“On The Set” w/ Houston Filmmaker Wayne Slaten and his film “Last Stand” – PART I

Did you know that every 30 seconds another short film contest, for a film or product, is presented to the American public as a way to garner attention and gather free video content? Well, okay. I just made that up but it sure feels true.

For every new filmmaking contest, there are untold numbers of short film submissions lost in the filmmaking frenzy. Talented people took the time out of their busy lives to come together and create something unique only to have it seen by few and recognized be even fewer.

Part of my personal passion, which drives ShortFilmTexas.Com, is to shed light on as many short films as possible, specifically Texas short films.

In this edition of “On The Set” I’d like to introduce you to Houston filmmaker Wayne Slaten and his zombie short film “Last Stand.” I could tell you more about him and the film itself or I could let the filmmaker speak for himself.

PREPARATION FOR LAST STAND

I. DEVELOP A SCRIPT:

In early January 2008, I found out about George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead Video Contest on MySpace. I am a big Romero fan. I immediately began to develop a script for the project. At this point the rules were not posted. The movie Diary of the Dead would not be released until mid February.

The only thing I knew was that the film had to be an original story in the style of or parody the Diary of the Dead. That was hard to do without seeing the film so I read a lot of online articles about the film. I decided to use the concept of the Diary of the Dead film and add a twist or two. I wanted to write a movie script that would have a basic story arc, involve the audience and then pull the rug out from under them and make it feel like they were watching real raw footage on the set of the movie.

I decided to make the characters in LAST STAND an homage to classic zombie genre film characters. I would only use first names (no last names) like the main characters in Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead. The main character Bruce (Matthew Carter) was modeled after Ashley ‘Ash’ J. Williams in the 1981 film The Evil Dead and played by Bruce Campbell. The character of Steve (Norris Thompson) was modeled after Ben from the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead and played by Duane Jones. Ashley or ‘Ash’ (Laura Schlecht) got her name from the Bruce Campbell character in The Evil Dead and was the embodiment of the helpless female victim. Finally the character Donna (Donna Calleja) was the reluctant hero, the tough self-reliant character type we often see in this genre of film.

The storyline was simple. Place a group of characters from various backgrounds and different personality types in an abandoned house. There they will have to fight off the horde of zombies outside. Once again, in line with The Night of the Living Dead and the Diary of the Dead films. Throw in some good relevant dialogue knocks on the system (classic Romero) between characters and throw in a twist at the end.

I used a famous (or maybe infamous) quote from President George W. Bush in the script. Donna tells Bruce “Hey, last time I checked, this wasn’t a dictatorship”. Bruce replies, “If this were a dictatorship, it would be a hell of a lot easier”. In response Donna says “What, so long as you are the dictator? … Bastard.” The Bush line from December 2000 was “If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator”.

The ten-page script came together in about six days. Even though I did not know the time limit for the contest, I knew I could go from three to eight minutes with the material. On January 31st, the rules were announced and the time limit (with credits) was three minutes. That was tougher to edit down than I thought it would be. We decided to shoot the film the following weekend. We had one week to prepare.

II. GET A CAST AND CREW TOGETHER:

I had been talking with my wife Marisol Treviño (producer), Jim Denton (producer), Matthew Carter, Kristi Boul (special effects make-up artist) and Donna Calleja about the project for a few weeks. Due to the limited time and script requirements, I wanted experienced actors for this project like Matthew and Donna. I met Marissa Viso through MySpace and she came on as the assistant director. She knew Norris Thompson and introduced us. Marisol, Jim and I knew Laura Schlecht because she was the producer of the Houston 48 Hour Film Project we submitted a film in a year earlier. A few emails, a few phone calls later and we had our primary cast and crew in place. The crew was the same group I worked with on my short film ZombiNatioN last summer. I was comfortable with the primary cast and crew since most of us had worked together before.

Now we needed zombie extras. Once again, MySpace and past connections saved the day. Laura, Marissa, Marisol, Amy Dudley Smith (unit production manager) and I began contacting people and sending out casting bulletins on MySpace for extras. We only needed twenty or so extras and received about forty responses. The cast and crew were in place within a week.

III. PREPRODUCTION:

Jim, Matthew, Marissa and I met for a production meeting the Monday before the shoot. We reviewed the script and discussed locations. We decided to use the same house for exterior shots that we used for ZombiNatioN. It is a dilapidated old house in the Montrose area on Taft Street. It was abandoned but still had an owner whom we could not reach. I met with a few of the neighbors and told them we would be shooting there on Saturday morning for about two hours. They were fine with that. This was the best we could do on short notice. Amy Dudley Smith let us use her house for the interior shots. So the locations were set.

I storyboarded the opening scene, the zombie and the black-eyed peas scene, and the sexy zombie at the window scene. Normally I would do more but time was limited and I wanted to make sure those scenes could be visualized by our cast and crew on set. Next the basic shot list was completed by Wednesday along with the required equipment list for the shoot.

Kristi Boul had been sick with the flu so our contact was limited to cell phone calls and emails. We only needed to order eye blood for the zombies. She had all the other effects make-up. Donna Calleja brought her “zombie eye” contact we used in ZombiNatioN for her character. We kept the makeup simple because we knew we were limited on time. Face and hand make up (no time consuming prosthetics), bleeding eyes and dark, bloody mouths for the zombies. The only zombie that required intense make-up and prosthetics was Marissa Viso for the can-to-the-eye scene. The eye blood arrived Friday morning.

My film company, Fire Pig Productions, owns the equipment we use (basic lighting, sound equipment, monitors and a Panasonic AG-DVX100B video camera). We did not need to worry about renting equipment or the expense. So the equipment was packed Thursday night and I reviewed my equipment list to make sure we had everything we needed. Jim arranged to buy sandwich meats, bread, fruit, various soft drinks and water for the cast and crew.

I met George Martindell of Science Friction Composers (of Marlton, NJ) a month earlier through MySpace and emailed him in late January to ask if they had any music we could use royalty free for our project. George and his business partner, Frank Sonsini, were excited about the project and mailed me one of their discs with music they felt would be appropriate for the film. I mailed them a release form and they sent it back right away. They were very helpful and kept in touch with me throughout the project.

Our total expenses for this film were $350.00. So it all comes down to proper planning and time management. We met to discuss and secure locations first. We avoided locations that would require timely and costly city permits. Reviewed the script and developed a storyboard and basic shot list. Checked the locations, weather for the day of the shoot and reviewed the script again to set up a required equipment list. The special effects make-up artist and I reviewed the script and the required effects make up and order any necessary supplies. Checked that the equipment needed to film was available and in working condition. Finally, I made sure that I had everyone’s contact information and we sent daily updates to all the cast and crew the week prior to shooting. All this happened in a very fast and hectic paced week. We always follow these steps but it is a little more intense when you are on a tight schedule and shooting the whole project in one day.

CLICK HERE to WATCH the SHORT FILM “Last Stand” and READ the Director’s Filmmaking Diary.