Interview with Steve Hutton (writer/producer)

How did you decide to make an animated short?

It had been a year since we shot Fluff, so Greg and I were both getting restless. I wasn't ready for another feature yet (among other things, I was still in debt up to my nipples!) but we might be able to do a short. Greg had a friend who was trying to break into 3D animation, and I thought it would be almost criminal to let a resource like that go unexploited.

Why a gay zombie vampire film-noir comedy?

I asked myself what sort of story you could do in low-budget 3D animation. The best candidates were a vampire film (pasty not-quite-human faces and it's always night) or a film-noir (stock characters filmed in black and white with harsh lighting). Greg said he'd always wanted to do a gay zombie film, so we decided to combine the ideas.

Were you influenced by shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

I actually didn't see my first episode of Buffy until after we recorded our dialog, but I'm a big fan now.

Do you write differently for animation than for live action?

I always try to make the most of the resources I have, and that doesn't just mean writing a role for David Welbourn. With 3D animation, you can put the camera wherever you want and move it as much as you want. I wrote scenes that would take full advantage of the things that are easy in 3D animation but hard in live action. Once I'd decided to have exotic camera positions and tracking shots for days, I pretty much had to write in a Busby Berkeley-style production number.

How did you cast the film?

A bunch of the actors from Fluff auditioned, plus friends and friends of friends. We had to turn down some good actors, because we just didn't have roles for them. That's good for the film, I guess, but it still seems wasteful to turn good people away. I feel about actors the same way Captain Renault felt about women - that you shouldn't just throw them away because some day they may be rationed. I would much rather say to a good actor "we can't offer you the part you wanted, but here's a smaller part you could have." Next time I'll just have to write more roles!

What were the rehearsals like?

Everybody who we cast showed up for the rehearsal. This was a big change! Greg had me walk everyone through the jokes and references in the script ("let's watch the scene from Chinatown that we're parodying; now, let's listen to an Andrews Sisters song...") because Fluff taught us that some things aren't quite as obvious as the writer thinks. Greg did good work with the actors and, at one point, I got to take the three zombies off into a separate room and mould them into a proper swing trio.

What was the recording session like?

It was great to be able to focus entirely on getting the dialog right. Every line was delivered well, and recorded in high quality studio sound. You can't pay anywhere near that much attention in a rushed film shoot when you have to worry about the lighting, camerawork, and physical acting at the same time.

How did the score come about?

Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet was the obvious music for the production number, and the Gilbert and Sullivan song was already written. We found someone who could produce the music that was already written, and write some short bits for the other scenes.