Hamilton Carver: Zombie, PI - Ben Cunis & Clint Herring

Posted by Steve on 13 July 2010 | 1 Comments

Tell us about your show.

"Like most of these stories, it all started with the Dame. Hamilton Carver was a lowly Private Eye in a lonely city, and the one thing going for him was the girl. They called her the Lips, and she was the mob princess of Noir Town.

When Hamilton and his partner, Harry Callahan, found her shot dead, Hamilton swore revenge. After a long investigation, nothing turned up...until the ghost of The Lips appeared. Hamilton did what any good PI would do - gathered all of the suspects for a pot-luck dinner, and worked it all out.

Sort of. Until he got shot to death.

And that's where our story begins."

Hamilton Carver: Zombie, PI is a mixture of hard-boiled noir, zombie comedy, gritty drama, ninja chases, dames, betrayals, redemption, and is ultimately a story of second chances. The series premiered in its entirety on May 11, 2010 at the E St. Cinema in downtown Washington, DC, accompanied by the appropriate massive afterparty filled with whiskey, toasts, and a noir-attired crowd of zombie noir enthusiasts. It's all one big story divided into episodes that culminates in some great twists, full of unforgettable characters and a gang of damn good looking dc actors.

Where did the idea/concept for your series come from?

Granite Kiss Productions was formed as a result of a pair of two-fine-mother's sons named Ben Cunis and Clint Herring getting some folks together to compete in the 2008 DC 24 Hour Film Race. In those 24 hours the motley crew wrote, filmed, edited, scored, and submitted a little short called The Choices of Ghosts, where Hamilton Carver and Harry Callahan were born, shot, and the rest of this sorry story began. From there on out, it was obvious: they had to make more.

Basically, the whole thing started in the feverish hours of a night of writing madly so the whole thing could be shot in a basement at 8am in Fairfax, VA. From there, we figured we'd up the ante -- Choices premiered at nothing else but the E St. Cinema in downtown DC, and it was walking out of that premiere that the idea of making a web series out of the whole thing was born.

Name some of your sci-fi influences. Any favorite movies, TV shows, novels?

Too many to count. A large influence on the tone of the original script was Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, mix in a little Shaun of the Dead, a lot of Brick, maybe some Frank Miller. You can't discount the influence of The Thin Man, The Marx Brothers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the original live action film) (yes I know that didn't come first) ("Bossa Nova!" "Bossa Nova?" "Chevy Nova" *pregnant pause* "Excelleeeeeent!").

Tell us about the technical production of your show. What camera & equipment did you use? Editing software & hardware? For visual effects, etc?

Cameras: Canon 5D Mk II, Canon Rebel T2i
Editing: iMac Pro, FinalCut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, a little Maestro
Visual Effects: Adobe Aftereffects

Can you tell us any interesting facts or trivia about your show? Any funny stories?

During the filming of one of the ninja scenes, as they surround and circle Hamilton and Harry, one of the punches went off target, and Ben Cunis' (Hamilton) nose was broken. It was subsequently replaced and the shoot finished. Ben's nose got broken by ninjas. The end.

The entirety of the dialogue is ADR.

During the shooting of the series, we smoked seventeen pounds of cigarettes. Or it felt like that. It wasn't the best idea, in retrospect, but man...that atmosphere.

Our fog machine was in such heavy use that we would put a shoe on top of the button so that as it warmed up and cooled down it would immediately spit more fog. Auto-fog!

Hamilton Carver: Zombie, PI can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Hamilton Carver: Zombie, PI - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Hamilton Carver: Zombie, PI below:

Ryan Sellers, Clint Herring, Kelsey Grouge, and Ben Cunis

Clint Herring and some kid on location for

Clint Herring is the Devil

Clint Herring, Sam Slater, Travis Graves, and Ben Cunis in action on location.

Nick Vienna as Punny Jack

More action with Clint Herring, Rob Wolcheski, Sam Slater, Ryan Sellers, Ben Cunis, and Vato Tsikurishvili.