Wednesday, July 8, 2009

It began with the end...

My name is Corrado.

In 2008 I began my own zombie horror webseries Dead Road.
This was years in the making, and since no one else seemed eager to
work with me I had to take matters into my own hands.

Film was not an option. Dead Road has absolutely no budget.
No one has partnered up, nor shown an interest in investing.

Since the technology was there for me to start shooting digital and
I had help in the editing department, it began.
I gathered some loyal friends who've worked with me in the past.
They were all excited about a zombie webseries and the rest just
worked itself out.

The hardest part was working with no team.
I literally deal with:

  • Directing
  • Writing
  • Co-editing
  • Composing and recording music
  • Scheduling (which is painful)
  • Scouting
  • Photoshopping
  • Advertising
  • Webmaster to Deadroad.net
  • All other sites, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
  • Prop master
  • Make up effects
The list goes on, it was truly an overwhelming decision on my part.

In addition...
Setting my story 2 years in a post apocalyptic setting was insane, but
I was up for the challenge and everyone seemed to like the idea:
  • Early morning shoots to avoid traffic
  • Locations empty enough, free of people
  • indoor location, which seem harder to find
  • Enough extras for zombies etc.
Now that all the ingredients were more or less in place we started shooting. Episode 1 was more of an intro, but it was worked on in such a rush in order to make a Halloween deadline. Audio problems and all it was finished. And the series began.

Scheduling turned out to be the biggest problem, so the frequency I had wanted had to be scrapped from my original plans. Once a month has proved to be just about impossible.
So now it's "whenever we're ready"

The turn out has been pretty good so far, and my main reason for doing this is not only for the love of film making and the genre. But for some exposure. And hopefully, I'll be able to help out
all my friends along the way.

The biggest help with the making of Dead Road is the cast.
Without them there would be no series.
So I'll finish this blog entry with them:

Rich Ruperto:
Known him since the 6th grade. We've shared many of the same interests throughout the years, whether it's music, movie, comics, you name it. We've traveled around the World, attended many conventions, and spend countless hours watching and discussing films and animation. He's been loyal to all my projects, always there to show support and has worked on a bunch of shortfilms
I made from High School to now. He has definitely improved
in the acting department, I can't complain. He's invested in
the series quite a bit I must say.

Humberto Rivera:
Another school friend, I've knows just as long as Rich.
We would often draw pictures in class rather than study and
have cut class many times to hang out at my place to watch Japanese anime. He first helped me when I attended film school back in `98. About 10 years later he came back around
and we started making short films for a couple of competitions
I entered. To me he's a natural actor.

Julie Robbins:
I've known her for a couple of years and shared a passion for travel, we would sometimes discuss our past destinations and stories. While I began writing Dead Road I sorta had a female character in mind that was somewhat based on her, so I decided to see if she would be interested in playing the part of Paige.
A name that she actually came up with. It worked for me.
She came on board and seemed to fit right in with the rest
of the cast. Perfect choice.

Edwin Rivera:
Another friend I've known for a long time. Also shares many of my interests with music, movies and animation. Ed has been wearing many hats during the production of Dead Road.
And although he was not originally cast to play Chris, he jumped at the chance when I had an opening. Besides that he is also the show's military consultant, having been in the military himself.
And he has also been our zombie "Shemp" in every single episode.
As well as performing some zombie audio dub overs. Truly a dedicated jack of all trades.

Corrado DeRobertis:
He's actually my cousin and probably the only person in the cast that has formally studied acting. He was the obvious choice to play the role of Capt. Hawkins and a reliable person when it comes to anything I may need help with during the production of this
on-going webseries.

Other cast members include: Pete Borshowsky, Rody Bustamante and more... At this point in the series they have not yet appeared, so I do not want to give anything away while the series is still in production.

I hope people enjoy the series as it continues.

Thanks for reading,


CORRADO.
Creator and producer.