Making "UNDEADline" - 2. The Shoot

In part one of this series we looked at getting the "UNDEADline" project off the ground; we got together our script, locations and cast. Being a "no-budget" film, getting cast and crew together on the same day, at the same time - is not always the simplest scheduling task. So we were elated when we found a day that worked for everyone... we could now have a Production Meeting and then proceed with the Shoot.

The Production Meeting

Our gathering point for the Production Meeting was a local cafe called the Fyxx, which was also just a few blocks from our location.

In this case our meeting was very short and simple. The script for "UNDEADline" is pretty straight-forward and I expected the shoot to be as well, so our meeting was more to get everyone in the same place and make introductions for any new faces.

Our cast includes a couple of our NeuralNet regulars: actors Tony Hart (as Chris Dedman) and Laura MacKay (as a Zombie Minion). Tony and Laura have both appeared in the Neuralnet short: "Reflections", and will also be featured in an upcoming thriller we're doing!

New people to our production were Anastasia Waly (as Angelica) and Bobby Stahr (as Larry). Rounding off the cast were Robert Olver (who has also appeared in our short film "Twice Removed") and Brandon Ackerman, both cast as part of the Zombie Minions. Also new to this production was local make-up wizard Max Wilson.

After introductions and a quick review of the script and what was expected, we headed off to the location to begin...

The Shoot

It was about 7pm when we arrived at the location. I was looking at completing the entire shoot that evening, expecting that we would be wrapping by 12 to 1 am. We had 5 people that needed zombie make-up. Fortunately, the zombies appear sequentially in the film, so I decided to shoot the exterior scenes that featured Bobby (our only non-zombie) first, while Max was applying make-up to Anastasia (our 1st appearing zombie)... then, when we were shooting scenes with Anastasia, Tony was getting make-up and so forth. This proved to be a very efficient system.

Having been a comic-book artist and computer animator in my past; I have a very strong sense of sequence and visuals, so I always have the entire script storyboarded in my mind, along with alternative shots and even new shots or scenes as they may crop up. As a result, shooting usually progresses quickly... and so it did.

We were actually amazed that we wrapped up the shoot by 9:30 pm! 2 hours!! And that's with reshoots too! I'll have to say that this was one of the smoother shoots - and probably the fastest. Our make-up whiz Max Wilson did an incredible job with the zombie make-up (see photos), and it's hard to find enough good things to say in praise of our actors.

I asked my leads to run with the script - and they did just that - taking what was there and extrapolating and adding some of the finest bravura improv performances ever! The results were fantastic! And of course were included in the cut.

We're in post now - the rough cut is complete, and we're just looking to add music, titles and some blood FX before the final cut. Again I would like to thank our actors and crew for an outstanding job, and a special thanks to Ed Ackerman for providing the location and Brandon Ackerman for stepping in at the last moment when one of our original "zombie minions" had to bow out.

"UNDEADline" will be released on our YouTube Channel (see LINKS) and here on the blog in the next couple of weeks. We're pretty pleased with the film so far and look forward to see what you our viewers, have to say! - Nik Poliwko

And here's more production pix...







* For more on "UNDEADline" see "Zombie Summers" (June), "The Gods of Filmmaking" (July) and "UNDEADline - 1. Starting Off" (July) on this blog.

Making "UNDEADline" - 1. Starting Off

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A few weeks ago we were hoping to shoot our newest short film: "UNDEADline". However, as things often go in this industry - especially in the low/no-budget arena - there were scheduling problems with the actors that prevented us from moving forward with the project.

The good news is that everyone is now on board and we've confirmed a shooting schedule! The Gods of Filmmaking are smiling on us again!

We thought it would be of interest to take you through the unique NeuralNet approach to guerrilla filmmaking and outline the process we go through to actually produce a film.

The film in this case is "UNDEADline"; a roughly 4 minute short involving a TV show and zombies (without giving too much away here)!

Since we're storytellers, we start with the script. Some people just charge in with an idea and start filming, like David Lynch (one of our favorite directors). Lynch has also said that he'll "...never do another film without a script." (yeah, right!)

If you're not familiar with scriptwriting, we can recommend a couple of books that we found to be highly informative and easy to digest: "The Foundations of Screenwriting" by Syd Field (a little old school, but a very productive process) and "Crafty Screenwriting" by Alex Epstein. And for proper script formatting and all that, we find it most efficient to do it manually in Microsoft Word as opposed to a 'scriptwriting program'. As for actually writing the screenplay... well, that's up to you now, isn't it!

Now that we have a script, we start to think in terms of crew and locations. Being a no-budget shoot this time around, our crew is minimal... basically the Director (doing double duty as cameraman), make-up and the actors. Since we're planning to do blood FX in post, we're not too worried about props at this point (although we may colour a head of cauliflower red to stand-in for a brain).

Our location needs for "UNDEADline" were simple: One vacant house, for both exteriors and interiors. And we were fortunate to have a friend with just such a house for our use.


It's taken us about 6 weeks to write the script, cast and set a confirmed shooting date. And 3 of those weeks were used to find a time when we could get the whole cast together at once (no-budget, remember)!

And now we're off to the scheduled PRODUCTION MEETING and SHOOT, which will be the subject of part 2 of this article. - Nik Poliwko

** For more on "UNDEADline" see "Zombie Summers" (June) and "The Gods of Filmmaking" (July) on this blog.