In which Phil makes his big-screen debut

Last night, Phil, Jamie and I sashayed into Studio on the Square (they didn't even take our tickets, there was so much schmoozing going on the for the film fest) and took our seats. I'd been told by a counter worker that the documentary was playing after the feature, which made no sense to me, but it turned out not to be the case. Daniel Lee, the guy who made the documentary, stood and said a few words about his work — basically that he was just there with a camera and the crazy zombies did all the work. He was very modest.

I was happy that the audience found all the right parts funny. I didn't get the feeling that anyone thought we were all too weird or lame or anything like that. Phil's interview snippets were all very well-spoken (even if a couple of things weren't exactly true: Sharon wasn't in the walk in San Francisco and it sure as hell wasn't a "spur-of-the-moment thing"; we'd been putting it together for months). I think he was embarrassed to see himself up there talking. But I figure he's got to get used to lots of people gawking at him if he's going to be a frigging rock star.

After the feature (which was at times quite funny and at other times quite frustratingly boring) concluded, we snuck out. Or tried to. I wasn't really in the mood for schmoozing, but Phil ran into someone he knows, and then we ran into Lee, who recognized Phil as the guy in the movie (I think). I don't suppose he had any idea who I was until I told him, and even then he was probably wondering why I was talking so much.

I spent some time explaining the process for putting the walk together (he was surprised to learn all the legal hoops we had to jump through with the city and the Beale Street people) and how we'd like to do it again, but not twice a year because then people get kind of burned out on the concept.

We introduced Jamie to him and told him he was the artist for all the flyers. Then he had his wife take a picture of all of us together.

It's interesting. I don't think when people think of a zombie walk, they imagine two relatively meek young women putting it together. We're not crazy, over-the-top performer types who want to ham it up for cameras (which is why neither of us are featured in the documentary). But I like surprising people with that knowledge.

Watching the documentary, I was again overwhelmed with pride — this is so corny — that Memphis turned out and made it so huge. I mean, there had to have been 300 people. The creativity people put into their costumes and their acting couldn't have been better. All we had to do was give all these people an excuse to get together and they took it from there. Seeing all that one screen was just the icing on the cake.

Eight minutes of zombie documentarianism that will change your life!

Monday night at 9:40, the Daniel Lee short documentary (or "doc" as they say on the streets) will screen as part of the Indie Memphis Film Festival at Studio on the Square. I believe it's playing just before I Was a Zombie for the FBI, a flick from the early '80s that boasts a 5.3 IMDb rating!

You may have seen this before, but just imagine how awesome it's going to be on the big screen!

Calling all actors and actor wannabes

I have no idea if anyone reading this blog is into drama or acting and horror and has time to act in an indie film (Sarah? Ditch that job and hop to it!), but I'm going to put this out there anyway, and you can spread the word as you see fit.

The very talented Duane (he of the astonishing zombie walk makeup/effects work) will start casting his new silent horror flick, Cruel, in the very near future. The details:

I'm sending this out so that you are aware that within the next month at least, I and my film partners will probably hold a casting call at the media co-op. No...we aren't weirdos, perves or interested in porn. This will be a serious film. In particular for one of the lead roles, I will need someone that either is high school age and has an open schedule in October ( nights & weekends ) or someone who is older, yet can pass for that age. Also, to prove we are serious, said actor(s) will be required to sign release forms or have a guardian do so if they are under 18. That's the business side of things, and I pride myself in being professional. Anyway, talk it over with people...think it over if you are interested...I will post the time/date for the casting call when it'll happen. Worst case scenario, we have headshots and contact information from doing the huge casting call to renew our database of local talent because new talent has emerged like crazy in just the past year.

My film will be a silent-horror-film ( except for the very end ), and if you want to read the treatment/script, then go to my page and follow the link in the blog titled " Cruel. " Also, later on into the Winter/Spring, we'll be doing a horror anthology that takes place entirely out in the woods. Inbetween projects, we are also going to do a series about vampires like it's never been done before...interesting for once. All things that we are to film already has locked dvd distribution, but I will pursue the film festival circuits, too. If the film does well at fests, then we could be looking at possible theatrical release and more money for everyone. Yes, there will be money to be made on the back end of the dvd sales. We'll all make our money the same way unless some of the line producers I've spoken with lately come around with upfront budgets to pay people ahead of time. If anyone wants to view my film plan for CRUEL, they can email me directly.

So, if it sounds like something you or someone you know would be into, e-mail Duane at willy10speed [at] hotmail.com. Check out his MySpace pages here and here.