Interview with Gregg Bishop - Director of Dance of the Dead

By Geoff Bough

I first heard rumblings about Dance of the Dead late last year and patiently waited for more news to trickle in. I caught some behind the scenes videos of the cast which only fueled my anxiety to see more about the film. Dance of the Dead recently played at SXSW and every review of the film that I have seen so far has been glowing.

We had the opportunity to speak with Dance of the Dead Director Gregg Bishop about the film, check it out...

Rev: Dance of the Dead has quite the original plot, can you tell us about the story and how you came to direct the script?

Gregg: DANCE OF THE DEAD is a horror/adventure film that takes place on the night of the big high-school Prom, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn't get dates to the dance. I first read the script when the writer Joe Ballarini and I were film students at USC. I’m a huge zombie movie fan, and I remember reading it during class and just flipping out over it! It was funny and smart and filled with action-packed adventure… But above all, it reminded me of my own high-school experiences (minus the zombies).

Rev: You’ve had some success with your previous film works, can you tell us a little about those?

Gregg: I made a short film called VOODOO when I was at USC which won over 10 film festivals world-wide and is now screened for incoming USC film students, along with the short films "THX 1138 4EB" by George Lucas and "THE LIFT" by Robert Zemeckis. After I graduated, I took $15k and funded my own movie called THE OTHER SIDE which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah and was picked up for a theatrical release.

Rev: Dance of the Dead recently played at SXSW in Austin and received some outstanding acclaim from industry folk. How was the festival experience for you and how did it feel to hear that your film was so well received?

Gregg: Man, it was really an incredible experience I'll never forget. We had our World Premiere at the Alamo Drafthouse which is the coolest theater on the planet. We had 3 back-to back sell-outs with lines wrapping around the block. When was making the movie, I was just making a movie that entertained me and made me laugh, so it was fun to hear an audience react the way they did. I mean, those screenings were out of control! As a filmmaker, the entire experience was a dream come true.

Rev: Did you get to pick any bbq ribs clean?

Gregg: You know I did! Stubbs and Iron Works rocked.

Rev: I’ve heard that the film has quite its fair share of gore, can you tell us about the special effects team on the project? You must have had a lot of fun with this one.

Gregg: I love this stuff. Toby Sells handled all of our make-up FX. Him and his team made-up hundreds and hundreds of zombies for us. Toby is one of the most sought after make-up FX guys on the East Coast and he is an incredible artist.

Rev: You shot the film in HD, was that easier to work in digital effects and whatnot?

Gregg: Why HD? Three reasons: Workflow of Digital Effects, getting to do multiple takes with the actors, and the stunt work. I shot my first feature on Super 16, and after a stunt my Stunt Coordinator (Nils Onsager) would ask me if I got it… and I would just shrug and say "we’ll find out in a couple of weeks". By shooting HD, we could see exactly what we were getting right then and there on set, then movie forward with confidence. After the premiere, several people came up to me and truly thought we had shot on film, which is a testament to the amazing talent of our cinematographer, George Feucht.

Rev: Can you tell us about the casting process? There’s a lot of younger talents in the film. Will we be seeing more of these actors?

Gregg: I love this cast! You will definitely be seeing a lot more of these kids. I feel that 80% of my job as a director is in who I cast. The first thing I told our casting director Jonathan Spencer is that I wanted to cast real kids... not 20-somethings playing teens. We saw hundreds of people in LA and in GA, and he'd really test them hard in the audition process and test their improv skills by throwing them curve balls. Those that could hang are in the movie.

Rev: How was the budget raised for the film?

Gregg: When I graduated from USC I hit the town with the script under one arm and my multi-award-winning short film "VOODOO" under my other. But unfortunately, no one in Hollywood would give me a greenlight because I was an unproven feature director... and this was before the large slew of zombie movies had come out. No one was making zombie movies and no one wanted to take a chance on someone who had never made a feature film before. So I took $15k of my own money (profits from my short VOODOO) and funded my own movie to prove I had the chops. That movie was "THE OTHER SIDE" which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah and was picked up for a theatrical release. Producer Ehud Bleiberg was at the festival where he saw the film… and "DANCE OF THE DEAD" finally came to life.

Rev: What was the most challenging aspect of production?

Gregg: Packing the schedule to get everything in. Somedays we'd be shooting stunts, make-up FX, Digital FX and ensemble dialogue all in one night, so we had to move fast and carefully schedule our days.

Rev: Was there any particular experience from the shoot that you had the most fun with?

Gregg: We have a sequence where all hell brakes loose in a cemetery and we're tracking with our heroes as zombies are literally launching from their graves like they're shot from cannons beneath the ground. It required some complicated wire work, 200 zombies, and an entire stunt team to pull off. That was the most fun to shoot and is one of my favorite moments in the film.

Rev: I understand you’re a big zombie fan, what are some of your favorite zombie films, books, etc?

Gregg: The original "NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD", of course. Michael Jackson's "THRILLER" is a classic. The "DAWN OF THE DEAD" remake rocked, I love "EVIL DEAD". I also own a copy of the ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE.

Rev: As a film maker, who or what do you draw inspiration from?

Gregg: I get inspiration from everywhere. Books, films, people, art, photographs... life.

Rev: What can we expect to see from you in the future?

Gregg: Joe Ballarini and I are writing a fun action/comedy which I plan to direct, and I'm currently writing a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat thriller.

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