Slowly the site redesign is taking shape, but there’s still a lot to do so please excuse the mess around here. So anyway, if you have time to read this, then maybe you have time on Wednesday, because this Wednesday FTI is showcasing some local productions at the Local Focus: Halloween Screamer event. The line-up at the looks really exciting, with work from Wade K. Savage, Jason Stringer, Antony Webb and Damien Giglietta all screening. Head here for tix ,but you better hurry coz these things sell out. If you need convincing read on because Brains? caught up with Wade to get the low down on his new flick, THE DEAD WASTES.

WADE K. SAVAGE: ‘The Dead Wastes’ is basically a short Zombie horror film centered around a duel. I tried to make the film in the style of two of my favorite film directors- Lucio Fulci and Sergio Leone. So, you could say it clashes those two kinds of styles.

I wrote, cut and directed it, and both Leoni Leaver and Kym Bidstrup starred.

My very good friend Stuart Mackenzie was the producer, whilst both Naomi D. Lynch, who is a fantastic Special Makeup FX artist and designer, and I were co-producers. 

Cinematographer Jeremy Stewart was our DP, whilst the wunderkind Peter R. McIntosh was our sound designer/recordist. Alana Starcevich was the production designer (one of the best working in Perth today- without a doubt).

Evidently, Naomi did all the Makeup FX and design (www.naomnaomi-d-lynch-makeupfx.com), she’s so good in fact, she just came back from a meeting with WETA in New Zealand!

All the music was scored by the amazing Michael DeGrussa.

I also have a special place in my heart for my Assistant Directors George Davis and Damien Giglietta (who is, in fact, a great director himself see www.trespassmovie.com).

Unfortunately, shooting in Perth was really difficult. We must have of tried 10 different locations- but no one wanted to help us out. There were even locations which were advertised as being ‘film shoot friendly’, but this was simply not the case. A majority of the places weren’t even being used! So, that was pretty disappointing.

So we went back to The Pines in Pinjar because the people there are great and have always looked after us. The location turned out far better than I thought it ever would, but that’s mainly down to our wonderful production designer Alana Starcevich.

We shot on the RED camera (provided by Sam Winzar of Dingbat Digital). It’s a wonderful format, that creates beautiful cinematic pictures. The camera was terribly well behaved and Sam was great to work with.

The shoot, mind you, was very, very hard work. Freezing rain. Spot fires. Not enough assistants. These were some of the things we had to contend with. Not including one of our stars have a pretty nasty allergic reaction to the makeup! Nonetheless, we got some amazing stuff. And every bit of hard work was well worth it.

I learned a lot from this shoot in regards to having enough bodies on the ground at any one time, our production designer was literally covering everything herself- which wasn’t ideal. On the other hand, if you have super HOD’s, then you know you’ll always get great results. I  really appreciate this team. They are some of the most, if not, the most, talented people working in the Perth film scene today. And I’m really blessed having got the chance to work with them.

Though the initial concept was far more Sci-Fi, I’m really happy with the direction the film took. It’s kinda leaner and meaner now.

Post Production has been interesting. I cut using DNX HD Quicktimes, which looks great- but take a long damn to create. I’ll really need a render farm next time! All in all, it’s worked out fine- just a little time consuming.

And my only tip with working with Zombies? Feed them, before you shoot your film!