Zombies are coming to Belleville

By Sarah Armour

Belleville will be the location of a new zombie short film set to begin filming in April.

“Basically it’s about these survivors that are in an airport and they’re waiting to be picked up,” said producer of the film, Jonathan McFaul. “But then for some reason the pilot is only allowed to pick up one. So they have to decide who will be that one.  At the same time everything is coming down on them and the zombies are coming. So basically it gets very intense in a very short span.”

McFaul said the idea for the film came after he, and the director, Colin Gray, were discussing ideas but the original idea was too complex. Something McFaul wanted to do a zombie film, because he says it is more marketable and mainstream. From there he got the first draft and told Gray that was what he wanted. Gray wrote a phenomenal script about the concept and the production started from there, said McFaul.

McFaul is a second year TV and new media student at Loyalist College, and also the producer and owner of Blend production company. He thinks this film will have a positive impact on Loyalist College and their reputation with the TV and new media program.

“Loyalist can definitely be like ‘see this short film, we educated these students and that was the result of it.’ So it’s positive for Loyalist.”

Belleville was the chosen because it’s a central location close to Ottawa and Toronto. As well the plane that will be used in the film is in this local area.

“I’ve lived just outside of Belleville my whole life,” said Jacob Cote, assistant director.  “I really do like the area and there is a lot of creative people that now live in the county that are from Toronto. So there are a lot of opportunities that way to connect.”

Cote is a graduate of Loyalist’s TV and new media program and just finished a summer internship in Toronto working for a production company. He said it was a cool experience, but he is not a huge fan of the Toronto area, saying it’s a different atmosphere than the Belleville area.

One of Cote’s recognizable achievements was a film he did with the college last year called “Hiding”. The film was accepted into Brantford’s film festival.

“That did really well, so that was kind of like now I have something I created publically screened. So it gives me a bit of accreditation to do something like this. Its not a huge film, but it’s a good size.. It will probably be around 20 minutes,” said Cote.

“Its starts off kind of slow and it builds up to a really fast pace by the end.”

McFaul said in the short time of the film it has really good character development, which pushes a story.

“Just push a positive atmosphere within our group and stuff like that. And just have a memory for all of us,” said McFaul. “For down the road even if for some reason its not great or it doesn’t meet our expectations we can still look back and say we had a lot of fun doing it. And that’s the biggest thing.”

Anyone who is interested in a part in the film is asked to email blendcasting@gmail.com. As well, anyone who would like to donate money to support the film can visit http://www.indiegogo.com/5HoursTillDawn.