7d zombie film experiences
 

I worked as grip and camerman on this interactive zombie project: YouTube - DELIVER ME TO HELL - An interactive zombie movie adventure - REAL ZOMBIES ATTACK

All told its about 25 minutes long if you choose all the "wrong" endings.


It was the first longer form project we've done on dslr (mix of 7d and 550d) and I learned a few things.

I am in LOVE with IS lenses. The majority of the piece was handheld using the 17-55 2.8 IS and the 70-200 2.8 IS. I find the stabilization just right for handheld work. Its not going to do much when jogging and it doesn't help much when hanging off the back of a car on a gravel road, but for handheld shooting it gets rid of just the right amount of hand twitch to make it great to me. It also worked great shooting from a tripod on a truck to a moving golf cart. Ended up looking very smooth.

The 18-55 "kit lens" is so lightweight it is perfect with the 550d on a steadicam merlin. The rig balances great, but is still so light that it can be handheld for ages. We used the steadicam sparingly, but the various "pushing in to a persons face" shots were all done with the merlin. I've had the merlin for a number of years and tried lots of different cameras on it with nothing i considered working terribly well. I have a new love for the merlin now.

For the most part we didn't have any problems with the aliasing/moire stuff, but it came across in a couple of unexpected shots. Like, all the car interior shots you see a strong moire on the headrest behind the driver. Very annoying.

Mostly the 7d and 550d look identical in video, but on occasion the same footage in the same color setting would look "different". Nothing that couldn't be color corrected, but odd that sometimes it looks different, sometimes not. The tungsten setting was the most markedly "different" mode to me. Its possible it has something to do with the "random exposure changes in manual mode" firmware. I plan to upgrade to see what happens.

Probably the most marked thing i encountered on this shoot is that *everybody* is buying 7d and 550d. Its insane. Like, I have a hard time thinking of any shooter that doesn't have one, even if just for fun.

If you have any questions about any part of the shoot, holler.

The explosions and blood and stuff were practical effects. Actually blew up a car, jumped a scooter with dummies on it and squirted blood around. hehe.

cheers!

Oooh yeah!
Made me hungry.
Though I think I died twice during this intense journey it was great to be to be part of the experience and be thoroughly entertained at the same time.
How long did the whole process take and what inspired the interactive concept?.

Thanks, man!

Logan (also on dvinfo) was the director and mastermind behind the project. I just came in for the actual shoots. I think they said they spent a good month in preproduction and another month and a half after the shoot in post. All the music is original. The shoot itself was 5 full (VERY full) days with an extra day we just shot the car exploding then ate pizza and went home. hehe.

Bonus points... can you spot the greenscreen shots?

cheers!
-a

Looked like fun to make.

For me the soundtrack ruined the entire clip - far too loud - it blocked out all the sound effects that you need to hear, especially in horror genre.

Nice work
 

Great job guys. Really cool flick. Very well shot.

Fantastic!!!
 

Hey Andrew,

That was a lot of fun. Although, I learned I'm a terrible decision-maker. Really great work.

Kudos!
 

Excellent piece! I began watching for DOF, transitions, compositional effects and the lot and ended up so engrossed by the story that I kept enjoying it more than technically criticizing it. For me that's quite an accomplishment by itself.

whoah!
 

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the high praise. Its awesome to get feedback, positive or negative, but extra sweet when its positive.

cheers!
-andrew

Hey Andrew,
That was a lot of fun to watch. Well done.

Even when I made the right choices, I still went back anyway to see the entertaining ways I would have died.

Great stuff.

-Jon