Interview with Scott Kragelund & Erik Van Sant creators of the film 'Book of Zombie'.

By Geoff Bough

Upon first hearing of The Book of Zombie, I was immediately intrigued by the premise. After digging a little deeper I knew this film was going to be a rich blend of comedy and zombies! It was also filmed in my hometown of Seattle and I know that Seattle has some of the best zombie fans around so it was only natural that I get in touch with the film makers Erik Van Sant and Scott Kragelund and pick their brains about the film...

Rev: The story behind 'Book of Zombie' is very original, can you tell us a little more about the story and how the story concept came about?

Scott: The story came about at a lunch room meeting. We all work for a tv
station and were kicking around ideas for an outside of work project.
Someone mentioned a zombie film, then someone said "Mormon Zombie Film"
and it got a good laugh out of everyone. I told everyone that if we made
a Mormon Zombie film, that it would be successful, but I don't think they
were convinced.

I immediately wrote an 8 page treatment to a short film.
It basically was a comedy at first, the imagery of Mormon Missionaries
coming to your door and then becoming flesh-eating zombies just seemed
funny to me. We had several meetings about the treatment where everyone
kept telling me my writing was lacking something. Erik Van Sant asked me
if he could take a shot at writing the screenplay based on my treatment
and I was glad to hand it off. Erik is a very talented writer, and he
immediately came back with a full-blown script with a smart ending, and it
got everyone even more excited about the project.

Erik: I actually wasn't around for the official "inception" of the idea. From what I've gathered from the boys, it was a bunch of disgruntled television employees sitting around in a breakroom, and one guy makes a crack that no one's made a film about Mormon Zombies. Scott Kragelund handed me a five-page treatment for a short film about Mormon Zombies. I then took it home, started writing, and before I knew it I blew past the short film scenario and turned it into a full-blown screenplay. Movie magic ensued. As for a synopsis of the film: an epidemic takes hold of a small, Utah town where ONLY people of Mormon faith are turned into flesh-eating ghouls. A rag-tag group of "non-believers" must team up despite their differences, figure out what the hell is going on while fighting off hoards of zombies. Oh, and there's comedy.

Rev: Mormon zombies!? That's frightening...why Mormon zombies?

Scott: Our intention wasn't to pick on the Mormons, our intention was to have a
cool setting for the film. We all thought that a "small Utah town" would
be a good place for a zombie infestation, and adding that religious twist
would be even more ghoulish.

Erik: I'm still asking myself that question. I thought it was actually more funny than frightening, but to each his own. I looked at it as an opportunity to take something gimmicky and make it into an interesting horror film that fans would want to see.

Rev: How did you guys all come together for this project?

Erik: Most of us work together on a morning news show in Seattle. Our other staple members, like our stellar F/X man, Marcel Banks--we found on the internet through Myspace, Craigslist... friend of friends. Other people flooded in through Myspace and the website.

Rev: Did you guys shoot the film locally here in Seattle? How did the location scouting go?

Scott: We shot the film in Auburn, Puyallup, and Seattle. Our main set was in Auburn. We stumbled upon the opportunity of a lifetime down there. The city of Auburn was going to demolish 3 bars that were all in a row right
there on main street.

Paul Cranefield (one of the directors) and I wentdown there to try and get a free pool table off of a Craigslist ad, and we
immediately walked accross the street to City hall and asked if we could
shoot our movie in those bars. After the proper permits, they not only
let us shoot the movie there, they said we could break things! So we
immediately started spraying blood everywhere and prepping the sets.

Erik: We shot most of the film in Auburn, Washington and a few key scenes in Puyallup, Everett and Shoreline. But you never know, we still have pick-ups and additional footage--Seattle might make the cut eventually.

Rev: How long was the shoot? Were there any on-set hijinks?

Scott: The shoot went for about 4 months straight. We all have regular jobs, so we had to cram everything into the weekends. We all donated our time and
our money to the project. We didn't really start out with any type of budget. We wanted to, but the City of Auburn told us that they were going to demolish those bars in 4 months so we knew we had to start immediately.

We did put a Paypal link on our website to try and drum up some
donations, but for the most part it was all of the people on the team that
helped with the financing.

Erik: Principal photography began in early June 2007, and was pretty much wrapped by the end of August. And that was keeping the shooting just to the weekends (because of our regular jobs). That's a massive amount of work in that timeframe when you can't devote seven days a week 24 hours a day. As for hijinks, YES, I can't remember a day/night when there weren't hijinks. Whether it was throwing fake blood/body parts at each other, to getting actors extremely intoxicated so we could shoot long, arduous hours... there's just too much to go over in this interview alone.

Rev: How was the capital raised to shoot the film and what kind of budget did you have to work with?

Erik: The money used for this production came out of my wallet, and the wallets of some other crew members/friends/family. This is shoe-string independent filmmaking here. We attempted a donation system, but it never yielded any huge returns. Some people donated without knowing what would come out of this project, and I think that takes a lot of guts and heart. there was never an "official" budget/financial plan ever in place. If we needed something for any given shot, someone would step forward and say, "I'll pay for it". Incredible dedication.

Rev: Were you able to accomplish most everything you intended to with the final film?

Scott: I believe we got about 80% of everything we wanted out of shooting the
film. This is our first project and I'm very proud of what we have done,
but there is always room for improvement. We still have some re-shoots
this summer and hopefully we will get everything we want.

Erik: I would say for the most part, yes. We still have a ways to go with pick-ups/additional scenes... etc. What happens when you've never directed a film is you make a lot of mistakes as you go along. You learn as you go, and when you're watching something you did a ways back, you always go "I could have done that better", or, "If I could do that again..." But that applies to everything in life I think. From what I've seen, I'm very pleased with what we accomplished and truly believe it will cut together into a kick-ass film.

Rev: What kind of camera was used for the production?

Scott: We used a Panasonic DVX-100A, and we shot in 24 frames per second, which
helped give it that film look.

Rev: Tell us about the casting process and how you cast the lead roles...

Scott: We went through a very intensive Casting process. With the help of a real
casting director, we were able to get most of our actors in about a 6 week
period. The auditions were fun for us. We got to see some very
interesting characters throughout the auditions. Our lead actors were
easy to cast. Brian Ibsen and Larisa Peters nailed the parts on their
first auditions. And when they read together, their chemistry was obvious.
They were our lead actors.

Erik: Co-producer and co-director Paul Cranefield hooked up with a local filmmaker named Corrie Moore who helped us put out an official casting call on the Seattle actor's board. We got flooded with actors wanting to be a part of the film. I believe we held three auditions around Seattle and found most of our principal actors through the process. I still get chills remembering the first time I heard professional actors reading lines that I wrote.

Rev: From what I have seen, the effects and zombie make-up look VERY good. Can you tell us about the make-up team you had on the film?

Scott: We struck gold with the special effects. Marcel Banks answered our
Craigslist ad and after looking at pictures of his work on his Myspace
page, we knew he was the real deal. Without him, our film would be
nothing. Marcel and Van Sant carefully planned out every kill scene with
passion and I think they all look great.

Erik: Marcel Banks. He's our ace in the hole. This film wouldn't be nearly what it is without his incredible effects. He's only 21 years old, 20 when he started this film, and is able to create more believable effects than some dudes I've seen who actually get paid for it in Hollywood. Scott found him on the internet through Craigslist, and we instantly brought him aboard based on pics he had posted on his Myspace page. Marcel and I have since become close friends partly because of our mutual obsession with horror movies. He's the one guy on the crew I can have an in-depth philosophical conversation about 'Killer Klowns From Outer Space' with. He's brilliant.

Rev: What was the biggest challenge for you guys during production?

Scott: I think the biggest challenge for us was shooting the movie in reverse.
Since we had to use the Auburn sets first, we had to shoot the last scenes
first. So we had to be very careful with continuity as we progressed.

Erik: People's schedules. Money. Time. We would have to shoot some scenes that involved all five of our main actors with only three of them. We did a lot of "fake-schemping". It was hilarious and stressful, but it kept us on our toes all of the time and forced us to get REALLY creative with how we shot scenes.

Rev: Tell us one of your favorite scenes from the film...

Scott: One of my favorite scenes involves a spoiler, so I'll have to wait on this
question.

Erik: When I was writing the script I loved anything that had to do with our characters interacting and playing off of one another. Of course I like the big gore shots: beheadings, neck-rips, head-shots, flaming arrows. But I love the characters. In any film, I want to care about the people we're expected to follow through the story, so when a character meets their demise it's like, "Oh shit, I liked that guy..."

Rev: As writers and film makers who do you admire in the industry?

Scott: I admire people like Sam Raimi, and Edgar Wright. Raimi not only introduced a unique style of shooting, but he also laid the groundwork for creating something out of nothing. Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) seamlessly integrates comedy and horror better than anyone else in the
business.

Erik: I'm first and foremost a horror fan. We have all of the usual suspects here: Raimi, Romero, Carpenter, Argento, Hooper, Friedkin, Kubrick, Dan O. Bannon, Stuart Gordon, Clive Barker, Craven, Edgar Wright, early Spielberg... just to name a few. As a writer, I love Charlie Kauffman, Woody Allen, and Quentin Tarantino, Joss Whedon, Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright... even Fred Dekker who I think NAILED the balance of horror/comedy with 'Night of the Creeps'.

Rev: What are some of your favorite films and were there any films that influenced Book of Zombie?

Scott: I think Shaun of the Dead is probably one of the biggest movies we drew
influence from. Erik Van Sant blends other horror movie influences in the
script that true horror fans will also recognize and appreciate.

Erik: Writing the script, my three biggest influences were 'Return of the Living Dead', 'Shaun of the Dead', and 'The Evil Dead'. We wanted to emulate the templates of those three the most--anything to fuse high horror with high comedy. But, when you write you pull from what's influenced you over the course of your entire life. There's a little bit of something from all of the films I've come to cherish over the years--whether that's horror, comedy, drama... any genre.

Rev: What are the future plans for the film? I know you recently screened the
film at Crypticon...what's next?

Scott: We don't have any other projects in the works just yet. We want to keep
our focus on making TBOZ as good as it can be. We have done a great job
marketing this film that isn't even completely done yet, and we want to
keep that momentum going. We've had some interest from some Distribution
companies in L.A. and we're just trying to make sure we deliver a kick ass
product.

Erik: Crypticon was a fantastic experience. Not only for me as a horror fan, but for 'The Book of Zombie'. The kind gentlemen who put on the event were gracious enough to hold screenings for the trailer, and it received a wonderful response from the fans. For me, this was a moment of truth for our film. First and foremost, I want to please fans of the genre. If you don't, there's really no point. It was surreal to be walking around Crypticon and hearing groups of friends talking about the movie. There was a lot of buzz, and hopefully that will evolve into full-blown anticipation for the release. I also got a kick out of approaching horror film greats like Kane Hodder, Bill Moseley, and Adrienne King and being able to talk about our movie and put demo discs in their hands. For years I was entertained by their art in cinema, and now I had the chance to pass along my own, Pretty incredible. As for what's next--we just want to finish this puppy and get it released by October so everyone can finally see all of our hard work.

I'm excerting most of my efforts on 'The Book of Zombie', but I'm developing at least five other scripts that span across all sorts of genres. I'm hoping to shop those around at some point when 'TBOZ' is behind us. I would like to continue making films for a living for the rest of my life.

Rev: Thanks for your time guys! It was great to learn more about your film and we hope to be seeing the film very soon! Best wishes for the rest of the production.

For more information on The Book of Zombie, check out the official site at - www.thebookofzombie.com