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Four years ago, I wrote a piece about Zomblogalypse for this site. It’s a massively fun web series about three flatmates who wake up one morning and find the world’s ended. Which they are, by and large, okay about. Although it does make the shopping harder to do. Hannah, Miles and Tony, our three (sort of) heroes have continued to battle the zombie apocalypse in their own darkly funny way ever since. Hannah knits and writes songs; Tony creates ever more elaborate weapons to destroy zombies; and Miles, by and large, views the world as just a little nicer (If slightly more bitey) than it was before. It’s not a very easy life, and you do have to enjoy eating squirrel, but it’s there’s.
The show has continued to be hugely successful for years now because it’s smart, funny, cheerfully nasty and captures that inherent slight rubbishness that anyone in this country knows too well. We’re all far too polite to really let the zombie apocalypse get in the way and so the Zomblog team’s cheerful refusal to let the hordes of undead cramp their style is really endearing. And a little unsettling. Tony does LOVE those creative weapons.
But now, things have changed. The team has a producer, a plan, a script and a destination. The only thing they’re missing is your help. Which is where IndieGoGo comes in.
The Cannes film festival is coming up and the team has already been out there once. This is crucial; Zomblogalypse isn’t an unknown quantity, they’re not starting from scratch. However, in order to get any further than the interest they’ve already had, they need The Package and The Package is a pretty serious undertaking. Here’s the team to explain it:
“Packaging a film is about bringing together all kinds of elements so people like film distributors can work out whether they want to give you money and how much it’s going to be. The package usually includes things like a full screenplay, cast and detailed budget, but these days people are also looking for pre-production to already be moving forward with sales estimates, practicality assessments, concept art, concept special effects, concept posters, concept press kits and lots of other things that people in suits like to look at and stroke their chin thoughtfully to.
“Plenty of those people in suits thought the idea sounded pretty cool pitching it around at Cannes 2012; the perfect comedic twist in a zombie-saturated market. There were even whispers of ‘trilogy’ and ‘franchise’, but it’s all about THE PACKAGE to get past the whispers to shaking hands, signing things, and finding elaborate ways to paint our friends green yet again.”
In order to finance this, they’ve put together an IndieGoGo campaign to raise the ten grand needed. And, it being the Zomblogalypse team, they’ve got some pretty excellent rewards at various levels, such as:
• £15 – A unique yarnbomb tag made by Hannah. As the video shows, the team has all found different ways to survive the apocalypse and Hannah has decided to brighten the (now mostly dead) world up a bit with these tags. Think of them like knittable, wearable graffiti.
• £20 – Digital or DVD copy of the film, plus thanks and eternal love in the end credits and on the website.
• £25 – A signed zombie weapon blueprint from Tony, plus a copy of the film on digital or DVD, plus the endless love and thanks on the website and end credits.
• £35 – A signed poster AND a copy of the movie AND eternal website/credits love!
• £50 – Be a Zombie in the movie! They’ll liaise with you for dates and if you can make it to York, you can be horribly marmalised for the good of Tony’s Viking helmet, Hannah’s knitting and Miles’ squirrel ratatouille. Plus the end credits/website love and the movie.
• £75 – Be a featured zombie or survivor, which means you get lines, an IMDB credit, almost certainly suffer a grisly death and get the movie and the website end/credits love.
• £500 – Be credited as an executive producer on the film, get an IMDB credit saying as such, get invited to the Premiere and after party, get a signed poster, a copy of the film and website/end credits love.
The Zomblogalypse team contains some of the hardest-working people in the industry. They’re riding their own meagre funds all the way to the end of the line as well as asking for donations because they love making the show and they want to make the best possible movie they can. If you like zombies, if you’ve ever knitted anything, if you can quote Shawn Of The Dead and you want to see the undead rampage through York, one of the country’s prettiest cities, please donate. After all, when the zombies finally rise, we want Hannah, Miles and Tony still around. They have skills we’ll need if we ever hope to rebuild…
Alasdair Stuart
Further reading:
• Original Zomblogalypse piece: http://www.sfx.co.uk/2009/08/11/blog_surviving_the_zomblogalypse/
• IndieGoGo campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zomblogalypse-the-movie
• Zomblogalypse : http://www.zomblogalypse.com/
