The Revenants; A Past View of the Future in FILM / THEATRE / VIDEO WORK & CORPSE NATION

It’s been a while since I entertained the masses with a bit of my film / video & theatrical past which in this particular case foreshadows a glimpse of the future.

For those who don’t follow me, welcome! A very brief history:

Prior to falling ill and not being able to do what I love, I worked in film, theatre and television production, and will again soon I hope!

One theatre that I worked at in South Florida was called “The Abyss Theatre” where we only produced horror themed productions. One such production was called: The Revenants.

Now, we’re talking ultra low budget here. Everyone that worked here did so because they were passionate about the art. We all had to create worlds and characters in record time (three weeks) from script to stage. Not only that, but we had a movie theater screen on the wall of the stage and incorporated films with the live stage performances. It was A LOT of work!!!

Blood, sweat and tears sums up working there best. I have no regrets!

So a script comes across the owners desk and she wants to produce it. Usually, we write our own material and I still had to write all the filmed segments which weren’t part of the script, so we start creating this little world, hire actors, begin rehearsals, stage design and so forth.

The story is about an unknown viral outbreak that kills off mankind. Well, un-kills, because zombies are awesome!

NOTE: Some of this content is NSFW and definitely NOT for small children (you have been warned!) Seriously… I’m warning you, don’t @ me!!!

I did a little bit of everything in this show, acting, all the sfx make up work, some stunt work, writing, directing, camera work and editing, a TON of editing!!! But more on that later.

I’m not going to cut up the video’s because honestly, I don’t have an editing computer anymore, it died on me. If anyone would like to donate $3,000 to the cause, I humbly accept. I can’t edit on this on this cheapo thing, so you’re going to have to bare with me.

The show starts off with this video. The shows were all sold out, the theatre was full, the lights go out and this plays on screen.

There is a music interlude that just plays with a black screen for a bit, then silence just to build tension before the show starts. Skip to 1:54 to start the actual footage.

*Now, of course there’s a trillion things I’d love to do different. Had I more time, more money every aspect would have been better, but we do what we can with what we have. Keep in mind that everyone involved (including myself) worked outside of the theatre, so it was rush, rush, rush to get things done and done with no money.

After this plays, the lights turn on and 4 actors rush onto the stage as if they just escaped a violent ordeal. There’s been a viral outbreak globally which is still in its infancy. Much like the world we find ourselves in now.

Two of the four actors have been bitten and as time elapses, they transform into the living dead. They have few supplies and are panic stricken-ed.

What to do?

As their world devolves and friends become undead, a supply run is necessary. As one character leaves the basement that they are hiding out in, he barely makes it back, only to find out that his girlfriend was bitten by one of their friends.

From here on out, it’s a grim fate for all.

Now… there are parts of this next video I need to explain.

“Some preface scenes are missing”. Long story short, I didn’t have access to my edit suite at the time of this production, it was shared and being used for a bigger budgeted project, so all I had was my laptop which couldn’t edit the footage I had.

It crashed over and over and over again, footage got corrupted, it was a fucking nightmare!!! I didn’t have time or the money or anything, I couldn’t re-shoot. One of the most stressful work related things I’ve ever had to do. So, part of this video shows clips of the start of the zombie apocalypse, found footage sent in to the news network to be broadcast.

At one point, a couple of frat boys kidnap a zombie and try to exploit the situation on film by putting a go-pro on it. This leads to some pov shots of a day in the life of that corpse. The scenes are not sequential, that’s on purpose to feel more chaotic, but one scene had a preface that got corrupted. In it (that you won’t see) which is why I’m explaining it - is an undercover agents first day on the job and he’s wearing a body-cam.

There’s two other scenes that I want to talk about, the first I’ll just say… No animals were harmed in the making of this video. More details later, and lastly… I fucking HATE the last scene!!! I had actors cancel, and was forced to use someone that couldn’t act his way out of a cracker jack box, so literally, none of the lines written in the script were actually used and the female behind the camera had to ad-lib as a result, nothing works, it’s just embarrassing. It only stayed in the final video because I literally couldn’t deal with the editing anymore!!!! I was sooooo stressed and frustrated.... no, that’s not right, I was infuriated!!!! I had deadlines to meet and this all got done maybe 10 minutes before showtime, I’m not kidding!!!

It was just 20 hour day after 20 hour day that whole week and nothing went right!

So I just threw my hands up and said: “Fuck it, it is what it is”.

Ultimately, the audience loved it, so that made things ok. Welcome to my life! lol.

After this ends, it’s evident that no one survives.

We don’t believe in happy endings at the Abyss theatre, but you’ll leave satisfied all the same!

My friend Erryn (the theatre owner excited about our sold out opening night!)

My friend Julie (we have worked together on many shows!) Here she is after I zombified her.

I work well with kids…

Oh yeah, and no kids were harmed making this either, lol.

Ok, so here are a bunch of bts shots and I’ll start by saying that it was me that ate the pug, but it was my pug (as my regulars will recognize). Sadly, Inspector Noodles passed away last year, but he worked on many projects with me. This show was in 2015.

He knew something was about to go down… he knows me so well, lol

But see? He’s fine! Sticky, but fine, and he had a thorough bath 20 seconds later, we both did.

During one show, a little girl was screaming: “NOOO! THE PUPPY DOG!!!” She was hysterical and crying.. her mom had to take her and leave. It was great!!! No! I don’t care! Why are you bringing a kid to an r-rated show?

And after a long day of filming…

And if you pay attention, the guy that I had walk him and tie him to the door, is actually the theatre itself.

It’d be nice if we had the time to clean up these green screen shots a little more, but it was effective.

This is what I looked like mid show as the second video was playing and I was back stage putting make up on the actor that “went out for supplies” and finishing just as the video ends… “phew…”

Yes! I was the driver of the car who got eaten! I suffer for my art! I was also the walking corpse and agent who went into the elevator and got killed. I didn’t get a credit for that though! :( lol.

Just starting to put some makeup on Melanie before the show.

Kim was a trooper!!!

Funny story… no one knew that we were filming there. I knew someone that worked in the building, so I got the door code, but security and everyone else… I don’t know how I get away with things sometimes. We had to sneak in everything!!! This is where we shot the green screen stuff too, and I had to sneak Inspector Noodles in because this was just later in that same day. Like I said, 20 hours days…

A close up of my work.

And there you have it… a glimpse into our near future.

Make sure to wash your hands!

Last updated March 21, 2020