Inquests Of The Dead
(Or “Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Zombies, But Didn’t Have The Brains To Askâ€)
“Reese Eveneshen is an award winning writer, director, and producer living and working within Ontario, Canada. For the past four years he’s been working behind the camera on music videos, short films (including a Stephen King adaptation titled “Love Never Dies”) and feature films. In 2011, Eveneshen’s human focused zombie feature film “Dead Genesis” received worldwide distribution and is available to purchase in several different countries.”
Buy Zombie: What inspired you to pursue a career in cinema?
Reese Eveneshen: Like every other filmmaker, it all stemmed from a love of movies naturally. My earliest and best memories of childhood revolve around watching movies. They were in fact a perfect escape for me as a kid. I was a bit of a loner growing up, so my world was consumed with getting home and watching as many movies as I could take in an evening. The idea of being able to make movies and have people share in the emotion of watching cinema that you yourself created was very exciting for me. It just felt like a natural fit, so I’ve pretty much always wanted to be a filmmaker. Except for when I was six, I wanted to drive a garbage truck… true story.
Buy Zombie: How did you decide on a zombie film, and how did the premise evolve from idea to script?
Reese Eveneshen: I love all types of movies, but mostly I have a very special place in my heart for zombie movies. The original Romero “Dead†trilogy was something I watched at a very young age… probably not the best material to be watching as an 8 year old. The images and the feel of those movies stayed with me, and as I grew older I certainly found a new appreciation for them. This world he created was fantastic in my opinion, and the fact that he was able to weave a clever social commentary in there was a nice touch as well. But it wasn’t just the Romero movies that left an impression; there were the Italian zombie flicks of the late 70’s and early 80’s, and a handful of independent ones over the years.
I really felt though, at the time (which was early 2009) that a lot of the zombie movies coming out recently were lacking that special something. That Romero feel if you will, where the focus wasn’t directed 100% at the zombies. These were people films that happened to have zombies be the catalyst in the background. I wanted to do something like that again, something small and guerilla. Originally it was planned as a web series, where every week there would be a new 10-minute episode to be released. I didn’t intend to make this grand zombie film that would be picked up and shown anywhere special. Had I known the future that was in store for it I probably would have spent a bit more time on it!
It was a fast idea to script phase; I don’t really remember the initial conception of the idea. I know I remember wanting to focus on the “war†aspect of things. I was 22 at the time, and going through a mini-political battle in my mind where I was caught up in all the recent world events and a lot of that came out in the script. I wrote it very fast, and within a few months we had the film cast and we were shooting it!
Buy Zombie: Your shoot was mostly exteriors, what locales did you use?
Reese Eveneshen: We shot “Dead Genesis†about 30 minutes outside of our hometown, which is Guelph, Ontario. We were on a piece of a property owned by one of the producer’s parents, they owned a fairly massive chunk of land with a forest as their backyard. We took over their basement and turned it into our home base for 12 days of our 17 day schedule. They were not too happy with us in the end, eventually on our last days they kicked us out and our home base became anywhere we could find outside. I don’t think they were prepared for the volume of people we had at the house almost every day. Everything else was shot rather professionally actually; we had permits and insurance coverage… nothing to gung ho or dangerous. We tried to be as careful as we could. We could not afford any problems with the locations. Although it did happen once or twice… fake blood makes quite the mess in certain places.
Buy Zombie: Tell me about the challenges of filming with a modest budget.
Reese Eveneshen: Truthfully the fact that we had a small budget wasn’t that big of an issue. Granted, a few more dollars here and there are helpful. It may have given us a few more advantages on set, better equipment and such. But it seemed while filming that we had just enough money to get by, we never really felt the squeeze of a small budget. Before that we had been working with small budgets already, so we knew how to make every little penny count. It would have been nice to have a bit more so we could have paid everybody, which would have been a treat. We had a script, we were prepared, and had the money we needed, so we made it all work.
Buy Zombie: I was impressed with your gore effects, tell me about your cast and crew.
Reese Eveneshen: The cast was fantastic; they all became a family on and off set. And many of us have stayed very good friends since the shoot. I can’t say anymore-good things about the cast, every one of them volunteered their time, and I’ll be forever grateful for that. I really loved the fact that everyone was committed to the project, nobody fought, we all worked together. I was quite busy during the shoot, so I wish I could have spent more time with all of them outside of the shoot.
What little crew we did have (all five of us) was great as well. Again, this was a fantastic group of people through and through. Any problems we did have mostly stemmed from not having enough time on certain days to get what we needed done. But the fact that we were able to manage massive groups of people with such a small group was great. The real star of the show in our crew was Mitchell Stacey (who provided the films make up effects). I’ve known Mitchell now for five years, we’re great friends and movie fx nerds. But he was just our shining light on set, any time he would pull off some of these gags; we were just all in awe of them. And the fact that he had little to no money to work with, and yet he and his talented crew of make up artists made up all these zombies day after day.
Buy Zombie: Is there a message you would give to young, would be film makers?
Reese Eveneshen: Prepare, prepare, prepare! Spend MONTHS working on the script; don’t make the mistake of taking it for granted. That’s the one mistake (well more then one) that we made on “Dead Genesisâ€. Had we spent more time working on the script before hand, I think we could have made a much better movie. There are little to no time restrictions with writing scripts, so just take your time, work on your characters and finesse that story.
Buy Zombie: Where can zombie film fans see the movie?
Reese Eveneshen: The best way to see it right now is to buy a copy on our website! It comes with quite a few special features and some insightful commentaries. Elsewhere in the world it seems to be pretty easy to come by. All I would ask is please don’t download an illegal copy online! First off, it really does hurt us as filmmakers, and second, the only available cut is the censored German cut, it’s missing all the juicy bits!
Buy Zombie: Tell me about “Love Never Diesâ€.
Reese Eveneshen: It’s a project I’m pretty happy with, it’s a film I produced for my producing partner Peter Szabo. He wrote and directed it after acquiring the rights to Stephen King’s short story “Nonaâ€, via the dollar baby program. It’s a cool little short film; it’s a fun thriller. I’m hoping that we can get that out into film festivals later on this fall.
Buy Zombie: What are some of your favourite genre films?
Reese Eveneshen: That’s a tough one, there are many to choose from out there. In the zombie world, my number one favourite zombie film is the original “Day of the Deadâ€. “Jawsâ€, is by far probably my favourite movie in the whole world… A lot of that comes from seeing it at such a young age, it just sticks with you. Cronenberg’s “The Brood†is up there as one I love. It’s hard for me, some movies I may not consider a favourite, but they certainly have scenes in them that I think are fantastic.
Buy Zombie: Do you prefer zombies that move fast or slow?
Reese Eveneshen: I’m a slow zombie kind of guy, it seems more frightening to me. That slow, slow shuffle as they march towards you.
Buy Zombie: What can you share about your next project?
Reese Eveneshen: I can share the title with you, it’s called “GumShoesâ€. It’s a project I’ve been working on for over two years now, I’m pretty excited about it, and I really hope to get behind the camera for that film soon.
Spoiler Warning (for those who have not seen the movie)
Buy Zombie: The ending of “Dead Genesis†almost feels like a beginning, will we see Jillian in a sequel?
Reese Eveneshen: I’m pretty sure that Jillian’s story is over for now. She’s pretty screwed up by the end of the film, she’s seen a lot, her morals are shot. I think I’d be happy leaving it at that, I don’t think
there is much else to say. However, I do have a couple stories in mind for what happens to the Deadheads in the years following….
For more on “Dead Genesis†visit:
Official Site: http://www.deadgenesisthemovie.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deadgenesis
