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.

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - September 1 & 5, 2007

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - September 1, 2007
John liked the Platoon of the Dead concept that was my favorite as well. Used my webcam to grab a shot of myself making a zombie face, then pulled that into Photoshop, overlaid a skull on half my face and made myself up as a zombie. Used that behind the main logo and sent it off to John. He dug it, as did the producer, which was way cool to hear.

The house visit didn't happen as Marie and Joe were heading out of town that afternoon. Plan to try again in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I'm going to e-mail John a rough layout of the house so he can use that and the photos for reference when he works on his rewrite.

Had dinner with Rob the other night and he'd decided that he couldn't do the movie project as it was currently scheduled. Too close to his finishing up two weeks of play production plus a Disneyland trip, catching up at work and being out of vacation. He said that if the shoot could be moved out even just two weeks he could probably do a weekend of effects work (he'd still be out of vacation days). John had previously said that's the only time he had to shoot it, but I wasn't sure what the reason was. I e-mailed John and told him what Rob had said, adding that I could probably change my vacation at this point. John called me and said that he could probably push the shoot out two weeks. The key was finding out if Tom Stedham had bought his plane tickets yet. If he hadn't, or could change his dates without too much hassle, the plan would work. Otherwise John would be faced with finding another effects person. He'd talked about us trying to do it ourselves but my concern is not only the quality but having the time to do make-up on top of all the other stuff we'll need to be doing.

I've e-mailed Tom about it.


Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - September 5, 2007
Tom Stedham e-mailed back and said that the new dates were fine. Then my wife asked me what the new shooting schedule was. Turns out it was scheduled right over days my son has off from school and parent/teacher conferences. Changing the schedule again in less than 24 hours might make John, Rob and Tom mad at me, but I don't have to live with them! So I talked to Rob and called John and called Tom and luckily everyone was able to make it work for the week in between the original shooting schedule and the first revised shooting schedule. As long as the house is available then, we're good to go. So now we are looking at shooting October 27 - November 4. Halloween is smack dab in the middle, so we'll need to take that night off to take our kids trick or treating, but can shoot during the day. I'll also miss my sister's birthday, but will just have to have a belated celebration for her.

Rob skimmed through the script the other night when he was over, looking for effects he needed to do. He seemed to get excited about the project, despite the busy schedule he has leading up to it.


We got an Oriental Trading Company catalog in the mail the other day and my wife pointed out a "bag of bones" that looked pretty realistic and was only about $30. I suggested it to John for the "pile of bones" outside of the house in the script. He said he'd take a look when he was in town next week. Hoping to check out the house that night, but waiting to get an OK from Joe and Marie.

John is working on the script revisions and hopes to have them done by the end of the week.

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - August 28, 2007

Hung out with Rob Merickel Friday night and he told me all about his involvement with a stage version of Night of the Living Dead in early October. John has been trying to keep Platoon of the Dead top secret, so as soon as I got home I dropped John a note that he should really contact Rob right away. For one thing, maybe Rob could get some zombie prosthetics together for the movie when he was making ones for the play. John e-mailed Rob and Rob said that he is going to be busy with the play and then off to Disneyland so will be worn out and out of vacation when he returns. It might work to squish all the zombie scenes into one weekend, plus a pick-up day after the main shooting, but Rob said he needs more time to think about it.



Marie e-mailed photos of her house to John and I and John was initially scared off by the wild art inside the house. He called me and we chatted about it. I said that if John doesn't want to shoot there I'm totally fine with it - after all, it's his movie. However, I didn't know of any other place we could take over for so many days in a row, so it would fall to him to find a better location. I said that perhaps the fact that the house had so much character would work in the movie's favor and be better than a bunch of plain white walls. John said he felt better about using the place. He is going to drive over this Thursday and the plan is to go and check out the house in person late in the evening as my son has TaeKwonDo testing earlier in the evening.


I drew up four rough concepts for the Platoon of the Dead logo today and e-mailed them to John. His plan is to put up a MySpace page for the movie and use that for casting and communication.

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - August 9 & 22, 2007

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - August 9, 2007
Spoke with John last night. He was hoping to work with an actress from L.A. that the producer had suggested, but there just isn't money in the budget for it so we will be looking at all local casting, aside from Tom Stedham if John can work out a deal with him. I suggested an ad on Craigslist as well as the local college paper. John has written some fog scenes that happen out in the woods, which will be a problem if we shoot out in a local park or something: no electricity. If we can find woodsy areas near houses we know the owners of, we can string extension cords out. John and I will both be on vacation for the next couple of weeks, so after that we are going to touch base and start some serious planning. Included will be John coming to town to check out the main house location and see what kinds of wooded areas might be nearby.

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - August 22, 2007
Got an e-mail and a phone call from Tom Stedham thanking me for recommending him to John. John had e-mailed him the script and Tom "took the gig." It will be great to work with him again. John wondered if I could put up Tom at my house to save on hotel expenses. Not sure yet as I know we will have friends from out of town staying over part of the time for a visit. Waiting to hear confirmed shooting dates and when John will be in town to check out locations. Told John one thought on casting - if he's hoping to get some college students from the local university, we may have trouble getting them to take a whole week off from classes. Might have to work around some school schedules. We'll see how it goes. John asked me to go contact an actress I worked with a few years back about playing a role, but turns out she can't take the needed time off of work for the shoot. I also asked Marie to take photos of the house and surrounding area and send them to John as he can't make it over to see the place in person for a few weeks. This will help him make the revisions he needs to make for the producer. I also gave John the contact info for a couple of actors we've both worked with in the past, as he's going to see if they are up for this new project. John has also hired me to design a logo for the movie. Sweet!

Platoon of the Dead Production Diary - August 2, 2007

A few months ago my buddy John Bowker told me he was planning to shoot a zombie movie later in the year called PLATOON OF THE DEAD. He sent me the script to check out while he was working on arranging the financing. The script was cool, contained a few neat plot twists and was mostly in the woods or at a single house and had a small cast, both of which boded well for our usual very low budgets and 10-day shoots. The zombies, fog and other effects concerned me a little only because I knew they would take time, which we usually don't have enough of. He wanted me to handle shooting/lights/sound. He asked if I would be interested in coordinating food and I said I would, for the selfish reason of making sure we had some good food on set and weren't having baloney sandwiches for 9 days. John reminded me that it has been five years since he made a movie. I was excited to be a part of this new one.


I worked with an actor named Tom Stedham two summers ago when he flew out from Alabama to be in a thriller I shot called DEADLY PREMONITIONS. I couldn't recommend Tom more highly to John - he was a great actor, knew his lines, helped out on set any way he could, is a great photographer and a really funny guy. Not only that, but he would add some "beefcake" to the project and had military background that would make portraying the commanding officer that much more authentic and his wrestling background gave him a lot of fight choreography skills. John agreed he would be great for the role and plans to contact Tom once financing is in place.

John was at a loss on a location for the main house and initially I said I was as well. Then I remembered a picnic we had at my high school reunion at a funky old house in a small town about 9 miles from town. The house is owned by a guy I went to high school with. I mentioned it to him and the guy and his girlfriend are psyched about the movie shooting there and are even more psyched about the possibility of getting to play zombies. John plans to visit town in a few weeks so we can all meet, chat and check out the location. If it works out, it will be nice to be able to go home after shoots and sleep in my own bed. Plus we'll know where to eat, where to buy stuff in a pinch and John can line up all kinds of friends and family as extras and helpers as needed.

So right now, I'm just waiting. John is still working on a revision of the script based on some producer notes, so I'll wait until I get that to start with any storyboards. Once the schedule is locked-down, I can work on a plan and budget for food. John wants to shoot this "all in a row," that is, all at one time, rather than splitting shoots up over multiple weekends. He's hoping to have shooting dates picked out in the next few weeks, which is good so I can make sure I can take that time off of work.

Scenes from Evil Rising Weekend Three

We go now live to Chuck Gomez at the scene!


Special effects in Joe's garage: Rob is controlling a fog machine located in the bottom center of the picture. It is shooting fog into a hole in the side of a styrofoam container, which has a string of red LED lights bunched up in it. On top of that are two boards with crumpled paper bags taped on to them, spray painted black and covered with topsoil. The cinderblocks are holding up the parts of the boards that hang out past the styrofoam container. The camera is aimed at the scene, zoomed in on where the two boards meet. John and I shook the boards and pulled them apart to simulate an earthquake, revealing red light and rising steam. Sweet!


Back art


Maren sat through over 5 hours of make-up, then got covered in sticky blood and tied to a bed for about 5 more. Plus she had to pose for this photo with me - what a trooper!

Still Plugging Away

Shot Link Masters newscaster footage for EVIL RISING up in Washington State, celebrated my son's birthday and had a low-key spring break last week. Got a new desk chair, installed a light fixture, changed some light bulbs, sorted through a bunch of papers and other exciting house stuff. Finished my taxes!

Got the DEADLY PREMONITIONS DVD-r proof from Mike and it looks great! Unfortunately, now he's run into some computer troubles, so waiting to hear how that works out and we'll go from there.

Chipping away at Welcome Sister segment of TWISTED FATES, doing color and sound work. Once it's done, I'll get the NEW NEIGHBOR edit rolling.

Uploaded almost all of the EATER footage and anxious to get working on that.

Gearing up for last weekend of shooting on EVIL RISING this weekend.

Have been working on a series of blog posts for here that I hope to begin putting up in May.

Tired.....

Gettin' Stuff Done

Managed to get a couple of hours of editing in on the Welcome Sister segment of TWISTED FATES. Clocked in at just under 12 minutes. Not bad for a 5-page script! Finished the video edit and am now adjusting colors, fixing sound and working on music.

Friday the 13th came along and my wife got into a car accident and the front of our car is all smashed in. She is OK and our friend who owns a repair shop said it's fixable, so waiting to hear how that goes.

Had a very nice memorial gathering for my father-in-law on Sunday. Lots of old friends and family showed up and it was very nice.

Took care of a bunch of pick-up shots for my friend John for the EVIL RISING project tonight. Shot a bunch of house exteriors and interiors for the opening credits, plus some pick-up shots with Amanda Bounds and a few other odds and ends.

Heard back from Mike Hegg and he said that he's going to get back on finishing up the DEADLY PREMONITIONS dvd tonight. Sweet!

Onward!

Friday the 13th

It's only appropriate on this horrific date to post a report on where all of my varied projects are since most of them are horror movies.

PLATOON OF THE DEAD



I was the director of photography on this flick written and directed by my buddy John Bowker, as well as doing a whole bunch of other things like locations, props, make-up, asst. directing, craft services, still photos, blah, blah, blah. Everybody did a little bit of everything on this shoot. You can check out a bunch of cool pix at www.drsquid.net/platoonofthedead.html.

Tempe Video is releasing this puppy in June, but you can pre-order it in April - go here for details.

Not only is it a cool flick, but the DVD will come with a whole bunch of extras including cast interviews, a behind the scenes featurette, bloopers and the "zombie house tour," all of which I put together. Sweet.

And here's the trailer!



TWISTED FATES

All of this horror anthology has now been shot. The IT HAUNTS segment is 99.99% done. The WELCOME SISTER segment has only about 30 seconds of footage left to be edited, then it's on to some color correction, sound work and music. The NEW NEIGHBOR segment will be re-edited next (I had it together a few years back but some weird glitch ruined it so I'll be starting over). The narrator/wrap-around is all shot, but will need to be put together as well.



DEADLY PREMONITIONS

This supernatural/slasher/thriller is all done, but the last bits of DVD authoring work remain. I'm hoping to work with my buddy Mike in the next few weeks to try and get this finished up and get some copies made.


EVIL RISING

I'm the director of photography and play a small part in this latest horror flick written and directed by John Bowker. We are 2 out of 3 long weekends into shooting this. I'll be shooting some pick-up shots next week and going up to Washginton State to shoot some Link Masters newscaster footage next weekend. We plan to wrap up the project with a long weekend at the beginning of April.



TRULY DREADFUL TALES

The TREESPIRIT segment is all done, as is the DEATH NURSE segment. I finally sent off the BEETLE MANIAC package to the filmmaker so he can get started on it. Also, once I finish up the POOL MONSTER outfit, my buddy Rob Merickel has agreed to give directing that segment a shot.

EATER

I am anxious to work on putting together this sci-fi/horror short feature I made with my son, but right now, all of the above are stacked up in front of it.

I was recently asked to shoot a music video for a friend's band, so that may happen sometime later this spring, if I can carve out the time.

Busy busy busy...

Sasquatch Dumpling Gang on TV

OK, unless you don't have cable, now you can check out the funniest movie I have seen recently without having to rent or buy it.

The Sasquatch Gang is going to play on Comedy Central on Thursday, March 19 at 4 p.m. I don't know what kind of cuts they will make to it for TV, if they cut anything at all as it's all pretty tame as far as that stuff goes.

The Zerk and Shirts characters are so hilarious!!!

The movie was originally shot as The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang, and is known as that all over the world, except for in the US, where the distributor dropped the "dumpling" from the name. Lame. As Zerk would say, "This ain't dang China!"

Here's a video I made with my son and his friends after we were all inspired by watching the movie.

Scum of the Earth

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008802838_webbogusbills02m.html

This human garbage ripped off Girl Scouts with fake $20 bills. Completely disgusting.

This pathetic scum should be made to stand outside the exit of a big grocery store, with a table and handmade sign that reads "We stole from the Girl Scouts," and every person exiting the store for the whole weekend would get to punch them in the mouth.

Death

My wife's father died this morning from pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed just 5 weeks ago. We're his only family caretakers. It was the worst thing I have ever had to go through. Hospice workers are angels on earth. I'll be offline for a while longer. Now that he is at peace, my family can be at peace.