Making Zombie Movie!?
Question by Skate4Life: Making Zombie Movie!?
Me and my friend are making a zombie movie, so we have 2 bottles of blood, one filled at 400 ml of blood and the other 500 ml of blood. We have a camera that uses tapes, which we can easily change to dvds. Also we have many guns for the movie. My friend is comming over at 5:00PM central, and all the extras are comming at 5:30PM central(thats in 3 hours!!!)
They are like 28 days later zombies, so they dont have rotting flesh, and they don’t walk. You turn in an easy minute. we have the entire beggining down, and we only have Windows MovieMaker. We are putting this on Youtube.
1- What else do you think we will need to buy?
2- Where can I find the adapter for the camera so we can watch it on TV and record that onto a DVD?
3- How much will it cost?
4- Suggestions for the story, or just a cool part?
5- When we are done, will you watch and rate it?
Thanks to all who will answer.
Best answer:
Answer by evilgenius4930
Well, good for you! It’s about time someone decided to make a fresh zombie movie. Right…? Now I haven’t seen your script, so if I got you guys wrong, then just ignore me, but try not to make it too bloody, and include a somewhat interesting story (i.e. not going zombie on someone just because they can). If you already have something like that, great! If not, well, it’ll probably suck. As for not making it too bloody and shooting too much, it’ll save you time, look more realistic (or rather, less shots where it looks fake), and it’ll save your blood too, so you can save it for a rainy day, or your next action movie.
I’m assuming you have a miniDV camera, if so, great, but if not I’m guessing you’ll be able to edit your using your DVD method fairly smoothly. You WILL be able to edit right? And what kind of camera (Hi8, Digital8, miniDV) do you have?
As for what else you need, it’s probably a little late for this if you don’t have it, but if you have an external mic, that will be way better than your camera’s mic (although there are rare cases I’ve experienced where my camera’s mic was better than external mics, but they were crappy wireless lavs with static). If not, don’t worry about it. You might want to consider getting a large white poster board, or a piece of cardboard covered in aluminum foil as a reflector, although since you are shooting kind of late it might not make a huge difference. Also, bring along a tripod. You might not have any static shots at all, but if you attach your tripod to your camera, extend the legs, but don’t open them up, you’ll have an instant cheap steadicam. Depending on how much footage you expect to shoot, you might also consider getting a mini whiteboard, dry erase markers, a pen and some paper, so you can slate the scene, shot, take, etc. and then have someone else log the good and bad takes. And this isn’t vital, but if you or someone else has a portable DVD player that accepts video inputs (the yellow/red/white connectors), then you can bring that along and use it as a monitor if you are directing but someone else is shooting. Even if you are shooting it will still help. And last but not least, extra batteries, camera bag/box for your junk, and tapes, if available.
I know this wasn’t in the list, but here’s just a few suggestions for shooting:
1. Use manual if available, or if possible, use auto to get a good exposure then hit exposure lock to make sure nothing changes. Expose for the subject when he is on screen the longest (i.e. if he is coming out of shadows/woods for two seconds, but walks the rest of the way in bright sunlight, expose for the sunlight. The part where he/she comes out of the shadows will be too dark, but you can go back and do a retake and expose just for the shadows.
2. Zoom in, focus then zoom out, but if you only have auto, it usually works just as well and is less work for you.
3. Zoom in to frame the subject, but don’t zoom after “Action ” is called. If you have to get closer, use your feet, or take the tripod steadicam and use that as a long pole to help push the camera in closer.
4. Quiet on set. Or else.
5. If it’s bad, redo it. If you don’t follow this rule, you will pay for it tomorrow when you’re editing and you find out that the only take you had of Clive drop kicking the zombie was obscured by a tree branch.
6. Shoot everything and anything. Get as many different angles of the same scene as you can.
7. And finally, Movie Maker is a good program, but things start to get hairy once you drag in 30 different clips, then apply the effects, then add music, then titles, and whatnot. If you visit www.adobe.com, Premiere Pro and After Effects might interest you. Don’t freak out too much about the price though; there are 30-day trial versions you can download, which will be more than enough time for you to finish your epic.
8. Email me at thelordoftheringsfan@gmail.com. I’m interested in filmmaking as well (in case you couldn’t tell), and I’d like to hear about how your shoot goes. And when it’s finished, I’ll be expecting a link. Maybe a “Random Guy Off of Yahoo! Answers Who (hopefully) Helped Us” credit as well.
And a final word, I think we’re both quite aware that you didn’t do your homework. Which is okay. Sometimes it’s just better to go and wing it. But if you’re really interested in fast-paced filmmaking, considering participating in the Insomnia Film Festival next year, sponsored by Apple. Basically, you have 24 hours to go from a script to a finished, uploaded, product. Have I got your interest yet? Go out and make that movie.
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