Movie Idea: Aftermath of the Dead

Okay, here's my new movie idea for the summer (if we repair the video camera!). Came up with this while watching Night of the Living Dead, which is in fact now free to download as it has become public domain, so go to: http://www.archive.org/details/night_of_the_living_dead and download it, because it's a great film. It's also the first proper zombie film pretty much, directed by George Romero who pretty much invented the zombie genre! And he's got Land of the Dead coming out soon (here at least, it's already out in America I think), so it's worth checking out.

Anyway, so my idea for our summer film? Well, one of the main rules of zombies, to make a good zombie film, has always been that they're only deadly in packs. So, we take the ultimate challenge. We try and make a zombie film with only one zombie, and still make it a decent film.

So how's that gonna work I hear you ask? Well, did anybody see that new episode of Doctor Who, Dalek? That managed the same with Daleks! So, what's the plot? How am I planning to make this work? Well, here it is. I wonder if anybody thinks it's worth trying.

A Dawn of the Dead style raising of the dead occured, and the world was engulfed in an apocalyptic like situation as the dead walked the Earth and nearly destroyed everything (so it's pretty much set in the same world as Romero's 'Of The Dead' series, hence the title). I was reading about the series in a review of Land of the Dead, and apparently in Day of the Dead they say that the zombies outnumbered human kind 400,000 to one. Nasty huh?

Anyway, so the plot runs like this (or at least the set up). For ten years the world was in the grip of what could only be explained as a zombie epidemic. But then it ended. Every zombie was defeated. Nobody is quite sure how it all ended, similar to how nobody is sure how it all began in Romero's movie (sure, there's the satellite thing in Night of the Living Dead, but that's soon all ignored). Everybody has theories and it's all discussed in the film, but nobody really knows.

This is set four years after that, and we're introduced to the main character of the film. The idea goes that during the epidemic, as in (according to the reviews) Land of the Dead, people set up cities to survive in, covered with fences and walls depending on where they were so that they could live safely from the zombies. Anybody left outside was killed. Now the epidemic is over, it turns out there is this one guy who was left outside, and survived for ten years against the zombies. What's more, he was six when he was left outside, and so now is about twenty (bit older than us, but means we can play him) and grew up surviving and battling zombies while everybody else hid. This makes him the ultimate expert on zombie behaviour, having survived among it for most of his life.

He's called in by a man who has been attempting to rebuild society, using huge funds that he's managed to acquire through taking advantage mostly of the shattered world. At first he's not sure why he's there, fielding basic questions on zombie history (to fill the viewer in), but soon it develops that this man has captured the last zombie in the entire world, and his trying to study it. Our hero goes beserk, trying to kill it to finish off the last of the zombie threat, but they stop him.

Predictably the zombie breaks out, and people fail to kill it (due to not hitting its head). The story becomes a rush to stop it before it begins to spread the epidemic again (bites one person, and there's two, they bite one each, and there's four, and so on) trying desperatly to stop this zombie from getting out of this underground bunker (using garages for the sets) the guy has kept it in.

We could then work on increasing the number of zombies as the zombie works its way through the cast. Our hero is left retreating as a hoard of new zombies break out of the bunker and into the world, leaving the viewer knowing it's all going to start over again. The end.

Of course, it's serious, for the most part, which may be a downfall, but I think it could work, and it would have parts for everybody. Furthermore, we need no effects, costumes, or props, because everybody could wear what they want. All we need is some people to act like zombies, or someone to act like A zombie, and that's easy. Best bit is if we can get Emily and Cooper to do the soundtrack, since the words 'Of The Dead' aren't copyrighted (and we can change the title anyway) we could sell the movie on DVD at fairs and things (or even on a website) since it's an original movie simply inspired by Romero. Plus it might be a bit of fun.

Anyway, that's my latest movie idea, which may sound a bit corny, but hell, it's zombies, of course it is!

Fighting

I felt I should blog about this, because it's one of my more unusual expierences. At Baird's 18th party (which I got home from a few hours ago, Happy Birthday Baird!) some very interesting stuff happened. Firstly, he gave me an eighteenth birthday present (yes, gave me) for my birthday in February, which I was geuniuenly touched by, it was an amazing act of kindess and I can't thank Baird enough!

But then, secondly, and more interestingly, this story occured. Laura was going to walk home, and we all suggested that she waited for everybody else, but she had to get home early, so I agreed to walk with her (in case something happened, I always dread that so make sure somebody always walks with somebody else). Jon, needing to sober up, decided to tag along also, and me and him agreed to meet the others at the Bluebird.

Now, my habit of always making sure somebody walks with somebody else has just been for safety. This is the first ever time it's been dammed lucky I did. To cut a long story short, we were attacked. A groupd of chavs/swills came down, and tried to start a fight. And I don't mean just taunting. They physically attacked us, throwing punches, hitting me quite a few times before I started blocking their punches away. I was actually suprised that they didn't hurt, I got hit square in the bicep and it didn't even go dead, and got hit in the gut and wasn't even winded. Anyway, we didn't take the bait, knowing we could walk away, since the hits didn't hurt us. And we did so.

They left for a bit, but soon showed up again, running after us, trying to track us down for, and I kid you not, 'hitting their mate'. I was under the impression we were the ones who got hit! Anyway, one of them, the obvious leader of the group, ran up, pushing Jon quite violently and headbutting him in the back. Yes, the back. An obvious area for a headbutt, clearly! After doing that twice, to which Jon didn't respond, he gave up. I think he may have hurt his head. Anyway, they chased us for quite a while (deciding to call us goths, I can see that, in my white shorts and green t-shirt), but we ignored them, despite how viciously they behaved. We could walk, so we did walk. Sure, maybe somebody thinks it's cowardly, but I don't care. I don't try to act macho, I try to act like me, and I believe if you can walk away from a fight, do walk away from a fight, and only fight as a last resort. Of course, this is supposed to be the philosphy of Ju Jitsu anyway, so I can just claim I was 'following my martial arts code' instead of 'being a coward'. We didn't totally give in, Jon did turn around at one point, very tempted to fight I could see, and I moved him on. I think it may have been him issueing a warning, I don't think he was actually going to fight. And at one point I turned around, saying "If we hit your mate, it was defending ourselves while you were trying to hit us!" which I probably shouldn't have, and stayed quite, but luckily it didn't provoke them much more. Anyway, we got lucky and passed a group of people sat outside on their lawn, and so the chavs retreated, knowing that witnesses were about.

I've never been in a situation like that before, and was very suprised. To be honest, I was worried. I wouldn't say 'scared', because I wasn't, but I was worried we'd have to fight. Luckily we didn't. And luckily we all got away unhurt. It was also a reminder that there is that kind of violence in the world, and making sure somebody always has somebody else to walk home with is dammed important. I mean, we got lucky, somebody might not. Pete even raised the issue 'they might do that to the next group of people who pass, and they might not be so lucky'. As it turns out, apparently Baird and co WERE the next group, but I don't know their story. But it did make me kind of guilty about walking away. I mean, I thought 'as long as I can avoid a fight, then that's okay', which was remarkably selfish. I never thought that they might do it to somebody else. But in the same thread, I couldn't fight back and be a vigilante. That, and I would have lost! But I do hope something is done about them before either they hurt somebody, or they pick on the wrong people and are hurt themselves.

You have to think what state the world is in when you have people doing things like that in a country where we have it as good as this one. We're rich, we're peaceful, we can buy pretty much anything we want, it's great. Yet there's still random violence. It's quite disappointing.

And shocking to see for real.

Grudgematch: Battle of the Time Machines

Well, in the true tradition of grudgematches, I've narrowed this down to two contenders. Sure, I could have included such time machines as HG Wells' and that one from that crap TV series where they'd go back in time a week to stop disasters, but that would suck. So instead, we have my two favourite time machines.

In the red corner, weighing in at helluva lot because it's made from aluminium for some reason, the Deloreon from Back to the Future!

And in the blue corner, rather appropriatly, we have Doctor Who's TARDIS!

Firstly, let's look at the TARDIS. As far as time machines go, it may not seem that iconic, but consider this: if you walk down a street, and saw a police box sat on the road, would you think "Oh look, there's a police box from the 1950's" or "Oh look, there's the TARDIS!"? The fact that a TV show managed to take an everyday item (at the time) and turn it into a time machine that is now recognised as a time machine before it's recognised as that object is incredible in itself! So for an icon of a time machine, it holds up pretty well.

How about as a time machine itself though? Well, it's succumbed to the odd malfunction over the years, but you have to give it credit for being roomy. Also, it has the ability to travel anywhere in time AND space, not just through time, which has to come in handy. Plus you can apparently look into it, and start glowing and have super powers, being able to deconstruct entire races into atoms. That's gotta give it a few bonus points.

However, when it comes to the Deloreon, we truly see a time machine icon. Not only would the Deloreon be forgotten were it not for Back to the Future, but the two flaming tracks left behind, as well as '88 miles per hour' to time travel have become ingrained in pop culture. It doesn't come much better than a car disappearing at high speeds, leaving two flames behind. Beats a police box fading away as it whines, anyway. Not to mention, far more people are familiar with Back to the Future than Dr Who!

But, as a time machine itself, we get some failures. Sure, it can fly, and leave awesome looking flame streaks, and after the first movie it was powered by garbage, which must be fuel efficent, but in general, it's a little crappy. It starred in three movies, and in everyone it broke. It's fragile, being disabled by a bow and arrow. It can be sent flying through time and badly damaged if struck by lightning. It's generally unsafe and dangerous to use, no matter how cool it looks.

That means, the TARDIS wins as a time machine. It's safer, it's bigger, and it can go anywhere as well as anywhen. It may not be as cool as the Deloreon, but being cool is useless when your stuck in 1885 because your car got struck by lightning!

It should also be observed that the time travelling Deloreon is a very american thing, whereas the TARDIS is a very british thing. So scratch this one up to a victory for the brits!

The TARDIS wins easily, despite ending up in Cardiff instead of at the award podium and the Deloreon gets sent flying back to 1337 because of an inconviently placed electric cable and Pete's tampering with the controls.

Join us next Grudgematch where we'll debate two things in a stupid and pointless argument! (What, did you think I was actually going to say what that argument was!? Do I appear to have that much planning!? Really!).

Anti-Sociality

I have a feeling that lately some people think I may be being a bit anti-social. I just wanted to say this isn't my intention at all. For example, today I turned down going out, and Boote even rang me on his mobile asking me to come out (with the camera). I declined again. Today that's mainly been because I'm exhausted and really didn't feel like it, but the camera wouldn't have worked anyway. Too dark I think, and it's not charged anyway so no power. But that's a side note. The truth is I haven't been feeling to great.

And that's a kind of reoccuring theme. I haven't been feeling too great lately in general. I've been feeling oddly tired and restless at the same time, which kind of makes me not want to do much. Couple that with doing things like football, or going out to walk around which seems pointless, and I just don't enjoy it, and spend the time either feeling ill or feeling like I should be doing something else. All the time I was up in Lancaster, I felt like I should get back because there was something I had to do, something that was coming up that I had to be ready for or something. But there isn't. For the first time ever, there isn't, this holiday is completely free. Maybe it's the sense of Uni hanging over me, I dunno, but it's making me feel very odd.

Basically I wanted to say I'm sorry for being a bit anti-social to everybody, and that I'm feeling a bit odd lately. Not sleeping that much which makes me very tired and therefore not feeling great, and whenever I'm out doing things that don't seem too worthwhile, I feel really restless. For example, going in town the other day to look for jobs was such a waste I felt so restless I just wanted to get home (to do nothing, oddly, but I felt it better than wasting time out, I don't know why). At the other end of the stick, at Paington the other day, I sat there and thought there was nowhere I'd rather be, and nothing I'd rather be doing.

It's odd, and basically I'm not sure why sometimes I feel like doing things and sometimes I don't (to the extent that I have gone out when I don't feel like it, feeling like I was lying and being there for the sake of being there). But I wanted to apologise to people feeling I was being anti-social. I love you guys, and I honestly believe I'm one of the luckiest guys in existance to have known you all. What's more I love spending time with you all, and so this whole me not going out much thing is entirely me feeling odd, not anything to do with what we do or how we do it or anything. I just hope nobody feels I'm being too anti-social, and I'm sorry if that's the impression I've been giving off, or worse, that I don't want to spend time with you guys, because I do.

Anyway, that's enough self-centered ranting from me. Tune in tomorrow for the return of a grudgematch in which I completely avoid talking about myself!

And the topic?

Battle of the Time Machines! Just what is the greatest fictional time machine?

I'm Back And Tired!

I'm back from Lancaster, which was exceedingly boring. Had a bit of fun when we explored this big tourist cave thingy though, saw this massive cavern. Had a bit less fun when a car crashed into us. Luckily nobody was hurt and the bumper just cracked. Got a bit bored watching my brother wonder up to shake hands with some guy I was supposed to think was important because he was the chancellor of Lancaster University (who, despite what RPGs suggest, did not seem to be a monster in disguise of the real chancellor). And then I had an EIGHT hour car ride home. But I'm back. Tired, but back.

Now to have a considerably more fun week!

Things I Forgot

I've forgotten a lot lately. Like forgetting to make sure Coops n Ems were invited when I went job hunting in town today (which I'm still tired from...bloody heat). I'm still really sorry about that!

But more importantly for this week, I forgot an important fact. I'm going away on Tuesday and not returning until Thursday, possibly Friday depending on what happens to see my brother graduate from Uni. What fun! All attempts to get out of it have failed, and so I'm in for a family-filled fun trip up to Lancaster to watch my brother get told he passed his course before going out for a stupid fancy buffet thing I really don't want to go to! Yipee! What fun!

So I'm not going to be here for most of this week. Sorry I forgot to tell you guys, and sadly, if you've planned or plan anything I can't possibly make it due to being in Lancaster.

Lucky I remembered before Tuesday!

London

It can't be ignored. London got attacked by terrorists. I don't know what I can say to be honest, except my heart-felt sorrows for anybody hurt.

It's odd to see an attack in England, even after all the scares and what we've seen around the world. It was somewhat inspiring to see how quickly we managed to leap into action to counter the threat, and the eery calm of the londoners, it's nice to know we won't be reduced to panic like the attackers wanted.

It's also painfully ironic that the attack disrupts the G-8 summit that could have ended poverty and the unfair treatement of the third world. I'm hoping it'll all go on eventually, and hopefully the right conclusion will still be reached. Making poverty history was a dream that hunderds rallied behind, and now there's been this big attack that could disrupt and destroy it all. I'm sure Al Queda have their beliefs, but surely they can see what they might have done. This was the time we were supposed to bring aid to those countries, but instead they've risked ruining it all.

Nothing can bring back the dead, but I can only hope that the summit meeting will work out and we can still achieve our goal despite this.

University

I finally got around to listening to "Wake Me Up When September Ends" properly, and it kind of made me sad about going to University. Lines like 'seven years has gone so fast' seem so very true now. It's been such a long journey, if you consider all the memories, but that's actually over. We all have to go our own seperate ways.

Of course, first we have the summer, but I have a feeling when summer ends this song will really hit home. Cooper was right when he said it was like an offical 'going to Uni' song. If there was a montage sequence of us, this would be the song playing over it. The song doesn't even seem to be about university, but going off to war, judging by the video, but it seems to apply so very well to us.

Makes me think if in a year, seeing each other again won't just be a fun cool thing to do, then in five years, it'll be odd, and then in ten, it'll be dropped to "I used to know this guy called..." you tell your other mates. I was always terrible at accepting change, and it's very odd to imagine that in a few years, everything we had here could easily be forgotten, and dare I say it, replaced.

I love what we have here, the best group of friends, we've done so much and had so much fun, it feels so odd to think we're leaving it behind. I think we should vow to see each other at least once every year. And I mean forever. When we're sixty, I still think we should spend a weekend, coming back here, all of us together. To make sure we never ever replace or forget what we have right now.

Or alternatively we could just all go and star in our own sitcom, so we're all together forever!

Least Important Thing Ever

So, here's a question, what the hell is wrong with my blog? I've been ignoring but, now I've decided I've run out of topics sufficently to address it. Just what the hell is wrong with it? For some reason this post seems to appear miles away from the title. Miles I say! Something seems to be wrong with it, and I have no idea what.

At least this post is offical recognition I noticed.

Also: I stole Holly's idea. Urm, which idea? I have no idea. But she said in her comment I stole her idea. If it's the sidekick thing, I've been saying that for years, so I win! If it's posting about Live 8 then...well, it was a fairly major event (that I didn't go to, unlike someone!). Speaking of Live 8, head over to:

www.live8live.com

and put your name on the petition they're going to show the leaders at the meeting in Scotland before it's too late. Everybody needs to to make a huge show of support, so go do it. Only takes a second and is really easy.

Go! Get to it!

Live 8

I just tuned into Live 8, forgot to watch most of it. Caught a bit near the end, had Will Smith talking to everybody, the crowds across the world, and it was actually inspiring. To see millions of people around the world cheering to wipe out poverty, to save everybody. It really was. And he talked about getting the world leaders today to abolish their debts so that we could use that money to save people in the poorer countries of the world. And I thought about it, the fact that we actually could make poverty history, abolish it for good. Just the fact that the potential is there is incredible, let alone the thought that at last it could actually happen. Sure, it won't happen overnight, but it could. We could actually finally get this world back into shape. It's an incredible thought.

I really hope it can happen. It can be changed. That's a fact. But it has to be done, it has to take a while and countries (and a lot of people who live in them) have to stop being greedy and let it happen.

I was thinking about a world where there was no poverty. It would be incredible. One where, in, say twenty years, Africa is in the same breath as the United States, for example. A world where we are literally equal, there is no third world and everybody really is equal. I doubt it'll ever happen, it just can't, there's too many greedy and selfish people in the world. I mean, a lot of countries have people fleeing because of the way people are treated, and throwing money at the goverment of those countries wont help, but it is a dream, and one that we might one day achieve.

I sound kinda preachy, huh? I was just saying what I thought. I really hope it does happen. I hope one day we can all feel free in the world, knowing that people aren't suffering elsewhere. I hope it happens. I really do.

The Story

I was watching Firefly with the director's commentary on, and noticed some things. Well, a lot of things, and the guys who made it are hilarious, but that's beside the point. My point here is that at one point they were talking about directing the characters to act. And they mention how to every character, they feel that they're the main character. "You are Mal" is the instruction they'd give, of course since Mal is the main character in the series. And they were explaining it, saying how to the faceless goon at the back, well, he would feel that this was his story, not the character's in the ship. And then I was looking at our big prom photo that Dan was kind enough to send me, and it got me thinking about stories and who's who.

There's all of us, loads of us, smiling happily and about to go our seperate ways. And to each person this is their story. To some of those people, I'm nothing. They won't remember me come a week, or a few next year. We're all just characters in somebody else's story, and not always major ones. But then, everybody is some part in our own. Kinda poetic huh?

Although I've never thought of myself as the main character. I've always been the sidekick in my head. I've said it before, and I believe it. I'm a sidekick in the story of other people. Hell, just look at the photo. Everybody's together, with somebody, and I'm an anoynmous face towards the back, alone. That's the sidekick. I don't have my own story. Nothing happens to me, but it happens to everybody else. And when it happens to my friends, I'll be there to help out, like a good sidekick should.

And you know what? I'm proud to be the sidekick. I'm happy. It's nice to not have to worry about yourself. I can care about others without giving a damn about me. I like not being the main character, I don't have to worry about....well....anything.

Ahem. I really lost the point there. Can't even remember what the point was. Oh well.