Evaluation of Research

I began my research by studying the history of short films, and their significance within the industry. The main thing I gathered was that modern short films are deliberately different than mainstream feature movies, in their topics and how they are made, so from this point I wanted to make my own production which included aspects from typical feature films but still retained distinctive elements.
I then started to look at an overview of the ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ sub genre, noting what aspects they included to make them fit into that category. I could then incorporate them into my own short so my audience would recognise it as an apocalypse film.
The first popular media about zombies I looked at for inspiration was Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ video. However, I did not find it particularly useful for my own project because it wasn’t really scary or realistic. I then decided to look at the depiction of zombies in popular culture throughout history. I took particular note on the novel ‘I am Legend’ and the Romero’s film ‘Night of the Living Dead’ which together formed the zombie stereotype of western culture.
I also looked at more recent production such as ’28 Days Later’, the TV series ‘Dead Set’ and the film adaptation of ‘I am Legend’. All of these have aimed to defy the common stereotype, the most notable new feature is that the zombies and infected people in these productions are capable of sprinting, as opposed to the traditional shambling monster.
I found all of these extremely useful, for the concept of my own zombies, thus helping me to formulate which costumes to use and how the actors should act.
The final part of my research involved me searching for a suitable location to shoot my film, I considered many different Brownfield sites across Telford each with their own advantages. I also had to bear in mind accessibility to certain locations, as it was difficult to arrange my cast and crew to meet up at locations that where awkward to get to. However, even though I settled on using the Lightmoor location for my fight scene, I still used footage of each of my considerations in my final film.