Halloween rolls around every year with a bit of different flavour. People wondering, "Will it be vampires this year? Werewolves? Ryan Gosling from Drive?" Alas, this year the call was answered - big time. The boys at Don't Sleep Productions came through with the best zombie skateboarding film of all-time with Zombie Skatepark Bloodbath. Shot entirely in Whistler in two days, they took the skate industry by storm last week on Halloween by showing what a bit of originality and some planning can do. I caught up with Don't Sleep's Benny Stoddard to ask him a few questions.

Alright, so Benny: Zombie Skatepark Bloodbath. How did that idea come about?
I really like this film festival in Whistler called "The Heavy Hitting B-Grade Horror Fest" and like submitting to them when we have the time. The problem is that the festival is in October, which is usually a busy time for Don't Sleep. Luckily, we had some time to spare this year and we went for it. Zombies have kind of been taking over my brain lately, and skateboarding is always number one for me, so it was a no brainer to throw them together and whip something up.

Whip something up indeed. Zombies taking over your brain? Theoretically, of course?
Yeah, I've done some serious homework the last couple months watching everything zombie cinema has to offer.

What are your favourites? The classics like George A. Romero films, or newer ones like 28 Days Later?
I like anything that uses practical special FX the best. Bad CG will ruin any good idea. I like the classics, like any old George A. Romero, Lucio Fulci's Zombie was incredible, and there are some greats still coming out like Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, and even AMC's The Walking Dead is good.

I second that motion. You guys definitely came with the classic pro effects with this one. Cameras shooting in high definition doesn't seem like it would help, either. What was the hardest thing to pull off?
For us, it's always continuity. We blitz through our shoots with a ridiculous shooting ratio. It's really stressful when you have continuity issues and you have to go back for reshoots. We need to learn to give ourselves more time on the shoots for more takes for coverage.

How was it received at the Festival? Were people stoked on zombies and skateboarding finally amalgamating?
That festival is a weird environment for sure. I'm not sure they're that interested in story structure or anything like that, because it's a zoo in that place. The crowd is basically just yelling to see blood and nudity. It's fun but also kind of nerve-racking if you're trying to do something different. We did one for the 2008 fest that had more of an artistic approach and it was not well received at all. This year we got tons of love though because of the local talent, the skating, and of course the gore.

That's great. Aside from the crowd, what did the judges think?
I think they were stoked. We won a bunch of awards like Best Kill Scene, Best Single Special Effect, Best Rookie Performance and Best Actor. The judges are all really good guys that put everything into that festival every year.

Sounds like you cleaned up! Everyone loves zombies. How did people in the industry feel? It was blowing up on HellaClips on Halloween Day.
I'm not sure how the industry took it. I mean, there was some good skating in there but it most definitely wasn't another typical montage. We like doing stuff like that though-it's fun to branch out and try different stuff.

What can we look forward to next from Don't Sleep?
We're shooting something big in early 2012 but can't really spill the beans. We (pretty much Dave Ehrenreich single handedly) are also finishing what will probably be the last standard definition full-length skate video we'll ever do; it's called Suplex. I don't know if Dave wanted to release that info yet, haha.  Other than that, we got some commercial videogame stuff coming out, tons of stuff for Push.ca, Timebomb Distribution, Rampion Distribution, all the magazines, music videos, and a short documentary we shot in the desert last winter. So yeah, lots of stuff! Don't Sleep.

(Disclaimer: This short film contains excessive gore and harsh language. But it's a zombie movie, what did you expect?)

Check out Ashley Barker's blog for great photos from the shoot.

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Related:
Lights, Camera Action: Benny Stoddard
Dave Ehrenreich's Blog