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USDN Podcast is a cinematic indie comics interview series hosted by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds — spotlighting the creators, storytellers, and worldbuilders shaping the future of independent comics.
Each episode dives beyond headlines into the real journeys behind the books — from Kickstarter launches and creative struggles to the philosophies driving today’s indie storytelling movement.
This isn’t about rumors or recycled news.
It’s about the people creating the worlds.
Through in-depth conversations, creator spotlights, and crowdfunding discussions, USDN explores:
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• The business of crowdfunding
• The art of worldbuilding
• The realities of independent storytelling
USDN is where indie comics come to life — for the fans, by the creators, and powered by the community.
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Thanks for watching!
what is up everybody and welcome to the
united states department of nerds where we
are for the people by the people and
of the people and tonight the convention
floor is soaked in fake blood maybe your
con badge has been scanned the cosplays
immaculate but something is about to go
eerily wrong
From the neon-lit hearts of fandom rises
an indie horror flick so amazing I had
to get the team on here.
And that is ZombieCon Volume One where
cosplay, chaos, and carnage collide.
And joining me tonight are the architects
themselves.
We have Kyle Valley.
And Aaron, Anya, join us tonight.
And they are the co-writers,
the directors, the producers, the actors.
I'm pretty sure they did some music.
And I think the list goes on and
on and on.
But welcome to the show, y'all.
We're glad you are here.
thank you so much for having us i
hope that we can live up to that
intro that was absolutely amazing i told
you i do intros right thank you thank
you thank you my work is done but
um so let's just dive right into the
ground floor here open up the big body
bag of questions we have prepared and
start at ground zero this is a wild
mix of horror comedy fashion and a deep
love for the cosplay culture
where did this spark for this movie come
from with a love of conventions a love
of cosplay a love of zombies how did
y'all get into this or how did this
come about for y'all
So I think it was,
it's fair to say it was a very
good mixture of all of the elements you
just mentioned, you know,
zombies came from the fact that it was
our first indie film, you know,
first time taking a stab at doing a
feature film,
had done a number of short films,
some web series.
And, um,
Zombies seem like a natural kind of first
filmmaker film.
So we started hunting around ideas and
like what was possible on like an ultra
low budget.
That was like, to me,
the obvious go to just because that's kind
of where the genre started with Romero,
like, you know,
getting the butcher down the street to
bring in a bunch of dead body part
or like, you know,
animal body parts and stuff like it always
reminds me of an indie film.
And then from the cosplay element,
that was.
born out of a lifelong love of like
going to conventions anime you know
basically being a geek my whole life and
kind of in the nerd like in the
fandoms before it was like a cool thing
to do like early nineties where no one
at school really knew what marvel and dc
were like my dad was a huge like
old time like first generation marvel dc
fan comic collector so he introduced me to
everything like really early on
And this is part of his dad's collection
up behind me.
I was looking at that collection.
I was like, that is impressive.
Yeah.
Sorry.
I didn't mean to steal your thunder.
No, you're fine.
No.
And speaking of that collection.
So my brother's house is even more
ridiculous than that.
It's got like it looks like a museum
full with like all kinds of replica props,
some original, a lot of replicas.
And we were down there visiting.
And I, you know,
upon like walking through the place,
you know,
seeing everything and then picking up on
like a Captain America shield
specifically, I was like,
that would be a really cool thing to
like kill a zombie with.
It'd be a great defense weapon.
It could be used to like, you know,
sever a head like, you know, this.
And then I was thinking, well,
how do I introduce that into a zombie
movie?
Because we were in the middle of trying
to make that happen.
And I was like, oh, wait.
who would have all this stuff a cosplayer
would have well i'm a cosplayer i have
all this stuff i don't think i've ever
seen a movie about cosplayers and it just
the snowball started rolling from there
and one thing leads into another and it's
like okay cosplayers versus zombies this
is this is where we're going now that's
legit i i love that it was just
like pure passion project from start to
finish so how long did it take y'all
to come up with the concept
I think the concept was basically like...
Rather,
how long did it take to write is
what I mean.
I'm sorry.
The writing was pretty fast.
I think it was maybe like two months.
Yeah, a month or two.
Yeah, we were...
Once we kind of had the idea,
it was just off to the races.
And we would sit in a circle with
myself, Manny, and Aaron.
We would talk about it and kind of
go off and pump out pages and...
I think I pumped out.
I'm a pretty fast rider.
And as soon as I get excited about
an idea,
Kyle just was off to the races.
There was no stopping him like he you
know, we'd be talking about that.
Oh, no.
Fantastic.
Yeah.
It was like, you know,
do you want to take a stab at
this?
And I'll take a stab at that.
And he would come in with like fully
fleshed out scenes, not even rough drafts,
like everything put together.
And the script came together really fast.
And Manny and I were basically really
good.
Manny plays Rocket as well in the film.
Rocket.
Love his character.
The way he executed that role.
We should have reached out and got
everybody on here.
Just brought the whole team in because
that would have been a blast to have
all y'all.
They all look like they were so much
fun to have on set.
it was it would be a huge party
that's for sure yeah so how did that
relationship happen with all those guys
like like bringing them in because i know
um manny luke who is rocket punky johnson
and i think christian played poppierre
And like, how did like all these, like,
were y'all already friends or were you,
that was like somebody y'all reached out
to and it's like, Hey,
would y'all like to be in my zombie
movie?
So basically when I first moved to LA,
I took an acting class and the first
person I met in the acting class was
punky and we ended up becoming roommates
and lived together for awhile.
Uh, and in that same acting class,
it's like a two part acting class.
So, you know,
the first year I met punky and then
in the second tier,
which was like the graduated course,
we both met Christian,
started hanging out with Christian,
you know, a year later,
I met Aaron at a commercial acting
workshop.
It's always the acting workshops.
You gotta meet him somewhere.
That's right.
And after Aaron and I got together,
we were both auditioning.
She was a much more seasoned actor.
She'd been in a ton of stuff.
She's been acting since she was a kid,
like super high level stuff.
I was a total newbie,
like fresh out of college,
like
following a dream, you know,
before I had to get like a quote
unquote real job or do anything like that.
And just trying to take one last stab
at like making that happen for myself.
Um,
so she was kind of coaching me through
like the auditioning process and stuff.
But I remember I had a really,
really bad anxiety when it came to the
auditioning process.
I didn't understand it.
I didn't know what they were looking for.
Everyone tells you they're looking for
this or that or something different.
Like don't come with too much energy,
but come with energy.
You want it,
but don't want it too much.
You know, it's like,
just give me a direction and I'll go
that way.
So long story short,
we ended up doing a bunch of short
films.
okay because i was like well if we
learn how to if i learn how to
do everything i'll feel more comfortable
and that's also a great thing for our
reels and you know to get stuff together
as an actor and then i slowly fell
in love with directing because i naturally
fall into the type of person that loves
to tell other people what to do so
the directing hat fit very well and
through the course of making those short
films uh jj and christian would come like
be a part of it whether they were
in the short films or they were a
part of the set and then we started
doing something called munau tv which was
our
very ramshackle competitor to YouTube at
the time,
which obviously didn't go anywhere.
We had like no money to make it,
but we were trying our best.
And we did a bunch of web series
for that network.
And that's where, you know,
Punky and Christian and Manny.
Well,
that's where first where Manny comes on
the set, but we were all working together.
Manny joined the crew as like an intern
and then quickly became a partner in the
production company that we started to film
all these things in order to get
insurance.
And that's Big Squid.
Yes.
Big Squid.
That's right.
Big Squid.
And yeah,
after we got done with those web series
and weren't getting any attention because
this is like in the early days of
YouTube.
So even in that landscape,
even when we were uploading stuff like
there, you know,
people were kind of trying to figure out
what YouTube was and where to go with
it.
And I didn't know how to get attention
on it.
So.
Put it this way.
I remember explaining to everyone,
my cousins, aunts and uncles, neighbors,
friends, family,
what a streaming platform was because this
was twenty fifteen early on.
And other than Netflix and I think that
maybe HBO hadn't even started with their
Netflix at the time.
It was just Netflix.
And Kyle had the idea and we created
the platform, like you said,
where it was going to be.
a sort of mesh between a streaming
platform and a competitor to youtube and
having our own content and having
subscription-based service and all that we
just were severely underfunded and like at
least five years too early yeah but the
ambition was there and it did lay the
groundwork it's amazing what ambition and
a couple of dollars in your pocket will
get you so what was the budget for
this movie if i if y'all don't mind
me asking
Sixty thousand dollars for the production
budget.
Oh, wow.
And yeah.
And to be honest,
we actually spent a good portion of that
investing in the equipment as well.
So it was, you know, a lean,
mean indie set for sure.
Now, this was filmed in L.A.
or was it filmed in Georgia?
Los Angeles.
OK,
so you're all across Los Angeles in L.A.
No,
that's really cool because I know Georgia
has really picked up as far as like
the the
little hollywood of the the east there
here recently because a lot of stuff is
made there and produced there now so yeah
there's a lot going on and really great
tax incentives for sure it was very
expensive to film in la but um you
know we lived there at the time and
we had a home base there so that's
that's really cool though i'm sorry i'll
go ahead
No, I was just going to say,
I don't even know if like at that
point for tax incentives in Georgia,
they hadn't started their stuff yet.
So Los Angeles seemed like at that time
the only game in town.
But to be fair, those tax incentives,
unless you know what you're doing with
them,
they're hard to get because the big
studios snap them up and there's usually a
cap.
I think Georgia doesn't not,
there's at least like two States that
don't have caps,
but Los Angeles definitely does.
And, uh, you know,
I'm pretty sure that's out the window with
you.
But our whole base as well,
like everyone we knew that we'd be working
with, you know, and half the other,
I would say at least, would you agree?
Like half the other cast mates were people
that we knew had worked with before,
maybe a little bit over half,
as well as a lot of the crew,
actually a lot,
there was like five crew members, uh,
You know,
some of the crew members we'd already
worked with before as well.
So it was our home base in Los
Angeles.
And the story was written there.
And it's kind of, you know,
it did a little love letter to LA.
Like, you know,
all the assholes in Atlanta to turn into
zombies.
That sounds nice.
But Los Angeles,
I feel like that has another whole kind
of connotation.
Oh, without a doubt.
Without a doubt.
My one visit to LA.
Yes,
I would agree with that wholeheartedly.
So, actually,
let's talk about those assholes, Erin.
Love to.
Love to.
This whole movie was kind of your fault.
After all, you made the wish.
Yep.
Yep.
Quite unfortunate.
So, like, for that particular, like, so,
for me, like,
that kind of happened in a blur almost
like that part of the movie kind of
didn't feel real where you got the stone
and then y'all are hanging out at the
apartment and you're upset and you're
like,
I just wish all the assholes would turn
into zombies so we could kill them.
And I'm like, that's kind of odd.
And then, you know,
the stone finally starts glowing and,
It's like, oof,
all of a sudden all the assholes in
L.A.
are zombies.
And the world will never be the same.
Yeah.
So how did y'all come up with that?
Because that's like a very different spin
on the whole zombie trope.
Yeah.
So, like, that's a really cool concept,
and I loved it.
And it was probably one of my favorite,
you know,
ways I've seen a zombie apocalypse just
kick off.
An angry...
female just wishing for all the assholes
to become zombies so we can kill them
all.
So how was that born?
Like, how was that?
Yeah, well,
we definitely wanted with this film,
of course,
there's been every amazing iteration of
zombie film out there that you could
possibly think of.
And we wanted to do our own thing.
We didn't want to repeat tropes and try
and, you know,
retread ground that's already been super
well executed.
So definitely want to do our own thing
with the zombies.
And also the kind of uniting factor.
I mean, this was Kyle's idea, but
who can't get behind all the assholes in
the world getting turned into zombies i
mean if someone's got to be turned into
zombies like the assholes of the world
like everyone knows way too many assholes
in their lives or that they have to
deal with and so we felt like it
was a kind of uniting factor where no
matter who you are when you're watching
this movie you're chuckling thinking oh
yeah i know a couple of ass without
a doubt without a doubt
It's like you've got the bullet already
like with their name on it.
Yeah.
Well,
just like the Rockets Rockets when they're
going in a circle and it's like, Punky,
you've got that bitch in my Pilates class.
You got a whole Rolodex,
a whole list ready to go.
Oh, yeah.
i love that i mean it it was
just such a a unique spin on that
whole trope of how people become zombies
that you you couldn't help but to really
like cheer for that because it was so
different like that's what makes this
movie so unique is it's a whole bunch
of different tropes whether it's the cons
the cosplay
the way people turn into zombies,
the way zombies get killed in this movie,
it's all very unique and it's all very
zombie con.
And I love that from start to finish
because everything was so unique about
this movie.
So... Thank you.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
I mean,
y'all earned all the kudos that y'all have
been getting and will continue to get for
this movie.
So...
How did the team kind of balance the
authentic con life humor with like this
full on zombie mayhem that y'all produced
for it?
Because it is very different and very
unique way to do a zombie movie.
I think it was just kind of.
taking a lot,
I know from my side of things,
it was taking a lot of my personality
and, uh,
things that I would have always liked to
have seen in any movie, uh,
let alone a zombie movie,
but obviously zombie movie is what I would
have.
That was my ideal version of kind of
putting everything in there.
Uh,
but it was trying to figure out how
I would have solved problems with my
background and then bouncing off Aaron and
Manny and, you know,
tapping into their loves for similar
things, whatever, you know,
within the kind of pop culture space and
like, okay, now, you know,
limit your kind of worldview,
like distill it almost into a specific
version of that,
where you're only applying the information
that you've learned from this sphere.
Cause of course we all have, you know,
a myriad of things to go off of
in any kind of situation or,
you
problem,
but really trying to just pick out, okay,
you might solve it in ten ways,
but three of those ways are specific to
information that you've gotten out of pop
culture,
whether it's a zombie movie you've watched
or it's an anime or whatever,
and they've dealt with a problem that's
similar to this.
what are those solutions and then trying
to tie those solutions realistically both
into the narrative of the story and into
the characters personality types and kind
of choosing you know which of those
solutions fits which character best and
then stringing them together uh in a way
that would both make narrative sense and
kind of cognitive sense because the
idea is very outlandish so trying to
harness as much reality as we could and
pair those things together and i thought
would kind of elevate the stakes both for
the characters and the audience so it was
just like a giant balancing act of all
of those things
it's anime inspired and so this is like
the perfect example of an anime right you
have characters that you get behind that
are super grounded that you feel like you
really get to know really well and in
depth during the course of especially in
the first season but there's crazy
outlandish unexpected world building and
changing type events that happen and you
match the two up together and you get
a super awesome story so that definitely
was what we were going for here too
Accomplished.
A hundred percent accomplished.
So we,
I know like if you watch any type
of news, like just the amount of, um,
toxicness that's going on around us at
every day,
where y'all trying to also kind of send
a little message in there about everything
kind of like going on as far as
like the online toxicness for different,
you know, types of culture,
whether it be anime or comic books or,
um,
zombie movies, even just like the,
the toxicness that comes around with those
types of cultures.
Like,
was there a deeper message in there that
y'all were trying to send to people as
well?
Yeah.
So this was, again,
we shot this in two thousand sixteen.
So I think the world's just become
perpetually more toxic as we've kind of
gone through.
It's funny.
It's like you shot it in twenty sixteen.
Here we are in twenty twenty five and
we're still dealing with that same type of
stuff.
Yeah, exactly.
But yeah,
it definitely derived from a lot of the
stuff that I was seeing online,
just in terms of
The general the knee jerk reaction,
it seemed from a large portion of people
to go to negativity because they felt like
it was almost like the only choice.
Whereas in my like the kind of message
I think we were trying to send was
that is a choice.
But it's just that it is a choice.
And you also have the choice to go
in the other direction.
And that can change a lot and kind
of prioritizing what's most important to
you.
So just because everyone in the world
doesn't agree with, you know,
your favorite anime or the way you see
a protagonist or the way you see a
character,
that doesn't mean that it's negative.
That doesn't mean that it's necessarily
bad, right?
You have your group of friends who get
you, who you get down with,
and that can be enough.
You don't need everyone to see this world
the same way you do and stick close
to those people who are close to you.
I like it.
Because if they don't,
Aaron's going to make a wish and all
of a sudden you're going to be all
assholes and zombies.
And then you better have some friends and
some katanas around you or you're just up
shit's creek.
I love that segue, actually,
because we're rolling into it.
So this is a very much with such
a, like, I think my car,
my Bronco may have been about as much
as it costs to make your movie,
which is sad.
But I love my Bronco nonetheless.
But the film is very much DIY in
the best kind of way with the practical
effects, great camera work,
and just the huge imagination that y'all
brought to this.
What were some of your favorite creative
tricks to make this feel like a big
blockbuster apocalypse?
Because there was a lot.
The first zombie kill was amazing.
Thank you very much.
That first zombie kill,
we definitely wanted to make it like an
off to the races, bonkers, in your face,
let you know that we're for real.
We've, you know, kind of... Nailed it.
Right.
We've kind of like started to ease you
into this nice slow and kind of rhythm
of really getting to just be sitting with
the characters and getting to know them
and getting in their friend group and
their lives and their...
you know passions and then once the
apocalypse hits we're going full throttle
it's a zombie movie now you're along for
the ride just with our four characters as
they literally go through war and we're
not gonna ease up on you at all
and the kind of just setting the tone
there with that first zombie kill was
really important
yeah and from a logistical standpoint of
trying to you know get a big budget
film with the limited resources we have
had it was a lot of uh knowing
what we could do knowing what we couldn't
do and trying to push the boundary of
what we could do to the absolute maximum
while not ever stepping over that line
into a place where
it would have been, at best,
extremely difficult to make it look good.
And just using the information that we had
learned from all of the short films that
we had made and the web series that
we had made on much smaller budgets than
this,
to kind of learn what it is that
was possible and how to work and make
it look the best way it could.
Cause it was really a compounding of so
many projects and so many tricks that we
had learned and just trying to use every
single one of our tools in our toolbox,
you know, in one giant film.
Yeah,
we couldn't have a giant zombie horde and
we couldn't have a huge convention where
it was decided where it took place.
But we could hint at those things.
We could still include it tastefully.
Yeah.
Right.
No,
the way y'all done it was done really
well because you get two back-to-back,
very bloodthirsty types of kills in.
And I believe I shared the photos of
you just drenched in blood.
the fake blood,
but she still had like nice,
pretty white teeth.
So I thought that was hilarious.
I'm like, but then when Manny does it,
you know,
it's all of a sudden it's like in
his mouth and it's everywhere.
I'm just like, I'm like, okay,
she's got skills.
Okay.
I'll give her that.
Yeah,
I didn't even wear contacts during this
film shoot because I knew we were going
to just get so completely bloody and dirty
and disgusting.
So I'm happy that at least the teeth
were looking white and clean.
Everything else was just like everything.
I was like everything is like you're like
just head to toe fake blood.
But you smiled and like you're like kind
of freaking out.
But my teeth straight up white.
that part of it.
There's still the Hollywood little bit in
there.
Right.
It's an indie film,
but you gotta still have a little bit
of touch of Hollywood.
Right, that's the animator stance, right?
Yeah.
Exactly,
because there was just so much blood.
I'm like,
I don't think bodies have that much blood,
but keep it going.
Keep that shit pumping.
Let's go.
So that was a lot of blood.
I didn't even know just how gory it
would get,
because when we filmed the zombie kills,
for the most part,
everything in this film was filmed
chronologically.
So that was actually our first time
filming the zombie kill,
was my kill scene with Devon.
And when we sprayed me down,
when our makeup artist sprayed me down
with blood,
I didn't know how hard Kyle had instructed
him to go in the paint on the
blood.
I didn't know how long it was going
to be going.
I was totally acting as Claire in that
moment.
So it was quite a shock to me.
What you saw on screen,
that was the first and only take that
we got when the second the blood hits
clean.
Yeah, that was that was real shock.
It was a lot of blood.
Yeah.
When you watched it back that first time
and you're like, holy shit,
that's a lot of blood.
When I watched it back the first time,
I was like,
now I have my Uma Thurman moment.
I was like, this is my Kill Bill.
Yes.
This is what I need in life.
And it was with a katana at that.
With a katana, no less.
Yeah, I was really pumped about it.
I knew that we had, you know,
we'd captured the magic.
And that was one of the cool things
that we did with ZombieCon.
Not for all the scenes, of course, but...
There were a couple of days where we,
for a number of reasons,
things weren't working out and we needed
to just say, all right, Kyle was like,
scrap it.
We're ending early.
We're ordering some pizza.
We're pouring some drinks.
Everyone get your wardrobe off.
Like all the, you know,
important things are downloading footage.
get your asses downstairs.
Let's go with our drinks and pizza.
We're going to watch some of these
dailies.
And we got to crowd all around on
like our bed, Kyle and I,
and our little couch with our dogs,
like tall,
ten to fifteen of us crowd around the
MacBook and watching images and the
videos, what we just shot.
And it just was amazing.
And the kind of excitement you could feel
it and the energy coming back like,
all right, this is exhausting.
Things are going wrong.
But look at what we were able to
capture already.
Like it kind of would reinvigorate
everyone.
So we came back the next day fresher
and just like ready to go.
So Kyle, how much blood was it?
How many gallons did you go through?
I think so.
I have to give,
I have to shout out Joseph Drabresco,
who was our makeup artist on this film,
who's super talented.
And he really brought the zombies to life.
And he was the kind of blood guru,
if you will.
He told us how much to get.
I kind of like cut out a check
and was like, okay,
here's your budget for special effects.
You know, go,
go forth in Los Angeles and procure
whatever you need.
He knew what to do.
Yeah,
I think he brought back a total of,
I want to say, five gallons of blood,
like in, you know, five gallon,
each in a gallon jug.
And I think we went through all but
one,
maybe we had half a gallon of blood
left because I know we had at least
half a jug left,
which we used for insert shots over the
next couple of years.
And then we eventually did have to buy
another gallon of blood.
But I think about four and a half
gallons of blood total,
which I think it seems almost like it's
more than that because of the method he
used to deliver it, which was super low.
Spray.
Yeah.
And the way he sprayed it,
it was amazing to me.
I thought we're going to because we
couldn't afford squibs.
We couldn't afford any kind of, you know,
gas powered or, you know,
pressure powered blood sprayer or
whatever.
So he went on to Amazon and he
asked me to pick up like two of
these plastic weed sprayers,
the hand pump weed sprayers.
And then he had a specific type of
blood for the spray that it would flow
through the tube easier.
And so in all of the shots where
everyone's getting hit with blood right
below the camera or right to the right
of the camera or to the left of
the camera,
is joe and he's sitting there
simultaneously pumping and spraying this
thing and some of the funniest moments
it's on the dvd i in the behind
the scenes uh video like extra features
like someone got our behind the scenes we
didn't have like a dedicated crew but we
had people taking cell phone footage and i
didn't even know this existed until like
two years later and it was amazing to
see it like joe is laying on the
ground
with pointing the blood up or pointing the
sprayer up between my legs as Punky
delivers a stab.
He's just enthusiastically spraying it.
With a maniac type grin on his face
too.
He had the best job.
yeah he looked like everybody like legit
just had so much fun making this movie
but just being the guy who you don't
really have a whole lot to worry about
just make sure your your pump sprayer is
sprayed and you got good pressure and
you're just like i'm getting paid for this
It was amazing.
So the zombies, I mean,
he obviously was in charge of the blood,
but he was also in charge of all
the zombie prosthetics.
So those zombie kind of boils that evolved
through the course of the film.
We worked together on like kind of what
the evolution of the zombie would be.
And I had a specific idea, like,
you know, the hates boiling up.
So we start with like kind of boils.
And then as they, you know,
We get, you know,
they more they get more evolved later in
the film.
They start like kind of popping and oozing
and all this stuff.
And I just kind of sent him a
few sketches and I didn't know what he
would do with those.
And he showed up in L.A.
with, you know,
casts for latex molds that he personally
designed and would like.
basically individually poor latex molds so
we had completely original latex molds for
the zombie effects that you know you
couldn't buy at a store a costume store
or like a professional makeup store it was
like literally zombie con specific stuff
which i just thought like seeing so many
behind the scenes features growing up i
was like this is freaking awesome i liked
it because it wasn't like
The zombies weren't overdone too fast.
Like,
you didn't immediately get the rot and the
brains.
You didn't get none of that.
It was just like...
They were kind of normal,
still kind of had some motor function.
And then, you know,
the boils and stuff like that.
I thought that was brilliant.
Like you showed up a real progression of
the turn versus like straight into they're
falling apart,
the rotten and that kind of stuff like
you would normally see in a zombie type
of movie.
Which was so crucial, too,
because the Rockets Rockets were all so
confused for many reasons.
But thinking that Devin, my ex,
was literally just a normal like normal
self,
not a zombie because he was so close
on the edge.
So really thinking that Claire was sitting
there murdering someone and they were the
accomplices.
Mm hmm.
Now, you're right.
That was Yeah,
that was in the knife in the head,
though.
I was like, Okay, that's it.
You know, he should be good.
But it was like the stab through the
heart in this movie, right?
That killed the zombie.
That's right.
Yeah.
Again,
just a unique zombie con spin on on
the traditional zombie,
which was really cool.
But you really laid that knife in there,
didn't you?
You know,
if you're going to go for it,
it was like at that moment with Claire,
it was do or die.
I think Punky's exact line was do
something.
Claire grabs the knife.
What are you doing?
Put that shit down.
It's like, all right,
if you're going to go for it,
you may as well go for it.
You hit him like it was definitely some
ex-boyfriend, you know, hate in there.
There was some anger.
Oh, yeah.
More than just the zombie apocalypse era.
You know, that comes from way down here.
Claire carries a lot of anger.
That was one of the things I loved
about her character.
She's on the surface, you know,
the peacemaker, the happy one,
the joyful kind of always smiling,
but she's got a lot of sadness and
a lot of,
a lot of anger under there.
A lot.
Kyle, future reference, man.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh man, I love everything about this.
So the zombie eyes,
let's talk about those.
So I did watch a little,
normally I don't try to watch clips and
stuff from previous interviews because I
want this to be really unique,
but I thought it was really cool that
just hearing you tell the story about the
zombie eyes and how kind of they came
to be.
So lay that out for us because I
thought that was really cool.
so we had i first started i obviously
wanted the zombies to have specific eyes
and we started with the idea of uh
doing contacts but they were wildly
expensive you had to get an optometrist uh
to measure everyone's eyes and there's a
bunch of legal stuff that you have to
do for the insurance and everything and it
the you know contacts themselves they're
not like
know run-of-the-mill contacts they have to
be like prescription level contacts and it
cost a ton of money each so i
was like all right guys we'll just do
this in vfx in post which may or
may not have been the cheaper option in
the long run but uh it manny was
the one who uh personally rotoscoped all
of the eyes
Uh,
so once he had all the eyeballs tracked,
which kept changing as the editor kept
changing the actual edits of the movie,
which I'm sure he loved.
Uh,
so he tracks all the eyeballs and then
he gave me,
so I would give him different colors of
like, okay, I need this opacity,
a little bit of green,
little bit of red.
And I was on the fence between,
do I want them to be more red?
Do I want them to be more green?
Kind of like the evil emanating from
inside or are they more like,
animalistic, you know,
kind of like a cat's eye reflecting the
light in the environment.
So try to hit a middle ground between
the two.
So it took about like five to six
layers of those VFX basically slots where
like we had all these different levels of
opacity and color.
And once I got those in through the
color correct,
I then used my own masks and basically
shifted the opacity between the layers in
order to achieve
an effect that would both kind of interact
with the lights that were on set and
the environments while still leaving a
little bit of the natural reflection from
the actor's eyeballs and give them a
differing amount of glow for like
different intensity levels.
So it was very much like a marriage
of him and I working together for
literally years and
Again, using every tool in our toolbox,
learning new ones,
and just trying to hit that sweet spot.
And it did take years to hit that
sweet spot,
but I think we finally hit it in
the end.
No, y'all absolutely did.
I thought it was really cool because,
again,
it goes back to this is very much
a zombie con-ism thing.
I'm going to start calling them that now.
I like that.
I'm going to take that.
Zombiconism.
Because I've never seen zombies like that
before.
Again,
these zombies do have some consciousness
calls.
I mean, what was his name?
Xander.
Xander, Carlo Mendez.
handsome freaking dude.
I don't know how you managed to find
such a handsome dude and be like, hey,
you're going to be a real asshole for
this film.
Was it an acting class?
Another acting class.
That's awesome.
That was actually Ivana Chubik's acting
class, which we use the book for all.
I gave the book to all the actors
because it was the method that I was
most familiar with.
I think it's a fantastic method.
Ivana Chubik's power of the actor.
If anyone's interested in getting into
acting,
I would highly recommend that be like the
first place you go.
Yeah.
but we met at that class.
So we had done a number of like
scenes together in the class.
And he actually was on one of our
short films with Christian called stakeout
like two years before we did zombie con
and a series on TV.
in Spanish.
That's right.
And right.
Tremendous.
And so we had worked together a ton.
So when it came again to casting,
we pulled from people we knew and he
has this, you know,
just super intimidating physique where
it's like,
I don't know how he and Christian always
do it,
but they're always like super jacked and
ripped.
Even Christian.
Yeah.
I'm like,
I was like casually ripped all the time,
but Christian is like this, like,
Yes, he's real,
but he's also he fits every bit of
the nerdy cosplayer like appearance.
You know what I'm saying?
But they take his shirt off and there's
a freaking six pack of abs there.
And he's like completely jacked.
And then Xander has this perfect.
I'm sure he's one of the nicest,
sweetest people you'll ever meet.
But he for your lead here and he's
like the hottest fucking zombie I've ever
seen in my life, man.
No weirdness there, but... No,
we've gotten... It's great.
We keep getting that feedback as well,
and we always have to throw it back
to him that we didn't know that he
was going to be shirtless until he was
just shirtless all of a sudden.
Shirtless and ripped.
It's like, perfect.
Shirtless, ripped,
and a zombie with cool glowing eyes.
We were in the middle of shooting that
final scene with him.
There's a girl out there who will say
she can fix him.
Well,
his three girls definitely thought they
could.
True.
Yes.
We were in the middle of shooting that
final sequence.
And like Aaron was saying, yeah, we,
you know, I had his,
I had the cosplays for them all picked
out in the costuming.
And in the middle of one of these
scenes, he just,
I think it was like the second take.
He just ripped that, you know,
the gi off.
and just it flies it like vanishes into
the background floats to the floor and his
like veins are bulging and i'm like oh
this is awesome this is this is the
arnold schwarzenegger moment okay perfect
money shot oh dude that was yeah so
nicole mccauley is that how you say her
name is mama bear yes and
When I seen her the first time in
the movie, I was like,
I know her from somewhere.
So naturally, IMDB, I'm like,
there it is right there.
She's terrific.
She was amazing for the mama bear role
in this.
How did y'all manage to get her to
come in on the film as well?
So Nicole is funny because she's one of
the very few, right,
that we weren't super close with,
we didn't know before.
Christian, who plays Javier,
actually knew her from a different,
I guess,
job that they had worked together,
some acting gig.
And he was like,
I know an actress who would be perfect
for this role.
And so we brought her in for kind
of like a table read and get to
know her,
very informal at Kyle and my apartment.
And that turned into tequila drinks.
And like five hours of conversation later,
we're like,
mama bear we love you you're perfect and
it was like she's perfect she's one of
the big squids she fits in perfectly with
the pack and we're still really close she
lives in atlanta now just like we do
she moved from la as well so we're
still i mean we're close with all the
big squids but we're physically close to
her as well oh that's really cool but
yeah she knows she fit it's amazing what
tequila can talk you into i know it's
wonderful
If you're not punching a wall,
you're making good things happen.
Good things happen.
Or losing clothes.
Sometimes both.
Losing clothes and punching walls.
It's very much a Harvey Dent situation
with tequila.
It's kind of like flipping your coin.
Exactly.
You either get really suave like Carlos or
Carlo or you get the other side of
Harvey Dent and you're like punching walls
and losing clothes.
Well, thankfully,
he stayed suave and he lost clothes.
That he did.
Good old Harlow.
So,
we've talked about pretty much everybody.
So, for Punky,
you let Punky keep her own name,
which I thought was really cool.
So, you're like, no, your name's Punky.
No, you're keeping Punky.
That's it.
So, we...
so the whole thing with that, it was,
so we had been friends obviously for a
very long time.
And like to, to me, yeah.
And to me and Aaron, like she's JJ,
uh,
but she was going through the comedian,
like she was working at the comedy store
and she had been going by a different
name there.
I think it was ham hock.
And then,
then she was like kind of transitioning
into the name punky,
which obviously would become her name, uh,
as the world knows her now.
But when I first heard the name Punky,
I couldn't get away from it in my
head.
I was like, oh my God,
that name is so perfect.
Perfect.
It wasn't like a hundred percent official
for her yet.
So I was like,
I'm going to use it for the character.
And then she ended up like,
that's obviously her name.
So now in retrospect,
it's a little bit like strange.
But at the time, right.
The name is just such a badass,
like unique fucking name.
She was a...
badass to begin with oh yeah she's somehow
even cooler and funnier in real life which
i don't even know how it's possible but
she is yeah she's almost like she would
be like her character in real life and
now you're telling me she's even more cool
and badass which might be what she's punky
in the movie but if she's that on
another level if she is shit up to
ten you know
One of my favorite things about her is
that she could be meeting anyone.
And throughout like the decade plus,
you know, I don't know,
fifteen years that we've known her.
We've obviously introduced her to all of
our family members and this,
that and the other.
Every single person,
regardless who they are,
what they're like, what age they are,
where they're from.
Every single person is obsessed with Punky
after meeting her.
And they're like, all right,
she's like the best,
most funny person in the world.
I want to be best friends with her.
She just feels so good, too.
Yeah, she's got that it factor.
You know, people always talk about, oh,
like this politician is like, you know,
makes no matter who you are,
you could be on the opposite side,
but you shake their hand and they make
you.
She's got the it factor,
whatever that undescribable magic is.
Like you could arrive someplace new and
you're like, this is going to suck.
And then you meet your boss and you're
like, let's go.
Where do you want to go, man?
We're going over there.
Right.
Killing those people.
I'm in.
I don't care.
I don't care what they did.
You just told me we're going to do
it.
We're going to do it.
Let's do it.
And it's funny because you just reminded
me of some of the behind the scenes
footage because we filmed some documentary
type stuff a long time ago.
But I just remember in one of the
videos,
Punky was talking about Kyle's telling her
about how we're going to make this film
and asking if she wanted to be a
part of it and yada, yada, yada.
And she was like,
I didn't know how he was going to
make this feature film with this grand
plan and all these zombies and all these
locations.
But he's like, don't worry about it, JJ.
We're going to do it.
I'm going to figure it out.
I was like, oh, I'm not worried.
Like, I know you'll figure it out.
When Kyle's like when Kyle sets a goal
and is determined,
there's no stopping him.
You don't know how it's going to get
done.
I don't even know if he quite knows
how it's going to get done,
but somehow it will get done.
And yeah,
the relationships like with Punky and with
the Rockets Rockets and having people that
we trusted along the way coming in with
that kind of like,
already knowledge and we'd work together
like that,
it made all that that much easier and
better for sure.
Yeah.
And that shorthand,
throwing it back to what you were asking
earlier, just like,
how are we able to get a higher
budget look for such a small budget?
That familiarity and shorthand and having
worked with people before,
it allowed us to get into locations that
would have been far too expensive to sit
for a whole day or two days.
And we're like, okay, well,
we can afford it for four hours.
And because we had all worked together and
we had this shorthand,
we had this trust and we had worked
the script ahead of time.
It allowed us to do those things and
to get shots that we wouldn't have been
able to do if we had not had
that shorthand and that familiarity.
For sure.
Now,
was that the one scene where you come
across the three zombies?
Was that just a parking garage scene?
Cause it looked like a parking garage with
the cars and stuff.
No, that was actually a warehouse.
You mean under the warehouse?
Yeah.
That was a warehouse in downtown LA.
And funny enough, it was like,
it had to be a garage or like
a warehouse.
And it's that exact like location is where
we actually rented the alleyway from them.
That's where we shot the rooftop scene.
That's where we shot the tunnels.
And that's where we shot.
There's some footage of us like playing
around on arcades in the very,
very beginning of the movie.
They had a little arcade room in there,
too.
So this like giant warehouse that all
these little areas we made really great
use of for multiple scenes.
That's that's really cool that one place
just provided all of that.
And it's not a studio.
It's just a building.
It's an expensive place to rent where they
make sure that, yeah,
they're squeezing you for what they can
because it's L.A.
And you got to be out by the
minute.
You got to if there's any extra
accoutrements that you want to rent,
that'll cost you.
But it was a fantastic location and we
made really good use of it.
No,
that was really cool that it was just
a one building.
Hey,
we also got this one thing over here.
But it's going to be another ten grand.
Like, dude, it's ten by ten.
They're like, okay, eighty-five hundred.
They're like, we got this crew.
They already know they're spending a
couple days here.
We can show them another room.
Let's show them another room.
Exactly.
It's a gift that just kept on giving.
Oh, by the way,
if you slide that wall right there,
there's a whole house back there you can
use.
Yeah.
You want to move in?
Oh, I like it so much.
This was such a fun movie.
And later on,
hopefully when people watch this and they
see how much fun that we're having talking
about it,
that they go and watch this movie because
it was such a fun movie.
So what is next for ZombieCon?
And when can I expect to see Volume
Two?
so we weren't sure if we were going
to be able to get a volume two
but kyle was like i already have this
whole saga in my head this is years
in the making so he actually took time
like six months ago a year or so
ago and wrote volumes two through five i
edited them so we've got those scripts
ready to go and then he's got the
rest of the story beat it out through
volume ten so like we're anime level like
franchise level ready to go
And we weren't sure if we would get
to do a volume two in all honesty,
but with the release and how well this
is going,
we're pretty confident that by next year
we'll be able to be in pre-production on
it.
So hopefully very soon.
That is freaking awesome.
Because volume one is not enough.
We need a volume two.
And if we get a volume all the
way up to volume ten,
by then I'll be there.
I'll be there for the whole thing.
So I do got a question.
So when I was looking at the movie
on IMDb,
so we have a twenty twenty four release
date and a twenty eighteen release date.
What was that twenty eighteen release
date?
So that twenty eighteen release date was
basically us on the first rough cut of
the film.
We wanted to get a test audience,
couldn't afford it.
So we submitted it to some film festivals
just thinking we'll get some feedback.
And it ended up getting nominated and then
won an award.
And as soon as it won an award.
IMDB said, okay,
you're not in post-production anymore.
You're released.
And I traded like six hundred emails with
them being like, we're not released.
I'm literally I sent them screenshots of
my computer.
I'm like, I'm still working on this.
Like we're missing VFX.
We're missing audio.
Like we're missing this.
And I ended up re-editing the whole film
during COVID.
But like this saga went on for years
and years and years until finally it
We got a sales agent and he's like,
look,
the two thousand eighteen things not going
to fly.
You know, the posters got to change.
Names got to change.
You got to figure out a way to,
you know,
refresh this so people know it's a new
movie because that two thousand eighteen
movie,
that was a rough cut of the film.
That's not.
Yeah.
And it does say honestly,
it just says zombie kind.
It doesn't have the volume or anything
like that.
Right.
And changing it to volume one,
that was how we were able to get
a new IMDb page to reflect the new
film that it had become.
Yeah.
Something so small.
Yeah.
And we premiered it at Kevin Smith's Mod
Castle Film Festival as well.
So it had like a new launch and
everything.
He seems like he is like the nicest
person in the world.
He had COVID when we were there,
unfortunately.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we didn't get a chance.
I agree with you.
He seems like I would love to meet
him someday.
And I know he's got the theater,
I think in LA as well.
No, it's in New Jersey.
I think.
That's where the film festival was held.
Small Castle Cinemas.
You've got to go if you ever like.
Well, it's just up the road to go.
It's literally just a few hours up the
road.
Oh,
you got to go and visit Jay and
Silent Bob's comic stash.
Is that what they actually named it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a really cool store and the whole
town around it is great.
It's a really fun.
And they've got a ton of props.
in the shop that aaron's talking about uh
they've got a ton of props from all
of his movies like it is like some
and some unique collectibles like i
actually got it's off camera right now but
i got a stack of dvds because you
can get signed dvds by kevin smith at
that store for like
Yeah, he's great.
He's a million bucks.
I don't care what anybody has to say
about him.
To me, he's a million bucks.
Some of my favorite YouTube clips are the
clips where he's talking at Comic-Cons
about all of his insider information,
like working on Batman and all this stuff.
He's got scripts written for movies.
I love...
I don't know if it was,
I know it's a YouTube video because I
watched it on YouTube,
but I can't remember if it was from
like an MTV Cribs or something like that.
And he literally has this wall of scripts
that are just waiting for like, hey, yeah,
we want your Batman script because I know
he's got like a full up like Batman
script just ready to go.
Yep.
Yeah.
And I, I remember the,
I think it was a Superman script that
he was working on,
not the Batman script that,
and he was like going through this whole
thing.
And the guy's like,
I love his story about the producer where
he's like, the producer was like,
I want like a giant spider, you know,
and Superman can't fly.
And he's like saying all this stuff.
And Kevin Smith's like, uh, what?
But, um, so yeah,
I am primarily a comic book podcast.
What are some of y'all's favorite comic
books?
Are y'all comic book people?
I know you mentioned it earlier,
how your dad got you into Marvel and
DC and stuff,
but do y'all still regularly like, Hey,
let's swing through the comic book shop.
So I've transitioned more from comics
mainly to manga just because manga was
something I always wanted to read when I
was growing up and it wasn't accessible.
But when I was growing up,
like I would generally go through – so
my dad had all like the giant volume
sets where you get like – Yeah, yeah.
The omnibuses and stuff like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
So I would basically pillage his
collection and like,
just go through an entire one in the
evening and I've, you know,
all the regular vanilla stuff,
but I'd say the comic that I would
go in specifically to the store and be
like,
that's where I'd spend my allowance or
whatever I'd earn that week would always
be spawned when I was growing up.
At least that was like, yeah,
I still collect artwork to this day.
I just re-watched the movie.
The movie is still so amazing.
I can't wait to finally get the new
Spawn movie.
Is there a new one coming out?
Yes.
That's awesome.
I think it's going to be a twenty
four and Blumhouse.
That's cool.
Oh yeah.
That's good.
It's going to be pure horror combination.
Yeah.
Got it.
With a twenty four is quality.
I mean, and with the advancements, I mean,
that's the one drawback, right?
Of that original film.
Oh, I mean, it's not, you know,
fantastic there,
but it's like in the early stages of
CGI.
So.
Right.
I mean, they didn't.
Oh, well,
I'll read basically whatever manga Kyle...
Let's just preface this, because... Well,
what's your favorite manga right now?
You've already heard about his dad being
the collector,
his brother's collector house.
Kyle's a collector.
I've married into a family of collectors,
and I myself never really got, like,
super bitten by the bug.
So I'll read whatever is around.
And that's, like, my, like, fiending.
And, of course,
he's going to pull out his berserk.
Berserker?
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
I thought that was on the shelf.
When I seen it,
I could just barely see it in the
camera.
I'm like, that looks like berserk.
You did just awaken a memory in me
though.
Like when I was younger,
I used to be a fiend for the
Archie comics.
Like every single time we would go into
a grocery store,
I would leave with another Archie comic.
Archie horror is probably some of my most
favorite horror comics alive.
Oh my God.
Archie's horror is amazing.
I have not revisited Archie in a long
time.
I didn't know that existed.
They still make it.
I'm glad that I do.
Wow.
I got down a really terrible path as
well with romance anime for like a year
there where I like binge watched every
last romance anime.
That's my daughter.
Perfect.
I went down that.
It is a dark path because once you
go down, you don't stop.
You're like, I need more.
I need answers.
I need more series.
It happened with the online novels as
well.
They didn't even have the ad-based
platforms.
It was where you had to play little
games to then be able to watch and
unlock another.
I was spending way too much time doing
that.
I'm like, all right,
I need to just rip the cord,
get out of this.
I have my own run that's gone in
real life.
It is a dark, deep hole.
That you can get yourself into.
So my daughter's room is right here.
Like, so she's a college sophomore,
pre-med student, love her to death.
So I didn't know what manga was.
I knew what comic books were.
She's like, dad,
it's basically a comic book only from
Japan.
I'm like, okay.
And you want me to take you to
the bookstore to get this?
She's like, yes, if you don't mind.
Like, okay, I got you.
I'm like,
she's asking me to take her to a
bookstore so she can buy a book to
read.
That's in my head.
All I cared about.
I'm like, yeah.
So that now grew into she has another
room in our house.
And it's like her bookcase,
her collectibles, you know.
But it's literally bookcases of manga of
all different flavors and varieties.
My Hero Academia.
Oh, yeah.
Banana Fish.
You name it.
She has it.
She come home today and she's like, hey,
look, Dad, they had this book.
I'm like, you have that book?
She's like, yeah,
but this is the anniversary edition.
Look at the pages.
They're plaid.
I'm like, okay, cool.
That's awesome.
You're an adult.
You spend your own money.
Cool.
She's like, oh, actually,
I used your card.
Of course.
I'm like,
remind me to take you off that card.
And then she's like.
Her and her friend were going as Shelton
and Sheldon and Amy from Big Bang.
Big Bang tonight to her sorority party.
Nice.
So she's like, OK, we're out.
I'm like, hey, you coming back?
No.
Yeah.
I'm like Saturday or something.
OK, cool.
Hey, bye.
It's good to see you for dinner in
five minutes.
We will be in that phase, I'm sure,
in like twenty something years because
we're right now with a seven month old
and it's her first Halloween and she's
going to be Cinderella and Kyle is going
to be Prince Charming and I'm going to
be the fairy godmother.
I can see it.
You pull Prince Charming off.
Thank you.
It's the beard, dude.
Dudes with beards, man.
We pull off anything.
That's true.
They're quite versatile.
In the mullet.
Only I tried to.
So when I retired,
I tried to grow my hair out.
lasted about a month and i was like
i'm going to the barber shop i need
a fade i'm retired military so it was
like and i tried so hard the beard
was easy my grandpa had a beard i
wanted to honor my grandpa and have a
beard i'm like i'm going into the ground
with my beard and i told my wife
that i'm like bury me with my beard
and in my uniform please and thank you
and she's like yeah yeah whatever dude
she's like as long as you keep it
trimmed i don't care
Thank you for your service, too.
Really.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
I don't talk about it a whole lot,
but it was the funnest twenty years of
my life.
Wow.
And that went by really fast as well.
It's crazy.
Let's start wrapping this up and tell
everybody where they can find ZombieCon
Volume One and where they can follow
y'all.
All right.
I got this one because I run most
of our social media.
Kyle is learning the ropes of TikTok,
which has been hilarious.
Hey, when you figure that one out,
let me know because I still haven't
figured out that one.
So everywhere on social media,
we're at ZombieConMovie.
And then our website is ZombieConVolOne.
That's the number one dot com.
And if you want to follow us,
your updates, anything, shenanigans,
follow us on social media,
reach out to us because we run the
accounts.
And if you're looking to watch ZombieCon
Vol.
One,
it's out everywhere that you can buy and
rent movies on VOD in North America.
So Apple TV, Amazon Prime, YouTube movies,
Plex, all of them.
And if you want the DVD,
it's now on Amazon Prime as well.
highly recommend even if you're not a huge
like physical media collector if you are
in any way interested in this film or
filmmaking definitely check out the film
because we included deleted scenes behind
the scenes a lot of really cool material
there so check it out now zombie con
ball one
I love it, guys.
You are rock stars.
Y'all have made one of my favorite movies
of the year.
Thank you.
It really was.
It was just such this beautiful love
letter to all these different fandoms,
whether it's cosplay and...
know conventions and i'm going to my first
convention as a podcast here soon so
congratulations it is going to be really
fun we're taking the whole network out and
we're going so it's going to be a
lot of fun have all the boys there
and get to see everybody i don't get
to see everybody all the time so it's
very rare even though some of them just
live down the road from me we still
only get to see each other like once
a year but thank you all so much
for coming on
and um y'all were a blast to have
on so until next time yes keep your
badges close your props loaded preferably
your cantanas and remember at the end of
the con we all kind of look like
zombies with that erin kyle welcome to the
council of nerds zombie con erin
Kyle and the entire crew,
you are all USDN approved.
Yay.
Thank you, Chairman, for having us on.
Thank you all.
Thank you so much.
Hang out here and we'll catch you on
the flip side of this outro.