Back in the Saddle

I don't get to slide behind the camera very often, but when I do, it's always a stressful and wonderful thing.

Yesterday I was excited to get back on set to direct my next project, a short film called Dead Friends Forever. This short started its life as a response to my good friend and special effects guru Jason Proakis, who, after working on the fantastic Matt Diulus short film, Tret, wanted to work on something with even more gore to expand his repertoire. He wanted to do a zombie film. Usually I shy away from genres that are have been overly played out, and as much as I love Romero, that's true of this genre.

Still, we sat down and came with not just one but two really interesting takes on the zombie genre that would genuinely interest me to write and would be an absolute blast to shoot. One of them would be prohibitively expensive. The other evolved into Dead Friends Forever. Just the right kind of story to tell on a modest budget (of zero dollars).

I don't want to reveal too much, but the story focuses on a woman searching for her missing sister after a zombie outbreak. There's a very human thread running through the story, but we have a fair amount of gore in there, too.

Day One went as well as any day I've spent on set. I had the pleasure of working with some new (to me) actors, Maddy Cox and Em Sullivan, who were both eminently patient with the cold conditions and turned in excellent performances. Much of my crew have ridden with me before: Jason, of course, running the effects, Kevin Kukler behind the lens of our 6K camera, Jason's son Russ on boom, and Roger Gelik as Kevin's right-hand AC. New to the bunch was Tyler Roman, a special effects wunderkind who is finishing up his freshman year of cinema studies at Point Park, not to mention a graduate of the Stan Winston school (which Jason also attended). We had some extra help early on from Tony Campos and my AD, Matt Diulus.

I'm excited to share more about this film, but since I have a habit of revealing too much, too soon, I'll just leave a few behind-the-scenes pictures and pledge to share more as filming continues!