Micro Film III

Micro Film 3: Zombie Apocalypse

For our next MicroFilm project, we are going to do a Zombie Horror film to be ready in time for Halloween.

To help us along, Peter Schindler will run two workshop days over the last weekend in September/October to teach how to do prosthetic makeup.

If you're not familiar with our MicroFilm projects, these are short films we create in a limited time period to help build up skills and confidence in Film Making. They are a good opportunity to try something you may not have done before such as camera work, acting or just being part of a crew. We consider these projects to be a learning experience so nobody is upset if it doesn't turn out as we expected - we learn from it and have a lot of fun in the process.

The timetable of events for MicroFilm3 is:

Saturday 30 September 10:00 - prosthetic session #1 at Lab3 in Darmstadt. Current plan is to focus on casting body parts.

Sunday 1 October 10:00 - prosthetic session #2 at Lab3 in Darmstadt. Current plan is to work on making the prosthetics.

Tuesday 3rd October evening - (time and location TBA) - start of MicroFilm3. We may split into Teams depending on numbers. Introduction to the project and start of pre-production (story, script, shooting plan). This pre-production phase is just under a week and previous projects have used online meetups in the evenings and collaborative editing of documents on our Google Drive. You don't need to be able to take part every evening, but this phase tends to move quickly.

Weekend beginning Friday 13th October - Shooting weekend. We have one club camera, sound equipment and various accessories such as tripods, a gimbal and the all important clapper board. This is a good opportunity to try something new, especially for any of the roles which might seem intimidating such as camera operation or directing. We all pull together as a team and help each other out. This is by far the most exhausting and fun part of the project!

After this weekend - post production. We allow two weeks for post-production (mostly colour correction, sound and editing) so as not to overload anyone, and schedule regular meetups in the evenings. Nobody is expected to attend every evening, just to help out whenever they can. We use Davinci Resolve, which is free to download, and we have several members who are happy to give introductions to the various aspects of post-production and help anyone who wants to try it for the first time. We do have one club laptop for members to use, but mostly participants use their own computers. This phase is very satisfying when you watch the collection of files and notes transform into an actual film.

Monday 30th October evening (time and location TBA) - finish of the post-production period and group viewing of film

Tuesday 31st October (Halloween!) - Film goes public on YouTube.

In order to use the workshop sessions efficiently, we propose this plot outline:

"A group of people find themselves trapped in an isolated location (building, aeroplane, laboratory, etc) and for some good reason are attacked by one or two Zombies. They fight them off and at least one of the group survives and escapes - only to discover that the outside world has become infested with Zombies."

The purpose of this is so that we have one or two "quality" Zombies and then end with a larger number of extras just for one scene. We may also have some gruesome death scenes in the middle if you feel like it. Plenty of opportunity for people to be both cast and crew! If you have any props, costumes, locations or story ideas, all will be welcome.

If you are interested, we ask you to sign up separately for the two workshop days and the MicroFilm event following these links:

Prosthetics sessions: https://forms.gle/a3SKZJ6a5JKUcRcN9

Filming session: https://forms.gle/9Wp8htRzqxAtpdmU7

You don't need to be a member to take part, but if you do join us, it helps support future projects.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have!

ESOC Film