Kylie Claude from Zombie Ninjas vs Black Ops was kind enough to answer a few questions about this exciting horror/action movie. It was great to find out about what goes into making an indie horror movie and learn more about the creation of this battle between the black ops and zombie ninjas.
The web comics tie in with the movie. Did the story start out as a comic book idea and develop into a movie, or did it start out as a movie idea and the web comics followed?
Yes, the comics certainly do tie in and actually play quite an important part of the Zombie Ninjas world. During production is when the idea turned into something real. The comic allows us to explore our greater vision for the Zombie Ninjas world than what we can afford to make as a super low budget indie film. The animated comic series starts as a prequel to the live action movie, but future episodes will expand to reveal far more of the bigger picture.
The movie has some great martial arts action. Did you specifically look for actors like Soa Palelei who have extensive martial arts training and can you describe how a fight scene is created?
Thank you, I’m glad you liked it. Yes, movie action is very important to us and martial arts plays a crucial role in the sort of action films we like to make. We sought to find actors who were proficient in martial arts like Kenny Low and obviously Soa Palelei but the lead role of Dillon needed something more. We decided to find the best local actor and hoped to spend some time teaching them how to sell the choreography. Luckily for us, Adam T Perkins was our first choice for the hero role and his extensive dance history meant he understood choreography. He had his own technique for learning it, we wrote out every single move for every fight sequence and he’d practice it as often as he could, mostly at his local park.
For us, creating a fight scene can only really come together when all the elements are in place, knowing the skill set of the actors/stunties, the environment and of course the purpose of the action for the story…from there, it takes shape.
Did you have specific actors in mind for the main characters like Dillon, Eddie and Mali, or did you have auditions?
We didn’t have any specific actors in mind, shooting it locally, working with local talent we held auditions and were lucky to be able to cast completely from the auditions.
What scared me most about these zombies is that they’re not slow-moving and stupid. You don’t need a horde to do damage. Just one could destroy a room full of average people. How did you go about creating the zombies and deciding how many human characteristics and skills they should retain?
Lol that’s cool. We created them during our many brainstorming sessions. We wanted a nemesis that was ferocious and a legitimate match up against trained mercenary types who are trained to be lethal, but each idea had to fit within our super low budget. We have always wanted to make a ninja movie, so we saw this as an opportunity to use that as inspiration. We also enjoy ‘human enhancement’ elements from movies like The Bourne Legacy. It was important to us for this movie to be more real than fantasy so there are a tonne of human, but enhanced, elements to the Zombie Ninjas – but as you’ll discover throughout the comic series this does evolve.
While filming Zombie Ninjas vs Black Ops, were there any changes made to the original script? Is a script similar to a book outline with room for adjustments, or do you try to follow it exactly?
We tried to follow the script exactly, after all it is the blueprint. However, it’s impossible not to deviate at times based on any number of issues/challenges/thoughts that occur during filming – but for us, it didn’t change until we got into the editing room. It changed drastically after watching the first rough cut, we had to be brutal and completely cut a number of scenes that just didn’t work whether it was a pacing or performance issue. We learned pretty quickly that you can’t be precious during the editing process.
Was the movie filmed in an actual office building, or did you build sets?
The movie was shot entirely on location, in a real office. In fact, that wasn’t the original location we had in mind in our initial script, but the opportunity to have access to the office building presented itself so we jumped on it – making significant changes to the script to be suited for this new environment. The building would mostly be vacant over the Christmas holidays, and we had permission to shoot at night so as to not disrupt any workers, we had a small window of about 19 nights to shoot. It was tight so we shot every single night, back to back…we were exhausted by the end of it lol.
How long did it take to complete Zombie Ninjas vs Black Ops, from coming up with the idea to the actual release of the movie?
This was quite a quick turnaround to get into production, really only about 6 months. It was post production that took the better part of 12 months before we could complete it and release it.
I don’t want to give away the ending, but it seems like there could be (I won’t deny I’m hoping for it) a sequel. Is that a possibility?
We hope so too. Our Zombie Ninjas world certainly allows for it, in the meantime audiences can enjoy more of the story with the Zombie Ninjas animated comic series (we’ll release a brand new episode shortly for the new year) … but we’ll keep our fingers crossed for a live action sequel.
Would you describe Zombie Ninjas vs Black Ops in three words?
Wow…that’s a tough questions – Action, Brutal, Survival
Is there anything about the movie you would like viewers to know?
Yes, although we made it on a shoestring budget our focus was to deliver on intense and engaging action.
Thank you for being a guest at the Compelling Beasts Blog!
It’s been a pleasure, thank you!
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This movie sounds like so much fun!
Hi Majanka! It was. Loved the action and the zombies.