Liz Rishel as Izzie from The Zombie Opera

“The Zombie Opera” Production Day #3

It was an exciting day in Zombie Opera history. Not only did we see Liz Rishel’s character, Izzie in full costume and makeup, but we also began using the latest trend in filmmaking formats: The HD-shooting DSLR.

First off, “Izzie” looked stunning with an outfit designed by Liz Rishel herself, a killer wig, and makeup by the talented Lily Wasik. All I can say is “Wow”! It is such an excellent feeling when to see characters finally coming to life! Sunday’s scene involved some very intense moments, and Liz came through with a great performance. We will keep the momentum up rolling into wednesday’s shoot for the second half of the location.

Izzie

With the “news footage” segments behind us, production has turned to a more “cinematic” approach. For this reason, I wanted to achieve a look that had the characteristics closely identified with Hollywood cinema: Shallow depth of field, customizable film ISO speeds, and a true 24p frame rate. Eventually I realized to that we would need to stray away from conventional video cameras. Enter the DSLR.

Rebel T2i in action

Armed with my new Canon Rebel T2i camera and a lighting kit, we began tests for Sunday and Wednesday’s night scenes. The DSLR afforded us everything we were looking for. Customizable shutter speeds, aperture, film ISO speeds, and 24p frame rate at full 1080p HD. With its small size, it also gave us the ability to get into tight corners, such as the scene’s hallway setting.

DP Ed Huang and myself in the hallway corner.

Once the lighting was in place, the shoot went very smoothly. Arvin Clay, special fx makeup mastermind joined us on set as we prepared for our first zombie footage coming up on wednesday. It should be quite an interesting experience. More to come this week!

Arvin helping Liz with her makeup

Photos by Corry Vargo ©2010