First, it's cheaper to make a vampire movie if budget is your concern. Vampire makeup is cheap and you need fewer extras. Having said that if you really want to make a zombie movie I applaud you because I don't really like vampire movies...

Getting people there is usually a problem. No doubt about that. People agree and promise and then don't show up and I'm hoping someone here has some decent ideas in that respect. I'm gonna concentrate on the angles.

Bring the zombies in close to the camera. Fill the frame. That means you probably don't want many exterior shots as the open spaces are impossible to fill with zombies. If the zombies are closer, and filling up a window, or the space between barriers they are scarier, and the numbers seem greater. The makeup is also easier to see so be careful. Use the lighting to hide bad makeup.

Not every zombie needs to be in makeup. Some can simply fill in the numbers behind the front row of zombies. Others in the back could wear zombie masks (a trick they used in Day of the Dead) allowing for an actor to be used a few times. You can use your focus to blur out the rear rows of zombies making it easier to hide things.

Bring extra shirts and clothes so you can put the same zombies into different clothes and change their hair/makeup a little and use them again, and again. Massive amounts of blood are good for this as well. If done right you can reuse the same small group of zombies a few times and make it appear as if every window is blocked.

Lastly use sound. Audio of a lot of zombies, and tearing of wood, and such can make it seem as if there are more zombies. Shadows and silloutes also work.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

Sound is always a good way to cheaply give the impression of far more people than you can see.

If you only have a limited number of wide shots and plenty of free time for post-production work, one option would be to shoot the same group of zombies moving down the street in different locations, and then rotoscope the footage to multiply the numbers. So you'd first shoot them near the front, then further back, then further back still, and then combine all the shots into one shot. Obviously you'll need to lock off the camera and change the positions and/or costumes of the zombies so they're not obviously the same ones.

I was watching an effects guy's showreel recently and even for a shot in a TV show of about thirty guys eating food in a prison they'd taken four shots with a group of about eight of them sitting in different locations and composited them together. I guess a few hours work by one compositor costs less than thirty extras.

thanks a lot for reply MarkG and rjschwarz i will read this and will reply again but thanks for showing interest.

so more tips????i am waiting.....
so more tips????i am waiting.....
so more tips????i am waiting.....

adeel akhter

Horror movies for me are all about the ambiance and mood set. As the previous poster said, the use of sound is really important. You can show a door being pounded on vigorously or windows breaking and then the sounds coming from outside.

A lot of times in cinema, the things you don't see can be far scarier than any person in makeup or CGI creature could ever be. Create tension by withholding from the audience things from the audience as the payoff will usually be much greater than throwing 50 extras dressed up like zombies right out of the gates.

And when all else fails, use the main convention of todays horror genre and depict extreme acts of gratuitous violence against human beings in full detail.

thanks a lot movie magic man but can you explain a little more what you said.i have the thing you mentioned....and it will be

good and tough to write script like this.anyways please guide me more.i am realy getting some good knowledge here

and thanks to all of you too for guiding me

adeel akhter

Do a search on this forum for Zombie, I think you might find a bunch of stuff in older threads.

To clarify what MusicMagicMan said, at least about not showing things, I'd use two examples. The first is the movie Psycho and the famous shower scene. We NEVER see the knife actually hit the victim. It's known as one of the scariest scenes in movie history and we see the knife go up and down. We see her face. We see blood in the shower water. We never see the knife actually hit her.

Example two is Resevoir Dogs. The famous ear cutting torture scene. Most people think it's gross and gratuitous violence but the truth is the camera drifts to the side and we watch a dirty wall during all the action. We hear the screams but never actually see the nasty stuff. OUr mind fills in the missing bits and our mind creates scarier things than a filmmaker could actually fake.

And that's the key. Fake gore either looks fake, in which case it doesn't help, or it looks real in which case many people wonder how they did it. Either case you pull some viewers out of the story.

On the other hand there is a whole subsection of zombie fans that call themselves gorehounds that love this stuff. I think it's the curiousity of the how'd they do that? After Tom Savini's brilliant work in Day of the Dead.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

I like the one person's idea about using sound. If you have a closed door and the sound of many zombies pounding and groaning outside, it could be very effective. With this effect you can record one or two people making zombie sounds and then copy that sound into the movie many times, but make sure it's a little of each time.

Cinematography-wise, don't over light your zombies. Backlight them and let their fronts go dark-ish. The audience will fill in the blanks.

Scott

Scott Spears
Emmy Winning Cinematography
www.scottspears.net

thanks a lot rjschwarz and
scottspears for telling me few good tips.specially
scottspears for telling me a very important lighting factor.these things will realy help me a lot in writing my script which has not yet started but it will start after i get some good tips which can realy help me out...this tips will help me a lot friends...and let me tell you one thing i am realy getting greedy for the precious knowledge you are sharing with me and i am forced to say

" i want more ....and more..............and MORE"

adeel akhter

hi rjschwarz you said "Do a search on this forum for Zombie, I think you might find a bunch of stuff in older threads."

well i tried to find it out but i got only one post which is only related to zombie films.nothing special which can attract me the way these posts are attracting me. so can you send me some links not only posts from this beautiful site but also from other sites?????can yout tell me of few other sites of zombies if they exist related to the making of zombie films.

adeel akhter

Well here's a good one, probably the one you found:
http://www.filmmaking.net/fnetforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3705&SearchTerms=zombie

Here is a shorter one on zombie makeup:
http://www.filmmaking.net/fnetforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1746&SearchTerms=zombie

On horror, not specifically zombies:
http://www.filmmaking.net/fnetforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6349&SearchTerms=zombie

http://www.filmmaking.net/fnetforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5604&SearchTerms=zombie

http://www.filmmaking.net/fnetforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1799&SearchTerms=zombie

http://www.filmmaking.net/fnetforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1965&SearchTerms=zombie

http://www.filmmaking.net/fnetforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1684&SearchTerms=zombie

As far as outside in the web there are lots of zombie film forums but no forums that I'm aware of specific to making zombie films. The zombie forums tend to discuss zombie movies and what folks like and don't like and there is a lot of value there as it'll tell you what your hardcore audience wants to see, once you know that you try to provide for them.

I'm not gonna list every website, you've got to poke around yourself.

Otherwise you might try asking specific questions here. Your thread starter was pretty generic and wide open and I think you'll get better responses with specific questions.

My question to you is, do you watch and love zombie movies or are you choosing this genre because it seems easy for low budget?

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

hi rjschwarz and thanks for sending so many links.
well i have found few good sites too(related to zombi films but believe me no one is like filmmaking.net because its the best..........am i good in buttering?:d) well actually i just love zombie films and i have 1 great idea but that was a very very big budgeted movie...and was completely impossible to make without any big giant of hollywood so i decided to go with some real fear and small budgeted movie.

i am not using this genre bcz its easy. filmmaking is never easy its all about passion. and i just love zombie movies.....and its realy hard to find zombie movies in pakistan.only big budgeted movies are easily accessable like resident evil ?all parts....?

adeel akhter

It sounds like you have the right attitude. I asked the question primarily because so many people think zombie movies are easy but they are actually not that easy because of hte number of extras and makeup involved. A Vampire or Serial killer movie would be a lot easier in those respects.

On the other hand if you do love zombie movies you will probably make a movie the zombie fans will buy. Even if the budget is showing if you are inventive and entertaining zombie fans can be very forgiving.

I've seen zombie movies made in: Canada, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Japan, China, Ireland, UK, Germany, France, French made in Morroco, Italy and the USA*. Each adds a slightly different flavor due to the locations and cultures which make things interesting. My suggestion would be to figure out what you can add of Pakistan to the flick. If nothing else you can provide locations for cheap that would cost millions for a Hollywood movie to get or duplicate.

I'm a big-time zombie film fan, I'd be happy to answer specific questions.

Footnote for the curious: Zombie Night from Canada, Plaga Zombie from Argentina, Undead from Australia, Dead Alive from New Zealand, SARs Wars from Thailand, Versus & Junk from Japan, Bio Zombie from China, Dead Meat from Ireland, 28 Days Later from UK, Premutos: Lord of the Living Dead from Germany, Zombie Lake from France, Zombie Oasis French from Morroco, the Italian and US films are too numberous to name.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

thanks a lot dear friend rjschwarz for guiding me..well i feel just a little unlucky being living in pakistan that i dont have easily

access to the movies you mentioned.over here though the world know us very well for piracy but its all about indian or

hollywood movies.i wish i can get these movies some day.i have noted down the names.

so more and more discussion dear friends i am waiting.i have got some conept in mind and by reading your posts i can even inagine the scene how they will get shooted....thanks a lot..so what you think more about this topic??

adeel akhter

What you need to do is buy a region free dvd player and buy the movies online.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA