The zombie apocalypse just got a little bigger, and if you live in Ewa Beach, you might already have seen the proof.
Tyler Rezentes, a 20-year-old aspiring director with no real filmmaking experience, thought it would be good practice to make a Web series based on the hit TV show "The Walking Dead."
A huge fan of AMC’s gruesome show, Rezentes would write and direct. His brother, Austin, would help with production. Two new friends from the Leeward Community College theater program he belonged to — Randall Galius Jr. and his girlfriend, Kirstyn Trombetta — would act in the series.
But when other friends saw the short scene Rezentes uploaded to YouTube, they wanted to get involved. Their friends, too. Before he knew it, Rezentes had a cast and crew of more than 30 people. And he didn’t know a third of them.
"It ended up being a lot bigger than I thought it would be because we had all these people who wanted to help us," he said. "I started writing the rest of the scripts, and people started asking me if they could be part of it. I started making more characters."
Help came from another aspiring director, Edo Natasha, a 27-year-old Army specialist at Wheeler Army Airfield with a passion for theater production. Natasha had worked with Rezentes in November on a stage production, "Rope," and offered to help produce the Web series.
Natasha liked the energy he saw in the young filmmaker and his friends.
"They love the craft more than the glory," he said. "I said I want to jump in because these are people who love to do art for the sake of art."
Natasha was also enlisted as a zombie whose guts are spilling out of his sliced-open stomach. That meant he got special treatment from makeup specialist (and actress) Christine Lamborn, who has a degree in theater from Belmont University. She also has a part, but she’s not a zombie — yet.
Lamborn went to Chinatown the night before the shoot and bought pig intestines she could cover with fake blood and attach to Natasha. It was horror on a budget.
"They’re great because they are sanitary," she said. "They’re washed and ready to go. For five pounds it’s only $10."
Rezentes plans to shoot four or five episodes, each one about 25 minutes long, in Ewa Beach, where he lives. He plans to upload the first episode on YouTube on April 17.
The story isn’t set in Hawaii, though. Rezentes purposely left the story’s location unidentifiable.
One of the first actors Rezentes called was Galius, who is studying acting and drama at Leeward Community College. They met during auditions for "Rope."
"I thought, ‘Cool, he’s a great actor,’" Galius said. "We can make a great team. And the fact that I’m a fan of ‘The Walking Dead’ is a bonus."
It’s been fun, too. Even the realism.
"When I saw the fake blood and wounds, I was grossed out," he said. "But that’s a good thing."
Trombetta, who’s also 20 and from Ewa Beach, said she doesn’t care whether the series is successful. She’s doing this with friends. It doesn’t get much better than that.
"I could care less if we get a lot of views," she said. "This has been an amazing experience — to have an original script my friend has written and we make this our own."
Lately the writing has consumed Rezentes, who said he wants all his scripts finished so he can produce episodes quickly. But he and his zombie crew have lofty goals.
"We wanted it to look like it was an actual show," he said. "We had this ridiculous idea. We wanted it to be so good, we captured the attention of the actual show."
If you want to see a short preview of the Web series, you can find it on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmUHWWKfNQg.
The fan series also has a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/thewalkingdeadfanseries.
And that’s a wrap …
Mike Gordon is the Star-Advertiser’s film and television writer. Read his Outtakes Online blog at honolulupulse.com. Reach him at 529-4803 or email mgordon@staradvertiser.com.
