DIE & LET LIVE - some cast/crew updates

I just wanted to post some updates, mainly for the cast/crew of DIE & LET LIVE to let them know what’s going on with shooting.

- The scenes we need to finish at the Book N Bean will no longer be shot on Sundays, since Mike Stewart (BNB owner) records on those nights and had been cancelling his sessions to let us shoot. Instead, we will be picking up scenes as much as possible on weeknights (probably Tuesdays and Fridays) as soon as they close at 10pm.

- Since most of our cast is vacationing from June 22nd-July something, we’ll be spending about two weeks doing scenes which do not rely on our leads. Meaning, we’ll need additional cast soon, so get a hold of us if you want to be a zombie, extra, etc.

- We’re probably holding off on shooting a lot of the big finale until July, when our leads return.

- There will hopefully be an extra special cameo shot over next weekend.

- I have DVDs of all of the scenes we’ve shot so far cut together. Some of the cuts are pretty rough and there’s lots of audio work to be done, though. I also cut together about 7 minutes worth of scenes that actually go together in the middle of the film tonight and they flow pretty good.

DIE & LET LIVE - super fun zombie night puking extravaganza!

Tuesday night was our first night shooting with Jonas Dixon, who is playing the part of our antagonist, Andrew, the local sexual conquistador. This was also another night with effects, so as expected, we ended up not getting everything we needed to shoot and had extras standing around in the cold in zombie makeup for almost four hours. We also discovered one major thing that we overlooked: having things like paper towels and soap availible. Definitely have to fix that next time.

Anyway, we got started later than I had planned, mainly because Zane has to do all the makeup before he can start acting and I planned on starting with his scenes with Jonas. But when we finally started shooting, all of the waiting was worthwhile, because the scenes turned out really great. The only problem was lighting, because right before we started, one of my lights fell over and broke and I had to rely on a shitty 60w worklight as a fill light. But hey, shit happens and everything turned out good performance wise.

But once we got into the effects, we discovered two problems: first off, Sarah had to be home at midnight and we didn’t have time for her scene, which was the only reason Josh had to come down from Morgantown. So, we just decided to save that scene for another night, since it required more makeup on Jonas and would’ve been impossible to shoot that night. Second, Zane somehow managed to forget that we had zombie bites (how he did that when he had to put zombie makeup on four people is beyond me) and had to run out to get condoms, putting us behind even more. But again, shit happens. We got the scenes done and Zane’s effects looked great, as usual. I still can’t believe how great someone biting into a condom full of red karo syrup looks for a zombie eating flesh and a bunch of toilet paper, cotton balls, and latex can create an incredibly gruesome wound. Add on Jonas’s incredible screaming and I think we sold the effect pretty well.

We did get a pickup shot of Zach Boyce puking for scene 24, which I believe will hold the record in the film for the scene that was the most spread out (it’s already taken 4 shoots, with at least one or two more necessary cutaways). I told Zane to make fake vomit that wouldn’t be too gross for him, which he made out of Quaker Oats and melted ice cream. We got the takes and then I went to go prepare for Boyce’s zombie bite and I came back outside to find Boyce really puking off the side of the porch. I felt really bad for making everyone suffer in makeup and even worse for Boyce, but I couldn’t help but think “Man, if only I could’ve filmed him really vomitting…”

The last shot of the night was the aforementioned zombie bite on Zack Boyce. The only problem with the scene was that I didn’t think about how the actress playing the zombie would be leaning to bite his arms and the whole thing ended up being obscured in the shadows. I was able to Magic Bullet the footage to fix it up a bit, but still, that one was my fuck up. After we shot that scene, it was time for Zombie Car Wash… since we didn’t have a shower or anything, we just ran a waterhose and they sprayed the fake blood off of their arms, legs, etc.

I’d like to give huge thanks to Tim, Jon-Pat, Greg, and Susan for coming out and enduring the hell we put them through for about four hours straight. And apologies to ZB for the vomit.