Sean and Atom were smart to schedule their horror-themed edition of the Fast Forward Film Fest for the weekend after Halloween -- what costumes and supplies were left at Walgreen's were all 75% off. We bought all the fake blood they had.

But, backing up half a step, the really crazy thing was that when we got to Atomix Coffee to pick up the topic suggestion for our film, we discovered that Shaun and I need to communicate a little better -- we had both signed up for a slot for FuzzyCo. I like to think of mistakes as opportunities, so I said we'd do two movies.

We got, then, two topics: a "Zombie" movie with the sub-topic "no public restrooms" and a "Monster" movie with the sub-topic "fired from a part-time job". Erica pretty instantly had an idea for the Monster movie, and I had a simple idea for the Zombie movie. We went back to Shaun's place to meet up with the rest of the crew: Shaun, Kristen, Jin, and Don Hall. We brain-stormed around our ideas for the zombie movie for a while. That is, for a little bit too long. But once we got in gear, everyone suited up as zombies really quickly and we hit the streets to film. I all the shots pretty well visualized in my head (which is so nice when that happens), so it was just a matter of capturing them all on video.

We finished filming that first film at around midnight and sent everyone but Jin home. Erica and I dragged Jin over to the Old St. Andrew's Inn and then back to our place to film the shots that had both of us in them. Then we let him go, too, and stayed up until 2 am or so filming each other.

In the morning, editing went really fast. Erica did sound effect research on her computer while I zoomed through the video on mine. We were done with both movies by 2 pm and when we got over to Atomix to drop the movies off, we were the second group to turn in our films. Yay us!

The screening was at Dessa Kirk's studio, which was pretty awesome. I've been a fan of Dessa's work since I encountered some of her pieces in Grant Park last year, so it was cool to be in the space where she creates those things. And she turned out to cool, too, which is always a bonus -- I can separate the artist from the work, but it's nice when you don't have to.

And then, the screening. Both of our films were well received. (And it made me feel a little smug when the second FuzzyCo logo came up and someone in front of us said, "two films in one night? That's not possible.") And then the judging and...

Zombies! took the second prize! $80, a pound of coffee, and an Atomix travel mug. And we're award-winning filmmakers (again)!

And, finally, here they both are:

Zombies!

Maneater