The team of actor/writer/producer Tim Doiron and actress/director/producer April Mullen are a force to be reckoned with. They clearly love what they do making films and their upcoming movie, Dead Before Dawn 3D looks like a lot of fun. Starburst caught up with the pair to talk about it…
Starburst: Dead Before Dawn has been getting a lot of great buzz with horror fans around the world. Can you give the readers a little background on it?
April Mullen: This is our third film together and Tim and I wanted to do something in 3D. We came up with the idea for Dead Before Dawn three years ago as a horror comedy and wanted a fresh look at the zombie genre. These aren’t your typical zombies, they’re Zemons; which are a cross between zombies and demons.
Tim Doiron: A group of college kids accidentally unleash an evil curse which causes people to kill themselves and they become zombie demons in very unusual ways.
AM: We have the zemon who strangled himself with a jump rope, the girl with the stiletto heel in the eye zemon and Zemon Josh. There’s some pretty unique ones.
The make-up looks very impressive!
AM: We had a great make-up team; Kenji Sato and Monik Walmsley. We wanted to do something different and had them do demon looking eyes rather than the usual kidneys or brains all over the place.
TD: It’s a highly entertaining and scary film. Sort of a New Age Ghostbusters.
Casting the film – did you have any actors in mind when you wrote it?
TD: We had a lot of people in mind for the roles when the script was being written. Some we couldn’t get due to commitments to other films. When we sent the script out, everyone who read it loved it and wanted to do the film. We hired Devon Bostik who plays Casper Galloway based on his past performances we had seen him in. He was an excellent choice. When everyone got together for the first reading, they all got the comedy aspect of it. It was a very dynamic group to work with.
AM: Everything happens for a reason and all the actors clicked together. All of them had the energy and comedic timing down as a group.
The great Christopher Lloyd is in this as well…
TD: Yes, he plays Horus Galloway, Chris was great to work with. He has this explosive magic on the set. Everyone loved him.
Explain the 3D process you used.
AM: We shot in stereoscopic 3D which means that we had a two camera, synchronized set up, left and right with a beam splitter. We filmed Dead Before Dawn on a modest budget and in 20 days, so we really didn’t have a lot of free time to improvise. Major planning had to be plotted out ahead of time when we filmed with all that equipment on the cameras. When dealing with 3D, you have to be meticulous. A fraction off would ruin all the work you’ve done. The whole process took about two hours to take it on and off.
What type of camera did you use?
TD: Red Ones. They’re great to work with. Very easy to handle.
Anything in the future coming up for you two?
AM: We’re working on an action/thriller next.
It was great taking with you two! Everyone is looking forward to Dead Before Dawn 3D and I’m sure it’ll be a big hit!
AM: Thank you!
If I don’t get over this cold soon I’ll probably have to play a zemon in the sequel!
TD: We’ll call casting!
For release dates check out the Dead Before Dawn 3D Facebook page HERE.
