Local teens star
in tongue-in-cheek suspense movieBy Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Zombies overran Thriftway the last two Saturdays as a group of local high school students continued work on a production of a movie, “Not Another Zombie Movie.”
A parody of the title, “Not Another Teen Movie,” the film has been in production since last summer. Members of the cast appeared in the Sportsman’s Holiday parade, portraying healthy human survivors fishing for zombies off the back of an old pickup.
The movie tells the story of a group of teens during a zombie outbreak as they attempt to reach a safe house set up by the military.
“What our main goal is, is to show people what you can do without a lot of money,” said Kevin Cannon. Cannon and his wife, Becky, are assisting their son, Cody, a high school senior, with the project. So far, they’ve spent about $1,000.
It’s a little bit “Zombieland” and a little bit “Walking Dead,” Kevin said. “We wanted to try to make it a little bit everything, so it’s not like all zombies all the time.”
It’s a little bit comedy, a little bit horror, a little bit action.
“Cody just got bored last summer and he decided to just jump out,” Kevin said. This is his first outing as a screenwriter or director.
Cody said he was hanging out in the summer of 2011 with a friend, Zane Jackson. They had no plans for the rest of the summer and decided to make a movie.
“The Walking Dead,” an AMC series based on a comic, was between its first and second seasons, and they were fans. That show and the horror-comedy zombie movie “Zombieland” inspired them to make their own zombie movie.
“We thought, we could do this,” Cody said.
Kevin Cannon had done this sort of thing before, he said. At age 11 or 12, he made a vampire movie with an old Super 8 mm camera. For that film he convinced his mother to drive through town with a handmade casket in the back of a pickup.
“We got so many strange looks,” he said. “Mom didn’t forgive me.”
Cannon has toyed with film since then.
With his father’s background to help guide them, Cody, his family and friends, mostly other high school students, went to work.
Unfortunately, they’ll have to go back and shoot scenes they did last year, Becky Cannon said. “We started filming with an old Hi8.”
Then they got a high-definition camera, she said. “The difference is huge.”
“I never expected it to get this big,” Cody said. It was just a summer project with friends.
Cody is writing the script along the way. He has an outline of the plot, but it goes off script a lot while filming, he said. A lot of it is improvised by the cast as they work.
“They work off each other so well,” Becky Cannon said.
Right now, the film is 40 to 45 minutes long, Kevin Cannon said. Most of it is done, with several hours of filming for 15 minutes of footage at Thriftway. Up next, the survivors will find the safe house destroyed.
“There’s a couple living right next to it,” Kevin said. “That’s going to be the saviors of the group.”
It’ll wind up with a battle royal with a mass of zombies in a field. They expect the finished product to be about an hour long.
Special effects are all practical, using whatever tricks they’ve learned studying special effects and materials purchased through E-bay.
“When you take the stress out of it, it’s a blast,” Becky Cannon said.
When it’s finished, the family will put it out as a DVD, Cody said. He’s going to put copies at American Family Video, with clips on YouTube and Facebook.
The group always needs zombies, the Cannons said. Anyone interested in the production can find it by searching for the title on Facebook or calling Cody at (541) 401-3137.
The cast includes Cody Cannon, Zane Jackson, Jakob Holden, Shelby Wymetalek, Sarah McCartin, Kevin Cannon and Elric Benson. Zombies include Brian Lucero, Devin Bruce, Kyle Moore-McKay, Hunter Burge, David Skeen, Travis Hult, Kara Clement, Hailee Armstrong, Josh Pickett, Cade Reynolds, Brahm Sherwood and Jeremy Wymetalek.
Make-up crew includes Megan McCartin, Tanna Storkson, Sara Barber and Paige Sanders.
The Cannon family wanted to extend special thanks to Mark McDonald of Thriftway for making the business available as a location.