It occurs to me that I have talked about the origins of BGR in minor detail, but I've never actually gone into too much depth about where the idea came from. I figure now that we have gotten as far as we have, I can go into more detail. So, here for the first time in complete detail is the genesis of Blaming George Romero. Some of this has been said before, whereas most of it should be new. Be forewarned, what follows is a very lengthy account.
The Beginning: I Heart Zombies
Best place to start is the beginning. There are plenty of movie monsters out there, but to me the scariest is the zombie. More so than vampires or werewolves or whatever else, zombies seem the most real... The scariest. There is something about their unstoppable-ness. I don't know, but of all the movie monsters, zombies are the only ones that I have ever had nightmares about.
For awhile now, I have devoured as many zombie movies as I could. Many are bad, but a good number are good, and some are even great. Hell, Shaun of the Dead is one of my favorite movies. It combines some great comedy with a genuinely interesting zombie movie.
Then I saw a "zombie" movie where the characters just didn't get it. Someone gets bit, they die, they come back and try biting you... They are a zombie! But the characters in this movie didn't get it, and they all died because of that. They didn't recognize a zombie outbreak when it happened, which seemed ridiculous to me, which seems ridiculous but as far as I'm concerned even if you don't watch zombie movies you should know what zombies are like. They've been a sub genre of horror since George Romero's Night of the Living Dead!
I think I saw the movie with my brother, and I told him that if it ever looked like a zombie apocalypse, I would be better prepared than the characters in the movie. I told a friend of mine that too... A friend of mine who I'd discussed "what to do in the midst of zombie apocalypse" before... And he laughed and agreed. And then he said, "But can you imagine if we were wrong, and hurt someone who just had some kind of rabies or something?"
So, I decided that I wanted to create a zombie movie where people knew what was going on... People who had a chance. And I did. In the summer of 2009, I wrote "Langsomer Tod," a zombie movie set in WW II. It covered two things that I wanted: 1) it was set prior to NOTLD, so it was believable that the characters wouldn't know what was going on, and 2) soldiers had a better chance of surviving than regular people. I like the script a lot, and want to get it made one day (anyone out there have a few hundred thousand dollars?).
When I was finished, I was very happy, but I wanted to write something else...
Something Else: The First Seeds of Blaming George Romero
I wanted to write something that I could film easily. But what? I had written a few things that could potentially be filmed before, but nothing that I really and truly believed in. "But can you imagine if we were wrong, and hurt someone who just had some kind of rabies or something?" and there it was...What if you had a group of people who knew how to react if there was a zombie outbreak... But what if they didn't know whether they were right or wrong? What happens next? Even if there is a zombie apocalypse, what does that doubt do to you?
The title came fairly easy. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I was asked who George Romero is, but if you know zombie movies, you know Romero. He basically created the genre of zombie films with "Night of the Living Dead." The "Blaming" part is a part of the overall plot, but it sounded good to me. I had a few suggestions that I should change the title to "Blame George Romero," but I liked the sound of Blaming... It had a nice ring to it.
I knew that I would be casting mainly actors I knew, because it would be easier to work with people I knew, and simpler than putting out a casting notice. I also believe in bringing people along with me. If I'm going to do something that even has a chance of success, I want to share that with friends, so I knew I would cast actors I knew, but I took this a step further. When I wrote "Langsomer Tod," I wrote a part for my brother and me. I found that actually writing with a specific actor in mind really helps when it comes to creating distinct character voices. I liked that so much, that I cast the majority of the movie before I even started writing.
The Initial Cast
I had been acting with Bobby Lise for nearly 11 years, and we had always talked about making a movie so he was a given. Not to get too attached to Shaun of the Dead, because BGR's similarities to that movie are few if any, but if my character was going to be a Simon Pegg-y character, then Bobby's would absolutely be the Nick Frost type.
I had also worked with his girlfriend, Loarina, several times and I knew that she would do an awesome job. She’s a strong actress and woman, and best of all she is amazingly reliable. I knew that if the other three leads were going to be guys, Lorain would be able to hold her own and present a strong female presence... And I was right.
Rounding out the main 4 parts, I decided to throw in something of a wild card by writing a role for Dan Gregory. I'd known Dan since High School, but he only started acting relatively recently. I worked on a film with him in the spring of 2009, and paid careful attention to what he was doing. I was most impressed in the moments when we weren't filming, and just started improv-ing back and forth. That project sadly never saw the light of day, but what I gleaned from my days on set through improv-ing with Dan was what kind of character I thought Dan would do the best... A character that honestly couldn't be further from the role he had just played.
The other roles that were written with specific actors in mind were Isaac (I'll always write a role for my brother, but when I'm also in the movie, I have a hard time casting him as anyone other than my brother... Hopefully, I over that someday), Ramy (this one was just a complete whim really... Not sure if I had the idea for the character before the actor or vice a versa. ), and AJ (I honestly didn't ask AJ if he would do the movie until spring of 2010, well after the first draft was written... I didn't think he would do it, but I wrote the part with him in mind).
Getting Started...
I decided at this point, before the script was ever written that I would have this filmed by September 2010. I didn't have a full cast... I had no crew... But I would get this shot! I remember one person in particular (Bobby Lise) who didn't believe it could happen.
I set myself to work, and within a few days, I was about 40 pages into a presumably 90-page screenplay when I stopped. Just stopped. Life got in the way, and I just let the screenplay languish. The fire I had to make this movie had seemingly faded.
Getting Re-Started
Then in the spring of 2010, a few things happened in pretty rapid succession. I got rejected from the grad schools that I applied to, and felt the desire to really do something.... To accomplish something significant. A friend of mine, John Trigonis, started funding his short film on a website called indiegogo.com. And I got an iPad. Indiegogo was something completely new to me... Money was always an issue, but through the use of this website I could potentially raise enough money to get this movie shot. The iPad may not seem to be a huge deal, but prior to it, I could only really type only desktop computer, which was in my room. With the iPad, I could type wherever I wanted to... And I did... Quickly. I finished a first draft within 24 hrs of starting to write again.
Whenever I finish a draft of something, I will always give it to a few people and get their opinion, critique, feedback, etc. This movie was no different. I sent the 1st draft to a few people, including the actors that I had already cast. I took that feedback, and went back to work... Wash, rinse, repeat, until I reached a final shooting script. I think the shooting script was draft 4 (which followed 1,2,3, and 3.5... Yes, I had a draft 3.5.) Between draft 1 and 4, entire subplots and character arcs were added... Jokes were included... More zombies were added. A fuller movie came into being.
The Production Team
While I wrote draft after draft, pieces started moving behind the scenes. I started to meet with, what I guess you would call my production team, which at the beginning consisted of Brad Resnick, Bobby, and Loarina.
I went to Brad, because I remembered that he had once told me that he wanted to get into the Producer game. We discussed what we would need to get this particular movie on its feet. We also discussed the ideas for the indiegogo site, including perks. Soon after, on a very nice afternoon, I sat down for lunch with Bobby and Loarina. We discussed areas of the film and the indiegogo pitch video that we planned to film later in the day, while we waited for the person we hoped would be our director. As it turned out, we learned that day that the director we had in mind wouldn't be able to be a part of every day of shooting... Very disappointing, but we started brainstorming other directors that we knew. I think, half jokingly, Bobby said at this point, "I could direct." not joking at all, I said, "No," but the idea floated in my head a bit.
We scouted the neighborhood as we waited for Dan to get out of work. Eventually, we settled on Bobby's house where we set up a few lamps, and a friend of mine's HD flip on a newly bought tripod. Dan came and we ran a few rehearsals of the pitch video script. Of the four of us, Bobby was the only one of us with directing experience... Theatrical directing... But still: directing. So, Bobby directed the short pitch, and I got the chance to see what Bobby as director would be like. We shot a fun video, I brought it home, edited it, and started coordinating with Brad the release of our various internet presences including: Facebook, Twitter, website, and indiegogo.
Around that time, I began to seriously talk to Bob about directing. At a certain point, half joking became serious, and he really seemed to want to do it. We hadn't found anyone else, but I still had my concerns and I voiced them. I trusted Bob with the directing of actors, but there were many technical aspects to being a director that he did not have the experience with. After some discussion, we agreed: he would direct the movie with the proviso that we get a damn good Director of Photography and strong Assistant Directors.
This was the point where we started trying to woo Raul Garcia. This was not easy. There was a lot of back and forth... He seemed interested, but did not commit. Finally, while shooting another project, I got an email from Bobby... It started: "Raul can't do it, so I decided that I won't act but just devote myself to directing..." Well, that wouldn't do. I was okay with Bob doing both as long as we had a good DP, but I had written the man a part, damn it! And then he continued, "..Just kidding! Raul's on board." Good news.
The rest of the team slowly came together. Doug Youmans, who had been the lighting guy on the project I worked on with Dan, had contacted me. Dan told him about the project, and he wanted in. He loved zombies and wanted to help out.
Sean, our PA turned invaluable assistant editor, contacted me through Facebook. He saw that we were making a movie, in one of my many indiegogo postings to a mutual friends' page. He had done a bunch of film work, and wanted to work on this in whatever capacity he could. I didn't know what would come of it, but as it turns out, it worked out for the best.
Little known BGR fact: we almost didn't have a sound guy. I was in touch with one guy who was interested in the project, but was offered paid work during our run and couldn't do it. Out of curiosity, I checked with another sound guy re: how much he would cost... If we hired him, the whole budget would've been going to sound. We had a line on another guy, but that didn't seem definite... Luckily, this last guy put us in touch with Joey Mosca while we were at our final pre production meeting.
Our AD's were Billy Dautrick and Miriam Cortez. Billy was actually the first choice at director mentioned earlier. For several years, we had talked about making a movie and whenever it was discussed, Bill was our go to director. Unfortunately for us, Bill had a job that occupied virtually every weekend, which made it impossible to direct, but he could be (and was) there whenever he could as 1st AD. Miriam was one of the greatest technical people I had worked with in theatre... A fantastic SM and ASM... So, luckily we were able to get her to come on whenever she could to be our 2nd AD.
And there it was... We had our team, our script, and our schedule. We were set to go, and go we went. Now, here we are with what I call a first draft of the movie finished. Like the script, it has some work that needs to be done, but it is amazing that what started as a small idea has come together as much as it has.
Where We Are Now
Since we started editing, I have watched as we went, and I watched the movie once straight through prior to color correction and end credits.
Recently, I watched it a second time straight through from beginning to end with color correction and end credits. Before watching, I was very nervous. Never mind the film festivals and outside critiques... Would I like the movie? Seems crazy, I know. I wrote it, I was on set every day, I saw the dailies, I worked on the edit, and I've seen it once straight through. Why be nervous now? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was watching on my TV instead of my computer... maybe it was the color changes, extra dialogue, SFX, and widescreen bars that make it look more like a movie. Maybe it's just the closer it comes to completion the more nervous I'll be. I really can't say.
But I watched. I noticed a few SFX that we still need to get, a bit of voiceover dialogue that I actually need to write from scratch, some audio issues that definitely need correcting, and of course we need music... I saw some bits of fat on the movie that I can potentially trim to enhance the flow if necessary. But overall... I like it. It's the movie I wanted to make. And at the end of the day, that is what matters.
Stay tuned!
Sam
Actor, Writer, Producer
"Blaming George Romero"
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