and get to bed. Had cub scouts den meeting tonight, meet with actresses tomorrow night after work, scouts pack meeting on Wednesday night, then shopping and cooking meals on Thursday and Friday nights. Also on Friday our friends from Seattle arrive. Since I'll be shooting the movie the rest of the time they are here, I blocked out Friday to see them. Call time is 7-freaking-thirty in the morning on Saturday!

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 17

Ten Days Until the Shoot! Well John came out on Tuesday and we went down to the Old World Deli and once again were stood up by a potential female actress! What's up with that?


The guy due at 7:30 showed up and was very enthusiastic. Tyler David sounds very excited and already arranged the week off from work! He has a couple of mid-terms we have to work around but sounds open other than that. John cast him as Dillon. We waited around for another hour and finally gave up and went to my house. John e-mailed Michelle (just cast as Jill) and asked her if she would play Stacy. She got back to him the next day and said she would love to and that she actually liked the part better, I think because there is a little more "meat" to it. John e-mailed me tonight and said he has a couple of leads on women to play Jill. John has to work every day from now until the shoot so he asked if I would be willing to meet with any more potential actresses by myself - I said I would.


Ariana Albright is locked in for the project! She's going to fly up and has to stay at John's place for the first night as it's a giant football game weekend at the University and everything is booked up at this late date. She will be playing Heather and since she'll have to fly back at the end of the main shoot, she won't be available for the pick-up weekend in which we will shoot the end of the movie. John is working on a rewrite in which Heather doesn't survive to the end of the movie to accommodate this scheduling issue.

I worked on storyboarding at lunch today and just sent out an e-mail to the cast asking about food allergies, vegetarians, etc. so I can start meal planning. I made a list of things to do before the shoot the other day and it took up a whole damn page! Only 10 days until the shoot! Excited and nervous at the same time.

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 8, 12, 15

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 8
Well, the shoot begins in just 19 days. I'm going to buy a new microphone I'd been looking at and will get some extra cable and rig up a boom pole for it. Last night John asked if I could take the shooting schedule he put together and re-do it, rearranging scenes within each day in an efficient shooting order rather than just numerical order. I started last night and it's going to be a lot of work. The nice thing is that there may be a few days where some of the girls aren't needed for the entire day, perhaps making the time commitment less severe and therefore casting easier. I have a meeting tonight but afterwards am going to try and get through as much of it as I can. It would be great to be able to hand off a finished version to John tomorrow night when he is in town to meet some potential casting choices.


Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 12

15 Days Until the Shoot - John came to town on Tuesday night and we went to the Old World Deli. One guy, Johnathan, showed up who was interested in the role of Smith, which John gave him, but also said he would be up for playing EMS and zombies and helping PA as his schedule allowed. When we get closer to the shoot and John sends out the final schedule, Johnathan will better know his school schedule as well. We all chatted about horror movies for a bit and Johnathan is certainly our type of guy and excited as all get out to be involved. Everyone else who was scheduled to show up flaked on us! We waited almost an hour and we finally gave up. The next day he heard from the girl that at the last minute her boss wouldn't let her leave work and John had neglected to give her his cell phone number. He's planning on coming to town again this next Tuesday to meet with a few more people who are interested.

Last night I finally finished going through the shooting schedule and rearranging it for the most economical shoot in terms of minimum of set-ups and bunching the scenes with the female characters together as much as possible. The first result was a list of days and times that each female role is actually needed. I figured that if a prospective actress knew that she didn't have to be there 12 to 13 hours a day for 9 days straight as had been described, it might be easier to cast. There are two days that the female roles are not needed at all, and several where it's only noon to 5 or so. I sent the list to John and he added it to the MySpace page. I also e-mailed everyone I could think of last night in an attempt to help John. He was holding out hope that Erin Arbogast would be interested, but he just heard from her and she can't commit to it. Even Shannon e-mailed him today to say she couldn't do it.


John e-mailed the producer lamenting the fact that it was too bad that Ariana Albright couldn't be a part of it as John had once hoped. The producer told him that conveniently Ariana just quit a job so she might have time. Interesting...

I asked John last night if he had worked up an actual budget for movie and he said that he hadn't really as he needed to get out and price props and such. I asked specifically about food since I need to start planning as the shoot begins soon. He gave me a figure for food to start working with. Once I have the shooting schedule updated, I'll break it down as far as how many meals and how many people to feed at each meal. So much to do!


Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 15
We start shooting in 12 days! John told me last night that his work scheduled him for 8 days in a row leading up to the time he has off for the shoot. It's going to be rough on him trying to get everything ready!


The NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD play I've been involved with is finally over - it was fun, but a real time drain. I worked yesterday on modifying the file John had sent over with his shooting schedule. Should be able to finish all of the rearranging tonight and send him a copy. He is also coming out Tuesday to meet with more potential cast members.


He did get the part of Jill cast with Michelle "Ame" Mahoney, and has another actress who is interested. John also has one guy interested in being a PA who has a bunch of experience from working on projects in L.A.

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - September 28, October 2, 4

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - September 28
John was in town last night and we went to John's house to block out scenes for the first couple days of shooting. Thankfully, the set-up of the room is different than I remembered from shooting there before so there are a couple of perfect spots for me to plant the camera and get all the needed elements in (doorway, bed, closet, window) without breaking the line. We also decided that instead of cheating the two people under the bed with a set-up in the garage, we would just set them on the the floor and use an extreme close-up shot. We blocked out stuff in the other bedroom and hallway and then into the garage. That's going to be tight because there are scenes where there are about 10 people in there including zombie soldiers. We pretty much decided that we'll shoot everything looking in from the garage door.

John has gotten a lot of response to the OSU Barometer ad - unfortunately it's all people wanting to be zombies, not the main characters. John said he's going to let it go another week and if he can't get any hot college co-eds to cast, he'll start talking to some of the people we've worked with in the past. He'll basically be asking people to take a week off of work with only three weeks notice, os it may be pretty rough. As I said before, though, somehow these things tend to come together at the last minute.


Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 2
John called me last night and told me he had two women and a guy interested in playing main parts in the movie. He planned to be in town next Tuesday and was hoping to meet them all with me and have them do some readings. This morning, I got an e-mail from Tom asking me for the specific dates so he could get his place tickets. I guess maybe he couldn't get a hold of John. I e-mailed him the dates and then dropped John a note to let him know what I'd told Tom. After lunch, I got a voicemail from John asking me to tell Tom to hold off on getting tickets as John said there may be a problem with him getting the time off of work for the shoot! He said he'd call me tonight and sounded really upset. I'll be at a shoot for DEADLY PREMONITIONS for much of the night, so might not hear until tomorrow. One thing is for sure, these movie projects never seem to come together smoothly!



Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - October 4
I shot scenes for DEADLY PREMONITIONS with a friend of a friend, Morgan Mayhem, at Marie's house on Tuesday night. She was a real trooper and is totally interested in maybe being a part of PLATOON OF THE DEAD as she loves zombies and horror movies. It was also cool to shoot at her house as kind of a trial run before PLATOON. John called and basically he's not going to be able to take that many days off in a row. So believe it or not, John has to leave in the middle of the shoot, make the three-plus hour drive with snow in the pass back home, work for one lousy day, then drive back over for the rest of the shoot. He offered two solutions: give everyone else the day off from the shoot and combine those scenes on to other days, or make me director for that day. Since we already have 12 and 13-hour days scheduled, I told John there was just no way to get the whole movie done taking that day off without chopping things out of the script. So I agreed to direct the day that he is gone. Luckily it will be only the third day of the 9-day stretch, but there is a lot of scenes to cover, it's all outside and I bet it will be raining. It will be a challenge but I'm looking forward to that challenge.

Meanwhile John is coming to town next Tuesday and is setting up a face-to-face meeting with some of the people who've responded to the newspaper ad about playing some of the major roles.

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - September 21 & 25, 2007

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - September 21, 2007
John called the other day and said he went over the effects list I made for him and passed it on to Rob. I got the updated shooting schedule today with actual dates attached as well as scenes pasted in so it will be easier for me to decide if it's too packed or needs to be rearranged or anything to maximize efficiency. We are 36 days from shooting and we only have one person cast. John has pulled projects together down to the wire in the past, so all of the pieces may fall into place at the last minute. Marie e-mailed us last night to say she wanted to be gone to a conference with Joe the first few days of the planned shoot. John has the first few days scheduled for other locations, but one day that she said she'd be gone is set to shoot in the house, so I'm not sure what's going to happen with all of that.

John is planning to run a classified ad in the OSU Daily Barometer next week when fall term at the university starts up. He asked if I would put up a flier at work and I told him that if he sent me the text of what he wants it to say, I'd put something together and get it up on some bulletin boards.

Up next for me, after going over the shooting schedule, is working on storyboards. Also, now that the shooting schedule has some dates and times attached I am tempted to work up a meal plan/budget for the food. However, there is a distinct possibility John will have to change the schedule to accommodate the actors not yet cast, so I'm going to hold off until we get closer to the shoot.


Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - September 25
I started working through the shooting schedule in earnest yesterday on my lunch hour. Afterwards, I sent John and e-mail that started with, "I have three words for you. Holy Crap! Brutal!" This is going to be a killer shoot with most days being scheduled for 12 hours and even a couple of 13-hour days - and most past Pipedreams projects have gone over schedule. My main concern is staying healthy through the shoot. Nine days in a row of this is going to really wear me down - I need to make sure I am diligent on getting as much sleep as possible as well as eating a well as possible. When the pressure is on, there will be the temptation to eat anything I can grab at the moment and take in a steady flow of caffinated soda - it might keep me going for the first few days, but after that it's not going to help prop me up. I also worry about John as I know we've had some bleary-eyed all-night shoots and a few times he's gotten pretty fuzzy at 4 a.m.

John is coming to town Thursday night and we are going to go to his house to block out scenes for bedroom one, bedroom two and the garage. I'm planning to draw out some plans and take lots of notes so that when we are in the thick of things, we can just refer to them and plow through.

John said the classified ad in the OSU Barometer is to start today.

Stolen Flag Productions - Concert/Fundraising/Casting Event

Concert/fundraising event/extras casting for upcoming horror/comedy "Thicker Than Water" at Diablos Downtown Lounge, 959 Pearl St., Eugene, Oregon. Saturday, April 18 at 10 p.m. - $5 cover charge.

Check out this news clip with the two guys behind the movie and check out the "Dr. Squid" mention from Gary!! Sweet!!! Thanks, man!!

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - September 6, 14 & 17, 2007

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - September 6, 2007
I stopped by and saw Marie after work last night - gave her a couple of my movies and one of John's so she could get the feel for the kind of stuff we make. She was jazzed about watching them right away. I also got a tour of the house with an eye towards the shoot. I was just trying to get a sense of where I could position myself for shots and what angles would look good, where I could plug in and place lights, etc. Their trap door leads to a crawlspace that is big enough for two people to hide in, so that will make that scene even creepier. The upstairs is one big room but I think I can shoot specific angles to make one area look like another room. The workshop is a separate building but very close to the house. Also they have a few large trees next to their house, which when framed right, will give the illusion that they are at the edge of a forest.

John called this morning to tell me he was almost done with the rewrite on the script. He said he is planning on us shooting additional rooms at other locations, pretending they are all in the same house.

Right now the plan is for me to meet John at the house after work next Thursday so he can check it out in person.


Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - September 14, 2007
John e-mailed me his revised script the other day and I finished going through it yesterday at lunch. Had a bunch of questions which I asked John about when we met at Marie's house last night. Flashbacks are zombie vs. soldier and feature characters from the movie, so not something we can shoot before or after the main shoot. We toured the house and agreed that we will have to cheat the two bedrooms and the garage somewhere else. We will either shoot the bathroom stuff elsewhere as well or John will rewrite the fight scene so it spills out into the entryway.


I commented that it will be great to have Tom Stedham here as his experience as a touring wrestler bodes well for fight choreography. John said we can probably use the garage and one bedroom at his place. We'll cheat "under the bed" and "in the crawlspace" somewhere else, too - perhaps on the floor of a garage with dim lighting and a tight frame. John loved the house and was actually digging the artwork quite a bit in person - he said he feared it would be distracting when he saw the photos of the house but now feels it will be an asset to the flick. He's even planning to move a few of the kitchen conversation scenes into the office to be able to shoot in there as it's filled with cool artwork and sculpture. Marie seems quite excited about having the movie shoot at her place. John kept warning her about the long hours, but she seemed unphased.

I suggested to John that he develop an effects list to give to Rob as soon as possible, even offering to do it myself this weekend. With Rob's schedule as busy as it is, it will do the production well to give him a lot of time to mull the effects list over in his head. As it is, we are only 6 weeks away from shooting. Lots of work remains to be done including additional location scouting, all the remaining casting (only one part is cast right now), finalizing the shooting schedule, working out the food budget/plan, buying or creating props and costumes and equipment, planning and building effects, storyboarding, etc. Wow! Anyhow, John said I didn't have to do the effects list, but I might if I have time on Saturday just to have it get to Rob that much sooner.

John is almost done with the MySpace page - he has the logo I did up there as well as a post listing the major parts and what each entails.

The producer is sending out his camera and other equipment for us to use, so I'm hoping it comes a week or two ahead of time so I have time to get the hang of it before we have to start shooting.



Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - September 17, 2007
I went through the script and made the list of effects and e-mailed it to John on Saturday. I'm hoping he goes through it and sends it on to Rob soon. We're just 40 days from the first day of shooting.