Director's Commentary

HotD2 was the first proper production I ever made, and it still remains one of my favorites and easily ranks as one of the most enjoyable so far. I learned a lot on this production about the basics of shooting a movie, such as the gathering of cast and crew and organizing equipment. It also started a lot of trends that have stuck with me since, such as the on-set modification of the script (which apparently is not that uncommon), running away from security and/or annoyed passersby, and including as many personal plug-ins and references as possible (which in this case was Sega and Star Wars).

The idea behind HotD2 was to produce a movie adaptation that was completely authentic and true to the essence of the videogame. To ensure this, the script was written almost scene for scene in accordance to the storyline of the videogame, with every line of dialogue being taken word for word from the videogame. The only changes made were to account for our technical limitations, such as being unable to construct an amphibious zombie with a rib cage that opens up to reveal a pulsating heart or having evil zombie fish leaping out of a river. But otherwise, it remains true to the corny plot and gunfire-intensive nature of the videogame.

For such a big production, HotD2 was also made on the most primitive technology of all my works. Although it was primarily shot on DV, I had to edit this bitch using an archaic SVHS editing suite that looked a lot like the control panel of the fucking Death Star. Luckily, I had some experience with linear analogue editing from making The Kimono Man (using an editing rig that was basically a camcorder, a VCR, a mixer and a CD-player all linked together… operating this required Frankie and I to work two remote controls each in complete synchronicity) so it still displayed some semblance of technical competence.

However, if you've ever used a SVHS editing suite you'll know how much of a bitch it is to do rapid fast cuts (especially on a crappy machine that would jam up every three cuts; requiring you to re-cue and re-enter the in/out points) so I couldn't cut it as tightly as I'd like to, not that I had enough shots to cut together (one thing I learnt was to shoot more angles in subsequent projects). But even with the limitation, I still had a relatively tightly edited video that was cut with post-production sound AND a soundtrack that was composed specially for this video (props to musical genius Alex Mesker).

Looking back, I think HotD2 was a pretty big first project. At a stage in uni when I was expected to make a simple 3-5 minute video with minimal editing and post-production work, I made a 17 minute movie utilizing a cast/crew of 8 people (a number not surpassed until "Amy" came along 2 years later), sound and dialogue that was done in post-production, with an original musical score that was composed specially for the movie. I have to give thanks to the crew who were really helpful with the production when I didn't know what the fuck I was doing.

Although it's now pretty ugly looking (the master tape is like 5th generation VHS) and simple… it's worth watching anyway to check out our roots in plot-less action and needless violence.