CITIZEN NOTTINGHAM Steve Best Director Of Nottingham Feature Film Zombie Hood

My Nottingham Day

Photo by David 'Dwyz' Wayman     

I usually wake around 8am and just have coffee. I normally sleep quite well unless I'm thinking about creative stuff, or if I have a new idea for Zombie Hood, which is a full length feature film I'm currently making in Nottingham. If I have a new idea I will lay there and play the scene out for two or three hours in my head which means I only get a few hours sleep and it's the same if I have an idea for one of the games I'm working on.

I'm a Community Producer for two games companies- on Mondays and Wednesdays I work from home for an Italian company called Geniaware and the other three days I go into Nottingham and work for Monumental Games. When I'm working from home I'll have a quick lunch and while I eat I'll spend some time looking at the film on the computer, I'll look at some edits I've done, maybe make some alterations or adjust the sound or the colours. The days I'm working in town I go to Flavours in Hockley for lunch and I have exactly the same thing every day which is a bacon and sausage sandwich, they're really nice people and do really good food.

I'm originally from London and moved here to work for Monumental Games, a Nottingham company that started here about 5 or 6 years ago. It's a good place to work for and we're currently working on a new game called Little Horrors. I'm settled here now and I've found I can be a lot more creative in Nottingham, in London there was so much red tape whenever you wanted to do something, or you had to jump through hoops to get a licence for something. In Nottingham people will jump through hoops to actually do something creative! It's a completely different way of working, there's so much talent here and people are willing to do stuff for free just to get the experience. And they're probably putting in better performances because they're doing it for the love of it.

I learnt film-making when I was at school, and then I bought my own film equipment and started teaching myself. I've made a lot of short horror films but I always wanted to make a zombie film! We've had so much interest for Zombie Hood here in Nottingham and have a very talented team, particularly in make-up and special effects, but a lot of people were excited just to be a zombie and they still can, anyone who wants to join our zombie horde is welcome. And we could do with having an extra person experienced in film lighting too if anyone would like to get in touch. I have great confidence in our team, there are no egos, everyone just wants to make a fantastic feature film. And it is a big commitment, we started filming in February and we'll be working on the film till early next year. We've had a lot of support from local venues in Nottingham such as Dogma, who gave us free rein to film there for a whole weekend with our fantastic cast including Marcus Akin from Big Brother!

When my working day is over I come home and I would probably eat another fry up for dinner but my partner wouldn't like to eat that so we go for meat and veg which I cook, I do all the cooking at home. Whenever I can in the evenings I'm back working on the film again, looking at the footage we've got so far and checking over the script. To unwind I like to catch a film or DVD, although I find it hard to switch off and tend to notice the lighting and how the film was made. But I find I nearly always end up back on the PC looking at the footage. I never have a day when I don't do some work on the film, not a single day goes by without thinking about it. I go to bed between midnight and 1am, my brain is usually buzzing unless I fall asleep watching a film. I dream about horror, I have lots of nightmares which I love because they're really good and give me lots of ideas! But I never dream about zombies. Never.

You can apply to join the zombie horde in Zombie Hood or help with the lighting by emailing admin@zombiehood.co.uk
More details can be found on the official Zombie Hood website www.zombiehood.co.uk