It’s everyone’s favorite winter-term tradition (well, okay, second to late-night trivia). DVD Fest exhibited this year’s 29 student-produced films last weekend. The films were screened on a projector to a very full (and rather rowdy) chapel audience. At 5 minutes per film, the event lasted two and a half hours this year. Some of the movies went the artsy route (“Paperwork”), while others were silly (“Passed Out Sam”), and some, just intentionally odd — “:) :) :) :)” .
Plenty goes into making DVD fest every year that most students don’t see. The Carleton student film teams have only four weeks to concoct ideas for their films, write the scripts, shoot, and edit the final pieces. And this is fitting the filming around a typical hectic Carleton schedule with just a shoestring budget. As an example of how student filmers do their work, here is an in-depth look into the making of “Heroic,” the zombie movie.
The first step of the DVD fest process is registration, which takes place in late January to early February. Anyone who is interested in participating must get together at least four friends and register their team online. Zack Starer-Stor ’10 and Ben Starr ’10 had worked together last year on a film called “Triumph,” about a guy talking to a vending machine. This year, they assembled a group of friends to do a bigger, better film.
They wanted to do a zombie movie. Why? “I absolutely love zombie movies,” said Starer-Stor. After an orientation meeting in Boliou, the DVD fest teams were free to start. The teammates started by co-writing the script. The plot was deceptively simple: a bunch of friends get trapped inside a building, and one by one they’re picked off by zombies. But here they encountered their first problem. There were only five people on their team. Hardly enough for a very impressive zombie horde, and besides, somebody needed to play the humans.
Solution? An NNB ad! “EVER WANT to be a zombie? Now's your chance. We need zombies for DVD Fest. Contact starersz or starrb,” the ad read. And it worked. Four people signed up to be zombies for their first “big filming” night on February 9, where they would do the wide shots that contained the massive zombie hordes.
Teammates and prospective zombies met in Boliou to start shooting. While Starr set up the camera, Starer-Stor gave the volunteers a lecture on How to Move Like a Zombie 101: The blank stare is essential. Don’t hold your arms out, because everybody does that. Keep your feet on the floor as you shuffle – slowly. “I hate fast-moving zombies,” Zack said. The zombies practiced shuffling and moaning while the directors and actors planned their shots.
Chocolate syrup made for great blood (just like they used in Psycho). The final film would be black and white, and once the color was removed, chocolate syrup would have just the right darkness and consistency to be blood. The zombie smeared it on their faces and hands. Later, the main characters poured it all over their clothes when they died. It’s the most delicious movie makeup in the business.
The same night the team shot scenes in Boliou and under the concert hall. These mainly consisted of zombies leaping out of corners and biting people. Later on, with a fresh batch of zombie recruits, they did the “room full of zombies” shots and the shots with no zombies at all in them.
The team finally finished filming February 17th. According to the rules of DVD fest, the finished films have to be turned in by the 18th. This meant Ben had a marathon editing session to do over the next 24 hours. They also had to keep the film under five minutes, which was quite the challenge. The team produced a “director’s cut” version of the film, as well as a more squished version that they would send to DVD fest.
“We kind of handed it in an hour after the deadline,” said Starer-Stor.
But not to fear. Starr Starer-Stor Productions was still in the running for the fest. Once the editing was all done and the film was turned in, the two directors invited everyone involved in making the movie over to watch the finished version of the film. Zombies and victims alike enjoyed cookies and the blooper reel: car doors that got stuck, weapons that refused to snap on impact, and zombies that fell down the wrong direction.
Last Saturday, all the movies were screened, and “Heroic” was shown about in the middle of the event. The zombies were a hit with the audience.
Want to check out the extended, director’s cut of “Heroic?” It’s available on YouTube.
