Trizombie<\/em>\u00a0was first broadcast on VTM Go as six\u00a015 minutes\u00a0episodes.\u00a0\u201cA Team Productions had been talking to\u00a0Lectrr\u00a0and Lars\u00a0Damoiseaux\u00a0who wrote the script and came up with the idea of people with down syndrome and putting them in a zombie setting,\u201d begins\u00a0Appeltans.\u00a0\u201cA Team loved the idea, but of course it\u2019s\u00a0challenging\u00a0to find funding for a project\u00a0this\u00a0niche and\u00a0unique.\u00a0Many\u00a0web series\u00a0are\u00a0typically\u00a0budgetarily\u00a0limited to\u00a0feature\u00a0everyday\u00a0situations\u00a0about everyday people. Stunts and visual effects are often out of reach. So, A Team’s proposal for this unique project was a welcome departure from the norm for VTM Go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Appeltans continues, “During the Covid pandemic the VAF (Flemish audiovisual fund) introduced a scheme providing several productions with a small budget to help makers get through that rough period. We received some funding from this initiative, along with additional support from VTM Go and tax shelter which allowed us to realize this challenging project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Team\u00a0had the idea of adapting the series into a short feature film in order to distribute it across festivals. \u201cThey were investing\u00a0a lot of energy\u00a0into the project\u00a0and\u00a0wanted to be able\u00a0to give it some more life after it\u2019s run on VTM Go\u201d says\u00a0Appeltans.\u00a0\u201cThe film is a bit longer\u00a0than\u00a0the series, so everything we shot is in the film while the series left out a few small scenes, which they felt didn\u2019t work that well\u00a0for that format.\u00a0We shot one more day a couple of months later, just zombies roaming through city streets and some night shots to fill up the edit. You write six episodes, but then when you make it into one film, the\u00a0timing,\u00a0cliffhangers\u00a0and plot points\u00a0are different. They needed a few more shots to\u00a0get that right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Appeltans\u00a0had\u00a0worked with\u00a0A Team Productions for a long time, as well as director Bob Colaers. \u201cHe\u2019s been working for A Team Productions for\u00a0years, as a production assistant, but he\u00a0had\u00a0been expressing his want to direct\u00a0for them as well\u201d says\u00a0Appeltans.\u201cTrizombie\u00a0was the ideal project for him to show them what he can do. I\u2019ve done\u00a0many projects with A Team as first assistant\u00a0camera,\u00a0so they knew I was ready for this next challenge and it was great they gave me and Bob this opportunity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Production consisted of a very small crew, with only 15 personnel. \u201cAlmost every department consisted of one person trying to do the best they could with the time at hand. Originally this project was budgeted at 15 days, but A Team knew that because we were working with actors with disabilities we would need more,\u201d explains Appeltans.\u201cPeople with Down Syndrome often also have physical limitations and thus you have to be careful what you ask of them and respect their mental and physical limits. Luckily, we had the amazing people from Theater stap to help keep everyone of our talents happy and healthy. A Team pushed the project to 25 days. Originally, I thought this would be a lot but, in the end, it wasn\u2019t at all. For example, one of our actors would have lunch with someone who would later be a zombie, they would talk, laugh, get to know each other. But as soon as the Zombie puts on his make-up some of our actors wouldn\u2019t be able to link that zombie to that actor anymore and be scared to even get close to him. Then getting them to do a fighting scene with that zombie wouldn\u2019t be easy. During or after a take they might freak out and get scared and we would need some time to comfort them again and get them back on their feet for another take.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Appeltans\u00a0had previous experience of working with\u00a0Theater\u00a0Strap\u00a0vzw\u00a0and had\u00a0already\u00a0collaborated with a few of the actors\u00a0cast in\u00a0Trizombie<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0a theatre collective for people with disabilities and mainly people with down syndrome. They do mainly theatre and travel all over the world,\u201d details\u00a0Appeltans. \u201cThey have played basically everywhere you can imagine. I already did two short films with them, so I already knew a couple of our actors and I already knew what it was like working on a project with people with down syndrome. These other two short films took place in regular settings so to speak and now we are\u00a0doing\u00a0stunts and fight scenes with them. Physically, they are\u00a0limited and if you have them run back and forth several times\u00a0they are quickly\u00a0exhausted. So, you have to think about how to do it and rehearse it properly\u00a0before wasting a good take. At the same\u00a0time,\u00a0it is\u00a0so much\u00a0fun\u00a0with them as\u00a0they are\u00a0incredibly\u00a0grateful,\u00a0loving and kind. They show you so much love and the first thing they would do when they come to set in the morning was hug everyone. They are full of love.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Team have\u00a0their own camera and lenses in-house which the team relied on. \u201cNormally on a project like this it wouldn\u2019t be possible to shoot with\u00a0an\u00a0Arri Alexa mini camera\u00a0andanamorphic lenses, but they had their own in house which we could use,\u201d\u00a0says\u00a0Appeltans. \u201cFor the rest of the look, usually when you are shooting horror you want to shoot as much as you can during night when it\u2019s dark and you can make it really spooky. The difficulty with that was that would have meant these actors would had to have worked during the night, which doesn\u2019t work for them. They need their schedule and their rhythm and it was already difficult for them to get up really early, so we tried to shoot between 8am-6pm as much as we could. That\u2019s when they perform the best and you don\u2019t want to shoot when they are tired as their concentration would be affected. We also didn\u2019t want to make it too scary for them and put them in these dark situations. We had to once or twice, but the rest of the time we shot during day and daylight situations. So those were a couple of things that pushed us in a certain direction and that limits your possibilities, but that\u2019s also a good thing because if you have too many possibilities then it\u2019s not always the same. If you have a few\u00a0limitations,\u00a0then it\u2019s about working with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Appeltans looked at Grindhouse<\/em> as a visual reference, as well as Dawn of the Dead<\/em>. \u201cThe look of that film really inspired me. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s that good a movie, but I really love the look. We wanted a kind of grungy Grindhouse<\/em> look, which helps to make daylight scenes also look like they have some power. We knew we\u2019d be shooting during the day a lot, so I heavily pushed the blacks during colour grading for a high level of contrast. At the same time, we were shooting comedy so you don\u2019t want it to look too grey and so we put in a lot of colour. In the make-up, set design and costume we tried to push for as much colour as we could. You are shooting horror, but it\u2019s also a comedy, so I wanted a classic horror look with a lot of contrast but with the many colours to cheer things up. That\u2019s how we ended up with the look.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Director Bob\u00a0Colaers\u00a0helped to maintain a positive atmosphere on set when the shoot became stressful. \u201cIt was a difficult summer to shoot in because almost\u00a0every day\u00a0of the shoot we had 50% clouds and 50% sun,\u201d notes\u00a0Appeltans.\u00a0\u201cWe had these fluffy clouds, which are really beautiful to look at, but really difficult to shoot because you have one take in the shade and then another in the sun. Normally with a bit more time and budget you have people to block off the sunlight so that you can make everything look as if it\u2019s\u00a0in the shade or the other way around. With just one person doing the lighting it\u2019s impossible to do, so it just meant that you had to wait until the sun comes out again. It\u2019s then stressful on set as the 1st<\/sup>\u00a0AD notices we are short on time and our actors feel stressed which isn\u2019t good for them. Bob spoke to them and made them feel at ease tell a few jokes\u00a0and get them back on the fun side.\u00a0We had the creative director of the theatre collective\u00a0with us almost every\u00a0day on set, or one of his colleagues. They know these guys very well, so they know when we can push a little bit further, or when it\u2019s time to stop and give them some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The film and series were shot on location in Turnhout. \u201cA lot of these actors live relatively close to there,\u201d adds Appeltans. \u201cWe chose the locations specifically close to where these guys live. That also meant having to find all the locations in that specific city, which isn\u2019t easy. Normally you would have a much larger area to find the locations you need, now we had to limit it to the vicinity of the city. At the same time, we need to fake the fact that there is a zombie apocalypse, so you don\u2019t want to see any \u201cnormal\u201d people in the background. You have to look for streets that aren\u2019t too busy during the day and streets that we clock block off. It would have been impossible for the crew that we had to block off a busy shopping street, so you have to look for backstreets and locations where there aren\u2019t many people. The first 2 episodes take please in the building where the characters live which was shot in a school. It was the perfect opportunity for us as it is deserted over the summer. A lot of opportunities to look for creative solutions to get it all done.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most challenging sequences to capture was the fight scene in episode 5. \u201cThe main characters have a fight with one of the zombies, played by Stefan Perceval who was one of their caretakers,\u201d Appeltans details. \u201cThey have a fight on the front lawn of a house. The scene where eventually his head will be crushed by a door by our character \u201cThe Butcher\u201d. This scene was again a challenge as we needed every one of our main actors to partake in that fighting scene. Every single one of them had to get close to the actor looking scary, with lots of blood on his face and Stefan plays it with a lot of intensity. He really takes up the space which is amazing, but that didn\u2019t always make things easier. That whole scene is exterior and we had lots of sunlight and shade. We shot that over a period of two days and that was very challenging in every possible way. You obviously want the sun to be in the same position, but obviously the light is constantly changing. Keeping consistency and continuity in that was very challenging.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI had lots of fun working on this project and I laughed a lot. With a very limited crew, you are shooting every\u00a0day with the same people. On a project like this, you know that everyone will be there from the beginning until the end. You become very close to each other. There were 15 people in total, which is not a lot for shooting fiction, but you know all 15. That gives you a really strong group feeling, as if you are boy scouts going on camp,\u201d concludes\u00a0Appeltans.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next month\u00a0Appeltans\u00a0begins shooting a documentary centered around the origins of the hardcore Belgian scene in the late 80s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By Oliver Webb \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Originally conceived and adapted into a six-part miniseries for VTM Go, Trizombie takes a unique and refreshing approach to the zombie genre. 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