Obsession Over Zombies

                         

 Our favorite geographers behind the Floating Sheep blog have done some pretty sober work mapping the digital geographies of racism, conflict, and inequality. For a while now, though, they’ve also been at work on a slightly lighter project that seems fitting for a sweltering Friday afternoon (it is sweltering in Washington, and so we assume it is sweltering everywhere). At the intersection of the Internet and the real world, they’ve also been mapping zombies.

Because, well, “looking for and mapping geo-coded references to zombies on the web provides insight on the memes, mechanisms and the macabre of the modern world.”

Mark Graham, Taylor Shelton and Matthew Zook have contributed a chapter on the topic to a new book of academic essays about zombies (or zombie-themed metaphors that explain the current state of academia). By querying all of the geographic information indexed by Google for zombie-themed keywords, they’ve actually plotted the physical places with the largest number of such geo-tagged hits.
 
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Litchfield Plantation Offers Probably Ghosts Encounter

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. (WBTW) -
John Miller is the current owner of Litchfield Plantation in Pawleys Island.

Some who spend time on the property say a past owner still lives there: One of the first owners of the house built in the 1700′s.

Miller tours his plantation grounds nearly every day, but he has yet to sleep a night in one of its beds.
“I just don’t want to sleep here by myself,” said Miller.

“I’m convinced that there is, you know, a presence here,” he said. “Just the feelings that I get.”
Miller says he’s never seen a ghost.

Still, he believes the plantation is haunted.

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Loving the Zombie Apocalypse

“Zombie Apocalypse? What the hell are you talking about?”

It was our weekly astronomy group lunch when everyone, from the professors down to the undergrads, gets together for pizza. I’m not quite sure how the conversation took this turn, but at some point I quipped: “But of course that’s after the Zombie Apocalypse.”

Everyone at the table nodded knowingly. Everyone, of course, except one of our emeritus professors who, as she so strongly noted, had no idea what the hell we were talking about. And that got me thinking. How the hell did the Zombie Apocalypse become a ubiquitous all-consuming (no pun intended) meme?

It's not the why of the Zombie Apocalypse that matters, it's the how. For here, at the dawn of a new age of planetary limits, zombies are our greatest teachers.

There are not many fully modern mythologies (). True mythologies are stories that give both instruction and insight. In the long march of human evolution, we've accreted a storehouse of such myths. These are narratives across time and culture that speak to the common experience of being human: the hero's journey; the coming of age; the passage to mortality. These stories became codified over many thousands of years and that is what makes them universal.


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How to Win Over Zombies

I spent a brief amount of time checking out How to Survive at E3. The game, currently in development by EKO Studios, is being touted as more than just a regular ol’ zombie title. I was told by a 505 Games representative that this upcoming project is more of a survival game with zombies in it as opposed to being a flat-out zombie experience. The focus here, as dictated by the title, is more on the aspect of surviving, with zombies acting as just one of the many obstacles that players will be facing.

 

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Russell Crowe's Insight on Film Financing Business

                          

Russell Crowe has confirmed plans to make an overdue directorial debut with World War I drama The Water Diviner, after two previous efforts were scuppered by the media - but only if he can do it on his own terms.

''It was probably time [to direct] 10 years ago, but if you're engaged in making movies as a career then you have to work within cycles that come up,'' Crowe explains while promoting new film Man of Steel. ''The two previous times that the cycle has been right, we didn't get the production together before that cycle changed. Both times in fact, it was because some arsehole took to newspapers and prematurely announced what we were trying to do.

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Immortality of Zombies

 

With zombie sightings rising quickly over the weekend, I tried to calm myself by contacting some undead experts.

Joshua Blu Buhs is a scholar of America’s occult fears and obsessions, who wrote an insightful book about Big Foot a few years ago. (No, seriously.) He tells me that Americans first became interested in zombies in the late 19th century, and then again during the Depression when Bela Lugosi starred in “The White Zombie.” Once George Romero unearthed the putrid hordes for “Night of the Living Dead” in 1968, they’ve never stopped running around pop culture.

“But the loving and lovable zombie is a new addition,” Buhs says, referring to the recent novels “Zombie, Ohio,” “My So Called Death” and “Warm Bodies,” which was made into a movie this year. “They’re following in the steps of vampires, which have, of course, become very sexy.” What are you trying to tell me, Josh? “The line between zombies and us has been eroded: They is we, and we is they. And so events arise in which we play at being them: zombie walks and zombie races.”

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Things to Ponder on Film Financing

Before making a purchase, people spend time trying to read the markets, the strength of Sterling and the many different factors that influence the International financial markets. Is this time well spent or are you better leaving it to the professionals?

Think how much time this takes. Why not do what you’re good at and shoot another film/hire another camera/produce another programme. That will generate more revenue for you than any currency fluctuation gain.

Are production companies better investing in a completely new systems or trying to upgrade their existing system by buying individual pieces of equipment and integrating with what they have?

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Beyond the Grave and In the Heat of Paranormal Activity

 

Denise Barteet hopes to encounter a friend during Louisiana’s Weirder Side: Downtown Paranormal Fest this weekend. The only thing is, her friend is dead.“I used to be in this Indian organization called Twin Eagles, and the guy whowas president of Twin Eagles was really involved in the Multicultural Center, and he died,” Barteet said. “So I’m hoping maybe Jerry will come through. Who knows?”

Different teams of investigators and spiritists led the hunt for paranormal activity in downtown Shreveport Friday night and will continue the pursuit tonight. Locations include the Multicultural Center of the South, Norsworthy Gallery and the Spring Street Museum. There also will be workshops, vendor sales, Victorian mansion tours and more events throughout the day.

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New Myth to Go Large Scale in Film Funding

EXCLUSIVE: Well, it didn’t take long to find out where New Myth will be finding the money to make tentpole-sized movies. A group of investors and distributors led by New Myth and Toonz Entertainment Pte Ltd have launched Epiphany, a $200 million film fund that intends to strategically build a content platform and invest in a slate of event films with an eye toward global appeal. Epiphany aims to get involved as producer and co-financier of franchise films with major studios. It starts with New Myth and Toonz and also in the investor group is European distributor A-Company, an affiliate of AR Film in Russia.

New Myth is a Hollywood-based production company founded by principals Tom DeSanto, David Ranes, Grace Oppenheimer and Wayne Duband. Epiphany will co-finance its projects. Toonz is one of the largest animation and VFX studios in Asia, and it has worked with Marvel, Hasbro and Hallmark to become one of Asia’s biggest animation suppliers.Epiphany is advised by Premila Hoon of Entertainment Advisers, the structuring agent, adviser and arranger. 

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Zombies In Retrospect

With “World World Z” off to a strong start at the box office — both globally and at its Thursday night domestic opening, where it took in $3.6 million — it seemed time to track the shambling forebears of the celluloid walking dead.

Long before George Romero turned the genre on its head with his 1968 classic “The Night of the Living Dead,” Hollywood had been making zombie flicks.

In fact, everyone from Bela Lugosi to Bob Hope to the infamous Ed Wood jumped on the zombie bandwagon.

So here’s a look back at same great and not so great zombie films of years past:

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'Dig Comics Starts Up the Kickstarter to Start Up Funds

                                      
Back in 2010 ComicsAlliance talked to Miguel Cima about Dig Comics, his short film blending anthropology and evangelism with the express aim of getting more people -- especially Americans -- to read and love comics of all kinds. While Cima's initial roughly 20-minute short was successful at film festivals and comic conventions, it remained a labor of love as he and his team spent their own money and free time to produce and promote their message until the right financial backers could be found to bring a full-fledged feature or other substantial media project to life. Now, in today's crowd funding climate, Dig Comics is appealing to current comic readers and fans on Kickstarter to "to help educate, teach, learn, enjoy, evolve & carry on the positive, creative, comics torch into the future and beyond!" by funding a full-length Dig Comics movie.

The Dig Comics team is seeking $250,000 on Kickstarter to produce and release their planned feature, with backers at the $10 level receiving a digital download of the completed film and exclusive updates on the filmmakers' progress. Higher backing levels yield items like messenger bags, hats, physical DVD copies of the film featuring exclusive bonus content, coffee table books, in-person screenings, and even the chance to join the team as a creative producer.

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Paranormal Activity Suspected

 

Strange bumps in the night, legends of pixies and mermaids, and spontaneous combustion in Devon are explored in a new book investigating the area’s mysterious secrets.

Paranormal Devon, which has been written by Daniel Codd, has unearthed plenty of strange tales of the supernatural and paranormal including stories of the black dog of Uplyme and the witch’s stone at Putts Corner.

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Dixon Studio Cancels Film Due to Lack of Funding

                     

A Hollywood figure who has been a key to Carissa Carpenter's 16-year effort to bring a movie studio to Northern California has pulled out of the latest deal, saying that funding for the $2.8 billion project in Dixon has not materialized.

Howard Kazanjian, a producer on such megahits as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi," had been touted by Carpenter since 1997 as a star player on her team pushing to build the studio.

But he told The Bee in an email this week that he is no longer part of Carpenter's drive to bring a studio to the Solano County farm town, once known as "Dairy City."

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/06/5475289/dixon-howard-kazanjian.html#storylink=cpy

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Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/06/5475289/dixon-howard-kazanjian.html#storylink=cpy

Realism in Zombies

 

They shamble across the cinema screen on broken limbs and snatch at girls with long blonde hair. In the closeness of your home they explode in satisfying blossoms of rotting flesh at the flick of a trigger. Their scabby hands reach out at you with stiff cardboard fingers from the comic book display stand. When you walk home at night, you catch them in silhouette, stumbling through the shadows, confused, drunk, and lost.

They sit slack-faced opposite you on the bus, their will ground away by the constant rasping of the parasites buried deep in their skulls. And as you walked in duty-free sandals over the soft ground of the tropics, did you not stop to see the quiet graves where infant wasps lay spring-loaded in the chests of their comatose prey?

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James Franco Looks for $500,000 Worth of Crowd-Funding

AP Images

Following in the crowd-funding campaign footsteps of "Veronica Mars" and Zach Braff, James Franco is trying to raise $500,000 to bankroll a trilogy of movies.

The actor has started a campaign on Indiegogo, a crowd-funding alternative to Kickstarter that allows people to keep the money they raise even if the project doesn't come to fruition. Franco isn't trying to direct the films; he's raising money so that a collection of young filmmakers can adapt his 2011 short story collection, "Palo Alto."

"Because of who I am, people often believe that it is easy to find investors and distributors for my films," Franco wrote. "Unfortunately, things aren't that easy. More times than not, I have put in my own money to produce my films and my student's films. However, this time it's different; We need more funding, I will still fund part of it but I need of your help, filming three feature films back-to-back requires more funding than I can give."

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New York City Ready for Ghost Tours

 

New York City, NY — (SBWIRE) — 06/04/2013 — Lurking beneath the sidewalks of Midtown Manhattan lies a paranormal activity enigma whose very supernatural essence will be unearthed by a group of brave adventures this coming weekend. And leading this group of ghost hunting explorers through the underground labyrinths crisscrossing New York City’s Grand Central Terminal will be NYC’s own “Ghost Doctors.”

After a crash course in the fundamentals of ghost hunting (including the workings of a variety of electronic tools of the trade), these hunters in training will be ready to embark on a truly unique New York City ghost touring adventure through winding passages, darkened halls and train platforms in their quest to seek out some paranormal activity.

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Unstoppable Film Project Despite Lack of Funding

California and New York get it. Tuscaloosa apparently won’t.

Local partners in the “Song of Kwagala” film project, disappointed in a lack of support locally, have met with filmmakers, financiers and others on both coasts who are lining up in ways the hometown didn’t, or hasn’t.

Although the idea is to keep the campaign independent, some filmmakers and charity-minded folk have signed on to the script and its goal: raising awareness and funding for the need to create clean-water systems throughout the world. Some big supporters include actress Alison Eastwood, Clint’s daughter; Giselle Fernandez, formerly of Access Hollywood; Eden Alpert, musician Herb Alpert’s daughter; Marc Joubert, Matt Damon’s producing partner and right hand in charitable groups such as the H20 Africa Foundation; and Enrique Bañuelos, a Spanish businessman and entrepreneur listed in Forbes’ World Billionaires ranking who wants to bring the “Kwagala” energy into his $6 billion Barcelona World theme-park project.

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More Appearance of Infectious Zombies

Dean “Rocket” Hall may be busy working on DayZ Standalone, but designated mod developer R4Z0R49 has been just as diligent with his work on the DayZ mod. Patch 1.7.7 is huge and makes for an almost unbearably long list of changes. Viral zombies, a silenced Makarov, and the zombie tackle from DayZ Standalone that debuted at E3 are some of the highlights.

The biggest changes is the addition of viral, infectious zombies. Gone are the days of being able to run through a horde of zombies without worrying about infection. Sure, the zombies in DayZ have had a small chance of infecting you for a while now, but the new viral zombies are much stronger—only headshots kill them in one shot—and getting hit by one of them pretty much guarantees that you’ll be infected.

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'Decay's Work Beyond the Limits While Taking Control

Movies took you right up to the edge but kept you safe.

- John Updike


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Zombies in All Levels

 

There are slow zombies, and there are fast zombies. But moviegoers may never have seen the likes of the latest breed of the undead, coming at you in “World War Z” on Friday: the swarming zombie.

In the Brad Pitt-produced adaptation of Max Brooks’ best selling novel, Pitt plays Gerry, an ex-United Nations investigator and family man who finds his world upended when an epidemic begins turning people into the walking — and running and massing — dead.

“When they are not provoked, they are stagnant, slow and wandering,” says the film’s director, Marc Forster (“Quantum of Solace”). “When the feeding frenzy starts, it’s almost like a shark that smells blood. In the moment they sense that there’s something to attack, they will just go for it. It’s the way flocks of birds or fish or ants move together. There is almost a ‘swarm intelligence’ to it.”

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'Decay's Ongoing Work Until the Finish Line

The wide screen reminds me of a roll of toilet paper.

-Yasujiro Ozu



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Paranormal Book Readings

 

Here are some newer releases in paranormal, urban fantasy, steampunk and more, compiled for you and HEA by some of our favorite authors (info provided by publishers and/or their websites):

The following new releases were compiled for HEA by Angie Fox, author of Immortally Embraced.
Vampire Cowboy by Juliet Chastain (Ellora’s Cave).

One bad hand of cards stranded Eliza on a failing ranch in the middle of nowhere. She’d do anything to sell the ranch and make her way back to the city. It’s been hundreds of years since anything caught Daniel’s interest. He doesn’t expect much in the two-bit dusty town…until he sets eyes on Eliza.

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'Decay', Where Zombies Come To Life

 My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water.

- Robert Bresson



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Emotional Baggage In the Midst of Zombies

As lean, haunted lawman Rick Grimes, the character at the center of the apocalyptic horrors that unspool on AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” Andrew Lincoln has been tasked with embodying the tormented hero, the wounded husband, the emotionally unavailable father aspiring to do better by his young son, sometimes in the course of a single episode.

In the show’s third season, grief brought Rick to his knees. The character who had made grave sacrifices to protect and lead a small band of survivors ultimately failed to save his wife, Lori, and when he learns of her death, he collapses in agony.

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Without Risk of Failing, There's No Risk of Success in 'Beauty of Decay'

There’s nothing quite like the idea of failing spectacularly to excite a film maker

- Mike Figgis



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E3 Expo Features Shiny Cars, Zombies and More

 

LOS ANGELES—The Electronic Entertainment Expo is an industry event, which means you can’t get in if you don’t work in the game industry (or cover it as press). 

 

That’s a real shame, because there are lots of neat things to see beyond just the games on the screens. For video game fans, the statues, displays, characters, and cosplayers that occupy these booths make the show like Disneyland.

Maybe you can’t be here, but if you look at enough pictures, it’s just like being here, right?

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Tight Collaboration for Success of 'Beauty of Decay' Saga

I’m like a navigator and I try to encourage our collaboration and find the best way that will produce fruit. I like fruit. I like cherries, I like bananas.

- Jim Jarmusch


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Getting Past the Fear of Paranormal Encounters

Do spirits exist? Well, ask Gaurav Tiwari, and he will offer a scientific approach towards paranormal phenomenon.

The founder of the Indian Paranormal Society, was in the city along with his team on Sunday with the intention to erase inner fears by imparting knowledge and creating awareness about paranormal activities.

The team conducted a workshop at Brigade Road on Sunday from morning 9 to 8 pm which was divided into two modules, namely ‘Paranormal Investigation and Research’ and ‘Psychics and Psychic
Development’.

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Lasting Effects of 'Beauty of Decay' Film Saga Yet to Come

Pain is temporary, film is forever!

- John Milius



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Moaning Zombies Promised by EA

 

The Redwood City, Calif., videogame maker showed a bevy of new games aimed at simulating shooting and fighting in a variety of new ways.

The company used the E3 trade show Monday to show off its latest iterations of old favorites like the modern-day war simulation shooter “Battlefield 4,” and new titles like the futuristic battle game “Titanfall.” It also showed a fantasy shooting game based on its popular franchise that pits the undead against various flora, “Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.”

“It won’t just tickle your funny bone, it’ll chew the whole thing off,” said John Vechey, founder of PopCap, an EA unit that makes “Plants Vs. Zombies.”

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Being In Touched With 'Beauty of Decay' Film Saga's Creativity

A Hunch is Creativity Trying to Tell You Something.
 
- Frank Capra




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Paranormal Activity Unveiled

Strange bumps in the night, legends of pixies and mermaids, and spontaneous combustion in Devon are explored in a new book investigating the area’s mysterious secrets.
 
Paranormal Devon, which has been written by Daniel Codd, has unearthed plenty of strange tales of the supernatural and paranormal including stories of the black dog of Uplyme and the witch’s stone at Putts Corner.

“The book was initially inspired by a fundamental fascination with everything that is strange, out-of-the-ordinary, mysterious and paranormal. In short, everything that gets reported or noticed by the average person – but for which there is not an adequate or immediate explanation,” says Daniel. “I’m also intrigued by the thought that folklore and urban legends, both old and new, might have a basis in some kind of fact.”

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Working 'Decay' From the Ground Level

When you start out as a filmmaker, you do parodies, because you can’t really compete on a studio level.

- Bill Paxton




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Zombies Get Scarier and Scarier

According to an Entertainment Weekly interview with Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus (he plays The Arrowman, or whatever his name is), the fourth season of the show will somehow feature scarier zombies than we’ve had before. He told EW, “They’ve introduced a way to make the zombies scary again. They’re terrifying. The new threat is just unreal.” Hm. So… the zombies evolve? Or someone straps knives to them or something? They all start voting for Ron Paul? Exactly how are they scarier?? Might it just, be, sigh that they figure out how to run? I mean isn’t that how zombies are modified these days?

The World War Z movie has fast zombies while the book didn’t. The original Dawn of the Dead had slow zombs but the remake had running ghouls. Maybe that familiar evolution happens within Walking Dead‘s own story. I mean they’d have to change the title to The Running Dead, of course, but that’s OK. I’m not a fan of the fast zombie in general — exceptions being the DotD remake and 28 Days Later — but if they must do it, so be it. It’d be better than having the zombies learn how to talk or use tools, like in Land of the Dead. I’d take running over either of those things. Anyway, start theorizing, Deadheads!

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Accumulating Resources for Crafting the 'Beauty of Decay' Film Saga

We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.

- Walt Disney



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Paranormal Figures Under Investigation at downtown Cadillac

 

CADILLAC — When David Artt and Lonnie Burkett purchased the downtown Cadillac landmark formerly known as Sally’s Lounge, they knew that along with the rich history, they were inheriting a lasting legacy — and a few regular patrons.

But according to the owners of the Escape Bar and Grill, they got a few more patrons than they expected — the supernatural kind.

And this weekend, they are inviting those “guests” to reveal themselves when a team of paranormal investigators moves into the building, which dates back to 1879.

Bar patrons and employees have reported seeing figures, and residents of upstairs apartments have seen people, translucent pets and have recorded unexplained voices on phones and answering machines.

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Going Out of the Box in Creating 'Decay'

There’s nothing creative about living within your means.

- Francis Ford Coppola




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Cannes Film Festival Overpowered By Zombies

The Cannes Film Festival may be both the most prestigious and the most excessive celebration of cinema in the world. This year the festival began–appropriately enough–with Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, and continued with 12 days of the kind of parties where a diamond necklace worth $2.6 million could quietly disappear. There were an estimated 4,000 journalists on hand to capture the spectacle.

All of this makes Cannes an unlikely venue for Troma Films, the low-budget production house of Lloyd Kaufman, which prides itself on being the “oldest continually operating fully independent movie studio in the world“ and on making “some of the most offensive, tasteless films in the history of cinema.” It also makes the festival a great target for Troma’s latest provocation and associated documentary Occupy Cannes.

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Creativity and Spontaneity to Reign Over 'Decay'

There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.

- Frank Capra


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‘Danger Word’ Adds Its Own Zombie

In “The Walking Dead,” Warm Bodies and the upcoming World War Z, zombies are leaving deep footsteps in Hollywood. Now, black filmmakers are adding their own imprint to the zombie trek with the short film Danger Word, starring veteran actor Frankie Faison as a man trying to keep his 13-year-old grand-daughter alive in a post-apocalyptic world.

For anyone who has ever seen a horror film, a stalled car on the side of the road instantly evokes an image of an attack. But the same scene – a stalled car on a desolate road – might trigger special meaning for black audiences. Is this area “safe” for a black person alone in the woods?

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Mixture of Different Hardwork and Talent Behind 'Beauty of Decay' Saga

A typewriter needs only paper; a camera uses film, requires subsidiary equipment by the truckload and Wellington several hundreds of technicians. That is always the central fact about the filmmakers opposed to any other artist: he can never afford his own tools.
 
Orson Welles


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Goosebumps From Boston Ghost Stories

A new book exploring spooky encounters at haunted sites across Boston claims the town is home to some of the ‘most terrifying ghosts’ in the country.

‘Haunted Boston’ recounts a chilling catalogue of eye-witness reports of paranormal activity, sinister spectres, and troubled apparitions that still dwell in ‘dark streets and shadowy corners’ of the town.

It is the work of author and paranormal investigator Gemma King, who spent months visiting and assessing the ghostly activity in familiar locations across the borough.

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Passion and Hard Work in Creating 'Decay'

I became quite successful very young, and it was mainly because I was so enthusiastic and I just worked so hard at it.

Francis Ford Coppola


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Upcoming French Teen Zombies Out to Get Our Hearts

I’ve never had much time for zombies. Vampires, yes – especially if Isabelle Adjani is having her neck bitten (see Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre for further details), but the lumbering un-dead?

Pack a chainsaw and stick to wide-open spaces and you should be fine. And while many have discerned low-budget satire in the zombie films of director George A Romero, and  others watch the American cable drama The Walking Dead as assiduously as I watch Mad Men, for me this resurrection shuffle seem only fit for ridicule. Come on down, Shaun of the Dead, the only zombie film I’ve ever properly enjoyed.

That is, until now. A new eight-part French series has altogether upended my prejudice. A smash hit when shown last year on the French pay channel Canal+, Les Revenants is this month’s must-see television drama.

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