Tag Archives: zombies

Film Characters To Put Into Your Low Budget Film.

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The key to low-budget film-making is to have as few locations as possible. Locations and travel cost money.


Anna Paquin who is in the vampire TV show True Blood

Now, onto characters. You can’t afford to have a baseball player in your film if you want to see him in action. The key is having characters who can look authentic without renting expensive stadiums.

CIA agents are always popular in films. All you need is an actor in a suit, and, possibly, a fake gun. (If you are filming outside with a fake gun you must alert the authorities and tell them you will be filming in the area. Least you get shot by armed police thinking you are some kind of homicidal killer).

FBI agents: Ditto.

Waitress. Make a gritty, real life drama. It is relatively easy to talk a cafe owner into filming in their establishment for free. They will probably say yes for some publicity and a thank you in the credits.

People in love; everyone loves a good love story, and a happy ending. The purpose of film is to tell a story visually. Is there possibly an easier story to tell than a story about love and relationships. Something we all understand and go through?

Gangsters. a suit, a fake cockney accent and a fake gun. Brevity is the soul of low-budget film-making. Be careful when doing a gangster film though. They are heard to do well as Martin Scorsese has put the bar so high. You could make a good short if you have a good, original take on it.

Zombies; It’s easy to find a trainee make up artist who wants to add to their portfolio so your zombies will be authentic. It’s another popular genre.

Vampires; They are huge right now thanks to Twilight and True Blood. How hard is it to find some black clothes and fake blood? Bloody easy in fact.

More important than the genre and characters for a film is the script. An original film, well acted, and with a good script can beat any big budget blockbuster. Money is no longer a problem for independent filmmakers. You can make a film on a shoestring budget.

Photo credit: DarkChacal

Stefan's Top Five's; Zombie Flicks

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Zombie Films (in no particular order)

Zombieland
A new release that after one viewing went straight into my top five, this romp through a zombie infested America is fun for the whole family.
The story centres around four survivors who remain nameless, preferring to take the name of places they have travelled from as their chosen monikers to keep from getting attached to each other (Columbus, Wichita, Little Rock and Tallahassee). Heavily armoured with comedy rather than scares Zombieland delivers a much needed rest bite from all the psychological horror and rubbish gore porn (Eli Roth, I’m looking at you) of late, and Woody Harrelson is one of the most bad-ass zombie killers ever. Even if you don’t dig on zombies I still recommend this film (if only for the brilliant cameo by Bi….actually, I’ll leave it till you see it)!

Dawn of the Dead
Ahhh George A Romero, the Granddaddy of the Undead, the Godfather of Zombiedon and one of the true masters of the genre.
It was very hard deciding which of his films to include, but I came to the conclusion of Dawn of the Dead, is it a zombie film? Is it a siege film? Is it a look into the consumer mindset of America? Is it all three and more? Whichever it is it remains one of the best. With more parodies/homage’s than there are zombies in the film, Dawn is the tale of two SWAT Team members and two News Broadcasters as they try to live out the zombie apocalypse inside a mall. With everything they could possible need under one roof they should be smiling, but there’s no time to smile when you’re constantly on the lookout for the re-animated beasties or fighting for survival against a nomadic band of bikers. One of the first and one of the best, this is a must for anyone looking to survive a zombie attack.

Night of the Living Dead (1990 remake)
The 1968 original of Night was a complete George A Romero affair, in the remake however he just re-wrote the screenplay and left the directing to Tom Savini, and Tom did a brilliant job. Starting off quite light hearted with two siblings squabbling about their dislike for the (now dead) mother, Night takes a swift dive into the realm of horror after they are attacked in a graveyard by two zombies, forcing the sister Barbara to take refuge in an old farmhouse with other survivors, with no knowledge of what is causing the carnage outside they are forced to overcome their distrust and help each other. One of the reasons I put this film in is for one scene that perfectly shows zombies, Barbara walks through a zombie infested field, instead of running she calmly walks, holding a pistol to the heads of each zombie she passes and eventually sobbingly begs an undead woman to leave her alone while pushing her away only for her to stumble back an try to take a bite. Possibly the only one of this list to go into my top 10 best films list (watch this space for that one) Night of the Living Dead is the perfect zombie film.

Brain Dead
I mentioned Gore Porn earlier in this article. I’m not a big fan of movies that contain gore for gores sake but before showing us the wonders of Middle Earth, peter Jackson gave us gore as it should be, with full ladle helpings of tongue in cheek humour. In essence, Brain Dead is a rather sweet tale of a young man trying to impress the girl he’s fallen desperately in love with, unfortunately his attempts to woo her are hampered by his over bearing mother who, after being bitten by a Sumatran Rat-Monkey and zombiefied, he has to keep locked in the basement along with all the other people her bite has transformed. Blood, guts, puss and limbs fly as Jackson uses excellent puppetry and even better dialogue (‘Your mother ate my dog’ ‘…not all of it’). After seeing Brain Dead you’ll never look at your lawn-mower the same way again.

28 Days Later
This was a tough movie to include, you see, there’s mindless people attacking the rest of us, but their not dead and their not eating flesh for sustenance. It’s the most annoying zombie film because it doesn’t have any zombies…just a hell of a lot of ‘Infected’ who have been contaminated with a Rage Virus, of course you can argue that actual cases of zombification haven’t included death and re-animation but that’s an entirely different world from movies so I’m ignoring it.
It’s absolutely safe to say that 28 Days is the scariest film in this list, from the eerie wide angle shots of an absolutely empty London (anyone who grew up here will understand) to the claustrophobic intensity of not being able to escape an ‘infected’ filled house until you can fill yourself with the same rage that has infected most of the country (deep much?), although there are some genuinely heart warming moments of burgeoning friendship and the heart breaking ending of a family unit. 28 Days Later is a film about friendship, loss and above all trust in a world where it’s every man, woman and child for themselves. And in fear of sounding to grown up at the end of this article let me remind you if you’ve seen it and warn you if you haven’t….thumbs + eyes = wince factor 11.

10 random things you pick up on set as an actor.

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Catherine and Genevieve on the weirdness of their careers….

howtobeasuccessful_actor_book_cover

I had the idea for this article when an old friend asked me what I had been up to. The answer was: lots of stuff that seems very weird if you’re not an actor. I called Genevieve and she agreed. We have to let people know how bloody weird our lives get. As an actor you always have those moments when you’re dressed like someone else, on a set that is made to look somewhere else, saying lines that a writer wrote. It is utterly surreal and you realise that this is my life. So, here is our top ten in no particular order…
1. Don’t drink the props…
I once watched an actress drink half a bottle of neat blackcurrant cordial as the production person in charge of getting grape juice couldn’t find any on time. Of course she felt incredibly sick. You never know what’s going to be in your glass or cup, it’s like drink roulette, it could be sparkling apple or it could be ginger beer. It might be cold coffee, or it just might not have sugar in it. It might be one take, or it might be twenty. It’s just not worth the risk.
[Genevieve]
2. How to pickpocket.
Filming can be boring. Incredibly so.  It was while sitting on a Pokerstar commercial ( a shoot that was actually fun. Mostly due to the amazing cast and crew. ) that I learned a rather old school trick that should help if the acting work ever dries up. How to pickpocket. Basically, you ‘bump’ into someone. Then you apologize. When you bump into them you swiftly grab their wallet  out of their pocket. They are so distracted that they don’t notice. Also they do not feel it as you hit them somewhere else. Genius!
Note: I take no responsibility for anyone actions or legal issues that come from trying this.
[Catherine]
3. How to dance like a drunken youth…
…In freezing subzero conditions, in a mini skirt in the dead of night no less. There I was literally contracting hypothermia on the set of The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, I was vaguely aware of the Director; Terry Gilliam; telling us to be more lively and act more drunkenly…in the same way I was vaguely aware of my toes. Before I knew it, I was being used in a drunken dance demonstration; being swung about by a be-hatted Terry who was doing a brilliant impression of a raucous drunkard.
[Genevieve]
4. How to stamp on the original Eighth Dr Who’s head without hurting him.
At the beginning of the year I was cast as a 17 year old thug. I complete stretch if you know me. I got a part in the up coming TV series ‘Luther.’ I had to stamp on Paul McGann’s head. Because Paul is such a big star I had to first meet up with the stunt coordinator so I didn’t actually smack him in the face. Or worse. Kill him.
So at a brewery in East London I met up with the stunt coordinator. Who promptly hits me in the face. It hurts. I get the irony but I laugh it off. So, on set – kep out of the way of the stunt coordinator’s elbows.
[Catherine]
5. No matter how good your work is, nothing is sacred.
I spent a good hour in a Holby City make-up chair while various injuries were applied to me. My unfortunate character; Shazia Khan; was supposed to have been in a car crash and as a result had a horrible head and leg injury. The leg injury was pretty spectacular and grossed everybody out. I get on set and was so disappointed when they decided to give me a blanket and the wound got covered up.
[Genevieve]
6. How not to embarrass yourself in front of Dustin Hoffman.
The title is actually a lie. I did not manage this, I have met Dustin Hoffman a few times now and he is quite lovely. On the set of Last Chance Harvey I saw Dustin waving and smiling. I smiled and waved back. Only to realise that he was waving at the person behind me….Mortified to this day. He was nice about it though.
[Catherine]
7. How to survive a zombie apocalypse…
In an apocalypse, the only thing you need is well trained zombies and a fight coordinator!! Especially when fighting zombie hoards with nothing but your bare fists and a toy banjo. In all seriousness, the last thing you want to do is damage yourself/other actors/a grade II listed building. Some inexperienced actors can get carried away and not realise that what they’re doing could be dangerous. So always listen to the person in charge.
[Genevieve]
8. How to motivate an actor to push you down the stairs.
On the set of ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ I not only decapitated a zombie ( lots of fun, done with special effects and precise spade movements ) I had to throw a zombie down the stairs. This is obviously not a real zombie. it’s a person and I don’t want to kill him. After two takes he is not feeling it. So, he says to me ‘If you hurt me I will buy you a drink.’ The next take the director gets his shot and the zombie comes up to me limping and says: ‘I owe you a drink.’ Oh well. All is fair in love and film-making.
[Catherine]
9. How to work with imaginary characters and scenery…
…in front of a green screen, when the other actors can’t be bothered to sit in as they assume they’re not in the shot, working with fictional monsters, people materialising a meter in front of you. You may or may not be provided with a tennis ball on a stick. You’ll look and feel ridiculous but remember…it’ll look amazing in the end.
[Genevieve]
10. Brian Moloko will show you how to put a drip in your hand.
At Three Mills Studio in East London, with make up that makes me look like a junkie, I met a childhood hero. Brian Moloko and he showed me the correct way to put a drip in my hand. Doubt I will use this skill but if a career in nursing ever beckons….
[Catherine]

For more on acting and how to be a successful actor, check out my book: How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur.