Zombie Cliche Lookout: Looking Forward
There’s a certain satisfaction you get from looking backward. Not only is it old and familiar, but if you’re one of those special people (read: nearly everyone) who can remember a slightly better version of the past, better still. After all, conventional wisdom holds that those who can’t get a handle on the past are screwed. I’m paraphrasing here, but you get what I’m saying.
Of course, being stuck in the past comes with its own dangers, especially in the zombie apocalypse. People who wander around, being all nostalgic, are probably going to get eaten pretty quickly.
About this Episode:
When I build a set for the comic, I tend to do it a couple different ways. If the set is something that is going to call for a lot of reverse angles, I generally build three walls, and make them all removable.
Other times, when the set is going to be fairly static, I build it like a TV set. That is to say, I make half or two-thirds of a room. With these, I tend to get a little more detailed, like the kitchen here (also, I kind of like building kitchens).
So this time around, I built a half-set, but now that the dialog is piling on, I’m sort of regretting it. There’s room to squeeze people in, but having a full room to play with would make for slightly more interesting backgrounds. Of course, I also want the dialog to be the focus, so perhaps it’s for the best.
Discussion Question: Good, But Not Rewatchable
We’ve talked quite a bit before about zombie flicks that we love, and could watch again and again, but what about that other type of great movie: the one we see once, and never want to watch again despite thinking it was excellent? And let’s cast a wide net here, we’re talking movies, not specifically zombie or even horror films.
For me, it’s Blindness. Incredible film with an amazing story and fantastic characters. But I’ll never watch it again, because it was terribly disturbing.
They say hindsight is an exact science.
Regarding the set and how you built it, I’ll put it bluntly like this: Have you invested far too much money in your digital photo editing program to not use it’s features that allow you to blend and transpose parts of scenes seamlessly?
I can certainly blend elements together, and have done so in the past.
However, I don’t like doing that for two reasons:
1. It’s very time intensive, which makes it difficult to use more than occasionally since I have a pretty tight schedule.
2. As a rule, I like to do as much as I can “in camera” as possible.
Regarding point #1: Most modern digital photoshop editing programs have plenty of keyboard shortcuts so that blending in background scenery shouldn’t be a problem.
Regarding point #2: Well, perhaps you should consider some suitable backgrounds made entirely out of LEGO bricks to photograph and insert into your scenes. Personally, I find if the author doesn’t overdo it, the effect would be as if it was all one scene. We’ve got to 2013 what would be the point of modern technology if nobody will ever use it to great effect?
As an Editor. Post Sucks
Yeah, I tend to agree.
Yes, it’s certainly possible to marry things together in post. But that a lot of cutting out and masking, evening up lighting, etc. The time really adds up.
Pointing fingers is not nice man.
No sir.
My movie would be Dead Snow good but it ended preety bad.
I enjoyed Dead Snow, but haven’t really had a lot of desire to revisit it.
My movie is definitely The Pianist. Great movie, but very violent and gruesome.
Oh, nice call on the Pianist. Definitely a solid film, but not one I’d really revisit.
Dave I’ve got a question for you, did you always have an intrest in zombies? or did you just watch the walking dead and then looked some stuff up?
Since high school. A few friends and I really got into Resident Evil when it came out (1996). From there, we found Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, etc. We even made a short, extremely shitty, unfinished zombie movie.
i laughed at Night Of the Walking Dead 2, i think that i was supposed to be scary, but i was laughing at the old and stupid effects.
Never heard of that one.
it was like seriously, one of the first zombie movies, when color stuff was just coming out.
I’ve only seen two of the really old zombie movies: White Zombie (excellent) and King of the Zombies (not so much).
i have the white zombie on DVD, and i never really got the point, i also never got why the group in dawn of the dead tried to take over a mall. a mall has like 16 entrences from, the doors alone, then theres usually glass windows on the roof, thats another thing, everyone is saying “I’m going to board myself up inside of Wal-mart, or Wal-greens, sometimes i pitty all of the stupid people for when the apocalypse comes around.
White Zombie is a pretty cool movie. The sugar factory scene is amazingly creepy.
Bugging out to a mall, walmart, etc, is a bad idea. Period.
yea, you might want to board yourself up in someplace like a dollar store, easy to board up, and theres still some food. so if your going to board yourself up besides your own home, go to a dollar store, no one will want to go there
If I had to hanker down Costco or Sams club
OMFG!!!! I LOVE THE RESIDENT EVIL SERIES!!!!!!!!!!
i think that that was the 60′s
Night of the Living Dead came out in 1968. Color film was commonplace then, but black and white filmstock was much, much cheaper.
Night was one of the first successful indie films.
I’m going to have to say for most recent, Beasts of the Southern Wild that I watched yesterday after renting. It was good, but it didn’t seem fully realized and I feel more should have been clearer for the viewer. Plus, it was a rare movie that made me physically ill and queasy, I ended up falling asleep I felt so bad but could still follow the action and dialogue.
I know there’s others I’ve seen that were good once, but I can’t dredge any of them up currently for memory.
As to sets, I know I build some of RoO’s like a t.v. set or stage. It can limit the angles. and a couple like a warehouse, I built to have the removable walls for action.
I think it’s a learning process for us to get better at building our sets and recognizing how we’ll make it so we can get the angles we want.
I think you’ve done just fine with this Dave.
Thanks Fox!
I would say any movie “with a twist”… examples: The Usual Suspects, The Sixth sense… once you have seen them there’s no real point in re-watching them..
I actually the exact opposite. I hate watching movies where I know there is some twist, because I spend most of the movie trying to figure it out. Second viewing, I might actually enjoy it.
Could you people please use better language here? Young people read this.
Do you mean you want less cursing, or better spelling and grammar?
That’s a very good question. Mine is probably Dead Snow. It was good, but the story was a bit cheesy, and it’s really long. Not bad, though. BTW, I just learned that my camera works, so I’m going to post some Lego Zombie stuff!
That’s two votes for Dead Snow. Interesting.
Yes Dead Snows in the lead, Is it?
For me maybe Cannibal Holocaust, or any movie with rape in it. Love violence just not rape, not cool.
100% agreed here. I’ve avoided Cannibal Holocaust because of the rape, as a matter of fact.
Question for Dave: Do you use 2 or 3 point lighting? I was looking back at a some of your earlier stuff and notice the difference.
Three lights (above and on two sides) that shine through a white cloth for diffusion.
Before this, I used a reflector, although still with three lights in roughly the same configuration. I think I get more even, diffuse light this was.
You use diffusion paper? or do you subsitute?
I’d probably get better results if I did.
No, I use a white cotton bedsheet, strung over a PVC frame. I used parchment paper a long time ago, which also seemed to do a good job.
for me, Legend of the Guardians The owls of Ha’hool… at least until they finish the story. (Which I think is going to be never)
Hindsight is an interesting element of humanity… many of us say that in hindsight we would have done better, or changed a decision etc…
Who is to say that making a different decision was the better one? For example in Bricks of the Dead, Stu said lets bug out and go to safe zone… and safe zone was overrun, yet the group survived (mostly intact)… now in hindsight they might be thinking that staying put would have been a better idea… who is to say there wasn’t an enormous horde of zombies heading straight for the house they were in and they would have all ended up as zombie food.
Learning from past experience is important…. but to sit there and say “if I had made this decision, things would have been better” is dangerous thinking in some scenarios
And the movie I wouldnt watch again… Day of the Dead (Romero). Because of the scene where the zombie group gets hold of that guys head and pull it off…. the screaming cutting off and everything just really REALLY got to me… still makes me queasy just remembering it.
I think that my favorite zombie movie would be (funny zombie movie that is.. don’t really have a favorite scary zombie movie) SHAUN OF THE DEAD
Attack highschool girls swimteam versus the undead
The movie was good until the stupid and unnecessarily depressing ending. At least it had a cool vaginal laser beam.