The work behind "Shelter"; a zombie short film in progress!

Fall of 2013, my brother @customnature and I began talking about a short film project. Both of us raised on horror, we began discussing doing a zombie project. We’re undead loyalists, in a sense, rejecting the premise of super fast, agile undead that can do backflips and shit, climbing up one another to scale walls and buildings. We wanted to make our own interpretation showcasing the purest form of reanimated corpses, as the mindless, wandering, slow-moving horde they were intended to be.

A few conversations after, we had a direction for a plot. Focusing on the situation a protagonist finds themselves in as a result of the horde. @customnature had send me a great video filmed backwards. Not “Tarrentino-style” backwards, where the story was told out of order in reverse. Literally, playing out in reverse motion. The story unfolded in an interesting way, with a major reveal at the end [beginning]. We thought it’d be a great way to tell this story.

We decided on “Shelter” for the name of the short film. As we developed the plot, it was based around a couple that tried to make a run for it from an old garage […assumably out of supplies]. During the attempted get away, our protagonist’s girlfriend rolls her ankle and falls. He’s stuck with a decision to go back for her, or save himself. During his hesitation, her ankle is bitten by a zombie and he realizes he’s surrounded. He desperately turns and scales the side of an old tool shed. The circumference of the structure is inundated by zombies and he’s left there….in the sun, and rain, for days.

The script was only a few pages, as there isn’t any dialogue. Just moving scene to scene as the story unfolds to that tragic decision, revealed at the end.

The day prior to filming was finishing the shed build. It was an essential part to the story, but you wouldn’t believe just HOW much work goes in to something as mundane as a rickety old shed. @customnature built the entire thing in Google Sketchup, and managed to get a truckload of old barn material. As we raised the the walls, it was a promising feeling for what we’d shoot the following day.

We opened a casting to anyone who wanted to come and be a zombie […amazingly, over a dozen people made the 90 minute drive to central Pennsylvania and for an early call time]. We had an entire staff of SP/FX make-up artists on hand. We all read through our shoot list after hours and hours of make-up. We managed to get some amazing production photos, as well as portfolio shots for the actors and make-up artists.

Filming was as close to sun rise to sun set as it gets, on a cold fall day. I remember how early we started, and being frustrated as the sun went down. Our protagonist, Sam O’Connell […a really talented photographer, director and artists himself] did a tireless job of dodging and weaving trough corpses, and ended up climbing that shed dozens of times.

I flew back to Minneapolis and we started cutting up footage, I stayed in touch with @customnature. Our plan was to get enough together for a one minute trailer, then launch a Kickstarter campaign or the film. The following spring, shoot the actual film.

Once we started discussing the direction of the actual film, he and I ran in to some serious impasses about how the film was going to be shot, and the overall look. Our differences were vast, and it went from something we originally dreamed up to have fun with, to a source of bickering and arguments. I was in the midst of a photography career on an upward trajectory […that required a lot of travel], and I eventually decided to walk away from the project and give it over to him. There really wasn’t a “right and wrong”, but just contrasting ideas of what the film should be. 

@customnature is still going through with the film, last I talked with him about it. I’d still love to see this story come to life in an independent film, as I think it’s a unique take on the zombie genre, and the often overlooked elements of exposure and fragile psyche of the people trying to survive in a post apocalyptic world. I’m really happy with the work that I did on this project, although I wasn’t able to see it through to completion. @customnature is a full capable artist […nearly all foam latex appliances and FX are by him], and along with Sam, it’ll be great to see this thing done and eventually circulated. As for the rest of the story and his point of view, I’ll leave that up to @customnature. A lot has changed. Maybe "Shelter" will one day become the first Steemit funded independent film.