The original idea

The original idea i came up with was about 2 or 3 years ago, the idea was born from reading the walking dead graphic novels. i had the idea that we could do 4 to 6 short episode based zombie flicks based around 3 characters. I went to Ricky, Ross and Damian with the idea and they liked it and the thought i put into it. Me and Ricky worked on the script, I had a few ideas and i had come up with how to start the first episode off, Ricky took the notes that i gave him and he turned it into a script and gave the characters a bit more depth and tried to make them stand out from all the other zombie stuff out there. Me and Ricky and the rest of are group had quite a few meetings about the script and how to expand on the idea. Ricky was given the role of writting the script from my idea, I was going to direct, Ross was D.O.P and frst camera and Damian was second camera and editor. Ricky and me went through the script changed a few things and was nearly finished it. We shot a short teaser trailer for The Lonely Dead. I was able to get permission to film in Ford Park Cemetery, thats where the trailer was shot, we also shot a few other scenes at the same time that was for the first episode. After finishing the trailer and editing some of the scenes together, we had a group meeting and decided to pull the plug on the idea as, the walking dead was just released and it was to similar. We then decided to change te idea and write it as a mocumentary that would address the idea of how the world would react if zombies were intergrated into society.

This is a very short teaser trailer we made for our original idea, we follow a group of zombies as they are walking through the world lost and looking for there next meal.


             

Original script for The Lonely Dead

This is the original script that Ricky wrote after we had a few group meetings and took the base's of my idea and turned it into this script. This is a rough draft of the script where it is about 80% finished and there is some dialogue missing and scenes not finished as we scraped this idea and started on the mockumentary.

Treatment for original idea

Treatment (Episode 1 – The Pain of being Dead)

A young priest burst into an apartment flat after finding the door ajar; it the dark and dusty atmosphere he quietly drags a nearby cabinet across the apartment door, with sweat pouring from his spores he nervously makes his way across the dimly lit apartment that sole light source coming from a old a battered television set, as he approaches to lower the volume on the TV he suddenly sees a young man stretched out across the floor, he feels drawn to the static signal on the TV and all of a sudden he knows what he must do, it’s as if god has tasked him with saving the lost soul he has found in his temporary safety. 

The young priest politely wakes the young man from his drug induced slumber, with a nice cup of tea at hand, the young man is shocked to see this youthful looking man of god in his apartment, he thinks to himself ‘Christ’ there is a brief conflict in dialogue as he disregards the priest bible talk, but he notices that the priest has blood on his hands, this startles the young priest as he runs towards the nearest tap and scrubs his hands violently clean of the blood stains. There is a moment of awkward silence between the two as they sit contemplating what on earth is happening around them; but when the young man lights up a joint, the priest tries to talk him out of his ways and explains how god has given him the task of saving the young mans soul, explaining to the man how the world outside his apartment has been brought crashing down with the ‘dead’ seemingly walking the earth. The young man struggles to take this all in, thinking that what he had been witnessing lately was all part of his ‘trip’ as it dawns upon him that the world as he knows it no longer exists; he signs ‘fuck’ and lights up his joint. 

Some time later the two survivors get into a conversation about what they should do next, the priest is adamant that they must leave the relative safety of the apartment in search of holy land that is free of the evil infection that has swallowed up the rest of the world, but the young man is reluctant to leave until he realizes that his ‘supplies’ are running low; then all of a sudden he seems to spark into action as his addictions thrives in his bloodstream. He reveals to the priest that he knows of a place nearby that they can gather some essential supplies that they will need for their journey in search of the ‘holy land’. The priest makes himself a cup of tea to steady his nerves before leaving; adding two sweeteners and as the two leave the apartment the young man snatches the ‘sweeteners’ from the kitchen tabletop, and they quietly edge out of the apartment into the dark. 

Out in the open the unlikely duo feel ‘naked’ surrounded by a silence that fills the pair with fear, the only sounds they hear is a gentle wind and fires burning in the streets; they make their way slowly through dark back alleys and dashing across roads between each connecting alley, and just before they find the ‘safe house’ they find themselves surrounded by lifeless bodies, hiding behind trash cans in a dirty back lane them seemingly haven’t been spotted by the immanent danger, after waiting in the damp of the alley in the dark for what feels like hours, groans come from behind them, as they turn they see numerous lifeless bodies approaching, in a panic the pair sprint out into the open heading straight for a back door in the alley that is slightly ajar, once inside they slam the door shut and collapse out of breath. 

Once the young man gets his breath back he says ‘ we've made it father’ and swiftly makes his way across the backroom towards deep red curtains that travel from the roof to the floor of the building; the priest feeling a sense of new found hope follows the young man who’s stopped dead in his tracks just ahead; as he looks through the curtains he is taken aback as he doesn't find a building with essential ‘supplies’ but finds himself stood in a dirty seedy gentleman’s club with dead scantily clad dressed women and rotten bodies of dirty old men covering the clubs floor; the silence of shock is broken when they hear the distant cries of a young dancers clutching a pole with a high heel shoe covered in blood in her right hand.

-End of Episode One-

The original zombie idea: production ideas and character briefs

Main things to include
2-3 main characters
6 episodes - 10 minutes each episodes
How to survive in a world of zombies/ people having zombie plans in place

Locations
A dirty house
Hide out
Empty streets
A bar

Characters
Cody: Drug addict, paronoid, hates people and hates life, underlying father issues that have effected his adult life. Early 20s , school drop out he found weed and never looked back and went from weed to high class of drugs. He came from a good family home, but his father left when he was about 7 and his mother re-married a rich property developer, nice man sorted cody out with a flat for university for him and his friends, he ended up losing all contact with his house mates and they ended up moving out leaving cody by his self because of this he started losing all contact with the outside world becasue of his drug addiction which became worst after he lost his mother and step father in a car crash. As he was an only child and his step father had no children cody inherted everything from his parents. The wealth and money didnt last long as he went on a crazed drugs binges and lost everything because of this he didnt turn up to his parents funeral and dosent talk to his family any more.

Patrick: A very religious man who blames everything with whats wrong in the world on video games and corrupt people melting the minds of youth to make them monsters. He had a very bad up bringing as his mum and dad were abusive towards him and each other. He never had any thing given to him he always had to work for and this made him a very bitter person. From the age of around 10 Patrick started to go to church and thought that be his calling but when he finished school he needed to find a job that would pay the bills, after a year or so Patrick was fired from his job and turned back to the church where they were abl to give him a job and started working as a caretaker there, after a few years he had moved up and finally became vicar at the age of 24. He started applying the bible teachings to everyday life but from doing this Patrick only started to see the bad in the world and started to losing his views on the good parts of life and instead started to curse the world we live in.

Jen: Avery easy going girl and very easy on the eye as well, she is very clever and always finds a way to get what she wants. She tends to lead man on to get the most out of them but also have been know at times to lead women on as well to get things. She's daddy little princess even to this age and can't do anything wrong in his eyes. Her dad is a very rich and powerful man and has got his daughter to where she is know in life, she is in the very best university and in a top end paying job.

Episode Titles:
Outbreak of evil                     episode 1
Driven to destruction             episode 2
Lady of the night                   episode 3
Better of dead                        episode 4
Hands of a killer                    epiosde 5
The pain of being dead          episode 6
Remember the fallen              episode 7

Opening title sequences idea for The Lonely Dead

WS( wide shot): A car left alone in the middle of a wooded area, you can just see/make out the car in the distances and the lights are on

The camera starts to zoom in really slowly pulling the car into focus as well the camera is panning up

The camera at it's peak starts to pan back down and starts to pan to the left looking at the front of the car with a smashed winsheild

Within the smash of the window there is blood all around the window, the camera starts to pan around to the open door where blood stains are every where

The camera zooms into the car where there is blood stains in the car and there is blood dripping down from the seat to the floor which the camera follows, a few drips of blood hit the floor then the camera turns out of the car to see a blood trail on the floor

The camera starts to follow the blood smears along the trail, you see bits of flesh and personal belongings

The camera stops after about 15 seconds on following the trail and you see chunk's of flesh mix in with the blood

The camera stop's and you see a figure in the distances on his knees. The camera catch's up with the figure and there something or someone on the floor next to him.

As the start's panning around you see a pair of legs on the floor just slightly moving

The camera follows the legs up to where the figure is and you see him ripping chunks of flesh and guts and he starts eating it

Cuts to a shot of the womans face from above where its covered in blood, she is coughing up blood and gasping, her eye's are wide open throughout the this scene in till the end where she final dies and her eyes shut

Cuts back to the figure with a close up shot of his face all rotted and covered in blood and flesh

The figure stands up and start's to move away from the womans body back in the direction of the car, the camera pans to the left and starts to zoom out as the figure is walking off

The camera slowly starts to move back towards the woman broken body as the camera is panning up her body it stops to look at her face for roughly 5 to 10 seconds, suddenly her eyes shoot open and she starts to move to the camera

Cuts to the Title of the episode

Lonely Dead trailer 1st rough idea

cut away shot's of the landscapes and the sun setting in a graveyard.

cut's to an alley way and can just see an opening to the left, camera's going into the opening

cut's to a shot of a drain (close up shot)

camera starts to pan up and zooming out and you start to see blood flowing down towards the drain

camera starts to follow the blood up (close up shot)

the camera then starts to move up slowly as you see two figures in the background just out of focus

as the camera starts focus in on the figures you can start to see the two silhoutte characters move

as the two figures are on the ground you can see there is a figure cradling one of the other characters

you see the person cradling the other person leaning over and looking in like they are kissing, then the figure suddenly shots up

the figure then stands up and starts to move away, the camera follows him for a short amount of time

the cameras then cuts to the figure on the floor hearing him/her grasping for air

camera starts zooming in, then its revealed him/her was bitten and blood gushing from him/her neck and his/hers guts hanging out

Initial Lonely Dead Trailer Idea

Opening shot of a drain with a trail of blood just in shot; panning shot following the blood trail;

Out of focus shot showing someone cradling another person (in silhouette). Person begins to slowly rise to his/her feet with the other person’s body dropping to the ground at dead weight.

Camera follows the zombie as he stumbles away; the camera creeps up behind him ever so slowly ending with an over the shoulder/POV shot.

Time transition: - from the zombies travel from an alley way into some woodland area. (POV)

Walking through the woods the zombie passes by other zombies and a mound of dirt in the distance with a fresh corpse rising from its grave. End of shot with the zombie entering a graveyard through gate. (use various angles)

Zombie walks through graveyard into a different alley way.

Once in the alley way, two shadows can be seen in the distance; one begins to run towards the camera, and starts a violent attack on the zombie; as the zombie falls backwards he is reveal to the audience on camera.

After the brutal attack on the zombie a trail of blood runs down the alley way, the camera follows the flow of blood which reveals the films title: The Lonely Dead.