Blacksmith's marketer looking to expand horizons with zombie series.

[RadcliffeV]

I'm head of marketing for www.purgatoryironworks.com, a website that accomplished blacksmith and showman Trent Tye made so that he could pass the ancient and dieing craft of blacksmithing on to a new generation. He also demonstrates skills involved in the trade at Renaissance festivals and historical re-enactments, and some of you may have seen him as he travels around the US doing so. Recently, we were sitting around playing Smash Bros. (I know its not what you expected us to be doing in our free time) and we were talking about the looming Zombie Apocalypse. We found that it was a subject that we kept bring up, and Trent made a short video about it. http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/...ouncement.html It turned out so well, that I want to do a series of them. Because Trent is also a trained outdoorsman, I used to be an I.T. professional, computer tech, and gadget guru, and between us we know plenty of law enforcement, medical, and military personnel, I wanted to expand on the nature of the videos. I want to make a documentary series detailing how one would survive a zombie attack, how one would start, and everything about how zombies work and act. There are only two problems. The first, and biggest problem is convincing Trent that it would be worth the payoff. He loved making the first video, and making videos in general, but his first love and concern is the blacksmith craft. I was hired on to help bring people to the site, and I thought that this video would be one of my greatest weapons. Zombies are popular, the quality is great, and it just felt right. But for some reason, it isn't catching on. I can't get it to the top of Digg, the youtube version isn't getting many hits, and people aren't biting in individual forums. Its a problem that I find really perplexing. When I show it to friends, and sit random people down to it, they love it and all the other videos Trent makes, but I'm just not getting it out there to enough people. If I can really drive out page hits up, and our customer base, then I would have a better position to work from. The second issue is that a logistical one. This video, and the videos he makes for the site on a regular basis are all done by himself. He made the lighting equipment from construction lighting and the adjustable apparatus from spare metal he uses to forge with, he lines up the shots and edits the videos all himself. He's really a one man show, and what I want to do will require extras, action shots, and more than one person behind the camera. I'm sure he could make the dolly for the camera out of some scrap materials, but as far as actually being able make scenes as professional as I envision, I think we'd need some help. So I'd need someone familiar with film that wouldn't break the bank. We know people who would get in front of the camera for free (and most with charisma and some with entertainment backgrounds) but talent behind the camera would be a bit tricker. So if anyone here as any advice, I'm all ears. Until then you can find me working on the site, trying to improve it for the day we actually get a large influx of customers.

[S&Dproductions]

First off, welcome to the forum. I checked out the video and I like it. It had the feel of home shopping and the boe knife collection mixed with zombie survival kit. Things that would have caught people's eye is maybe a few examples of the chopping power/blasting power on a zombie. People today like the spray of red now and again. What's planned for the next installment? Film advice? Are you working with a budget? If not, building everything from scratch is your best bet. The three things I would focus most on is 1: lighting: Lighting is so important. In the film I just completed, I had alot of night shots. I was worried about how I was gonna light it. So I just wrote in that the headlights on the car were left on. Might have been the best move I made. Alot of undergound films fail because of lighting. Even exploitation films of the 70's were poorly lit in night shots. I've seen people go as far as shoot night for day and darken the shots down. 2: photography: You gotta ask yourself, am I gonna shoot it all hendheld or am I going to shoot it with more stable means i.e. dolly/crane. 3: special fxs: Fxs are important and can be accomplished yourself. There's alot of tips online about creating fxs. Some fxs supply websites have already made appliances you can stick on and paint. Your best bet is doing it yourself because an fx artist is kinda pricey. Keep us update!

[RadcliffeV]

First off, welcome to the forum. I checked out the video and I like it. It had the feel of home shopping and the boe knife collection mixed with zombie survival kit. Things that would have caught people's eye is maybe a few examples of the chopping power/blasting power on a zombie. People today like the spray of red now and again. What's planned for the next installment? Film advice? Are you working with a budget? If not, building everything from scratch is your best bet. The three things I would focus most on is 1: lighting: Lighting is so important. In the film I just completed, I had alot of night shots. I was worried about how I was gonna light it. So I just wrote in that the headlights on the car were left on. Might have been the best move I made. Alot of undergound films fail because of lighting. Even exploitation films of the 70's were poorly lit in night shots. I've seen people go as far as shoot night for day and darken the shots down. 2: photography: You gotta ask yourself, am I gonna shoot it all hendheld or am I going to shoot it with more stable means i.e. dolly/crane. 3: special fxs: Fxs are important and can be accomplished yourself. There's alot of tips online about creating fxs. Some fxs supply websites have already made appliances you can stick on and paint. Your best bet is doing it yourself because an fx artist is kinda pricey. Keep us update! The budget I would be working with would be the coffers of the purgatoryironworks.com website if (and only if) I can convince Trent it would be worth the investment. So its like a catch 22, I need zombie fans to come to the site in the first place to demonstrate that we have a market in that demographic, so that we can make a high budget production for that demographic to draw even more people to the site. As far as equipment is concerned, unlike usual, that isn't an issue. When Trent signed me up for his website project, he took me to the improved forge to show off some of his cool projects and work area. I immediately started down the very same path you did about lighting and such when he demonstrated his custom constructed lighting equipment. I was more impressed with it than I was the knife he was working on made out of 10,000 year old mastodon ivory. He had made a multi-thousand dollar lighting rig for about 30 or so bucks and some scrap metal. As far as what I have planned for my next installment, I'm still kind of working it out in my head, but if I got the chance to do what I wanted with it, I'd make something a little Mythbusters, a little Shootout (History Channel documentary about, what else, shootouts), and a little Survivor Man. It would take the premise seriously to a point, but have some humor put in here and there. I'd like to go into possible scenarios for all types of Zombie hoards (fast, slow, magical, viral, unknown) and various situations people would find themselves in. Maybe go a little into why its a relevant topic to talk about.

[DjfunkmasterG]

Funny vid... loved it.