StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Lion wrote:Over the summer, LT was raided by zombies as student filmmakers
Ben Kabialis ’09 and Brett Tucker ’08 brought their original
screenplay, “Till Morning,” to life.
The entire independent film was filmed inside LT, with LT students,
faculty, and the crew’s family members as the cast. Claire Fisher ’08, John Telfer ’08 and Kabialis were cast in the leading roles.
“Till Morning” was the first time that LTTV has tried to make a real film, using film production techniques, real crew structure, and top notch equipment. Kabialis and Tucker raised money from local businesses, approved filming in the school, held auditions, and organized the near 100 people who helped create the film, Kabialis said.
In May 2008, Kabialis and Tucker started brainstorming ideas, followed by a rigorous two months of writing and shooting. The 12-14 minute film, scheduled to come out Halloween weekend, was filmed in three days in late July at LT, though it had been a developing idea since 2006, Kabialis said.
“It wasn’t always specifically zombies,” Kabialis said. “But just certain things [would inspire me]. Like I would walk around a corner and say ‘Wow, that’s really cool. I’d love to put that into a horror movie.’”
Tucker and Kabialis enlisted the help of LTTV sponsor William
Allan and independent producer Joey DiFranco. Allan worked as executive producer while DiFranco took on directing, Kabialis said.
“We decided on zombies because it’s such a fun job that you can play around with and one that you can do cheaply because we did black and white,” Kabialis said. “And with zombie movies, the cheaper it is the better it is.”
“Till Morning” is about a group of teens who attend a boarding
school when a zombie outbreak strikes. The movie takes place eight months after the outbreak when the seven survivors
decide to brave the journey to go across the school to the school’s radio station to try to broadcast back for help, Kabialis said.
“The main theme of the movie is the concept of hope, and whether or not that’s a dangerous thing,” Tucker said. “Outside of that, it’s pretty much just zombies.”
Currently, the movie is in the final phases of post-production. Though a rough cut is circulating, the film still needs to undergo sound and image correction, among other final details, Allan said.
The film’s trailer premiered on the internet on July 31, just one day after the filming.
“I was so excited [to see the trailer],” Kabialis
said. “I went in with feeble expectations thinking that LTTV would just give us a camera and we would go shoot this in my basement, just me and Brett. To get it to the point where it’s this good and this professional looking when I saw the movie it just blew me away. It’s a beautiful piece of independent film and I couldn’t be more thrilled.”
While both writers hope to start careers in the filmmaking industry,
their short term plans include looking to enter “Till Morning” in various local and nationwide independent film contests, Kabialis
said.
“We know that it is a good enough horror movie to clean up at horror movie festivals,” Kabialis said. “But really the whole purpose of the movie was to show that a horror movie can portray dramatic elements, too.”
Kabialis and Tucker have already begun thinking of another film for the future, loosely titled “Suburban Gangster,” Kabialis said.
“Anyone who worked on the movie signed on to 12-hour days in the middle of the summer,” Kabialis said. “And for that, we are incredibly appreciative.”