White Zombie

Synopsis
White Zombie is a DIV III by Vincent Nero from The Class of 2009.

Committee: Bill Brand &amp; Eva Rueschmann

Contributing Falculty: Chris Perry, Simin Farkhonde, Michael Elyanow, Susan Shilliday, &amp; Christoph Cox

White Zombie is the Gothic tale of Jordan, a young lady on the path to adulthood, who runs away with her equally as young fiance in order to get married, but when the road gets bumpy and they are stranded in a desolate village they rely on a rich man whose broken heart is mended at the sight of Jordan. Foolishly in love, he will do anything to keep Jordan for his own even turn her into a zombie. It may be a zombie movie, but it's a love story at heart.

''Rated: R     Running time: appx. 40 minutes     ''Official Website

Crew
Vincent Nero - Producer, Writer, Director, Editor

Jill Erwich - Co-Producer, Director of Photography, Light Designer

William Colon - Co-Producer, Special and Visual Effects Supervisor

David Nyman - Music Composer

Benjamin Goldsmith - Production Assistant, Foley Artist, Assistant Editor

Gloria Coon - Hair &amp; Make Up

Victoria Knobloch - Special FX Make Up

Rachel Stiles - Assistant Camera Operator, Production Assistant

Janae Tabony - Gaffer, Production Assistant

Hannah Shaffer - Boom Operator

Danika Owsley - 1st Assistant Director

Cast
Estelle Stephenson as Jordan Dire

Ian Schwartz as Kyle Matheson

William Colon as Robert Beaumont

Michael Hitchcock as Thanos

Nick Chandler as Jordan’s Father

and Keith Ward as Father Henry

and introducing Lukas Cox as Chained-Up Zombie

Trivia

 * Director's Cameo: As a zombie walking around in the background of video surveillance footage.
 * Director's Cameo: As hands of Undertaker
 * Shot on the Canon XL2 with Sony 60 minute MiniDVs at 16:9 in 24p
 * Edited with Adobe Premiere and Adobe Affter Effects
 * Post production made use of HELGA, a Hampshire made production management open-source software
 * All exterior night scenes where shot during the day. Effects such as sky replacement where used to make it look like night.
 * Two 16'x16' sets were contructed for filming. One: Jordan's bedroom. Two: Thanos's Office. A third set went unused due to production delays
 * The lighting used on the sets are the same lights used in the Hampshire Theatre Production The Wilson and Alva Show also starring Nick Chandler
 * Most set dressings were purchased at summer garage sales
 * The Producers raised $15,000 dollars for the production
 * Was filmed in the month of October
 * Jordan's dresses were donated by Alex Evenings Dresses
 * Features the children of professor Christoph Cox as zombies
 * Vincent Nero's mother Ronna and aunt Barbara are featured as Zombies
 * The black Mazda Protege driven by the character Kyle is the director's personal car
 * The Restuarant and Bar scenes were shot at Packards in Northampton
 * The human intestine were made of fake blood, jello, and sauage casing
 * The guns used in White Zombie are the same guns used in all of Big Penguin Productions films
 * All driving scenes were greenscreened
 * The film is dedicated to Joanne Roberts, Jill Erwich's aunt who past away suddenly during production
 * A running gag in the film is that the character Robert Beaumont wants to be addressed as Robert, but the other characters stubbornly call him Mr. Beaumont, when in fact all the actors struggled to correctly pronounce "Beaumont" and perferred to call the character Robert.
 * The movie ends at sunrise, when in fact the scene was shot during sunset.
 * Micheal Hitchcock, who played the witch doctor Thanos, actually has light blue eyes
 * The cast and crew were attacked by mosquitos during the exterior car scenes. Noticable welts can been seen on Robert's face.
 * Driving scenes were shot on Moody Bridge Road
 * The wax figures were carved by Estelle Drent
 * Thanos's top hat is the top hat that the director wore to senior prom in 2005 and saved believing it would make a good prop one day
 * During the church scenes, Vincent was absent from his directorial duties due to a flat tire. The crew picked up the storyboards and proceeded until his arrival.

Director's Notes

 * Jordan's yellow bedroom was inspired by the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
 * The color scheme to the film is Blue, Red, and Green, where Blue is righteous, Red is love and passion, and Green is Evil and Greed
 * Jordan throwing flowers into the lake is an homage to Frankenstein (1931)
 * The scene between Thanos and Robert in Thanos's office is nearly line for line the original dialog from the 1931 film
 * The climax of the film was the first time that I directed a multi-action scene: It features 5 main players, 5 extras, and 4 locations
 * Originally wanted to use a cranberry red Jaguar for Robert's car to better fit the visual thematics and considered painting the black mazda blue
 * In shots featuring Jordan, you'll find the image to have many natural horizontal lines while she sticks up vertically creating a visual tension. This is the case for most of the film until she "dies" and lays flat visually submitting to the world around.
 * The rule of show don't tell was a challenge and has been tested in this production with Thanos's cane. The cane is never talked about, but visually we tried to communicate that the cane is the sourse of Thanos's powers.