Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Elesia Marie. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Elesia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.
I wrote my first screenplay, ZOMBEEZ, during the COVID lockdown. I’m an actress, so when everything was shut down, there was nothing to do, no auditions, no films/tv shows being made, etc. I had an idea for this movie and so with a lot of time on my hands, I began to write. I started maybe around the end of February/beginning of March I believe and finished the first draft at the beginning of June. I live in a small town in NorthWest Florida where the film industry isn’t exactly booming. You have to travel to Atlanta or New Orleans (4-5 hour drive each way) for auditions and for work.. I had this idea that I could write this film for myself and my fellow local actors. Of course, I had no idea how I would accomplish this as I’d never done anything like this before. Everything I was familiar with was in front of the camera, not behind. I knew nothing of producing, directing, or putting a film together. I reached out to a local cinematographer that I’d worked with on some short films. He told me what I needed was a producer, and advised me to contact Nick Smith, another local filmmaker who’d worked on several shorts and features, which I did. He read the script and got back to me saying, “I love it, let’s do it.” I was like okay, great. What do we do about money? I had about $5ooo saved up but I knew that it would take a lot more than that since I wanted to pay my cast and crew. He said not to worry about it and we’d figure out along the way. At the end of November of 2020, we started working on getting the cast and crew together. He worked on the crew since he knew who was who and did what in the area, and I started reaching out to my actor friends and putting auditions together. In January of 2021 we started location scouting which was a lot harder than I originally anticipated. Finding locations that are willing to let an unknown, brand spanking new filmmaker bring in their film crew to take over their space for hours on end was hard. Finding the right locations that fit my vision and my budget was even harder. In March of 2021, we shot the proof of concept for ZOMBEEZ, which was essentially one scene from the film to show everyone what we were trying to accomplish and get them excited for the film. In early April of 2021, we were able to secure a location to shoot a few more scenes. Finally, we had a full cast, crew, locations and a schedule. Principal photography began May 09, 2021 and we wrapped June 04, 2021, with one pickup day in July for a total of 19 days. Now the hard part began. Editing. But I didn’t know it at the time because of course, I was new to the whole thing. I’d edited quite a few short videos in the past, but believe me, nothing compares to editing a whole feature length film by yourself on editing software you’ve never used before. I know what you might be thinking. Why didn’t you just hire an editor? Because, dear friends, that costs money. There wasn’t much left and I still had to hire a CGI artist, sound editor, film composer, and color corrector that would work within our shoestring budget. I finished the rough edit of ZOMBEEZ sometime in October of 2021, and it came in at a little over two hours. Now the fun part. Trying to whittle it down to an hour and a half, which was hard for me because this was my baby. I wanted to keep everything, but Lord of the Rings this was not. It took us awhile to find a CGI artist which did set us back a bit, but things finally started flowing, and with many, MANY more obstacles to overcome, the movie was finally finished in November of 2023. We had our big movie premiere on December 17, 2023 at Regal Cinemas in Mary Esther, FL. Of course, you’d think the story was over, and rightly so, but no. There was more work to be done. Now we had to work on getting the film distributed. Once again knowing absolutely nothing about this process, one of our actors connected me with a producer who had a side hustle as a producer rep (someone who helps sell your film). Finding a good distribution agency who would actually take care of my film instead of just adding it to a collection of films to sell (where it would either end up on the proverbial shelf or lost in the shuffle) but also wouldn’t charge an arm and a leg up front sounded like it was going to be a daunting task… and it was… I felt confused and overwhelmed by the contracts sent my way, and not being able to afford a lawyer to break it all the way down to the nitty gritty in a way that I was comfortable with, I decided to self-distribute… Am I glutton for punishment? Maybe. There was much more to be done – tons of paperwork, cast and crew contracts, location releases, artist releases, etc etc, not to mention getting it closed captioned … (Guess who got to do that?) After hours and hours of research, I finally decided to upload it to a distribution platform that catered to indie filmmakers. For a small percentage of the intake, they would send out the film to all the streaming platforms and let each one decide whether or not to pick up the film. Now that was done, I was finally free to relax and enjoy the fruits of my labor… and by relax, I mean spend hours on social media promoting ZOMBEEz, creating ads and ordering promotional materials to get the buzz going for my film. Whilst this whole process was extremely overwhelming and completely out of my comfort zone, it was an amazing experience and I’m ready to do it all again.
Elesia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m an actress. screenwriter and director. I’ve always wanted to be an actress ever since I was little. I was always coming up with plays and making my siblings and cousins perform them for our families. As I got older, I started to take acting lessons and do short films and passion projects. Writing is never something that I was interested in growing up, even though I was really good at it. It wasn’t something that I was interested in because I was so focused on being an actress, I never stopped to think that you could do or be both. The COVID outbreak kind of changed it all for me when I wrote ZOMBEEZ, my first feature length screenplay. Since then, I’ve written four more and have about five simmering in the back of my mind. The goal of Purple Hair Productions, my production company, is to produce my screenplays and to create job opportunities for the local actors and film crew in my area who may not have the chance otherwise, or just for those who want to work opportunities closer to home without traveling to other states to do what they love. I’m most proud of ZOMBEEZ, my first feature film. Not many people can say that they wrote, starred in, directed, executive produced, and edited a feature film. Some can, but not a lot and I’m so proud of myself for sticking with the project, even with all the obstacles that I had to overcome and my own limitations. To say that I have a mvoie streaming on Tubi and Amazon Prime is definitely something that I’m BEE-yond proud of.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect for me is that I’m also helping other actors live out their dreams and that I get a chance to share my voice with the world.
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
A wing and a prayer. I had a (very) few thousand dollars saved up when we started filming. Funding your film is extremely hard for indie filmmakers, especially when you’re brand new and don’t really have a track record or anything to show people. They’re a bit skeptical and rightly so because their are a lot of scams out there and you know people don’t want to take a chance with their money. Being that kind of person myself, I totally understand. We did some crowdfunding that got us a couple thousand dollars, but there were so many actors and crew who took massive pay cuts to work on this film because they believed in the project. So many people donated their time, lunches, locations, etc which really helps when you’re working on a shoe string budget. I also had a loved one who was very supportive and invested a good bit of money into the project. To be honest, I’m still not sure how we managed to pull it off. God definitely had His hand in that. Now I’m looking forward to my next film, An Emerald Coast Christmas, and hoping that now that I’ve got a movie under my belt, more people will be willing to donate.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.APurpleHairProduction.com
- Instagram: @ZOMBEEZTheMovie
- Facebook: @Purple Hair Productions. @ZOMBEEZTheMovie
- Youtube: ZOMBEEZ The Movie
Image Credits
ZOMBEEZ Film Poster by Aaron Needham