Interview with Logan McMillan, Director of 'Last of the Living'

By Geoff Bough

We caught wind of New Zealand based zombie film 'Last of the Living' last year and were captivated by the trailer. The production has since wrapped and we've been hearing good things about the film which also recently played at the New Zeland International Film Festival.

We got in touch with director Logan McMillan to talk more about the film, check it out...

Revenant: Last of the Living looks like an amazing zombie comedy romp, can you tell us about the plot and how the idea for the film came about?

Logan: It's funny - Ashleigh (star of the film and co-story creator) and I had this idea to do a film that was 'Swingers meets Dawn of the Dead'. So basically a bunch of guys being guys....with a few zombies thrown into the mix. That was the initial idea - Swingers is one of our favourite films and we have always loved the zombie genre so a mish mash of the two was a good idea when we started writing. But we shot the film over a 2 year space so the actual story changed from the shooting script and morphed into something a bit darker in places than we initially intended.

So the plot in our film revolves around 3 men who are, as far as they know, the sole survivors 6 months after a viral outbreak. Part way through the film they find a girl who is a scientist working on a cure. They team up with her and decide to try and get to a remote island where other scientists have setup to also work on a cure. So that's the basic outline of it.

Revenant: Can you tell us about the casting process and how you came to select the actors for the main characters?

Logan: Well, all the actors are friends and friends of friends - which worked out great for shooting. It meant we didn't have to pamper any stars or stroke egos - everyone just got on and did the job. We wrote the script with each actor already in mind so the characters are close in a way to the actual people.

Revenant: It was rumored last year that Peter Jackson would be making a cameo appearance in the film, is there any truth to this rumor?

Logan: Haha - yes that was a rumor that we started in the hope that Peter Jackson would get involved. I had many talks with his personal assistants but he is such a busy man that he couldn't fly down and do the cameo we asked of him for the final scene. It would have been a perfect cameo for him but luckily, in some ways, he didn't come down as we ended up scrapping the original ending and shooting a new darker one. So we are now going with the line "Last of the Living - the film Peter Jackson refused to be in!".

Revenant: Can you tell us a little about your company Gorilla Pictures? When did you start making films and music videos?

Logan: I started using the name Gorilla Pictures from when I did my first short film as a student back in 2000. After I finished studying I went out and formed my own company in 2005 making promo videos, short films and music videos. The aim has always been to make my first feature film by the age of 27 and I figured the best way to learn low budget skills and build up a crew was to make low budget music videos - which is all we get down here in Christchurch. I recently finished my 34th music video. Luckily I have managed to get together a small and versatile crew who I have worked with on a bunch of projects now and we are quite streamlined in the way we operate.

Revenant: The special effects and zombies look amazing in the film, can you tell us about the effects team on ‘Last of the Living’?

Logan: Well we didn't have an effects 'team' as such. Since we had a very low budget we wanted to do basic zombies more like the original Night of the Living Dead. We had a makeup artist, Lucy Harvey, who did all the zombie faces and we also had a bunch of contact lenses that are a bitch to put in. The visual effects were handled by one of my mates, Dan Watson, who is one of these guys who grew up with a computer in their bedroom and a copy of After Effects. He did some amazing seamless effects from a really simple setup. I also handled the colour grade and some other basic effects. So yeah - it was just the 3 of us.

Revenant: Where was the film shot? From the trailer, it looks like you had some great locations.

Logan: We shot mostly in the South Island of New Zealand. The city, as mentioned earlier, is Christchurch (population 350,000) and we were lucky enough to get use of spots like the nursing school, supermarket, mall, CD store, an abandoned church, etc for really cheap or in some cases free.

We also shot down in the Mackenzie basin, which is a barren and beautiful stretch of land 4 hours south of Christchurch. Down there is a tiny little commercial airport in a town called Twizel (population 1200) that let us shoot on their runway for 2 days. Everytime a plane wanted to land we had to clear the runway. We also got the local Skydive instructors to do some flying for us in between doing jumps with customers. And the weather was amazing. We were very lucky.

Revenant: What type of camera was used to shoot the film? I really like the color tone of the film, it turned out perfect.

Logan: We shot it on a Canon XLH1 HDV camera with a 35mm adapter on the front and a selection of Nikon Prime lenses. We initially wanted to shoot on something like the Red One or a Panasonic Varicam but the budget didn't allow it. It actually ended up being a great camera for us because of the way in which I like to shoot. The canon XL range are really sturdy and it meant we could work it harder - it could take the knocks. Which was perfect for our run-n-gun shooting style.

As far as post on the film I edited it all in Final Cut Pro and used Apple's new ProRes 422 codec for all post work. I did all of the cutting and post work on an Imac and it was incredibly reliable. I did the colour grading in Discrete Combustion.

Revenant: Can you speak a little about the budget for the film and how that was raised?

Logan: I had the plan to shoot this film no matter what. I tried to get money from businessmen and wealthy people in our city but that wasn't getting any traction. So as both Producer and Director I set some shoot dates down and booked the crew and actors in - they were all told that funding will be sorted. I just had to take a leap of faith and hope that someone will come through at the last minute.

I managed to get $2,000 ($1,400 US) from my parents and that was what we had going into the first week of shooting. We got into about day 6 and we ran out of money. None of the crew knew this. Everyone was due to be paid for their weeks work and they were all getting suspicious. Luckily a private investor (Steve Brownie) came to the rescue and gave us $10,000 ($7,1000 US) to continue shooting. So that money got us through to 14 days of shooting which was about 80% of the movie in the can. We sent everyone home and I went about cutting the best bits we had shot into a trailer and continued to try and raise some funds. I posted the trailer on YouTube and about 6 months later I got an email from Quantum Releasing in LA. They said they really liked the trailer and they wanted to buy the rights to the film. I told them it actually isn't finished. So after some negotiating they agreed to give us $40,000 US to finish the film off. So 1 year after initial shooting we got back together and shot the final scenes to the film. With Quantum attached we were able to get some funding from other sources as well and our final budget was $84,000 ($60,000 US).

Revenant: Will there be a soundtrack for the film?

Logan: The soundtrack for the film is something I'm very proud of. There are a bunch of local artists in there and their songs sound fantastic in the movie. It will be posted on the website. I think its a good show-piece for indie New Zealand music.

Revenant: Can you share one of your favorite moments from the shoot?

Logan: The funny thing is there was always so much going on shooting such a low budget film that you don't really have time to enjoy it. There are moments when you are on the back of a truck driving down the middle of a deserted road shooting a Mad Max style car and you think 'this is pretty cool' - but that thought soon goes from your mind when you think you still have 12 hours of work to do today and you still have to find 2 locations. The whole process is enjoyable - I just love being out in the field shooting.

If I had to pick one thing out though it would be the old church we blew up. We had the budget to do 1 explosion so it was quite important that we got it right - as there were no second takes. We also had an actor in the shot and the timing had to be perfect. Luckily everything went well and the explosion looked great. There is something so fun about blowing shit up - there is definitely going to be more in future films I make - if only for my personal satisfaction :)

Revenant: Is there anyone or any films that directly influenced or inspired you to make this film?

Logan: 2 films that had a massive influence on me, both before I was a filmmaker and now, are Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness and Ghostbusters. Army of Darkness was the first film I saw in that series (I watched them in reverse order) and I really loved the comedy in it - I know a lot of fans of the first 2 didn't like the 3rd but I came into that series in a different way. As with Ghostbusters I just really liked the mix of comedy, action and horror. The original Dawn of the Dead a movie I loved and was one of the main influences in deciding to make a zombie film as my debut.

Revenant: How is the indie film scene in New Zealand? We’ve seen some great films from there…

Logan: It's tough, as I'm sure it is around the world, for indie films to get made in New Zealand. Luckily for us we made a film with a genre that has international appeal and were able to get some U.S. funding. I think you have to be pretty determined to make an indie film and NZ is no different in that respect. The film industry here is small but able to produce some really world class films. Although where we are based we have very little contact with other people making feature films - all the action is on the other island (north island).

Revenant: What are some of your favorite zombie films?

Logan: Obviously George Romero's films are fantastic and are loved by all zombie fans......that I know of. I also really liked Zack Snyder's remake of Dawn and Britain's 28 days, weeks and Shaun of the Dead. Which interestingly people compare to ours after watching our trailer. But the feedback from the New Zealand International Film Festival is that they are nothing alike at all. Oh and I LOVE 'Return of the Living Dead'.

Revenant: Has the film completed production? How long was the shoot?

Logan: The film has completed production and it just screened at the NZ International Film festival. It has been submitted to a few horror and zombie festivals around the world. So we look forward to finding out what it will get into.

Last of the Living HD Trailer from Gorilla Pictures on Vimeo