A Geek Girl's Castle: The Walking Dead: A Fan Film

**Warning -- The video associated and shown here is for mature audiences only and contains depictions of sexual violence. So the video should be played at your discretion. The text within the blog post is a behind-the-scenes look into how we shot the video but may contain trigger words.**

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A few weeks ago a friend of mine, Kyle Williamson, said he wanted to do a Walking Dead fan film and wanted my help filming it. Kyle and I have worked on a few projects together thus far and we have great chemistry when we film with each other. So I immediately said, "Yes!"

Discussing the script, shoot, and shots ahead of time, we realized how tedious this task would be. Kyle wanted to put out a PSA about BDSM and tie it to some charity work (like a women's shelter) via some sales of photos another friend had done for him. More on that later, back to the PSA video. Kyle wanted to basically recreate an infamous scene in which the Governor interrogates Maggie. The scene is about the Governor intimidating and coercing Maggie into giving up info about her group of rebels by humiliating and dehumanizing her. Kyle wanted to make a twist on this by having it relate to BDSM and the safety issues within that world.

We wanted to shoot the scene in as much precise and exact angles, dialogue, camera movements, and lighting as possible. So there was much prep by watching that scene from The Walking Dead over and over again at nausea. We both discussed much of the lighting and location as much as we could in text messages and emails. Kyle finally got a friend's garage to shoot in (thanks, Zan!) and once we had photos of the location, we could plan even more on where the props would go, how the characters would sit, how to cover up certain parts of the set, etc.

Then it was paperwork time. I printed out storyboard paper and got to work watching the scene and looking at every TWD shot. I literally watched shot for shot what they did, how they did, what dialogue was in that shot, what type of shot it was (close up, medium, 2-shot, etc) and so much more! Below are snippets of my storyboarding. My drawings are so amazing! (sarcasm)...

My lovely storyboards.

More storyboards

Storyboard with some action depicted

I knew I was going to be the assistant director and camera person so I needed to get this right and as exact as possible. And I wanted to make the man in charge (Kyle) proud that he "hired" me.

The storyboards got done. Then I started a shot list but failed getting that done in time due to other work commitments and I got sick two weeks before the shoot. But even without the actual shot list it worked out fine.

Kyle wrote out the original script with stage directions and such. I took that script and broke it down further with my storyboard shot list and matched every dialogue and action with what was in the scene. Tedious? Yes! But worth every blood drawn to get the details right!

Part of the script marked up with the shot number via my storyboards.

Once I got all that done, it was about time to shoot. I sent Kyle everything and we discussed the shot list and storyboards the night before. We further discussed the space once we got there the next morning.

I was bumped up to Director! (No pressure! haha) And Kyle became the AD instead. Brian Schneider was our sound guy. And Constance Chesney was our leading lady, Maggie. Big leap for me being Director now. But I took the challenge by the horns and defeated it! :)

We had downloaded the scene to Kyle's tablet so we would have the ultimate reference for each shot of the scene to refer to. It was a true asset, that along with the storyboards, made the shoot smoother.

I used my homemade over-the-shoulder mount my friend Dave made for me, for the entire shoot. I never put it down basically. Never used a regular tripod the whole shoot.And being so much shorter than Kyle, made some of the angles, almost perfect! Being short worked in my favor! haha

You can see camera mount my friend Dave built for me. And yes I decorated it in pink grip tape and the counterweight.

It was 48 degrees in that garage and poor Constance had to be in a tank top or almost topless the entire time. We had a small space heater which could not heat the room enough, so she would just huddle in front of it between takes. And the rest of us made sure she always had a blanket, her jacket or someone cuddling with her so that she could stay somewhat warm between takes. She was a trooper out there!

Me trying to keep Constance warm between takes!! #StayWarm
Photo Kyle J. Williamson

Trooper Constance stays warm by the portable heater and with a smile on her face!

Yep that's poor cold Constance huddled under the blanket hogging the space heater. heehee

This video below shows the comparison between Kyle's scene and The Walking Dead's original scene. Sorry for the low volume, I forgot to turn up the volume on my laptop while taping it. Also, I paused whichever video needed in order for the pacing to catch up to the other. Overall our video was a little faster paced than the original but overall, it's pretty spot on and some of the dialogue is so exact and in sync!! I am so very proud of myself for really stepping up to the challenge and really hitting it on the head. And thanks to Kyle for believing in me... ^_^