Researching for an Irish Short Film with Zombies

brianregan09

Exactly what it says on the tin , I'm a head writer for a small short film production company and i'm currently working on a script for a zombie short film , basiclly its a character piece with 3 main characters , It'll be mostly filmed from one characters perspective with the other joining later on , so basiclly i'm looking for as much realism as humanly possible in a zombie film so no flaming zombies, no guns really, Ill give ya a taster of what i have so so you can get a feeling for where i want to go with this

The scene opens with a shot of the sitting room , The camera scans across the room the sitting room door is blocked closed with an arm chair, the windows are covered partially aswell , The room is lit up dimly with a few burning candles dotted around the room, We get a shot of man sleeping on the couch, A bang on the window all of a sudden wakes him , He hops up straight away as if he wasn’t even asleep, He eyes are drawn and his face is dirty , he hasn’t shaved for weeks, He pulls a bottle of water out from under neath him and takes a big gulp of it down, He gets up and walks slowly over to the window, He looks back for a second and puts out the candle closest to the window before slightly drawing the curtain to have a peek outside, He takes a deep breath before looking out

The man breathes easy as he closes the curtain again obviously seeing nothing of note outside , He goes back to the couch now and throws him self back in a relaxed state , He has a quick look around now and see’s a box of rolling cigarettes on the ground , there crumpled up a bit, He reaches down for them and slowly begins to make himself a cigarette , His hands are shaking so he’s fumbling and drops the papers before ever getting a chance to put tobacco in , the man is visibly agitated by this and curses himself before reaching down again ,

The camera cuts to the man just finishing up the rollie and laying back with the cigarette in his mouth , he now pats himself down looking for a lighter, upon realizing he doesn’t have one on him , He looks at the door to hallway with fear across his face , He takes another look around the couch and kitchen , But realizes he’s got to go in to the hall to fetch the lighter from one of the other rooms, He pulls a kitchen knife from out under the couch and shakes himself a bit , You can almost see the sweat on his forehead as he makes his way slowly towards the hall, He opens the door slowly as the music builds the scene closes

SCENE 2
INT :NIGHT
SITTING ROOM

The scene opens in the sitting room again, We see the man this time he’s going around relighting a few candles as the dark sets in, He looks into one of the food presses now and realizes there isn’t much left at all bar a few cans of beans
Joe
**** ! going to have to go out again soon
He closes the press again really quietly being careful not to bang it, But as he does he begins hearing a knock more like a bang on the front door
Joe
**** !
Joe ducks down straight away as if to hide , He looks around franticlly now , Eventually he spots his knife out of the corner of his eye up on the worktop

ScumLord

Ye won't be stealing me ideas!

We've discussed a zombie short film on here in the past. I haven't forgotten it. I have a plot all worked out I just have to write it down. It's taken time to work out a realistic setting.

brianregan09

No not looking to rob anyones ideas at all, I've wrote and got 4 short movies made already , so not looking to trod on toes just a simple question like my op

jh79

Make sure the zombies are slow is my main tip

hexosan

Why does he need to look for a lighter when theres candles dotted around the room

DoYouEvenLift

jh79 wrote: »

Make sure the zombies are slow is my main tip

Slow zombies suck and can't be made as terrifying

jh79

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

Slow zombies suck and can't be made as terrifying

They tend to bite.

Staplor

hexosan wrote: »

Why does he need to look for a lighter when theres candles dotted around the room

Exactly what I thought

brianregan09

damn....back to the drawing board lol

Wabbit Ears

I assume with the darkeness and candles etc that this is sometime after the Apocalypse has started?

Terror, sleep deprivation, constant fear is generally the order of the day.

The above reads like casual nonchalance of a teenager smoking a spliff and worrying if his parents will pull into the driveway. Oh no, out of munchies and the shop is Sooo far away...hassle!

Fallschirmjager

I would change the candles for some crappy led light...maybe a wind up one from ikea? Have batteries all over the floor. When the led light is off, have the only lighting by the last of his lighter and cig..then have him go to light another and nothing but flashes.. Hell, here is the name of the segment ' dying for a cigarette'. Lol.....

Have him running out of water and drinking from the toilet cistern? Empty water bottles and food packets everywhere...and everyone asking why..until he looks out to half of cork outside his house...

Just an idea or 2 to ponder...

ScumLord

This is why you don't give up parts of an unfinished story. Everyone will just try to rewrite it for you. :pac:

Micky Dolenz

Less is more in my opinion. A sense if doom without ever seeing the threat but knowing it is there.

The Battery may be worth a view for ideas.