Zombi-Mentary: Rotten

This section under April is the section of my blog that is dedicated to the Zombie Mockumentary titled Rotten; for this project my role was Director of Photography, I was looking to gain a new experience of working in the field of documentary, looking at the setting up of framing with interviews and looking at cutaways to try and add something extra to the project from a visual standpoint.

Original Idea: The Lonely Dead

Our initial idea was born from Rob Cooper who approached me with a idea for a zombie short film series that he had a rough idea for; with the notes that he gave me and a couple of group meetings with the rest of the crew (Ross Carter and Damian Suparasiri), I went away and wrote up a draft treatment for the first episode entitled "The Pain of being Dead" and also wrote character backgrounds for the 3 lead characters of the series.

I thought that Rob's idea had good potential but just needed some added depth to the story and characters to make it stand out from the rest of the zombie genre material that already exists in such vast volume. So I wrote a full page treatment with the approach of creating a story that would be Night of the Living Dead (1968, dir George A. Romero) meets The Day of the Beast (1995, dir Alex de la Iglesia).

Myself and Rob along with the rest of the group had numerous group meetings discussing the progress and direct of the script and the over arcing story and character development for the first episode, with the writing being my role in the project. I looked to have a script that would essentially tell the story of 3 misfits traversing the local environment in search of safety from the zombie apocalypse whilst each individual was battling their own inner demons.

Original Idea: Zombie Production and Character Briefs

Lonely Dead Ideas

2-3 main characters

6 episodes (10mins)

How to survive in a world of zombies/ people having zombie plans in place

Locations

A dirty apartment

Hide out (maybe Strip Bar/Burlesque Club)

Empty streets (e.g. Back Alleyways)

Characters

Cody:

Drug addict, paranoid, hates people and hates life, underlying father issues that have effected his adult life. Early 20s , school drop out he found weed and never looked back and went from weed to high class of drugs. He came from a good family home, but his father left when he was about 7 and his mother re-married a rich property developer, nice man sorted Cody out with a flat for university for him and his friends, he ended up losing all contact with his house mates and they ended up moving out leaving Cody by his self because of this he started losing all contact with the outside world because of his drug addiction which became worst after he lost his mother and step father in a car crash. As he was an only child and his step father had no children Cody inherited everything from his parents. The wealth and money didnt last long as he went on a crazed drugs binges and lost everything because of this he didn't turn up to his parents funeral and doesn't talk to his family any more.

Patrick:

A very religious man who blames everything with whats wrong in the world on video games and corrupt people melting the minds of youth to make them monsters. He had a very bad up bringing as his mum and dad were abusive towards him and each other. He never had any thing given to him he always had to work for and this made him a very bitter person. From the age of around 10 Patrick started to go to church and thought that be his calling but when he finished school he needed to find a job that would pay the bills, after a year or so Patrick was fired from his job and turned back to the church where they were able to give him a job and started working as a caretaker there, after a few years he had moved up and finally became vicar at the age of 24. He started applying the bible teachings to everyday life but from doing this Patrick only started to see the bad in the world and started to losing his views on the good parts of life and instead started to curse the world we live in.

Jen:

A very easy going girl and very easy on the eye as well, she is very clever and always finds a way to get what she wants. She tends to lead men on to get the most out of them but also have been known at times to lead women on. She's daddy's little princess, even to this age and can't do anything wrong in his eyes. Her dad is a very rich and powerful man and has got his daughter to where she is now in life, she is in a top University and on a high paid salary placement.

Episode Titles

Ep 1. Outbreak of Evil
Ep 2. Driven to Destruction
Ep 3. Lady of the Night
Ep 4. Better off Dead
Ep 5. Hands of a Killer
Ep 6. The Pain of Being Dead
Ep 7. Remember the Fallen

Synopsis: The Lonely Dead: Episode One - The Pain of being Dead

In a world that has seemingly been brought to ruin, three lost souls collide paths and join forces as a unlikely group of friends looking for safety in a post apocalyptic world where the dead roam the earth and the few remaining human survivors pose just a deadly threat as the undead. In their search for safe land free of infection each member of the group finds themselves questioning their beliefs on their journey.

Treatment (Episode 1 – The Pain of being Dead)

A young priest burst into an apartment flat after finding the door ajar; it the dark and dusty atmosphere he quietly drags a nearby cabinet across the apartment door, with sweat pouring from his spores he nervously makes his way across the dimly lit apartment that sole light source coming from a old a battered television set, as he approaches to lower the volume on the TV he suddenly sees a young man stretched out across the floor, he feels drawn to the static signal on the TV and all of a sudden he knows what he must do, it’s as if god has tasked him with saving the lost soul he has found in his temporary safety. 

The young priest politely wakes the young man from his drug induced slumber, with a nice cup of tea at hand, the young man is shocked to see this youthful looking man of god in his apartment, he thinks to himself ‘Christ’ there is a brief conflict in dialogue as he disregards the priest bible talk, but he notices that the priest has blood on his hands, this startles the young priest as he runs towards the nearest tap and scrubs his hands violently clean of the blood stains. There is a moment of awkward silence between the two as they sit contemplating what on earth is happening around them; but when the young man lights up a joint, the priest tries to talk him out of his ways and explains how god has given him the task of saving the young mans soul, explaining to the man how the world outside his apartment has been brought crashing down with the ‘dead’ seemingly walking the earth. The young man struggles to take this all in, thinking that what he had been witnessing lately was all part of his ‘trip’ as it dawns upon him that the world as he knows it no longer exists; he signs ‘fuck’ and lights up his joint. 

Some time later the two survivors get into a conversation about what they should do next, the priest is adamant that they must leave the relative safety of the apartment in search of holy land that is free of the evil infection that has swallowed up the rest of the world, but the young man is reluctant to leave until he realizes that his ‘supplies’ are running low; then all of a sudden he seems to spark into action as his addictions thrives in his bloodstream. He reveals to the priest that he knows of a place nearby that they can gather some essential supplies that they will need for their journey in search of the ‘holy land’. The priest makes himself a cup of tea to steady his nerves before leaving; adding two sweeteners and as the two leave the apartment the young man snatches the ‘sweeteners’ from the kitchen tabletop, and they quietly edge out of the apartment into the dark. 

Out in the open the unlikely duo feel ‘naked’ surrounded by a silence that fills the pair with fear, the only sounds they hear is a gentle wind and fires burning in the streets; they make their way slowly through dark back alleys and dashing across roads between each connecting alley, and just before they find the ‘safe house’ they find themselves surrounded by lifeless bodies, hiding behind trash cans in a dirty back lane them seemingly haven’t been spotted by the immanent danger, after waiting in the damp of the alley in the dark for what feels like hours, groans come from behind them, as they turn they see numerous lifeless bodies approaching, in a panic the pair sprint out into the open heading straight for a back door in the alley that is slightly ajar, once inside they slam the door shut and collapse out of breath. 

Once the young man gets his breath back he says ‘ we've made it father’ and swiftly makes his way across the backroom towards deep red curtains that travel from the roof to the floor of the building; the priest feeling a sense of new found hope follows the young man who’s stopped dead in his tracks just ahead; as he looks through the curtains he is taken aback as he doesn't find a building with essential ‘supplies’ but finds himself stood in a dirty seedy gentleman’s club with dead scantily clad dressed women and rotten bodies of dirty old men covering the clubs floor; the silence of shock is broken when they hear the distant cries of a young dancers clutching a pole with a high heel shoe covered in blood in her right hand.

-End of Episode One-

Research: Visual styles for The Lonely Dead

The Drug Addict

This shot is how I imagine we will find the films drug addict in the opening scene, the angle of the shot allows the viewer to see a clear amount of his apartment; which will allow us to set the scene, but we will have the drug addict looking the other way to try and add suspense to the scene; hopefully the viewer will be unsure as to whether the body on the floor is someone of the living or the undead.

The Drug Addicts Apartment

For the drug addicts apartment I'd like to try and achieve an amalgamation of the two rooms above and below; having the room scattered with rubbish and various random everyday items, but set in the desolate room of the photo below with boarded up windows and graffiti sprayed on the walls, and a dirty rotten mattress in the corner.

The Kitchen

This is how I imagine the drug dealers kitchen to look like; dirty tiles and broken cabinets; though to add to the atmosphere and to add depth to our drug addicts character, we we make sure that the sink would be piled up with dirty dishes, glasses etc... and have random assortments of prescription pills in the cupboard spaces.

The Alleyway Scenes

 Here is how I imagine the alleyways in the film to look like; very narrow streets so our characters appeared to be hemmed in and adding a claustrophobic feel to the atmosphere of the scenes; and I'd like find some locations with high rise buildings that seem to add to the claustrophobic feel; pinning our characters into a seemingly inescapable encounter with the undead.

 The high contrast shadows in the above shot of an alleyway is something that I feel will work extremely well within the scenes during the alleyway sequences; will provide great opportunity to find the immanent threat of the undead, whilst also being able to mask the visual appearance of the walking dead, keeping that obscure nature to the film; as to who our main 2 characters are avoiding (the undead or their own drug induced paranoia).

I really like the lighting in this shot, especially with the yellow glow emitted from the lamps above; I think that if we can achieve this yellow colour palette with the high contrast shadows of the previous image above then we will have a very creepily lit scene and location, yet also being rather visually pleasing on the eye from a cinematography standpoint.

Initial Lonely Dead Trailer Idea

Opening shot of a drain with a trail of blood just in shot; panning shot following the blood trail;

Out of focus shot showing someone cradling another person (in silhouette). Person begins to slowly rise to his/her feet with the other person’s body dropping to the ground at dead weight.

Camera follows the zombie as he stumbles away; the camera creeps up behind him ever so slowly ending with an over the shoulder/POV shot.

Time transition: - from the zombies travel from an alley way into some woodland area. (POV)

Walking through the woods the zombie passes by other zombies and a mound of dirt in the distance with a fresh corpse rising from its grave. End of shot with the zombie entering a graveyard through gate. (use various angles)

Zombie walks through graveyard into a different alley way.

Once in the alley way, two shadows can be seen in the distance; one begins to run towards the camera, and starts a violent attack on the zombie; as the zombie falls backwards he is reveal to the audience on camera.

After the brutal attack on the zombie a trail of blood runs down the alley way, the camera follows the flow of blood which reveals the films title: The Lonely Dead.

Teaser Trailer for Original Idea - The Lonely Dead

This short teaser trailer shows the visual style that we were going to look to achieve for our original idea of the zombie short film series. We were able to get permission to shoot on location at Ford Park Cemetery for the trailer.

Script for Original Idea

Here below is the script for the original idea behind The Lonely Dead; it's about 80% complete for it's rough draft; to help me write and develop the script I wrote it in my own personal style and just as I had got to this point in the script, we as a group decided that we didn't want to go ahead with this style as The Walking Dead had become rather a big success and we didn't want to risk coming off as repeating a formula that already exists.

Pages 1 & 2

Pages 3 & 4

Pages 5 & 6

Pages 7 & 8

For me as a developmental piece I really got alot out of writing this script and in the future I am actually planning to finish this script off completely and might even look at the prospect of filming the first episode as I personally feel that with my approach to the genre it has the potential to really stand out; with the overall aspect and feel of the idea for making a short episode that crosses the likes of Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Beast, I feel that this script once the first draft is complete has some interesting scenarios that could really make it stand out from the other entries in the zombie genre. I would say that during my time writing this script I've become more confident with writing dialogue through just pure persistence, but I still feel that it's a key area that I need to further develop if my script writing skills are to improve.

Crew Roles

From working together as a group recently on a few music video projects, we've come to gain a better understanding on our individual strengths and weaknesses; and also become a rather well oiled machine in terms of productivity as working together as a group and formed our own production company "Crooked Brow Productions" which we will look to carry on working under the name after leaving college.

After our original idea changed from a typical short zombie film to a mockumentary short film, we decided that it would be best to assign each other the roles that best fitted to our personal strengths to try and achieve the best possible outcome for our project, with each of us targeting our learning curve towards documentary film making style that we've yet to produce so far in our collective filmography.

The Roles


Myself - Director of Photography/Main Camera Operator
Rob Cooper - Co-Writer/Director
Ross Carter - Co-Writer/Producer/Art Director
Damian Suparasiri - Editor/2nd Camera Operator

Character Briefs

The Pimp

He is a shady character and know one knows his real name, he goes under the title of Mr K. From what we know about this character he is involved in the black market in slave trade buying and selling zombies to make money. Before the outbreak he was into selling drugs and making money in illegals ways. Mr K sees zombie as commodities to be sold and to make a profit from there work. He has just opened up a zombie strip club the first in plymouth and england and his message for people is that these zombie will do anything for a price.

Hippies

The hippes are pro zombie rights and are protesting for zombie to have rights and not to been seen as monsters but as people with problems. The leader of the group goes by the name of Mr Green, a few of his friends and family have been turned into zombies during the outbreak, he still has his family members locked up at home as he still thinks the people that they use to be are still in there and they may find a cure for them one day.

The Couple:

Amy

A woman in her late 20s to early 30s, before the outbreak she was happily married to Barry. during the outbreak she locked herself and her husband in the house. They survived for a while because Amy use to store can tins as food as her father was in the army and always told her to store food for a bad day. Amy saw her husband get attacked in the garden and didnt do anything to help him, after he was able to stop the zombies she went out to him and notice he wasnt doing so well so she locked him in the garden shed. Once the outbreak was over the goverment came and took Barry away for a few weeks, he was finally given back to her but he wasnt the same man. Because of the guilt she feels for Barry and not being able to help she has decided to look after him and she started to lose her mind a little and the feelings for Barry has started to come back to her, because of this she has lost her friends and family but she doesnt care because she is in love.
Barry

A man in his late 20s, who was married to Amy before the outbreak, he tried to fight off a load of zombies that tried to get in the house, he was able to fight them off but ended getting bit which lead to him turning into a zombie. Barry is being kept as a pet/ project for his once was wife.

Zombie Owners

A very posh family who have bought a zombie as a pet because they have seen as the new trend or accessory to have. They have one zombie pet called Fido, who they have owned for just under a year and to this day he hasnt attacked anyone due to the drugs that they have to give him. The family shower the zombie with gifts and make the zombie look really stylish and take the zombies to grooming centers and they make them compete against each other.

Zombie Walker

A young woman in her early 20s has decided to walk zombies to put her through university. She is studying to be come a criminal lawyer and using the zombie as a project, she has a walking route that she has got to use when walking zombies as there could be a chance of the zombies getting off the lead.

Rotten Treatment

Title: Rotten

Rotten is a mockumentary film set in present day England that examines how individuals in modern society would cope if they had to live alongside Zombies.

The film is shot in a student DSLR documentary style and features a predominantly improvised performance from its cast and crew. 

  

The main objective of the film is to highlight different prejudices against minority groups and explore how the different characters in the film cope with living with the undead.

The film starts off with a montage sequence, which shows there has been a disaster resulting in members of the public becoming infected with a virus that leaves them in a zombie like state. 

The film crew first interview a middle-aged couple- Barry and Amy. The interview reveals that Barry was infected with the virus yet is cared for my Amy who appears to be slightly in denial about the fact her husband is no longer the man he used to be. The scene shows how for many people accepting that their loved ones are no longer with them is difficult emotionally to deal with.

Next we encounter Lew a man with long dreadlocks who campaigns for zombies to equal civil rights. He explains he’s putting on a fundraising night to aid his cause and the crew learns that he is passionate about anyone who exploits the undead for monetary reasons. The interview shows the views of an aggressive liberal viewpoint that is deeply opposed to zombies being used as commodities. The view point is similar to that of animal and civil rights campaigners. 

After this the crew visit a bar run by a man called Mr. K, which has female zombies as dancers to entertain his clientele. In contrast to Lew Mr. K appears to treat the zombies he owns poorly. Despite questions from the crew about his treatment of the girls Mr K. stands firm in his belief that he is a kind man who is trying to make money and save the girls from being neglected. The opinions expressed by Mr K seem very pro-business and appear to have little regard to the welfare of the girls he owns. At the end of the interview Mr. K reveals to the crew that he’s going to purchase an unwanted zombie in the morning and asks the crew if they wish to come along and film the transaction, which the crew agree to. 

The following morning the crew speaks to Grant, a man who is selling his infected girlfriend so he can buy a new Xbox. He seems to be tired of having to care for his wife and doesn't appear to be upset with having to sell her to Mr. K. Mr. K seems happy with his purchase and tells the crew he will take good care of her. This segment shows how easily persons without rights can be exploited in society and also comments on how material goods are sometimes hold too much importance in people’s life.

The final scene of our film starts with the crew discussing how filming Barry and Amy is difficult and they question the woman’s sanity. The final scene of the film shows Amy eating at a restaurant with Barry, after only a few minutes Barry starts behaving poorly – trying to grab other guests and spitting out his food. Amy embarrassed tells Barry off then asks the crew to stop filming. The crew, frustrated agree then without realizing leave a camera rolling, As they pack up their equipment a fifth member of the crew appears in shot, as the crew pack heavy bags on him we see that he is in fact a zombie being exploited and the integrity of the documentary is now called into question.

Film Locations

Jack Cham's

We will be filming at Jack Cham's for the interviews with one of our main characters; Mr. K, this will be an ideal location for these interviews seeing as the character of Mr. K is an upcoming business who is exploiting the dead for his own personal gain; using them as dancer's to appeal to a new age fetish with the undead. Luckily because Ross (Producer) is good friends with the bars owner we will be able to use this location on Sundays free of charge.

Here at the bar is where I feel the main portion of the interview with Mr. K will be shot, as I feel that a big businessman behind the bar will portray an image of a strong character to the audience, giving the audience visual information about the type of man Mr. K is; a strong and powerful character that is out for personal gain at the expense of others.

Thai Palace

Luckily Damian's parents own a local Thai restaurant that we are able to use on weekends (again free of charge) here is where we will have a couple going out for a meal whilst being interviewed; one half of the couple being a zombie (Barry). Here we feel we will be able to show some of the public's reactions to zombies by having extras in the background during this scene reacting differently to the couple being interviewed. 

The main portion if not all of this scene will be shot with the couple (Amy & Barry) at a table in the restaurant, with various cutaways of peoples reactions to them sharing a meal at a restaurant with a zombie present. From this shot you can see that there are plants next to the table where we will position the zombie Barry - one from the point of view that the restaurant owners though needing all the money they can get, still are trying to hide the zombie from incoming customers and secondly I thought it might be a nice touch to have Barry to be fascinated by the plants (life itself) and reach out for them (i.e. desiring true life existence) and maybe have a customer pass by and misinterpret Barry's movement as an aggressive attack.

Damian's Reception Room and Back Garden

Here we will be using the front room in Damian's house for an interview with our characters Amy & Barry; this is because Damian's parents just had the place renovated and its very clean and we can easily dress the room up with fake family photos of Amy & Barry to make the scene look like a homely environment. It's also a good idea to shoot the initial interview with Amy & Barry in a place where their characters would feel most comfortable I feel and this certainly happens a lot in terms of documentary film-making.

The Stills above and below are two mantelshelves that are in Damian's front room in which we can put up the fake family photos of Amy & Barry before he became a zombie; these will act as nice cutaways and will hopefully help our audience with connecting with the human side of Barry's character and increase the sympathy and understanding for Amy.

In Damian's back garden is where we are planning to film Amy cleaning Barry down with a hose pipe, this will hopefully be a very funny scene, but will hopefully have the audience understanding a bit more about the challenges that Amy faces in her day-to-day life; the simple task of personal hygiene for Barry is now too messy for the house and has to be taken outside to be taken care of. 

Plymouth Hoe

With our mockumentary we are looking to get the protesters/left wing point of view across with interviews with members of the Rights of Zombies movement; it Occupy Plymouth movement became apparent as a great opportunity for use and our film; with our film directly looking at the idea of exploitation, why not conduct interviews directed in front of the Occupy Plymouth movement in turn exploiting their aims & objectives for our personal gain; Giving our film a true indexical exploitative texture.

This location above on the Plymouth Hoe we are planning to use for the scenes in which our couple Amy & Barry are getting re-married, above would be where we'd have them having their photos taken after the ceremony and possibly conducting an interview with them with this as a backdrop.

Here is a shot that I've composed that I feel might work in the final edit, with our character Amy sat looking out at the beautiful view on the Hoe; with maybe her interview playing over the top of her reminiscent joy on such a beautiful day for her wedding; giving the film a beautiful outlook on a challenging relationship and hopefully connecting with the audience on how Amy sees her life as beautiful and seeing past of the rotting flesh of Barry and only seeing the true beauty of their relationship. Something I'd hope this would come across to our audience is that "you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover"; this is where the zombie could be compared to over challenges with people being in a relationship with any other countless disabilities.

Registry Office

The shot here of the Registry Office which is where we are planning to shoot the wedding scene of Amy & Barry; I've composed this shot, as I feel that as acting as a documentary film crew, I think that under the circumstances of our characters and what we are being privileged to document their lives I feel as a crew we would be respectful towards not disrupting and intruding on their special day, but yet we'd still deeply desire to film the occasion and that we as documentary film-makers would film from a distance, giving the audience a voyeuristic view into their life.

Research: The Bridge (2006, dir Eric Steel)

For my research into documentaries, one of the first documentaries I watched was Eric Steel's 2006 film; The Bridge. I had vivid memories of watching this documentary from quite a few months ago, and really remembered how powerful the film had been, so I decided to revisit the film to see what it was about the documentary that made it stick in my mind so prominently. The film itself deals with a very powerful and opinionated subject of human suicide and though you can't take away that this is a very strong reason for this film to carry so much weight; I found The Bridge particularly interesting for the amount of screen time the bridge itself gets; you really do get that feeling that the bridge itself is just as much an important character within the film itself as those interviewees. Its from this that I take really strong inspiration for our upcoming mocku-mentary; I will hopefully try to make the zombies themselves become just as important as the interviewees; I could toy with the view of giving all the zombies a certain tick or habit that they all share to humanize them to the audience, hopefully portraying the zombies as just a different race of human, rather than the creatures of death that they are normally labelled. Though this might be feel too contrived to the audience, and maybe I could just make sure that we film enough footage of the zombies themselves for the mocku-mentary for the final edit to give them their fair share of screen time, with particular attention showing them doing every day mundane activities like eating, watching t.v., doing the dishes - highlighting the fact the zombies themselves are still human.

Research: Grizzly Man (2005, dir Werner Herzog)

As part of my research into documentaries, I re-watched Werner Herzog's 2005 film; Grizzly Man. What I particularly like about this film is that Herzog himself doesn't come across as approaching the story of Timothy Treadwell and this is the kind of approach that I feel we should be aiming for with our project; Herzog himself rarely seems to be too intrusive into the personal lives of others, rather he just tries to document and tell the stories of others to his audience, and from my point of view on this project I feel that I really need to take this approach into my style of filming, I really just want to try and capture the human side of our characters, capturing their emotions, spending the time to record their feelings on camera and not intruding on their active life styles. That is the approach that I feel will work best for the mocku-mentary, knowing how to capture the image and the emotion of those being interviewed and documenting their stories and emotions without making them feel like we as a film crew are intruding into their personal lives.

Research: The Cove (2009, dir Louie Psihoyos)

Since the project changed from a drama into a mocku-mentary, I thought that if I was going to look at documentaries for research for the project then I would use it as an excuse to watch one of my all time favourite documentaries; The Cove (2009). Going into the film I hadn't really had anything in particular in mind for the research of our project, but from the beginning of the project I had always wanted to use this project as a excuse to use the Merlin Steadicam, and was still very keen on using it for the mocku-mentary, but what I became aware of when watching The Cove, is that there was lots of moments where you had lots of camera movement, not also particularly smooth and the visuals of gain etc...  in low light conditions; and I thought to myself that the Merlin Steadicam really doesn't fit in well with this project at all. Documentaries are about documenting your subject and being ready to move and capture the footage and at times you have to move very fast if something is happening there and then, as unlike drama where you can have a controlled environments and scripted action, documentaries can be unpredictable and as a crew we have to be able to adapt to moments of life and activity. And though we are shooting a mocku-mentary, for me after watching The Cove, I started to think about the mocku-mentaries I had seen in the past, and the ones that really stand out are the ones that stay true to the style of documentary film making, you wouldn't be caught up in the motion of something happening and conveniently have a Steadicam perfectly set up to capture those random moments, therefore I have dropped the idea of using the Merlin Steadicam, though Rob has a shoulder rig that I think we can make use of, as it is a very portable rig and extremely fast to set up and in the right moments can be justifiably used in our film.

Though we are dealing with Zombies, which aren't real; I don't want to break the illusion that we as the film makers are actually a documentary film crew.

Research: Rubber (2010, dir Quentin Dupieux)

I watched Rubber (2010) as part of my research, because the film itself was shot on a 5D MKII and personally I was aware of any major documentary that had been shot on a DSLR camera; I chose this film to watch to see if I could spot any flaws in the film that were directly linked to the fact that it was shot on a DSLR camera, looking for any technical reasons as to why the film might have been better being shot on a film camera rather than a DSLR.

After watching the film, I really didn't notice anything wrong with the film from the technical point of view and didn't feel that the use of a DSLR limited or held back the film itself from working; though the majority of the film was quite simple camera work, there was still moments of camera movement and following of objects that were kept in focus. After seeing this film I really don't see why we can't approach this project and shot on our own Canon 550D cameras; they are certainly making a strong movement in the industry and Rubber (2010) proves that you can shoot a highly successful feature on a DSLR so why not a documentary?

Research: The DSLR Camera in the World of Documentary

Prior to this project I wasn't very aware of any major/well known documentaries that had been shot on a DSLR or if they had then I myself wasn't aware of any that I've seen personally. So knowing that I was going to be shooting our Mocku-mentary on my Canon 550D, I thought that it would be worthwhile doing some research into the world of documentary film making with DSLR cameras and after browsing the net for many hours I found some very helpful and useful information in this field and below you'll see the 3 videos that I found the most useful.

What I found particularly helpful with this DSLR tutorial above, was that it really pointed out the clear challenges of shooting documentaries with a DSLR camera, the focus issue with regards to wide open aperture didn't occur to me originally and this is something that might come in handy knowing that recommended f4-f8 stop for focus during interviews might come in real handy when shooting some of our interviews, especially with the planned interview with our Hippie character. Though this video points out the use of zoom lenses and the recommendation of non-use of prime lenses, I feel that because our project is a scripted mocku-mentary that we will certainly be able to use primes for the shoot as everything will be pre-planned ahead of the shoot days. 

Again from watching this interview with Vincent Laforet on DSLR documentary work, the main thing that I got out of it was the negative side of filming with a DSLR with regards to documentary work, he points out the lack of good quality microphone for the audio and the ability to hear the quality of audio recorded, this certainly makes me feel that maybe my Canon 550D might not be the best camera for the job, but for this I feel we can get around the audio issue by using a Zoom h4n with a ME67 mic. Laforet does point out the time code issue and 12min cut off for video, I personally would feel that this could be a huge problem within the world of documentary, but looking at our project, we are dealing with a scripted mocku-mentary that will have controlled parameters and this issue really should effect the project.

Laforet does though point out that the DSLR does work great in low light, which might pop up in our project depending on how the interviews and locations play out; he also points out that most people are unaware that the DSLR cameras can shoot video and even though this interview is 2 years old, I still believe that most people are still ignorant to the fact that these cameras shoot video and that there is a large body of film makers out there shooting on DSLR cameras, this I think is a potential massive plus for our project, we might be looking to exploit protesters by shooting in-front of their cause for our film and might even look to shoot guerrilla style at the Registry Office and the fact that people might not be aware that we are filming could be helpful in capturing footage without attracting too much attention from the public.

Above is a short documentary called Mr. Smith's Peach Seeds; this documentary really stood out for me as it was solely shot on a Canon 7D and captured the audio using a Zoom h4n with an external mic. The documentary itself has some quite stunning shots that are so visually pleasing to see and really adds to the beauty of the story of Mr. Smith; after seeing this film, I was sold that the DSLR was the correct format for our project, seeing those beautiful shots said to me, if we are going to shoot something why not make it as good looking as possible and there's no better way to do this for me than by shooting in HD. It's really the films cutaways that stand out and is something that I really feel can add to a film whether it be drama or documentary, if you can get the correct cutaways to add to the feel of your film then you can really make the film itself much more powerful; so that is something that I will spend a good amount of time on shoot days, trying to find those cutaways that can really add that extra element to our film.This film also shows that in a controlled interview environment then you can really get beautiful crisp focused images of your interviewee which really should be a problem for us considering the fact our film is going to be scripted and have full control of where the interviewees will be position in the frame.

Research: Inspiration w/ Christopher Doyle

As part of my research for this project and part of my own personal development with regards to working as a Director of Photography/Cinematographer; I did some research into one of my favourite cinematographers; Christopher Doyle and found some very interesting and helpful interviews with him on YouTube.

Here in his segment that was shown on BBC's Culture Show, what I really took from this clip was how he talks about location and building your screen and frame from what you've got to work with; the location itself can add to the context of your film. What I'm taking from this into the project is to think about what I see on the location for our film; during the Recce shoots I will look for that standout something that can add to the project.

I also really like how he describes the movement of the camera as a dance and how you can be dancing with the actors, that lends its self to a more dramatic and dramatic visual style for the audience; unfortunately I'm not going to be taking too much from this into the mocku-mentary, but in the future I can certainly see an added value in working with the Merlin Steadicam, though in the scene he himself is using a rather basic DIY set-up.

Again towards the end of the interview he talks about his work on Chungking Express (1994, dir Kar Wai Wong) and how a sense of space and meaning can really add to the films context, this is something I will really try and get on board with the film project; I'll look at the character briefs and try and find the correct location for them so that there is an added sense of space with each character, looking at locations themselves in Plymouth that can really lend themselves to our characters background giving the project added context and texture.

This is an interview with Christopher Doyle at Hong Kong International Film Festival sharing his thoughts on film; what really struck me was the way that he talked about experience and the film making process; what I really take from this is that approach of filming and learning from just going out and shooting; for me what Doyle is trying to say is that you can only truly grow as an filmmaker and an artist by just going out there and filming with what you have at the time and at hand. This for me has struck a chord that I hadn't particularly thought about too much before, what is the point of me wasting hours upon hours of searching and research the best ways to shoot a documentary with my camera and lenses, for this project I'm just going to go out there and do the best I can and adapt to any problems and learn through my own mistakes, for me that is what Doyle is saying that you can only get true experience from going out there and filming yourself and then you will truly grow and gain a better understanding of your art.

Getting the right look for the Documentary

As we're are looking now to achieve the documentary approach to the zombie project, we needed to find the right style for how to shoot the film. As me and Damian were going to be the two main camera operators we worked together to find the correct Cine Style to shoot on with our 550D's. Being the D.O.P and Damian being the editor and then actually looking to colour correct the footage we had to find the right visual style for the project. Above is a video of some tests that we shot interviewing Rob using 4 different cine styles.

What I was looking for was that neutral look, keeping the visual very natural, but also having to take into account that whatever cine style we shot at, Damian would have to colour correct with our chosen style. We got together to have a few meetings and browsed the net looking into the different cine styles that could be downloaded for the Canon DSLR cameras.

http://www.similaar.com/foto/flaat-picture-styles/index.html

The above link had some really good information about the Flat cine styles and their dynamic ranges; we both really liked the Flat cine style look from our test above, and looking at the dynamic range of the the Flat n_12 cine style; Damian thought that this would help him with the colour correction so we both decided that this was the correct style and look for this documentary as it provided us with the natural look we were aiming for and it has great dynamic range that will come in great use for the colour correction during the post production.

Shooting Schedule

11th/12th April - Recce shoot on the Hoe, Jack Chams, Thai Palace and Damian's house

Sunday 15th April - 1st Jack Chams shoot (had problems with actors not turning up so had to make a second date to finish the shoot)

Sunday 22nd April - Fell through

Sunday 29th April - Fell through

Sunday 6th May - Was going to do the second Jack Chams shoot, but had to change the date; instead shot the interview scene with Nathan, Grant and Inga at Ross's Flat

Sunday 13th May - second Jack Cham shoot

Saturday 19th May - Interview with Lew the Hippy outside Voodoo Lounge

Sunday 20th May - Interview scene with Amy and Barry at Rob's House

Sunday 27th May - Final scene with Amy and Barry in the restaurant and up on the hoe*

* I'm unable to attend this shoot day due to prior commitments on another project.

Test Footage

Here is a test footage showreel that I've edited together from our Location Recce shots, that has some initial ideas for framing the interviews for the mocku-mentary and various different cutaways that we could use in the final edit of our project.

1st Shoot Day @ Jack Cham's (15/04/12)

Production still of Jack Cham's Shoot

The first day of filming was a rather hit and miss experience; the day looked to go all badly wrong, when the group of burlesque dancers who we had arranged to come down for the day to pose as Zombie strippers, failed to turn up and gave us no notice that they weren't attending. But instead of letting the day go to waste we were still able to shoot a key interview scene with our actor playing Mr. K. Because of the lack of dancers I had to make sure that I kept a tight angle for the interview so that when it comes to re-shooting at Jack Cham's with the dancers, then there won't be an obvious continuity error. We were also informed that the stage at the pub is due to be taken down, which has put an end to my initial plan to have the dancers on stage in the scenes and also limited me to what I could shoot today; again for continuity.

I set up numerous cameras on location for nice cutaways and to sync the sound for the edit process, I also expanded my role on set to assistant director because I knew our actor from long ago and helped him feel comfortable on set and also talked to him as to where to stand on set, so that he could express an authoritativeness in the scene and come across as a powerful character.

We are planning a second day of shooting at Jack Cham's and this time we have been promised that the burlesque dancers will definitely turn up to the shoot.

2nd Shoot Day @ Ross's Flat 06/05/12

Our plan for the 2nd shoot had to change due to our actors pulling out at the last minute; Ross had re-wrote the script the night before and for due to the change of circumstances we had to shoot at Ross's flat rather than at Damian's house as originally planned. This meant that I had to try and work out my shots on the day of the shoot as I hadn't had chance to see Ross's front room or the script before the shoot day. After reading through the script before our new actors had arrived I was able to work out and set up each shot that we needed for this new interview for our mocku-mentary. I gave Damian instruction as to what I needed from him as a 2nd unit Camera Operator and employed him as the rig operator also; I also thought that it would be a good idea to try and get as many cutaways and angles as possible so I also asked Ross to help out with some camera work during the interview so we had various angles for our interview footage.

Me filming 'the deal' scene between Nathan and Grant at Ross's flat

A production still from the days shoot (Grant's interview); my framing set up for the interview with our zombie in the background washing the dishes, during the interview.

3rd Shoot Day @ Jack Cham's 13/05/12

Before the shoot me and Rob went into town to pick up some dark curtains to try and block the sunlight from coming through the big windows that are at Jack Cham's, one to make the place look more little a seedy environment and secondly we were thinking that it would make the girls that were due to come down and play zombie dancers feel more comfortable and wouldn't have to worry so much about prying eyes from any passers by.

Again as our last shoot at Jack Cham's we had a no-show with regards to dancers and again we were also let down on extras that we had due to come down to gives us a hand. This had ruined my plan for a second angle for the interview with our actor Nathan with commotion and dancers in the background, which I felt would have be a very nicely composed shot giving the scene more atmosphere and setting the tone of environment that our character is working in. Instead I had to settle for concentrating on getting cutaway shots of the 2 dancers that we did have available to us; and using the couple of extras we had; tried to compose shots that would look like a seedy strip bar with paying customers. Again I had Damian on a second camera capturing shots from a different perspective and to make best use out of the cameras that we had; Rob and Ross also helped with some of the filming.

The plan of the shoot wasn't completely ruined as we still had to shoot a scene with Nathan were he is putting away one of the zombie dancers into the basement whilst being interviewed by Rob; though at the time of shooting this scene we one had one dancer on set; Damian had to have to fill in for the arm reaching out of the basement, so I asked Ross to jump in as Second camera operator for the scene and also asked Brad (who had come down to help and be a extra on set) to operate a third camera capturing footage of us documenting the mocku-mentary. Though I had originally planned a more movement following shot with the shoulder rig for this scene, due to the lack of numbers in the bar, I thought that it would be best to keep the shot simple as to not break the flow of the interview with a shot that would show a desolate bar.

Me filming a close up of Kate's eye for cutaways at Jack Cham's

Shoot Day 4 @ Voodoo Lounge (19/05/12)

Our 4th shoot day was the scene that we original planned to exploit the Occupy Plymouth movement for our hippie character. Due to the disappearance of the Occupy Plymouth folk we had to change the location and date of our shot, Ross had seen a flyer a few weeks before of a Reggae night that was being put on at Voodoo Lounge and thought that it would be an ideal location for us to shoot the Hippie scene at as it was still in-keeping with our original plan. And we would still be able to have that exploitation aspect to our scene.

As for the shoot itself we arrived down at the location at 10pm and met our actor Lew turned soon after we arrived, I quickly set up the shot for the interview with Voodoo and the atmosphere in the background. For the first time in our project we were able to get hold of Audio equipment from the stores and was able to get clear audio from the interview but because of the noise we weren't able to capture Rob's dialogue clearly at the location. Because we had the audio equipment, Damian was assigned the role of sound recordist, so I had to assign Ross the responsibilities of 2nd Camera Operator and gave him a brief of what was required for the shoot.

The shoot night went very smoothly and we got some cut away shots as well as the interview, if I was to shoot this scene again I would have liked to have had some extras come down to the locations holding up banners and signs in the background for Zombie Rights to sell the scene to the audience more. This is were the scene doesn't quite meet our original standards, but much like the rest of the earlier shoots we've been letdown on so many occasions by actors and extras, that the thought hadn't crossed our mind until after the shoot.

Me filming at Voodoo Lounge, getting cutaway shots of the Reggae Night.

Me setting up the framing for the interview with Lew at Voodoo Lounge.

Shoot Day 5 @ Rob's House (20/05/12)

The next day after our Voodoo Shoot, we headed down to Rob's house to shoot our Amy and Barry scene, again this was a case of being let down by our actors, the woman that was due to play the role of Amy was unable to turn up on the day; although the crew was worried about this, Rob suggested that his mother and father-in-law could fill in for the roles of Amy and Barry. Though the thought of again having to have amateurs act in-front on the camera; but on the day they really did come across very natural on camera. Again the first thing that I did as soon as we got down on set was to set up and frame the interview scene in Rob's front room with the actors sitting down on the couch; again like the night before Damian was filling in as the sound recordist, so I asked Ross to fill in as 2nd Camera man and asked him to capture footage of our Zombie Barry looking to get the emotion and essence of his character. Unfortunately we were unable to get access to any lights so I had to rely on natural lighting; as for the cutaways of family portraits on mantlepieces, I replaced a lot of these shots, making the most of our situation by film close ups of Rob's in-laws wedding photo album as his mother-in-law was looking through the photos reminiscing on her past with Barry.

Me setting up the camera for the interview at Rob's house, framing the shot as planned prior to the shoot.

Make-up on Camera

One of the new experiences from this project has been to be working with a make-up artist on set and work with shooting off cast with applied make-up, this is quite an interesting new area of film for me to be working in; Looking at the make-up as it was being applied on set didn't seem to me that it would come out that great but once I started to film some footage with our zombies, the make-up seemed to be rather enhanced through the lens of my camera.

Close up of Kate (Zombie Dancer)

 The close up above is from our 2nd shoot at Jack Cham's with Kate made up to be a zombie dancer, she actually also had a contact in that really added to the effect of the make up on screen and I made a point of getting some really nice close up shots of her face as I feel that this will work great as a cutaway during the interview scene in the film.

Still of me filming Zombie Dancer

 Above I'm capturing the close up of Kate's face, getting sharp focus on her eye that really enhances the creepiness of her appearance; using a 50mm prime lens I was able to get some really nice crisp sharp focus images where the contact she was wearing really stood out in the shot.

Stacey applying make-up to David (Barry)

 For the character of Barry I really wanted to capture a lot of footage of him as a stand alone character and asked Ross (2nd Camera) to get some nice cutaway shots of Barry during the interview to really try and capture the emotion and expressions of his character that I feel should really add to the connection our audience will feel towards the couple of Amy and Barry.

Stacey applying make-up to Inga (Grant's Zombie Girlfriend)

 With the make up of Inga (Grant's Zombie Girlfriend) I really wanted to make sure that we captured scenes of our zombie doing mundane activities of everyday life, so we ended up having Inga at the sink attempting and failing miserably to wash some dishes.

Overall I feel that it has been a great experience working with a make-up artist, but the experience could have been a whole lot better had we not suffered so many pull outs with actors and extras; where I would have had much much room to experiment with the filming of our zombies; plus it would have been much better for me to have access to some lighting, so that I could have learned more from the world of make-up within film; the camera can only do so much with make-up, but the ability to light our scenes properly I feel would have vastly increased the learning curve and experience of having a make-up artist on board.

Film Budget

The budget for our mockumentary has been kept very low due to our limited resources available to us, and have had to make the most of spending very little to nothing on the film.


Shoot Days (2) @ Jack Chams

Black Curtains (Set Design) = £15
Canteen (Food & Drink on set) =£55

Misc.

Chains for Zombies = £0.99
16 x Tesco's Noodles = £1.76

Equipment List

Camera.
4 x Canon 550D DSLR cameras

Lenses.
18-55mm Kit Lens
10-20mm Sigma 3.5FX
28mm Canon 2.8f
35mm Canon 2f
50mm Canon 1.4f

Sound.
Zoom h4n
ME67
Headphones

Misc.
Tripod
Monopod
DSLR Rig
Final Cut Pro

Cast

Mr. K. - Nathan Nuurah
Grant - Grant Cooper
Grant's Zombie Girlfriend - Inga Justrumskaite
Zombie Dancer 1 - Kate Parkinson
Zombie Dancer 2 - Vicki Oliver
Hippie - Lew Hand
Amy - Denise Skinner
Barry - David Skinner
Make-Up Artist - Stacey Chapman
Rob Cooper -Himself
Me - Myself
Ross Carter - Himself
Damian Suparasiri - Himself
Zombie Crew Member - Alex Skinner

Extras
Brad Sherman
Paul Beard
Alex Skinner
Nick Skinner
Ryan Carter
Sadik Miah
Martin Butler
Victoria Skinner
Harvey Skinner
Stacey Chapman

Meeting with Rob with regards to 6th Shoot Day

Earlier Today (Tuesday 22nd May) I met up with Rob in the LRC to discuss the upcoming shoot day at Thai Palace, due to unforeseen no-shows from various different parties during this project, our production has suffered quite a few setbacks and this has meant that I'm unable to attend the final shoot day this Sunday as I'm already committed to another project with Joe Tippett and Robert Brice; unfortunately I've had to choose between the two and decided that it would be best for all parties if I went to the shoot with Joe and Bob. So today I discussed with Rob the plans that I had for the restaurant scene and told him all the different angles that were needed to be covered on set; as Rob had attended the Recce shoot that we did in pre-production it was easy to explain everything that was required from the camera side of things for the shoot this Sunday; I've asked him to take this brief on board and delegate the roles on Sunday as he sees fit.

This situation I feel was handled in the best possible way under the circumstances; for me I think that I will get more out of filming with Joe and Bob at the Bunker this Sunday from a personal and professional standpoint; but that doesn't change the fact that I'm feeling a bit guilty about leaving my crew one man short for the final day of shooting. But I feel that this discussion with Rob has proved to be very constructive and we communicated extremely well with each other and I know that what I've asked of him he will try to achieve to the best of his abilities and will make the right decision for sharing the extra work load among-st the rest of the crew.

An argument could be made that I might have taken on one too many projects in such a small space of time and that I should have seen this conflict of interest coming, but I feel that this zombie project has just had one serious case of bad luck and we couldn't have known that we'd be let down so badly by so many people, in future I think that I will certainly consider this repeating itself when contemplating taking on more than one project at a time, and would have contingency plans set in place to try and avoid this from repeating again.

Feedback from seeing the Edit (30/05/12)

Tonight we all as a group went over to Damian's house to see the rough cut of the film; Rob was really keen for me to see the film all the way through as, they had already seen it on a few occasions and because I had been unavailable due to working on another project for the last 4 days, he thought that I could maybe see the film differently as being away from the project for awhile, I'd be seeing the film almost with a fresh pair of eyes.

After sitting down and watching the film from start to finish I did make quite a few different suggestions on what I thought needed to be changed; the first thing that I mentioned was that the scene with Lew (Our Hippie Character) was missing from the film; and with the fact that our title sequence shows riots and there didn't seem to be any conflict within the film as it was, for me I thought that the title sequence was quite jarring considering that there wasn't anything in the film as it was to suggest any polar opposing of opinions portrayed. I was adamant that this scene needed to be added back into the film and everyone there agree with my argument.

The other glaring issue that I had with the edit was the restaurant scene, as I was away filming on another project and wasn't able to attend this shoot, this was the first time that I actually saw the footage, I was quite surprised at how dull the scene played out, though there was quite a few funny moments in the scene, it just didn't fit in with the rest of the film and felt alien to the essence of this project, it also dragged the films energy down and I suggested that we heavily cut down this scene and try and edit it so that the scene had a kinetic energy of things going wrong at a rapid pace. Everyone again agreed with my suggestion and we worked together as a team to find the right solution to fix this problem.

I would say that I really wish I was able to attend the 6th shoot day and had more of a presence in the post-production in it's build format, but my time away from the project actually help the film to evolve from it's first edit into the outcome of the film now; this I think is something to consider in the future for other projects. Having that fresh pair of eyes come in and see the footage seems to work really well at spotting key changes that those that have been too close to the footage for so long spot. This night I feel has been very productive and the communication and critical analysis between the crew has been very productive and I personally feel these night has boosted the overall team morale.

Risk Assessments

Risk Assessment for our project.