Well shoot camp was a week we won't soon forget. It was filled with challenges, laughter, long nights and early mornings. We ate more donuts and tacos than any of us would like to admit, but along the way we create some work that we are very proud of. You can check out some of it below. We will be doing 3-4 shoot camps this year, so stay tuned for some more good times.

An unexpected idea turns into a zombie apocalypse

This is the story of how an unexpected idea turned into a zombie apocalypse. So the day had started out innocently enough. It was EC Shoot Camp 2011 Day 3. We had decided that one of the set-ups we wanted to shoot was a camping sequence and we all hopped into Chad's Sorento for a quick scout at an appropriately woodsy location Chad had seen a few weeks prior. The day was a bit cloudy and the muted light made everything a nicely uniform contrast. As we parked the car and began our short trek into the deeper wooded area, we noticed we were alone. The cloud cover paired with the absence of any other humans made one of us comment “kinda feels like we're in a zombie movie right now.” We were all in agreement that it definitely had a great creep-factor. Then one of us chimed in, “Wouldn't it be cool to shoot a zombie film in this area?” The unanimous reply, “Yes!” (I think more colorful language was used...).

A few minutes of concepting and we were slogging our way into the woods (side note: Arron wore filp-flops... to go hiking... in December. We're working on his situational footwear aptitude). With gear in tow (2 cameras, a tri-pod, a microphone, plus two newly added props – axes) the zombie idea surfaced as we walked. Once we were sufficiently deep enough into the wooded area to start shooting, we had the kernel of the idea hashed out. Chad, sporting a beard - equal parts intimidating and uni-bombery, would play a Grizzly Adams type who, when confronted by the zombie apocalypse, does what comes naturally, killin'. Twenty minutes and a couple close call axe throws later we had enough footage to edit a trailer together.

That evening as we put the trailer together, it became apparent that two more trailers were needed for Arron and Don. Why should Chad have all the fun. So between editing and then watching and re-watching the edit with zombie-filled glee, we worked out the other two trailers we wanted to do. And over the next day and night, those became a reality as well.

Looking back we can't help but laugh. An innocent scouting trip to shoot some camping footage had turned into three trailers and an idea for a web series. It's what we love about what we do. An idea comes out of left field, we get passionate about it, figure out how to make it a reality and then have a blast making it happen. That's when the saying “If you do what you love, you never work a day in your life” is never more true.

Here's the finished trailers:

A morning run and a walk in the park

As part of Shoot Camp, we wanted to challenge ourselves to produce a variety of work, but only having 5 days made it all the more challenging.  Part of our solution was to work with a local model, Mandy, in a dual morning shoot. We captured a fun, fitness, running piece at the crack of dawn and then switched modes to a more moody fashion piece as the secondary set-up to finish the morning off. The fruits of our labor can be seen below.

An early morning campfire

So, here's the aforementioned camping set-up before it turned into zombie mayhem. We decided to go for a breakfast at the campfire vibe and it didn't hurt that we could eat the fruits of our labor. We got a lot of great ideas for the next round of shooting and the hot dogs wrapped in bacon were a delicious bonus.