Busy in the middle of trying to sort out Day 05 for 9th March – props list, script breakdown, effects list, shot log. Been a bit of a break so everyone is chomping at the bit. The day is going to be scenes which are self contained – Mary and child, a courtyard scene and a goresome zombie attack. Unfortunately we’re unable to access De Montfort University on this day so are trying to source another location. Just need a room or two so fingers crossed. Even if we cant film then it’ll be good to have everything in place for when we can.

As we speak Gav is working on the zombie death for this day. Its gonna be a tough one to nail effectively but iwe’ll see what happens.

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Its in the bag! Phewww. After months and months of meetings and discussion i’ve nailed an awesome location – Leicester De Montfort University. The University has given us the green light to use several buildings as locations for the film. One is an awesome Victorian construction with high ceilings and wide corridors. This is a massive step for the project and things will begin to fall into place now.Thanks must go to the number of people within the organisation who have helped Zombie Undead secure this location – Martin Hargreaves, Mambia Sambhi, Dave Paget,Chris Wyatt, Emma Ward and Marie Basford. There were more people than this even involved and this goes to show the amount of networking and work needed to source a location.
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The confirmation of a location is getting closer. I dont want to count my chickens but i’m pretty confident with this one. Looking back i’ve put in a helluva lot of work to get this far so fingers crossed.

The invaluable lesson i’ve learnt is you have to network, network, network. You need as many contacts as you can. No-ones going to give you something on the first meeting so be prepared to persevere, smooze and spend ridiculous amounts of time to get what you want.

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The process of finding a suitable location for Zombie Undead started in earnest earlier this year. As i’m sure all directors do i had an ideal location in my head, an old Victorian style building with high ceilings and long wide corridors. Think turn of the century school, country hospital or sanitarium. Again the drawn out nature of the project and its low budget presented some problems. Firstly we needed a building that would be around for at least a year. The type of property we wanted seem to all be currently being chopped up into flats or demolished. As producer the first 6 months of the year were extremely frustrating for this reason. Secondly it needed to be in good condition, we needed to shoot in all weathers and have electricity. These reasons and more meant finding a location would be hard.

Of the many locations i scouted two stand out so far. This is Princess Marina in Northants:

A more modern build than is ideal for the project but a viable choice nether the less. The second option is the Derbyshire Miners Home. This is a great location which matches my ideas pretty damn close.

Well all good so far but ….A major downfall of each is where each location is. Northampton is not too far from Leicester but the mechanics and costs of getting cast and crew there on odd days over a drawn out period of shooting where too high. The Derbyshire Miners looked ideal but is based in … Skegness. Go figure. Thanks must go to Em-Media who suggested these locations. Its just frustrating that each remainded just out of reach due to financial limitations.

After this initial round of scouting i turned closer to home. The ideal location came up after consultations with Leicester Regeneration and Claire Hudson at Creative Leicestershire. After a visit to the old Police station on Charles Street, Leicester i thought we’d got our location. Complete with safe, cells, lift and wood paneled superintendent office this was cool. However time was against us – as we speak the station is being made into flats.

Well all we can do is plough on. I’m a firm believer that these things happen to make way for a better option and our dream location will arrive.

The things which i found out thoughout this process which with hindsight would have come in handy were: Needs to be close to home, have electricity as generators cost to hire then you have ADR costs afterwoods, have cheap or no security costs.

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