The Dead’s Other Diary
Dread Central Staff
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Fresh off of our exclusive chat with George A. Romero about his upcoming film, Diary of the Dead, it’s come to our attention that there is yet another personal book of the dead that’s complete and ready to be read, or seen, or whatever it is that we nosy folks do with a diary.
Indie filmmakers Michael Bartlett and Kevin Gates are set to unleash The Zombie Diaries in the UK this October 28th, just in time for Halloween.
Co-director Bartlett fills us in on what we can expect from Diaries:
“Instead of making it a ‘documentary,’ we felt the Blair Witch format worked better — i.e., people trying to hurriedly document what they could for posterity. We saw a lot of areas that could be improved with this format, too.
For example, our film has music (which seems initially counter-intuitive but works a treat) and does not have annoying sequences with characters constantly arguing with each other. We also broke the story up and shot in Pulp Fiction style. It jumps across time lines and stories and does a pretty neat job of keeping the viewer’s attention, which we felt one single story wouldn’t achieve.
I made sure we did lots of [rehearsing] for this film and combined [that] with complete back-stories for the characters, as well as improv based around a script.
We also then cut the film to pieces in the editing suite. Kevin is a fantastic editor, and we put our egos aside and made sure we were blunt with one another from the scripting right through to the editing. Any dodgy exposition had to be axed. This had to be so real that you felt you were in this genuine ‘zombie world.’ Obviously we had to strike a balance, as at the end of the day this film is entertainment. I think we did that well, but time will tell if we did a good job. We had Mike Peel (The Descent) working on our special effects with two other great artists, and [everything] certainly comes across as very believable, even under the unforgiving eyes of a DV camera.”
I have to agree. If the below stills are any indication of what we have to look forward to, then I am one happy camper! Make sure you click on each for a larger image.
Keep it right here for more on The Zombie Diaries and George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead as we get it!
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