How this is going to work

Well I think we should try aiming for a plotline. Like what we want the movie to be like and then begin sifting through the ideas. We need someone to choose the most creative and doable ideas then maybe we can vote on them? Then using that idea start having people write out scripts and begin reading through them. Have the online community be able to like vote only once for scripts posted? Like kudos on myspace maybe?

alexis you have said that absolutely perfectly.

yes this can be done

yes it will take time
yes it would be great for people to say ' hey look this was done via the net and its fantastic'
this is all achievable

we do however need to get a few basic things in place to organise things a little better before we can move to the doing stage rather than the talking stage

i think this could take at least a year to move to the filming but its going to be a masterpiece, something that everyone both on the net and off of it will be very proud of

ill even get this mentioned on tv for real once its getting somewhere

Thank you bryony for coming up with such a fantastic project bringing so many people together!

This is just gonna be my opinions about the whole idea.

First of all its a class idea and it will get so much publicity because of what it is, but what rating is this? I ask because you can't really make a PG zombie movie, and it wont be on youtube if its too obscene. I was just trying to figure out whether it was aimed at youtube or general cinema release, I mean, you could put it on both.

I feel the first step is to think of how many 3D characters will be in the story. Zombies movies never seem to develop character enough for my liking XD. Then maybe set out lyk a ten point summary of where the storyline goes from start to finish. I mean then you could give a chapter to write to each of ten people, and, if the general vision had been properly conveyed to them, you could just put them together and just do a rewrite to slot them together.

I think the hardest part is going to be decision making because with so many ppl involved there will be hundreds of opinions flying around as to what makes a good zombie movie. Paperlillies will really have to take charge and pick which ideas will work and which wont.

I am in Dublin and I know I'm not the only one here interested in taking part. Plz keep me in mind
.... 1916 rising with zombies anyone?

I really just wanna go totally out there... just because were making it through a new medium doesnt mean we have to stay in the genre. Lets make it something different, because if this is as big as it looks to be: there will be more youtube movies, so lets make sure this one stands out as a classic. the one and only Paperlillies zombie movie

LSmurf wrote:Just a thought that popped into my head whilst reading this. Knowing youtubers someone will bring a big expensive HD camera to use for the London/New York parts, won't that then look a bit crap when the scene cuts to someones terrible quality webcam. I think restrictions need to be made here somehwere... Do a lot of people have HD camcorders?

A thought also just popped into my head.

Not to suggest shamelessly stealing ideas from "Cloverfield" but, well, why don't we shamelessly steal an idea from "Cloverfield"?

In "Cloverfield", the whole movie is presented as if it's home-made footage. That someone just happened to have their video camera rolling when a monster attacks New York City and we see it all from his perspective - as if the military have recovered his video camera afterwards and are reviewing the footage he's taken.

Now, the thought that popped into my head is that something like that would be an absolute perfect fit for a YouTube Internet Zombie Movie (indeed, many reviewers reviewing "Cloverfield" often made references to the film being "for the YouTube generation", referring to the "home movie" style of the film).

We can actually USE the different camera aspects and qualities to our advantage, by a very simple conceit.

Present the movie as if it's home-made footage from around the world, taken as the zombie invasion takes hold.

That, you know, YouTubers around the globe have gone out and documented the zombie invasion then uploaded it to YouTube (and, just to ramp up the horror, it can be full of people screaming in panic: "is there anyone out there? Zombies have attacked London! I'm uploading this because we need serious help from the rest of the world - our country has been overrun with zombies").

Don't try to pretend that it isn't home made footage. Actually use that to our dramatic advantage.

Actually, as the London and New York shoots will have proper crews and equipment, those parts can be presented in the traditional way and filmed in high quality to carry the main plot with the central characters. But the footage from elsewhere in the world can be cleverly sneaked into the film by having it that, say, one of the characters in New York goes on the Internet and watches YouTube videos where people are documenting the zombie invasion in their own countries. And then this main character can announce in horror: "OMG! The Zombies are taking over the whole world!!!".

Yeah, the London and New York stuff is filmed in the more traditional way with proper actors to carry the main plot. And it can be intercut with slightly dodgier lower quality footage of the zombies taking over the rest of the world, where we purposefully have the video player showing on the screen.

You know how in many disaster movies, they have it that it cuts to the TV news with the anchor announcing "OMG! There's an asteroid about to crash into the world and kill us all!!!". Well, exactly like that, but it cuts to the Internet instead - well, this is an Internet zombie movie, so it'd be weird to pretend the Internet doesn't exist.

I hope you're getting what I'm talking about. Because I think, done right, this could turn what's otherwise a disadvantage - that some of the footage might not be of the highest standard - into an advantage. And it puts the stamp of the Internet on the Internet Zombie Movie - because the movie includes people actually using the Internet, uploading their footage of the zombie invasion in their part of the world, etc.

Just to give you the basic idea, imagine a scene where the characters in London, say, don't yet realise that it's a world-wide zombie invasion. And they go onto the Internet to appeal to, say, the Americans to come over and help rid London of zombies - but, disaster!, America is also totally overrun with zombies. What about Australia? OMG! They've been taken over by the zombies too!!

And so forth. So you could have this scene which cuts quickly between footage taken all around the world of the zombies invading and people posting up "vlogs of panic" - appealing to someone somewhere in the world to come save them from the zombies!! - with heavy emphasis on people standing next to recognisable landmarks and with everyone talking with different accents, to clearly establish that we're really talking about a total world-wide zombie invasion!

Then the poorer quality footage stops being a headache and a disadvantage, it becomes an advantage because it comes across as "genuine" YouTube footage, if you know what I mean.

Indeed, that's how you can tie it all together. Because most disaster movies try to pretend that people don't have mobile phones, they try to overlook that the Internet exists, etc. - but we can turn it around and make that the whole point of the movie.

It shows people using mobile phones and the Internet and other modern technology to keep in communication with each other around the world, as the zombies attack. In fact - ooh, this is a nice thought - that can be kind of the point in the plot. That the people of Earth use the Internet to save the world!!!

That they communicate with each other in order to work out how to defeat the zombies (e.g. a character in New York knocks off the zombies head with a baseball bat - the zombie is actually finally dead! - and then, realising that the zombie's "weakness" is that they die when they're decapitated, he screams down his mobile phone to his colleagues in London: "Knock their heads off! The zombies die when you knock their heads off!". And then the characters in London start bashing off the zombies' heads!).

Do you see what I'm getting at? Ooh, I think that could be made to work very well indeed.

There could be some characters in Sydney who've barricaded themselves inside a public library to keep the zombies at bay and they're trapped. But, hey, the public library has Internet access. So they go online to try to find out what the hell is going on and warn people about the zombies - see if they can call for assistance to come save them from the zombies.

That's when they see that the invasion is world-wide and just happen to find, say, the main characters in New York online, who tell them about the zombie's weakness - which allows them, with some ingenuity, to escape the library and get somewhere that has food (because, being locked up in the library for days, they might have been safe from the zombies, but they were slowly starving to death in there).

I'm also imagining that a simple dramatic conceit to be able to have the action happen in London and New York simultaneously, is that they have mobile phones and actually directly talk to each other (also, from a film-maker's standpoint, is a beautiful, beautiful way to sneak any "exposition" into the movie without it seeming forced. A character in London is "explaining" to the character in New York what's going on over in London over their mobile phone - but, really, what we're actually trying to do is explain it to the audience what's happening. Via the conceit of the mobile phone, they can speak their thoughts aloud. They can describe, in words, what's going on. They can be "narrators in disguise" to get all that "exposition" stuff across and it in no way would look contrived or forced - because when you're talking to someone on a mobile phone, you would have to describe what you see because they can't see it).

Well, of course, these are just illustrative examples. I'm not writing the script here. But just giving you some hypothetical situations where you can see how we could USE things like the Internet and mobile phones as a dramatic conceit.

I mean, when 9/11 happened, everyone was glued to their TV sets watching the news footage. It really isn't unrealistic that if some other disaster happened today, that people would not only turn on their TVs, but maybe try to Email their friends or see if there's anything online about what's going on. The mobile phone network was - very understandably - jammed and brought down in New York by the sheer amount of people all phoning each other to see if their friends and family were alright.

Well, okay, I don't want to bring the mood down here - as this is zombies and not particularly serious and I assume meant to be a fun movie - but just pointing out that this kind of thing really does happen in real life and is no stretch to imagine would happen if there really was a global zombie invasion.

And it's just so symbolically and metaphorically perfect - that an Internet Zombie Movie, really does feature the Internet as part of the plot itself.

If you haven't seen "Cloverfield" then go watch it and you'll instantly see what I mean and how you can use the "home made footage" angle to actually make it seem more realistic, by purposefully taking the perspective of "the man in the street" filming zombies with his very shaky mobile phone camera. Then any poor quality footage works to our advantage. it's supposed to be shaky and blurry. It's supposed to be some footage uploaded onto the Internet.

You could have some doing "live streaming" from their mobile phone and then zombies attack them while they're filming. And you just hear screams as the camera is thrown around all over the place. Then the camera suddenly drops to the ground with blood slowly rolling, in silence, across the floor in front of the camera. OMFG! The zombies have eaten him!!!

Well, that's what's so great about this idea. There's, like, a hundred and one different ways that you could get some really nice dramatic scenes into the movies by using technology (rather than unrealistically trying to pretend that the Internet and mobile phone don't exist).

To actually use the idea of the Internet - people using internet video and mobile phones to coordinate themselves to fight back against the zombies! - as a deliberate dramatic conceit and "style" for the movie. Make the Internet itself a kind of "character" in the movie.

So, what do you think, Ms.Lillies et al?

p.s. If I've posted this in the wrong place, feel free to move it or tell me a better place to be posting or whatever. It's just posted here because I got the idea reading other people's posts in this thread.

Wow. Thats a heck of a response...

That's an idea that's been floating around here a lot... I think it's a great idea. However, I wouldn't suggest we do it all in that style, as we do have the resources to make some shots in professional/HD/bleh standards. I like the idea of using resources to our advantage. Broaden it a bit, and we've got a movie.

Lawrence wrote:Wow. Thats a heck of a response...

That's an idea that's been floating around here a lot... I think it's a great idea. However, I wouldn't suggest we do it all in that style, as we do have the resources to make some shots in professional/HD/bleh standards. I like the idea of using resources to our advantage. Broaden it a bit, and we've got a movie.

Yeah, I agree. Amongst my very long response, I did suggest that the bits in London and New York (or whatever other central locations we can muster over time) are filmed in the "traditional" professional way.

Not least because one problem with "Cloverfield" was that because the whole movie was filmed that way, it was giving people motion sickness in the cinema from all the shaky footage. And, okay, that part we can do without copying.

In fact, having the central locations done professionally, that'll even better emphasise the "realism" of the other footage. Because then it'll look as if we did it deliberately.

KlaxonCow wrote:

Yeah, I agree. Amongst my very long response, I did suggest that the bits in London and New York (or whatever other central locations we can muster over time) are filmed in the "traditional" professional way.

Not least because one problem with "Cloverfield" was that because the whole movie was filmed that way, it was giving people motion sickness in the cinema from all the shaky footage. And, okay, that part we can do without copying.

In fact, having the central locations done professionally, that'll even better emphasise the "realism" of the other footage. Because then it'll look as if we did it deliberately.

I completley agree. It's like in "Dancer in the Dark". All of the music scenes are shot with a houndred cameras, great lighting, stylish colours, all of this stuff. And the other parts is just full on Lars von Trier with a shaky hand-held camera: Bland colours, chopped up editing, pauses where nothing really happens, akward zooming... like a real ducumentary (just without the person holding the camera being a part of the dialouge). Just the fact that this is going to be shot by real people in different locacions around the world gives a great feel of reality to it. But it will be nice for the audience to look at the footage from a quality camera from time to time, to hold the sea-sickness down to a minimum.

obscurity202 wrote:This is just gonna be my opinions about the whole idea.

First of all its a class idea and it will get so much publicity because of what it is, but what rating is this? I ask because you can't really make a PG zombie movie, and it wont be on youtube if its too obscene. I was just trying to figure out whether it was aimed at youtube or general cinema release, I mean, you could put it on both.

...


I am in Dublin and I know I'm not the only one here interested in taking part. Plz keep me in mind
.... 1916 rising with zombies anyone?

...

*waves* YAY another Dubliner!

Rating - we'll let the film censor figure that out sure we'd like as many people as possible to see it, but let's not think about that too much 'cause it'll only pose limitations

Everyone on this thread is fabulously level-headed; hopefully we can impart this unto as many people as possible to get this as organised as possible and keep on top of things before getting overly excited (some excitement still necessary for motivation of course) this one is WEIRD haha

So anyone know what the first thing being decided is?

I agree paperlillies came up with this idea so she shoulld be the one making all the important decisions not some people who are tryin to persuade others

Thsi movie will probably take a LONG time to make but just imagine how great the end result could be just have some patience and listen to paperlillies and agree and dont try to make everything complicated lol

but basically dont try to go and take control when shes the one with the idea because she DOES need us for the ideas inspiration etc but she doesnt need us to tell her and others what to do

hopefully i dont come across as some kind of evil thing lol but i just want to basically say go with the flow and listen to paperlillies and dont try to say 'OMG this is the best idea' just let her get the ideas together and begin to write the script as this REALLY could be something special [b][center]

i was thinking maybe (i know i have to get my parents to sign a release form blah blah blah whatever) that u know how we are incorporating vlogs? pretty much no matter what? wouldnt it be cool if a 13 year old girl (me) i know im young... whatever i still have a part-time temp job since im already going to be a sophomore next year (i skipped a grade) god i go on tangents back to the point if a 13 year old girl had a vlog (short or something) somewhere in it cuz that also stresses the fact that its not just adults dying, its everybody i dunno just offering a suggestion because i want to be in some part of it no matter what. i live in da US, btw

grandeur, je suis fatiguée. its like 7am. xD

I think it's a fantastic idea. But, there are a few issues I think should be raised. For the writing, I think it's excellent getting ideas off as many people as possible, but when it comes down to it there should be a very limited number of people writing, all of whom can easily contact each other (literally face to face or in conference over the net). This is the only way to create some cohesion throughout the project, at least for the 'main' story strands.

The way I see it, having these written tightly will then allow so flexibility in the vlog-type parts. So, for instance, you might say for these "we want 4 clips of initial attacks on camera phones" or "someone blogging that they've just seen an attack", which people can create themselves, so long as they conform with the 'mythology' of the whole project (ie... are all the zombies slow/fast? how long does it take for people to change? etc etc).

Anyway, I really, really want to get involved in this as much as possible, hopefully things will start taking shape soon...

hey hey hey,

I'm not so sure you're not already working on this but, it's probably a good idea to set up a part of the website for contributions. From what I understand of what you want this movie to be, you don't want it to be like some big studio production but, a type of collaborative you-pitch-I-pitch-in thing without any specific bankrolling. However, just in case you need to hop on a plane to the NYC setup or whatever, like spring up costs and what not, you should have maybe a little cash on hand in case of creative emergency.

krAZ EE excited


Bazy

Im genuinely excited about this idea.
..though I have some concerns.
Don't get me wrong, I do want to contribute.

Im assuming that this movie is going to hit the cinemas at some point, and if it does it will generate alot
of money, which inevitably will lead to all contributers would want their share of the loot. They did aftervall use their time, money and effort to contribute, so they are entitled to a fair share.

First of all when doing this kind of movie, you need to have all the legal issues taken care of.
So copyright infringements does'nt happen. But also so that all contributers know precisely what
is going to happen in terms of what they get for their contribution, which takes time and money on their part aswell. I suggest making a legal document containing a detailed list of all involved, so that if a couple of legal issues may be avoided, such a being sewed by a contributer who was'nt credited or compensated. And also a legal document about the movie, that is if it is to be copyrighted, which I assume you will make sure gets done.

I have more to say about this, but I don't have the time right now. (Due to my GF and are moving to a bigger apartment )

i agree all the way