'Zombiecon Vol 1' Double Date with Special Guests Erin and Kyle | Zombie Book Club Ep 132

On this double date edition of Zombie Book Club, we sit down with married indie filmmakers Erin Áine and Kyle Valle of Big Squid Productions, the creative duo behind the cosplay-meets-zombie feature ZombieCON Vol. 1. From their Studio City meet-cute to a decade-long journey of crowdfunding, micro-crew shoots, DIY effects, and relentless post-production, Erin and Kyle share the unvarnished story of how a wild concept about assholes turning into zombies became a crowd-pleasing indie with an 86% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Erin and Kyle offer a behind-the-scenes window into set life, stunt safety, DVD extras, and the bold, futuristic ideas waiting in Volume 2 and beyond. Whether you’re a horror fan, indie creator, or just love a good story about passion and perseverance, this episode is a bloody, funny, heartfelt ride.

Guest Contact & Relevant Links

• Official Film Website:
  • ZombieCON Vol. 1: https://zombieconvol1.com
  • Big Squid Productions: https://bigsquidproductions.com
• Social Media (Guests):
  • ZombieCON Vol. 1 Instagram: @zombieconmovie
  • Big Squid Productions Instagram: @bigsquidfilms
  • Erin Áine Instagram: @Erin_Aine
  • Kyle Valle Instagram: @kykyv71

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet The Filmmakers And Their Baby Co‑Guest
• 3:30 The Studio City Meet‑Cute And Early Days
• 10:20 Building A Creative Partnership
• 15:45 Work, Stress, And Making Art As A Couple
• 21:30 Apocalypse Would You Rathers
• 27:10 Shelf‑Stable Foods, Barter, And LOTR Picks
• 31:20 The Decade‑Long Journey To Release
• 38:40 Post‑Production Hell And Audio Lessons
• 45:00 Physical Media Wins And Distribution
• 51:40 Cosplay Roots And No‑Guns Worldbuilding
• 57:30 Katanas, Blood Gags, And That First Kill
• 1:03:10 LA Assholes, Neighbors, And Morality
• 1:09:40 Redefining Zombie Rules By The Heart
• 1:16:00 Volume Two Time Jump And War Bus Dreams

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:19

Well the zombie book club, the only book club where the book is a movie. And in the movie, the zombies are assholes. I'm Dan. And when I'm not surviving a world filled with assholes, I'm writing a book about a university student who is so not an asshole and is struggling to survive in a refugee camp set in the middle of New York City during a zombie outbreak.

SPEAKER_02: 0:39

And I'm Leah, and today we're having our first double date of the year with our special guests Aaron Anya and Kyle Valley, the married creative duo behind Big Squid Productions and the indie film ZombieCon Volume 1 that has an impressive 86% score on Rotten Tomatoes. We've watched it twice now. Love it. The movie is about a group of cosplayers forced to take on the apocalypse when every asshole in LA turns into a zombie. Along the way, they battle their sworn enemy for cosplay clout, get bullied by the cool kids, and turn handmade props into extremely effective zombie killing gear. Erin is the writer, co-producer, and actor in the film. Kyle co-wrote it and directed it. And together they spent nearly 10 years bringing this absolute love child of a movie to life. Welcome to the show, Erin and Kyle. How are you doing today? I mean, with that intro, we're feeling fantastic.

SPEAKER_04: 1:27

Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. And for watching it twice. My God, thank you. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 1:33

Yeah, I haven't even seen um 28 years later twice. It's true. We're honored, truly.

SPEAKER_02: 1:40

Truly. So we're we I did use in the intro double date. However, this is a double date plus one. Um, you want to tell the audience who else is with us today?

SPEAKER_04: 1:51

That's right. She just was wanting to introduce herself as well. This is our little 10-month-old, actually 10 months today, our little daughter Anya.

SPEAKER_00: 1:58

So if you hear any squealing or screaming or zombie-like sounds, uh you know, it's not me. Most people think it's it's actually Anya. She's working on contributing.

SPEAKER_02: 2:12

Yeah. I think Anya is our first baby guest, and we are very honored, Anya, to have you. I think that's true, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 2:19

We haven't interviewed any other baby. Interviewed a baby. Yeah. Despite all the zombie babies that have been popping up recently.

SPEAKER_02: 2:26

Yeah, it's quite a trend. Um so let's start this double date style. What was your meat cute, the two of you?

SPEAKER_04: 2:33

Oh, our meat cute is in the middle of Studio City, and I'm attending a commercial acting workshop. And who happens to be there but Kyle Valley as well.

SPEAKER_00: 2:45

I think you meant uh a ruggedly handsome, intelligent, and uh charming individual who you would come to know as Kyle Valley.

SPEAKER_04: 2:52

No, sorry, fun that's you know, laying the groundworks, right? We met at a commercial acting workshop in Studio City, California, and there were some sparks flying, but there were, and actually uh towards the end of the workshop, we had a like a it was my idea really.

SPEAKER_00: 3:10

I was like, why don't why don't we all get together to celebrate finishing this workshop? We can go out to get drinks, there's a bar right around the corner, it'll be fun. And secretly, she knew this. I was like really just wanting to talk to her, but I didn't want to be like, hey, you know, in the middle of class, say that. So I thought it was like a really good workaround to kind of like, you know, yeah, it's not aggressive, it's very copacetic, you got a lot of people there, you can kind of get to know each other, talk very casually, and I find out that uh she actually had a boyfriend at the time. No. Terrible. So, you know, she goes back to college at Vanderbilt. I'm still in LA. Uh, and I went to the University of South Carolina, so they're both in the SEC. So, you know, I'm kind of texting, and I'm not like a huge football watcher guy, but like I was using it to my advantage here because we were playing them in a couple weeks, so I would text her, oh, we're gonna beat you and all this stuff. I really could care less. But I was like, oh yeah, your player so-and-so is looking bad this week or something. And we would kind of go back and forth, and then uh luckily enough, I actually ran into my in my nana and papa's retirement community down in Florida. They met a gentleman or a lady whose son was the writer on the show Revolutions. I don't know if you guys remember that show.

SPEAKER_01: 4:27

Yeah, I remember that show. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:29

So Aaron was on Revolutions, and I had known that, and I was gonna audition for this guy for a different role for a new series he was producing. So I sneakily was also like, oh, this will up my credibility thanks to Aaron. I was like, hey, uh, I'm auditioning for this show with you know the guy who wrote Revolutions, you know him, right? And uh shortly thereafter, she came back to LA, still had a boyfriend, or he just broke up with him or something, and we ended up doing a hiking trail on Valentine's Day, but uh we weren't dating or anything. And then the that was like the peak of the snowball.

SPEAKER_04: 5:05

It was like days of the Garmin, like I was relying on my freaking Garmin instead of my cell phone. And I called him and I'm like, I'm 15 minutes late. I think I'm going the wrong direction up this hill. I'm so sorry. I have no idea what I'm doing. Can you help me? And he like found a way with the directions, found a way to navigate me down. I park, I'm there. By this point, I'm like 30 minutes late. This boy is waiting with an extra bottle of water and a Gatorade for me. And he's like, I wasn't sure if you wanted water or a Gatorade, so I have two boats. I'm like, I was not expecting either.

SPEAKER_00: 5:37

It was our cheapest Valentine's Day date ever.

SPEAKER_02: 5:40

Um you know, it showed that you knew the importance of hydration, and I think that that's a great quality in a partner.

SPEAKER_03: 5:45

Yeah, this is true.

SPEAKER_00: 5:47

And we did run into a rattlesnake on that hike, which was the only time I saw rattlesnake while in California, and I think I handled it pretty pretty well. I didn't like scream, I was like, oh, snake, we should go this way.

SPEAKER_01: 6:02

You know, uh you mentioned revolutions, and I'm I've I was wondering what it was that I remembered you from. Um, I don't it's been a long time since I've seen it, but like once when I was watching the movie, I'm just like, where do I know this person from? And I was just going through every like internet show and like every everything I could imagine from like the last 15 years, and I'm like, I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_04: 6:28

Well, I would be flattered if you remembered. Revolution, I it was like a guest star role, and I was on Vampire Diaries, but same. It was a guest star role, so it's kind of like a one-off. I was one of the stars in Quarantine 2 Terminal. It's an indie horror from a while ago. I've done a bunch of indie stuff, but nothing like Giant Giant until ZombieCon volume one.

SPEAKER_00: 6:47

Well, you did do that one movie with Malcolm McDowell.

SPEAKER_04: 6:50

That's true. When I was really little, I was in um a movie called Bobby Jones Stroke of Genius, and funny enough, like that's the one. That's it, obviously. That's one of the coolest people I met, and like being friends with on that was Malcolm McDowell, and he was just like the most kind, gracious man in the world.

SPEAKER_00: 7:09

Yeah, I love the story behind that where her mom w I know this is totally not zombie related, but her mom went up to Malcolm McDowell on set and she's like, you know, you got me and my sisters arrested. And he's like, What? She grew up in uh like around Knoxville, Tennessee area, and it was like a very small theater back when uh uh oh my gosh, what's the I'm blanking on the name?

SPEAKER_04: 7:33

Maribel, Tennessee?

SPEAKER_00: 7:34

You know, when the movie came out. I knew Orange was in there somewhere. It comes out, and the police came in and actually, because they weren't allowed to show the movie, arrested everyone working at the movie theater, of which her and her sisters were part of the team like selling popcorn and stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 7:51

Wow. Um, that seems like an overreaction.

SPEAKER_02: 7:58

How dare they? I was going to ask you what came first, creative collaboration or couple dumb, but it sounds like the water slash Gatorade sealed the deal. Which one was it, by the way? Was it the water or the Gatorade?

SPEAKER_04: 8:09

What'd you- I mean, I'm pretty sure I ended up drinking both, but I normally would have said water. My dad sold Gatorade like my entire life, so I'm no strange for Gatorade. But you know, Los Angeles actress, fresh out there. I'm watching my calories. I'm like, I can't be chugging Gatorade when we're doing a scenic hike, which by the way, it was supposed to be. But Kyle wanted to take the like off-beaten trail that goes up the side of the mountain, whereas it's like an actual workout. I'm like, I think that this is gonna be one of the you know strolls. No, we're like going up the side of the mountain, finding rattlesnakes. I'm chugging Gatorade. That's right, Anya. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_02: 8:45

I'm thinking about when you tell this to Anya um when she's old enough to understand, she'll be like, what's a Garmin?

SPEAKER_04: 8:52

No. That sounds prehistoric.

SPEAKER_02: 8:55

It really almost is at this point, yeah. And it's a terrible way to navigate anything. I remember messing with us quite a bit in that time. Terrible. Oh, yeah. Sorry, our dog just made a uh, I think he just spit something up. That's gross. We're gonna ignore that. Look, Amy, you weren't the first one to do that. You're doing great on here. Um so when did you shift from couple-dum to working creatively together?

SPEAKER_00: 9:24

I'd say it was pretty quick. We were like dating for a couple months and uh we were both auditioning, and I had a really bad anxiety for whatever reason with the auditioning process. Um, so I was kind of gung ho about doing my own thing, trying to get a reel together, and figured it would be a good way to kind of break in to or kind of overcome that anxiety if I understood how to do the directing, if I understood how to do the casting, seeing it from the back end might actually help with the front end. And so I suggested that we do a short film. Uh, we got some funds together and we rolled into production on that, and that kind of just got the ball rolling, and I was kind of bit by the directing bug, and you know, that led to another short film, which will led to another short film, which led to another short film, which led to us starting a production company and then trying to do this like competitor to YouTube with no money, which was a horrible idea. Uh, but we did complete like nine web series.

SPEAKER_04: 10:24

Uh this is in 2015 for a little bit more context. I recall telling my family members, everyone actually, what a streaming platform was because Netflix was around, but none of the studios had jumped on it. And Kyle's greatest blessing and his curse is that he's always about four to five years ahead of the industry. I swear. He's like, this is gonna be the future. Everyone's gonna have a streaming platform. We need to have ours now. And he was right, we just were severely underfunded and way too early.

SPEAKER_00: 10:52

Right. So uh if any if any billionaire or trillionaire is listening, right, I have the ideas for what's gonna happen in the next five years, uh, feel free to hit me up. I'll let you know. You know, there's a small consulting fee of$100 million, but you know, nothing.

SPEAKER_02: 11:06

It's all for Anya's diapers. We wouldn't use any of it for any other reason. Come invest in Big Squid Productions. That's what I'm hearing. Um what's the best and worst part about being a couple and working together? Because Dan and I know this intimately as well. So I'm curious what your answers are.

SPEAKER_04: 11:21

Um, best part is, and I'd say that's like 99% of it. I think working together is just awesome. You trust your partner, you have great communication with work and with life, you have more that you're like actively pursuing, I would say working on, but yeah, that you're working on and that you're building towards. Um and worst part is I guess when it's stressful, you're both stressed. When you know you got a lot of crazy hectic work versus kind of like a normal couple, maybe one is having a tough work week, the other one isn't, or at least they're not in the exact same boat. I would say, you know, when things are getting really, really crazy, you're both going through it. Do you just look at each other and pull your hair out and be like, ah well, we need our hair, so we gotta be very, very careful in terms of I work I work very hard to keep my hair. And I just went through the post-partum hair loss phase. I'm not interested in getting back on that. But but yeah, we I think we've gotten really good at being like through the stress together. We've been through a lot, especially over even just this film, um, and now experiencing the joys of parenthood.

SPEAKER_00: 12:27

Yeah, I mean, I honestly, if I thought that there was a severe negative, I think that we would probably distance ourselves within the business because I've worked in a number of different like areas and you know, everything from cleaning toilets to, you know, you name it, uh, since I was a kid. So I feel I know in every job you're going to be stressed out. You're gonna always have stress with someone at the office, at your workplace. That's just par for the course, it's life stuff. Doesn't matter if you're the two best people in the world. Some days something's gonna go sideways and everyone's gonna get stressed out. Um and I think the only the big benefit to us working together is that when we do get stressed out, because we don't really like go to bed while fighting, like you work it out, as opposed to like, you know, previously, if I was stressed out at work, you might take that home with you, and now you're complaining about someone who your partner doesn't know anything about, and they're like, I don't want to hear about this. And you're like, you're not really solving any problems, you're just kind of complaining, and it's dragging the whole situation down. Um, and I guess those mentally strong people who don't complain. I don't I don't know who you are out there, but I'm not one of them.

SPEAKER_01: 13:34

Well, they're just complaining, they're just holding it in. They're not it's not that they're mentally strong, it's just they're just keeping they're whole they're holding it up until it explodes out of them one day. As an asshole to other people. That's right.

SPEAKER_04: 13:48

And and what about you guys? What would you say?

SPEAKER_01: 13:51

I thought well, I think what you said resonated pretty well, like because 99% of the time, um, it's great. And then every now and then there's something that is like a hiccup and is a is a stressful part, something that we have to deal with. Um and it's outside of our control. So it's it's stressful. Um but it happens very uh rarely and like going into making this podcast, like we said that like if this ever feels like work like if we're doing this because we feel like we have to, that's when we should quit. Um and luckily in oh three years or officially three years completely. Officially three full years completed um going into the fourth one. Congratulations. It hasn't felt like work. I mean, it's been it's been work, but it hasn't felt like a job, job, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 14:41

That's awesome. It's a lot of fun. Uh, and I agree with you, like there's nobody that I trust more on the planet. And I think it either couples can be live. Why? Oh, why do I trust you?

SPEAKER_05: 14:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 14:51

I think I'm terrible. Don't listen to him. He's the best human out there. Um present company excluded, of course, Anya, probably the very best of all. Naturally, yeah. Five of us. I had that was hard. I was like counting. Yes, five. Um yeah, I I think that there's not everybody, not every couple could work together. And I feel really grateful that we can do that. I will say also that you all are like really in it every day, full time. This is something that we do as like a part-time fun thing. And I think that I can imagine the stressors uh amplify, right? When it's like it's the thing you are doing every day. So I think it's impressive how well you two work together.

SPEAKER_01: 15:31

What you're doing is hard. Actually, you're doing two hard things. Um, so what is actually harder? Uh, raising a human or making a movie together?

SPEAKER_00: 15:41

Oh, uh, I think great.

SPEAKER_04: 15:44

I'm gonna go with making a movie. It's it's hard. Yeah, it depends on the day. Because some sometimes it depends for either one, it depends on the day. There are easier days in one, harder days another.

SPEAKER_00: 15:56

You get about the same amount of sleep doing both. That's uh pretty even.

SPEAKER_02: 16:01

So you you don't get any sleep at all, is what you're telling me, because you're doing both.

SPEAKER_00: 16:05

Well, yeah, I mean, well, right now we've got a pretty good deviation of responsibilities. Aaron Aaron's letting me do uh pre-production on this thing that we were talking about before we started recording. It's uh you know, a little vertical micro drama, like horror-based micro drama, which is still pretty intensive because of the timeline. Uh and she's been taking care of Anya basically single-handedly. And obviously, like I'm helping with like the domestic stuff, so I can handle like the laundry and the cooking. Although everyone would probably say that that I've been falling down on the job there because I've been like, hey, look, you know, this pizza shop's got buy one, get one free pizza.

SPEAKER_04: 16:44

Yeah, this chef has got some uh twitchy fingers.

SPEAKER_01: 16:49

We can eat pizza every day of the week, right?

SPEAKER_04: 16:53

I'm like, uh, I'm about to be starring in a vertical micro drama series that's extremely exciting and for which I am trying to look my best. I can't be eating pizza every wait, it's a two-for-one deal? Which flavor we're getting? All right, well, I'll just have all right, I'll have slides.

SPEAKER_01: 17:09

If it has vegetables on it, then it's okay.

SPEAKER_04: 17:11

Yeah. Eating her extra avocado, I'm getting a good page.

SPEAKER_00: 17:15

Technically, right? Every pizza has vegetables on it because it's got tomatoes on it. That's right.

SPEAKER_02: 17:19

Well, that's a that's a fruit, Kyle. Come on now. Know your taxonomy of fruits. That's true. Is tomato sauce jam?

unknown: 17:28

I guess so.

SPEAKER_02: 17:30

The jam for sure. It's a fruit filling, kind of like a Pop Tart. We're required to ask you three questions we ask everybody before we get into Zombie Con Volume One because it's research. Unfortunately, for the two of you, you're gonna have to just instantaneously agree, and or the person who says it first, answers first is making a choice for both of you. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_05: 17:47

Oh, I like this.

SPEAKER_02: 17:49

What do you choose? A zombie apocalypse or a 40-hour work week?

SPEAKER_05: 17:54

Zombie apocalypse.

SPEAKER_04: 17:57

Wait, wait, wait, hold on. For how long? Because zombie apocalypse, it's like that's it, it's indefinitely. 40-hour work week is this like for the rest of your life, there's no other option. They're like, well, like you got a week in a zombie apocalypse, or we got a 40-hour week.

SPEAKER_00: 18:11

Full life for both, but see, at least in the zombie apocalypse, you know, you can be creative, solve problems. You hopefully aren't like, you know, being told what to do all the time. You kind of tell yourself what to do.

SPEAKER_04: 18:23

Okay, since we answered simultaneously, I then have to explain. I thought this was gonna be a no-brainer, pun intended. Kyle was gonna jump in and be like, 40 hours, that's nothing. I'm working like, you know, around the clock these days. I'll take 40 hours. We didn't exactly say what the 40-hour work week job it was.

SPEAKER_00: 18:39

Okay, yeah, yeah. If it's like film directing for only 40 hours a week, check. Maybe it's an executive producer.

SPEAKER_04: 18:45

I thought it was all at a film studio.

SPEAKER_00: 18:48

Okay, I didn't think about that. You're I was being negative.

SPEAKER_02: 18:51

You might find like, I need a lot of information. You need context. That's fair. Yes. I mean, for most people who are doing their passion, it's never a 40-hour work week. Right. All right. Yeah. However, it could I mean it I think even better personally if it's your passion and 40 hours. Okay. There we go. I'm super curious to see. Maybe you should both try and answer simultaneously again because that was fun. Unfortunately or fortunately, maybe, Kyle, if you're still convinced that the zombie apocalypse is better, it's now the zombie apocalypse. And you are, um, I'm gonna imagine that the two of you plus Anya are like a documentarian crew who is finding a way to broadcast news about the zombie apocalypse, and you're wandering through the wasteland and you come across a giant warehouse filled with a single shelf stable food item that now can be your sustenance for the rest of your lives. What do you choose?

SPEAKER_00: 19:43

Pizza.

SPEAKER_02: 19:44

I was gonna say Stacy's pita shit.

SPEAKER_04: 19:46

I was hesitating just because I know it's that by the way, that's not stable shelf food.

SPEAKER_00: 19:51

Thank you. But I felt like this was like I thought we could choose any food. It just was like the stable shelf.

SPEAKER_04: 19:57

She was very clear about it. Like it's not a for refreshment. refrigerated a frozen item, you know stable.

SPEAKER_01: 20:02

You know, if it's uh if it's little Caesars, it's shelf stable.

SPEAKER_00: 20:07

I figure there's some caveat with pizza. Like there's some pizza brand that's figured out a way to like turn it into all chemicals and it still like tastes like pizza.

SPEAKER_02: 20:16

There actually is because you're the second person to say pizza and I had this debate with them, Aaron, and I was like, that's not true. And then I learned that there's like a box kit you can buy that includes having pepperoni in it, which really freaked me out. Oh god.

SPEAKER_04: 20:30

Pepperoni, but is it pepperoni or is it like weapony? I'm off brand like so close.

SPEAKER_01: 20:37

I mean I feel like the pepperoni would be the easiest thing to make shelf stable. It's already it's a it's a cured meat.

SPEAKER_04: 20:43

Well yeah while that is true it's something about the the idea of it right it's like 90% sodium.

SPEAKER_02: 20:49

And the cheese? Let's not even get into that.

SPEAKER_04: 20:51

I can't oh god oh god all right all right well that makes sense fine and I don't know what my obsession is because I don't like let myself eat them all the time but I just love Stacy's pita chips. So if it's gotta be one like and it's stealth shelf stable I'm going with pita chips. I hate pita chips.

SPEAKER_00: 21:08

We found the area of disagreement this is going to be a hard corpse yes it is I mean I can eat them as long as I've got like tubs of hummus or like some other dipping component.

SPEAKER_04: 21:20

And I don't need any hummus. Don't even give me like flavored pita chips away with that crap. Just give me the sea salt we're good. Yeah you're gonna you're gonna be like raiding uh raiding nearby settlements for their hummus just come in guns blanes and like where's your hummus this is a show I want to watch now he's like all right you know 200 miles away I hear they have salsa well no it's like in the Mad Max where they have the bullet farm this is the chickpea farm yeah I mean that that'd be a farm I'd be into make a lot with chickpeas.

SPEAKER_01: 21:54

Um oh yeah avocados and get some guacamole going on yeah yeah there's a lot of options and there's a farm for each one of those and you're gonna have to go to each one and wage a war.

SPEAKER_00: 22:05

Um or we can we can barter with our with our unlimited supply of Stacy's pita chips we're tired of just eating spoonfuls of hummus.

SPEAKER_02: 22:15

We need something to go with this I will say that people have not I think you're the first to suggest bartering. People will be like can I scavenge other things? But bartering Stacey's pita chips I'd be really excited to come across you in the wasteland if you had those right yeah all right we should rebrand them and uh just Aaron's pita chips make them your pita chips big squid pita already yeah big squid pita chips like a a a red sharpie just right on top of the Stacy.

SPEAKER_01: 22:50

So it's the apocalypse you've got your uh Stacy's pita chips and some moldy pizza and uh and you know when when you were escaping the zombies you only had time to grab one uh DVD box set. Um you were just in a place and it had all the ones uh but you only you had limited space and like you're not going back not to that place that place was a nightmare. What DVD box set did you pick up before you escaped the nightmare that was the blockbuster video or whatever it was.

SPEAKER_04: 23:32

One or two extended edition yes yeah I mean that's a Kyle and I was like we're gonna do this on three we know I know exactly we're on the same page here.

SPEAKER_02: 23:45

See when it comes to movies we're on the same page I mean that makes sense as people who make movies. Um that is a great answer. You're actually the second in a row to answer that and we can all live in a zombie commune together. That's what that tells me that's also what I'd pick.

SPEAKER_00: 23:59

It's a party so let's get into zombie con volume one um we read that it was a 10 year journey to get to this point of putting it out there in the universe in its final baked form what kept you coming back to this story that you're like we have to make this well we actually got off to a pretty rockin' start we had the script done we got through pre-pro uh well we got the funding first we did a GoFundMe uh Indiegogo thank you uh got the funding got through pre-pro had the actors filmed it all in like less than a year and then we hit the roadblock of post-production which is was post-production hell is a real very similar to the Hobbit's journey in the Lord of the Rings. It's like it seems very straightforward at the beginning and it just keeps getting harder and longer and there are more problems the more you go through and I personally suffered from uh the kind of issue of not knowing what you don't know until you know that you don't know it. Uh which is a really big problem when you're doing post-production on a film because you've got the whole film together but it's not working. You don't know why it's not working. So you keep going back to the things that you know how to do to fix because surely you must have made the mistake somewhere in the process on one of the things you did know how to do lo and behold you then find out it was the thing that you didn't know how to do in this case it was audio that was creating all of the issues. So then you have to go back and try to redo everything that you did previously and then just as you're kind of getting to the sweet spot COVID happens and it's like hey the world has shut down and I'm like Aaron I'm gonna just take time to keep working on the movie. And she was like sure go for it. What else are you going to do? We're sit we're stuck into this house. So I then decided to remake the entire movie pulled it all apart and start it over from scratch.

SPEAKER_01: 25:59

Sometimes that's what you got to do you just got to start over.

SPEAKER_04: 26:02

It was like such a tangled mess and you know of like a little band I mean it's still it's like if you look at the edit I'm sure it looks as though it's held together by scotch tape but truly originally it was like like he said he was going through not only fixing it and then finding out other problems and going back and then fixing it for that but he also was teaching himself how to do it at a feature film like studio type level anything um audio related.

SPEAKER_00: 26:28

Which by the way I have to point out I've been said this on any podcast or any interview but it it bears to be noted since James James Cameron just came out with a public statement talking to theater owners about playing the new Avatar movie at Doby 7 which is like the calibrated level for their Adobe speakers. Usually you're supposed to calibrate your movie to Adobe 6 which is a specific level that they can set all of their speakers to so you don't like blow anyone's head off in the theater. It's not like too loud or too low or anything like that. I did the entire final mix to Doby 6 and then went in to just get it checked by a guy who had was a friend of a gentleman who helped us with a little bit of the audio in the early stages of the process and he was like yeah no one really follows that because you know a number of the big studios don't follow it so none of the theater owners play anything back at Doby 6. So your movie's going to play way too low if it's in theaters so you really need to like you know you can feel you know feel comfortable boosting some and lowering others and you really want to get the the largest amount of discrepancy between the loud noises and make sure your lower scenes are still low enough to make the audience lean in and all this stuff. And he knew exactly what he was talking about for theaters I guess. And then lo and behold we get a VOD release and people are not expecting that theater experience in their home. So again things you don't know you don't know until you know you don't know them.

SPEAKER_04: 27:52

So a constant learning process through the entire journey of this a lot of years and the search for right distribution you know and learning how to approach distributors and what materials we would need and you know fielding the different offers, we're doing our research ending up going with the right one then go our sales agent and then a distributor getting the deliverables together for each of those I mean the whole thing just it was a saga. It was Lord of the Rings extended edition level saga. And we were we were definitely having some highs and some lows we were in the minds of Moria like really lost in the dark for a while there we we made our way finally and um we survived and we made it through yeah barely just barely but we did.

SPEAKER_02: 28:34

Is the ring in Mordor now?

SPEAKER_00: 28:37

I was I was debating whether or not to say I mean I think it's still like Gollum's hand is still there and it's like still melting away slowly so it's like about to fall into the fire.

SPEAKER_04: 28:48

I think I think it will never quite truly zombie con volume one will always be in some ways in our mind like a still work in progress. Spend a decade of our lives with that fact.

SPEAKER_02: 29:00

Can you watch it and just enjoy it or when you watch it do you just see the entire process play out in front of your eyes no I can I can watch it now and enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00: 29:09

I did when it first came out on uh Apple I was like well I gotta buy it and watch it back and you know check it out and yeah I I really did enjoy it like I was like oh yeah this is fun I wasn't thinking too much about how it was made and I'd say the most fun time watching it back was probably when we did the directors and like filmmakers commentary for the DVD which I've always been a huge behind the scenes you know type person like since I was a little kid watching all that stuff. So getting to just do that was like a real pinch me moment uh for me and it was fun to kind of think about all the crazy stories that went into making it because making the movie was I mean one of the most fun it was stressful like don't get me wrong like super stressful like kind of problems almost no sleep but because we had such a fantastic group of humans uh as our team and people friends new friends old friends it was just a blast.

SPEAKER_04: 30:05

I'm so glad that you asked the comparison question and we had a hard time answering it about what's been harder like raising a baby or making a film because it's a similar feeling overall where it's so much work. It's so hard you're terrified for so much but you're learning nonstop you're sleep deprived and you're also on the greatest adventure and it has so much meaning and it I mean that they both are babies so I guess it really does feel like it's all raising babies.

SPEAKER_00: 30:29

Yeah so I kind of gave birth to the first baby.

SPEAKER_01: 30:31

I I guess so it's it's a it's a comparable experience. Yeah yeah it's exactly like childbirth Anya has a sibling an elder sibling his gestation period of a decade was thankfully longer than mine. When Anya's older you're gonna have to explain that she's not the first right right sorry girl your older sibling got some baggage will have we'll have the DVD in its own bedroom so this is it's got all of its trophies around it Anya meanwhile is in a bunk bed on the top bunk and she's just like why do I have a bunk bed?

SPEAKER_04: 31:10

Yeah this brings me back to like one of my uh lifelong traumas that's not actually true but my brother's baby book is completely filled out as the older sibling mine is empty oh you understand this Eric I understand if I'm a second born it's the same way mine just stopped halfway through it was like there was some effort that started and then there's just pages of empties there's nothing actually no I take that back there's like random photos of me when I'm then like seven then there's like a some 12 year old photos thrown in from a baby book just because why not they're just they're just like this is when um Erin began raising herself yes uh I I want to get into like the process of making the movie uh because you've got a great cast and I'm sure an amazing crew to make it happen.

SPEAKER_02: 32:00

But I am curious about the choice to make a DVD that is so rare nowadays and something that made me really excited because we're trying to return back to physical media. So what was behind that choice?

SPEAKER_00: 32:09

So that actually wasn't even up to us.

SPEAKER_04: 32:11

That was up to our distributor level 33 and they said that they felt like it'd be a good project for physical release and we're both like really that's awesome one one email randomly they were like so for the DVD we're looking at extra features do you want to contribute with you know deleted scenes extended scenes behind the scenes and we're like wait DVD really and I immediately was like yeah I've got like an hour of footage that hit the cutting room floor so please yeah we're we were super excited too we uh we love physical media as well we think it's so important hopefully one day we'll eventually get a Blu-ray release I know a lot of our followers were super excited for the DVD and then saying okay now what about the Blu-ray and we're like I don't know maybe yet you know maybe not yet maybe soon who knows hopefully but we were very pumped about it too and the first day that it went on sale on Amazon we actually had so many orders that they couldn't fulfill we c cleaned out their stock a couple times. Yeah actually a couple times and so they were restocking and temporal out of stock and it was just it was a pinch me moment it was really exciting.

SPEAKER_02: 33:19

A lot of pinch me moments yeah it's hopefully celebrated oh we did but again it's just like with the baby it's like that was the baby's first like crawling this is the baby's first that was the big milestone oh my god yeah it's very exciting it really shows shows that people are hungry for uh small production media obviously zombie media in that in that format is really awesome but also physical like there's have been a few times where I try I've tried to buy movies that I like from small houses and I can't you know that just like lives on Apple and so the fact that we can also get yours physically is is honestly a big deal in this day and age.

SPEAKER_00: 33:56

So it it I guess it really is I know we were talking about garments earlier and stuff and like I'll date myself I'm from you know I was born in the late 80s so I in my mind I still think oh yeah you can get everything on physical media if you want it to find it somewhere uh but yeah that's that's a hundred percent true that some of the stuff is just not out there and it's a shame because it's nice to have something in your hands and be able to hold it and look at the pictures and you know the internet goes out you can still watch it which is a big deal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 34:29

We uh we ran into the the I think I feel like this is the first time that I've run into a problem where like I wanted to watch something that just wasn't available anywhere.

SPEAKER_00: 34:37

It was just when um 28 days later the franchise was moving over to a different uh producer uh a different studio I guess I don't really know the ins and outs of it but there was a period of time I think it was like about a year you just couldn't get you couldn't get a physical copy you couldn't stream twenty-eight days later anywhere we had to get it from our library and they did have to do an interstate loan to get it to us yeah oh my gosh that's crazy I mean I've only experienced that uh particular problem with The Abyss and True Lies which were like in that same type of quagmire of you know companies that own it companies that don't own it I I don't understand the ins and outs of that either but I was like super pumped it was like I don't know maybe a couple years back they finally released True Lies in the Abyss on uh Apple and then they released like Blu-ray editions that you can get on Amazon and stuff because I was like I was able to I think scrounge a DVD from my dad for the Abyss and I think I might have gotten a DVD from him for true lies because he had them on laserdisc as well so he gave me he gave up the DVD. But it was great to be able to have them like officially in my collection.

SPEAKER_02: 35:55

Yeah I don't know if you could tell I'm kind of a big James Cameron fan so as one should be I think that that's a fair person to be a fan of I'm actually now just picturing pictures of Anya and the DVD together as like your you know your family photos you always have to have a DVD now the four of you know when we do if we ever get a fireplace like on either side of the fireplace perfect.

SPEAKER_01: 36:17

It's a it's a portrait I can see it everybody's looking slightly to the left there's the DVD box set right there.

SPEAKER_02: 36:26

So Kyle are you are you somebody who always loved cosplay or how did this uh film spark and come about?

SPEAKER_00: 36:33

So I was like I guess I was a quasi-cosplayer growing up again early 90s the con scene was not what it is today I grew up in northern New Jersey so you know you had access to New York but you didn't really go in for like New York City Comic Con. I don't know when that started but I never experienced it. But my dad was a huge Cinephile and was a big horror and sci-fi fan. So I did get to go to like I know there's one particular horror convention that happened in our area like 45 minutes away that we got to go to a couple times. And that was like my first introduction to the con scene. And far as far as cosplay goes, you know, I wasn't even familiar that that was a word or a term used but I would dress up regularly like outside of Halloween and like you know as my favorite characters like when we go to Disney World like my most notable memory is dressing up like Indiana Jones with the tan pants and the button down it was the only time you could get me out of a sweatsuit was to dress like Indiana Jones. And uh like with the leather jacket in the 90 degree heat with like the fake bulw they used to sell at uh Disney World and like I don't know if you remember like or went to Disney World back then but like they had they actually sold like little six shooter like guns which I don't think they sell at the parks anymore. But it's just crazy to think the stuff they used to sell that was very like violence related. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 37:58

Oh back in the days when you could go to Disneyland to buy a gun I do remember that like every department store like you'd go into the the toy aisle and there'd be like a gun rack. They were like all toy guns but like there was like a there was a collection there didn't like it could be a drugstore like where you just go in to pick up your prescriptions but then there's also like here's five guns for the kid.

SPEAKER_02: 38:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 38:22

But in this movie there are no guns.

SPEAKER_00: 38:24

No I we could have gone the gun route and you know it's conceivable like it is America that anyone could potentially own a gun. Monkey's a prepper like she could have she could have but you know they're in LA right and I feel like most people in LA and I don't know I didn't know anyone in LA who had guns personally. I'm sure that there are lots of people that have guns in LA but I never met them and I just felt like for this group of people who are very creative uh it just didn't feel right with the motif and I kind of wanted to do something a little bit different. A gun also it increases the budget by a huge amount A, there's a lot of insurance fees required with it. If you're going to make it look realistic you're gonna need to use squibs and other things that raises the budget. But everyone's seen a gun in a zombie movie. That's kind of where the genre started and we wanted to pay homage to like all of the zombie movies we loved but put like a very anime inspired twist on it. And one of my favorite animes growing up was Rarori Kenshin which you know Roni Kenshin I can never pronounce it correctly Samurai X will call it how you looked at me like that was like my favorite uh one of my favorite animes growing up alongside Dragon Ball Z and I had a samurai sword that was like my graduation present from high school to myself I got a little money from my parents but it was a lot of my work money and I bought like a you know folded steel katana with a sharpened edge and then proceeded to cut down like every tree in my backyard with it.

SPEAKER_02: 40:00

Are these trees?

SPEAKER_00: 40:01

Oh no, I didn't cut down the thick ones. I could only get through like the saplings. I was basically a baby tree murderer, unfortunately. I hate to say it. I've I've since planted enough trees to cover that transgression and protect enough.

SPEAKER_04: 40:14

When you just said the saplings, in my mind, I'm not even kidding. I thought, kill the halflings.

SPEAKER_02: 40:22

I can't kill the halflings.

SPEAKER_00: 40:25

But we also cut up a ton of noodle cadoodles. My favorite, my favorite ever swing. I threw up four pieces of a noodle cadoodle that I'd already cut up into four pieces. I cut all four with one slice into eight pieces, and it just sprung apart in mid-air. And uh it was one of the proudest moments of my entire life.

SPEAKER_02: 40:43

I'm really, I'm really glad that you got to accomplish that, Kyle.

SPEAKER_00: 40:48

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02: 40:48

And if you feel the need to pull out your katana and cut down some saplings, we have a whole bunch actually here that really is genuinely on our to-do list out here in Vermont. So you're more than welcome.

SPEAKER_00: 40:58

Hey, you know, don't get a machete, right? Go straight to the katana. It's more fun. It turns a work activity into a fun tippity.

SPEAKER_02: 41:06

It also sounds like a great set of reels, Dan. I think we're doing this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 41:09

And it's I I'm actually uh a daily sword carrier. A lot of people don't know, except one wedding that I went to where the word got out and everybody wanted to see it. But I, you know, um, as as a veteran, I've got some injuries. So uh I occasionally use a cane. I I used it a lot more like a year ago, now not so much because I'm feeling better. Um, but uh it I'm like I'm gonna get one with a sword inside of it because that's so cool.

SPEAKER_00: 41:41

That's so smart. I have actually I I hurt my back like I don't know about the first time, like 11 years ago. Um very stupid injury, and I continually re-heard it. So I was using a cane for a while, and I was like, I kept being like, no, I'll get better fast enough to not need to make an investment because her dad's got a bunch of these like old Irish, you know, someone hand-carved it, you know, 300.

SPEAKER_03: 42:06

I happen to have six of these in my house.

SPEAKER_00: 42:09

Yeah, well, here, just take this one. So I was like, I mean, it's a cool looking cane, like you know, it was unique. Uh, but I was so close so many times to getting one with a sword in it, because I was like, I mean, also it's all right ever. If you're gonna use a cane, having a sword in it is very freaking cool.

SPEAKER_04: 42:29

Protection, zombie apocalypse prep, like you're ready.

SPEAKER_01: 42:32

Yeah. I'm I'm ready for any zombie apocalypse. And I it's it's kind of interesting having a sword cane because to most people you look like an invalid. Like you look like you're not any threat to anybody, but it's like I have three feet of steel in here that could slice your head off.

SPEAKER_04: 42:50

The most armored up, right?

SPEAKER_02: 42:52

I think you'll have to declare it if we ever cross the border with it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 42:55

Uh I might just be a weapon. Like, oh, I forgot about that. Um, I didn't know I did that. There's a sword in here.

SPEAKER_03: 43:06

This is not on the website description.

SPEAKER_02: 43:08

One of my favorite parts of the movies was you, and I I don't know how to describe it. Maybe you can describe it, but uh, for those who are listening and haven't seen it yet, but it's with you with the katana, it's your first kill. And you sort of like come at the camera in a really ridiculous way. Um what was it like to film those scenes? And how hard was it to get all the blood off of all of you? Because the amount of blood was glorious, everything I ever dreamed of in a zombie film.

SPEAKER_04: 43:35

I think it might be my most favorite scene I've ever filmed in my life. I mean, it was our first zombie kill in ZombieCon. So, you know, the adrenaline was insane. We were shooting in that apartment, the Rockets Rockets apartment is actually was Kyle in my home apartment at the time. And yeah, and so that was when the blood first started flowing in the movie, and we knew we don't have the money or the time to clean this all up, start again, get another take. Like this has got to be everything right. So the adrenaline was pumping as I'm charging the camera. And I guess one more fun fact was that Kyle actually replaced the zombie in that shot, and so he's holding the camera and I'm charging straight at Kyle on the camera. So by this point, there's already been blood on the ground. I'm wearing wedge platform sneakers in the scene, which have no traction. I'm very aware that I could slip and go right into with my sword, the camera and Kyle, both of which would be really bad. We need that camera, and we certainly need Kyle. Um, so the adrenaline was real. So, like it just beyond even the acting. I mean, it was it was thrilling. And I was really, I was really Anya degrees. I was really excited. I was really excited to have like an Uma Thurman type moment. And when I first saw the footage, I was like, thank God, I think I'm getting that moment. Like it looks insane. And we didn't have money or the time, anything for screen tests and stuff when it came to the blood splatter and whatnot. So Kyle was the one speaking with our makeup SFX artist, Joseph Dubresco, about his vision for it. I had no idea how much blood ZombieCon was gonna have until I was getting hit with it in the face. Like I did not know that was I I it was of all of my discussions as a producer, like in which I was involved in so much, I don't know how, but the gush, the amount of gore, where the blood would be hitting the actors, I was never part of that. So that was shocking to me. The shock was there really, just like the character. So a lot of it was very real as well. And in terms of getting it washed off, it was difficult. Um I think it was more though difficult thinking about like our apartment itself because they it just got caked. And at least I was showering at the end of the day, and I kind of got used to it, especially like the body paint, because for those who haven't seen it, I was dressed up as like a Gamorra-esque type character for copyright reasons, not Gamora, but full and green body paint everywhere. Um, so yeah, I got used to washing off a whole bunch of stuff on me, but our apartment that was left caked in blood for months at very least, because we were doing reshoots and we didn't know we needed to keep everything continuity-wise. So I would say that was the more difficult and um crazy thing trying to get clean, honestly.

SPEAKER_01: 46:25

Yeah, that's how you get ants. Um I I love I love like realism details. And in that scene, like when when you stab a katana through your first zombie and it goes through the chair and almost hits Rocket in the face, like that for me, that was the moment that I was like, I I kind of love this.

SPEAKER_04: 46:51

Fantastic. That was all Kyle, and funny enough, that was a reshoot or an insert shot, not a reshoot, that we did, you know, long after we did it.

SPEAKER_00: 47:00

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, we we did that in principle. Oh, of the the couch hit where he has his face splat on the couch. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 47:07

Oh, okay. I'm getting this. Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 47:09

No, I definitely didn't want to because we actually, you know, we had the blade pointed out in his face. I wanted the whole crew together for that just to make sure that you know we had extra hands on set and like someone to grab the sword in case anything went wrong and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_05: 47:24

That's right.

SPEAKER_01: 47:25

That's right. So you ruined a chair, definitely, in that s in that shot.

SPEAKER_00: 47:31

Uh yeah. So that was our couch. That was like our like the couch I had had for years in Hollywood, and like it was called it was like, you know, it's just like this couch kind of like it's not real leather, it's like the you know, the fake leather. But I had a um I had my first dog at the time, Penny Lane, and she was a big, like 65-pound, like uh greyhound lab mix uh with a ton of energy and like really like really big claws, and she'd be like climbing all over the couch all the time, and I probably cleaned it with the wrong thing because you're not supposed to clean it with like alcohol or whatever, and I probably used like a Lysol wipe on it one too many times. Between her and the Lysol wipes, the uh leather and stuff just started cracking and peeling off. And I'm looking at it, I'm like, you know, this looks like a really good worn-in couch. Like I'd have to like find something like this at like, you know, probably on the side of the road. This isn't even flea market ready.

SPEAKER_01: 48:27

Like this is like, you know, just put it on the Facebook marketplace. Uh, one faux leather couch covered in blood, stab holes.

SPEAKER_05: 48:39

That's it.

SPEAKER_00: 48:40

So, yeah, we were like when we were making the movie, I was like, I'm gonna write the couch in as a character. These guys, like, they they sit around, they watch anime together, they're hanging out all the time. You know, this is kind of like the fifth, you know, apartment member is the couch. And uh we decided that we would use it and destroy it over the course of shooting and not really worry about it. We would figure it out, you know, after the fact. And I thought we'd just get rid of it and maybe get a new one. And because of insert shots and stuff, we kept that couch way longer than we probably should have. And when we finally threw it away, we documented it. We took all these photos of it on the side of the road, and I actually kept uh two of the cushions. So, in case I needed to get any kind of insert shot or background shot or needed the color of the couch or for like any kind of VFX, we kept cushions in trash bags because they were still covered in this blood for the next seven years.

SPEAKER_04: 49:37

Absolutely disgusting.

SPEAKER_00: 49:39

I almost brought one brought one with us when we moved from LA to uh Atlanta, but that's finally when I was like, all right, I'm ready to give it up.

SPEAKER_04: 49:47

Or Ray if they're goodbye for real. It's been real.

SPEAKER_00: 49:54

Thank you. See, I told you we should have kept it. We could have we could have framed it. It could have been this I I I was a proposal.

SPEAKER_04: 50:00

It was it was time to say goodbye. It was time, and we got this in memory in memorandum or memorium.

SPEAKER_02: 50:06

Yeah, this is like that couch has tough shoes to fill.

SPEAKER_01: 50:10

I don't know. Yeah, it doesn't have enough stab holes for me, to be honest. Um Aaron, my sword. Um, how many assholes are there in LA?

SPEAKER_00: 50:22

Well, LA is a very interesting place where I'd say, you know, you have a lot of really creative people who are like some of the coolest people you'll ever meet and actually like things that I like growing up. Like, you know, you can talk to basically a general person about anime or movies and stuff like that, and they'll get down with it. But it also has a group of people who are like very, very focused on their interest in the movies and you know, everything, the peripherals of it uh for like fulfilling their own kind of self-ego is like kind of the feel I got. And obviously, I only met like you know, one one thousandth of one percent of all the people in LA. So I'm not I can't hardly speak for the entire you know city or county. Um and most of the people that I met were absolutely lovely. Our neighbors that we lived in that apartment complex with for three years were some of the best people you'd ever meet, with one neighbor that I will not mention, excluded everyone. If anyone, you know, any of my neighbors are listening to this, you know exactly who I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_01: 51:27

Everybody has to have that one neighbor.

SPEAKER_00: 51:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 51:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mr. Reynolds Reynolds. Yeah. Mr.

SPEAKER_02: 51:35

Reynolds seemed like an absolute Did the inspiration for Mr. Reynolds really steal a t-shirt? Did did he really steal one? Yeah in the movie?

SPEAKER_00: 51:43

No, not in the movie, but the real did the real neighborhood. No, he did not. No. Darn it. No, he I I I don't even want to get started. That'll take it took me years to get over that situation.

SPEAKER_02: 51:56

We understand.

SPEAKER_00: 51:57

Yeah. Yeah, I was the hobby in that situation, just being, you know, harassed on a semi-regular basis. Uh one what no, no. I was just gonna I was gonna talk about when he I'm gonna just get one little story. Aaron's like, don't say it. Don't say it. Like, this guy blamed his clog toilet on Aaron's uh personal like feminine care products and was like telling me I needed to control my wife. And like, I was like, okay, you've just crossed like 16 different lines, and your logic is in outer space. And so that was like one of the last interactions we had with him. Lovely, lovely individual.

SPEAKER_02: 52:41

Yeah, he would definitely become a zombie in your movie for sure. And also, how does he know what's happening in your that's just weird on so many levels?

SPEAKER_00: 52:49

So so and our plumbing wasn't connected, no one's plumbing was connected, the plumber, like anyway. Yeah, the guy was just, you know, if that sentence just like, yeah, control your wife, I'm like, yes, uh, that's what we do in this century. Yeah, you're right. Like, what is this guy talking about?

SPEAKER_02: 53:06

She's clearly out of control to flushing this and flushing that. I mean, if Erin is anything like the character Claire, she did make a wish for all of the zombies, or sorry, for all of the assholes to become zombies and curse the entire world. So Yeah, I mean, there's that. Yeah. I'm curious if that was ever a real wish. Did either of you ever just say to yourself, you know what, I really wish all the all the assholes in LA became zombies? Or like, how did that come to be? No.

SPEAKER_00: 53:32

No, I don't think any of us ever really wished it. It was just kind of a again, trying to lean into the anime aesthetic and come up with a a creative way that I feel like everyone could get behind, where it wasn't just like a biological outbreak or something we've seen before. So something a little bit different, a little bit of a twist, and there is an extended story in the further volumes that explain kind of the mechanic that brought about the wish and enabled it. So it's not just like a one-off, like you know, genie lamp situation. There is like an actual story behind that that's kind of like uh again, anime-centric theming, like almost devil fruits from one piece if anyone's familiar. Um but yeah, that was just something that I thought everyone could agree with. Like, no matter who you are, where you're from, you know an asshole. And there's definitely one of those assholes that you wouldn't mind being turned into a zombie. So I just felt like it was like a universal truth almost.

SPEAKER_02: 54:32

Yeah. I'm thinking about a neighbor right now, and I agree.

SPEAKER_01: 54:36

I can name several.

SPEAKER_02: 54:38

But it did lend the question to you, I was like, am I the asshole? Because you have this one character, Rocket, who's like possibly an asshole. Is being an asshole infectious like a zombie virus?

SPEAKER_00: 54:50

Well, I tried to leave it up for interpretation. So I don't want to like I want to let the audience decide kind of what their version of that is. But as far as Rocket goes, I think it was very much his internal kind of decision-making process. You know, and I think so much of life is that because life is so gray, everyone, you know, it's not really black and white. We always find ourselves in like this kind of middle of the road situation where it a lot of it matters from your perspective and the way that you're judging yourself and the way that the people around you are judging you. And was that decision as holy? Was it, you know, just you standing up for yourself? What was the kind of nuance of the situation, I guess? And so for Rocket, it's like, you know, especially in the tunnel scene where he's deciding, you know, should I leave my friend who is, you know, probably dead given everything we've seen up until that point to save my mom? So it's like kind of a bird in the hand, you know, two in the bush situation. And where does that put me on this sliding scale of you know, assholery for lack of a better word? Um, and then how does he perceive that choice? And is he making it from the altruistic place of I want to save my mom, and I'm using logic to determine that it's very unlikely that he's alive, and if we wait here too long, she's definitely going to be dead, uh, versus kind of the, you know, I guess the anime hero's kind of mentality of we'll save everyone no matter what, which could be, you know, kind of a brought with consequences type of choice. Because you that's just not how like life works. And again, drawing a lot from anime and zombie movies where those choices have to be made about who changes into a zombie, who doesn't get changed. Uh, I think they do it really well when someone gets bit and everyone's like, no, we we can't kill them, but it's like, they're gonna change, like we have to kill them, otherwise they'll kill us. And you see it in a lot of zombie movies where they wait too long, and then of course the person changes, and they bite like three more people. And now instead of you know, one person getting killed, now four people have gotten killed or ten people, and it just kind of you know, that human kind of uh evaluation and mathematics that come into like everyday life that can be extrapolated in these extreme circumstances. So I don't know if there's a very like roundabout answer.

SPEAKER_01: 57:18

It's a perfect answer. It's the kind of answers we we look for around here. Um when you were deciding your the the rules of how like your zombies work, like what was what was the moment when like it all kind of clicked and you knew like this is this is why my zombies work the way that they do, this is what makes them zombies. Um was there like an inciting incident or uh you know where where did that idea come from?

SPEAKER_00: 57:46

It was kind of like building a snowman, right? It's like there's not like one lightning bolt moment where it's like this is everything all at once. It's putting it together slowly, right? So like the base of the snowman is kind of like the assholes are turning into zombies. Okay. Then the middle piece of the snowman is kind of like, well, how do these zombies get killed? Right? Again, wanting to make it different, but pay homage. And it was like, well, you know, if they're assholes, you know, usually it's the brain, and it's always about the brain controlling, you know, the spinal cord and making them able to move and everything else. And here I'm like, well, if it's kind of more of a personality quirk, it should have something to do with something that's metaphorically associated with, you know, that in a person, which I thought is the heart, right? It's like, where is your heart? Does your heart fall into the side of being an asshole or being a good person? Why, where do you derive your choices from? And from there, it just kind of like, okay, so we'll have an evolution to them being able to talk depending on how much of an asshole they are, how or how far along this kind of infection has gone on, and are they drawing inwardly from that power? And in the end, where we have the Xander Rules team, and spoiler, spoiler alert, I think we've spoiled a lot, so I think we're definitely spoiler territory. So when we have the Xander Rules team, and they're you know, the girls are semi-conscious, but they're definitely capable of speech and they're capable of thinking, and Xander has kind of taken this you know lead position, and he's obviously capable of speech, and you know, Xander was never really capable of reasoning too much, but he's still capable of reasoning a little bit.

SPEAKER_01: 59:26

Um almost improved as a zombie.

SPEAKER_00: 59:28

Yeah, exactly. Exactly, right? This is like the unabashed, like, this is who he would be if he dropped all of the veil, which is I love the last line he speaks, because like I hate usually, right, there's some amount of redemption in the death scene of the villain. And here there's no redemption for Xander. He's like, no, I hate you, Rocket, even as he's like going down to the floor. Because that just that's who this guy was. So he was totally corrupted, right, by this wish. And I think that it's safe to say that he, you know, he had feasted a little bit. This is Mr. Whipple. By the way, to start talking about it. Oh, Mr. Webwalls.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:02

A dog has just entered the podcast. When they uh put their nose up to the microphone, I honestly thought that they were going to start talking.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:14

It's a magical dog. Yep. Well, wait for those AI collars to come out in like, you know, five years that like every dark will be like turned into human speech. We might regret it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:29

We'll definitely regret it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:30

Our dog will just look at us and say dentistic on repeat. It's his favorite thing.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:34

I was about to say for him, cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese.

unknown: 1:00:39

Cheese.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:41

Yeah, we haven't introduced Ziggy to cheese.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:44

Yeah, he doesn't know. That's for the best.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:46

Let's not do it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:48

Don't do it. It's the wrong move.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:51

I really appreciate a unique zombie. So, and like the twist of like when the knife goes in the head and the first scene and the zombie's still going. I'm like, oh fuck. That really upset me, actually. So it was like, okay, this is a new set of mechanics for zombies. And you've already alluded to the fact that there's more. This is there's volume one for a reason. Tell us about the future volumes and what our timeline is, maybe?

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:15

Yeah, no. We wanted to get into uh pre-production on volume. So we have volume two through five written already. I kind of did this as an exercise a couple years back because the stories have been in my head, and I was like, I'm gonna go crazy unless I write these things down because I keep thinking about them. So I wrote them down, put them to the side. Uh it goes all the way up to like volume 10 in terms of like story beats, it's all beated out on paper. Uh, but I honestly, like with a 10-year post-production, you're not thinking, oh yeah, the movie is gonna be well received. Because you're like at that point, I'm gonna finish it for me because it needs to be done.

SPEAKER_05: 1:01:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:51

And it was well received, and a lot of people have talked about it. We're like, well, we should get started with volume two, and we should, you know, keep this going. And we were all set to start pre-production this year, and then we had another opportunity that we had talked about previously come through, and we're like, well, yeah, that kind of takes precedence. Like, let's do that first. And we finished another feature film last year that's like in the tail end of post-production, so it just needs like two months of my time to finish. So I figure we'll finish this project, finish the last feature film. You know, if we get any more projects between them, we'll jump on them. But my goal is to start pre-production on the second volume, uh, at least by the end of this year now. So we don't like, you know, let the steam die off too much, and we can kind of keep this thing rolling. Because even with a quick production process and a quick post-production, uh, you know, it's at least a minimum of like, I'd say that you could probably do it in nine months, but it's probably closer to a year to actually get it done. Uh, but the second volume takes place after a 10-year time gap, uh, you know, which is kind of harkens back to obviously the movie taking 10 years, but also the fact that our actors have all aged beautifully. But just to give us a little bit of time to work through the zombie apocalypse beginnings that we've seen so many times and land us, you know, in the middle of like the post-zombie apocalypse world with like the shantytown built up, the repurposed, you know, humidifiers pulling water out of the air for potable water. That's a really funny uh, you know, all the fun little like you know, mechanical contraptions that I think are so interesting whenever people are kind of like pushed into that like what can we use to survive mode and like scavenging things. And uh yeah, it's the characters are all together. Uh all the dynamic has changed, it's all fleshed out in the beginning for why the dynamic has changed. Uh I don't think it's a real spoiler to say that you know Mama Bear will make an appearance in the second volume, and she's uh a big part of the trouble because well, I won't say anything else about that, but she's in the second volume as well. And uh Erin is, since you're back, uh this is a very interesting character development with Claire, who has now taken uh kind of personal responsibility for doing all of this to the world and has changed into almost a very But we haven't told anyone, so like I am still secretively holding all that guilt. Secretively, but also outwardly expressing it. Uh she's become a very militant Sarah Connor-esque character whose like goal in life is to kill all of the zombies. And she leads a group of uh what I call in the script flyers, and they're basically all you know uh petite, basically ballerina-esque uh women who kind of are like if you're a fan of Warhammer 40,000, the Silent Sisterhood is like was like the inspiration for them. But they fly into battle hanging from aggro drones, uh, which are like the drones that like you know seed crops and you know do pesticides and stuff. So these hence the reason why they all need to be petite, of course. It gives you farther distance for the drones to f to fly and everything, the lighter the payload is. And they all fly into battle, they've got their little controllers off in the distance, little geeky guys all doing the joysticks and stuff, and like there's constant communication. Her flyer's name is Squeak, one of my favorite characters in the new movie. And they drop death from above with like Moltoff cocktails and homemade explosives and all kinds of stuff, taking out like hordes of zombies in defending. The shantytown, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:05:28

Like really well organized. They've gotten their shit together in ten years. The, you know, I guess I don't even know how many people probably live there. Like 200, 300,000. No, no, thousands.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:37

And then the great thing is we have what I always love in every great zombie franchise, like the zombie war bus. And we've got a guy named Mike the Mechanic who's built this like epic. I mean, I don't know, this is gonna be the most expensive part of the next movie. It's gotta be like a because I want it to be a functional vehicle and we're gonna use it for like two of the next movies, and like it's yeah, I kind of want to from the red couch be like another character joining the Rockets Rockets, right?

SPEAKER_04: 1:06:05

Now it's gonna be the war bus.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:06

If you think back to like Jurassic Park 2, where they had that big bus that was connected with that vinyl stripping in the middle that the T-Rex pushes over the clip. Yeah. So like something like that, but you know, the heavy metal version of that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:21

That's amazing. I was just looking behind me because Dan has a book. You know the book I'm talking about, Dan?

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:26

Oh, yeah, the zombie survival transport manual.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:28

Yeah, have you read that book?

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:30

No, but it is on my list now.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:32

Yeah, I was like, I think you need this book. It's uh it's actually made by the people who make Haynes manuals. So like repair manuals for cars. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:41

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04: 1:06:42

We're gonna need to look into that.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:43

Technically accurate manuals are something that I absolutely love when story creating. That's fantastic. Yeah, it's pretty fun.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:50

Um, it's it's not like Haynes level, like it's not gonna be like this is what you gotta do to convert your Buick Skylark into uh into a zombie death machine. Um but I give some ideas.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:06

They don't actually give you the plans for flamethrowers and like this is how to put a chainsaw in the side of your car door so you can lop off the heads of zombies as you drive by.

SPEAKER_01: 1:07:18

That I think actually is in there. Yeah.

unknown: 1:07:20

Really?

SPEAKER_01: 1:07:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:22

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01: 1:07:23

I think so.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:23

I'll be honest and say I've never opened that book because I can't tell uh cars apart from each other in today's world. I really don't. If somebody was like, that's a Ford, that's a Toyota, I'd be like, okay.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:36

I feel like I'd be a terrible witness on a crime scene because if a car drove by and they'd be like, I'd be like, okay, so this is the general size, here's the color. They're like, right, so what's the make and model? I'm like, I don't know. It's a blue one.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:49

The number of times that we've gone out into a parking lot and I like walked to the wrong truck. Dan can tell you.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:56

I just I had uh during the shooting of ZombieCon Volume One, my car was actually in the shop. Um, and uh they'd given me a loaner, and so I'm in this, you know, I don't know, like a Prius or something, and I it didn't have a key, it was just like a start-stop button. And I was so stressed and so busy, and I'm running between locations. It was right before Big Mama's house shoot. I get out of the print shop, I try and get in my car, I try and start it, I'm hitting the button, nothing's happening, and I realize I'm in the wrong car. Someone else's unlocked car, like hitting the steering wheel, like jamming the button. I'm like, oh no. Like this is just I took a Snapchat right then for behind the scenes. I'm like, this is the level of exhaustion. I hope the owner's not coming back. I did take the time to film a Snapchat.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:45

I mean, you have to in those moments. I personally just can't wait to see you flying in on an aggro drone.

SPEAKER_04: 1:08:50

I am so pumped, so pumped for that transformation and for the like, like Kyle said, Linda Hamilton, like T1 terminator to T2 type transformation. That's the kind of character work and the kind of like arcs that really excite me. Of course, we're gonna need some serious nannying so I can hit the gym and learn all these skills, but all good things with time.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:12

Well, no, you know, Anya will just get heavier, so you can just you know do different exercises with Anya. I'm like so baby curl. Yes, you do squats, obviously, that's an easy one. Good for her burping.

SPEAKER_04: 1:09:25

I don't know if her for future moms out there.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:28

Actually, the squats are great. She loves squatters. Like it really helps her like move gas upward through the system.

SPEAKER_04: 1:09:33

She loves squats, which was easier when she was a newborn, and now she's almost 20 pounds. And I'm like, all right, well, this is my this is my good workout right here. We're just squatting until her gas goes away, and I'm like sweating bullets in the middle of night, but you know, it's two good things coming together. And sorry for uh everyone listening. I'm in and out. Anya is hitting her wall from her nap time, so we're deciding right now if we're gonna be happy, if we're gonna take the mic. We don't know. We're all over the place.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10:03

Well, we've loved Anya as a guest, our very first baby guest on the podcast, and um it's been really fun to get to know you. This is a great way to start off 2026. Best double date I could imagine. Y'all are great.

SPEAKER_04: 1:10:15

Hey, right back at you guys. And the y'all our dogs are here too. It's a whole family affair.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10:21

Yeah, buy coastal dates. It's possible. Yeah. Um, so if you were to have tasked people to go to one place to find ZombieCon Volume One, where would they go?

SPEAKER_00: 1:10:32

This is usually the part where Ern Answers uh if people were tasked, oh, to where to buy it.

SPEAKER_04: 1:10:37

Where to see it. Where to see it. Okay, so if you want to watch it for free with a subscription, Screamify. It's on there, it's one of their first feature films they have. Definitely go to Screamify. If you want to buy or rent it, it's on Apple TV, it's on Amazon Prime, YouTube Movies, Google Plex, Fandango, anywhere in North America where you can buy or rent movies, you will find it. But if you're also like Leah and Dan and Kyle and I, and you love supporting physical media, go to Amazon Prime, get the DVD. It has behind the scenes, it has extended scenes, deleted scenes, filmmaker commentary. It's so much fun, especially if you watch the film and enjoy it, or you're interested in indie filmmaking, it'll give you really good insight into how things get made.

SPEAKER_00: 1:11:22

Yeah, super, super indie filmmaking, not like Sundance, like$20 million indie filming like$60,000, tie your own bootstraps together, five-person crew.

SPEAKER_04: 1:11:32

Right.

unknown: 1:11:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:11:35

Have your own couch.

SPEAKER_01: 1:11:36

Yes, have your couch. This is a kind of like bootstraps kind of thing where you have to combine everybody's bootstraps because nobody has bootstraps that can hold up to the pressure.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:46

That's why I called it a love child, because people would not do this unless there was deep love.

SPEAKER_04: 1:11:51

Right, right, exactly. It absolutely was. It was a very much so a labor of love. And we're very, very proud of it. We've had many incarnations um and many versions of ZombieCon throughout the years, many cuts. Maybe one day some of them will see the light of day. The finished product is quite different from even like 2020s. Wow. But yeah, we're it's been a journey. We're really excited about the reception it's been getting too. It's been awesome.

SPEAKER_02: 1:12:18

Well, you all should be really pleased with both of your babies. Um, they're both beautiful. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:24

One is Erin, she's trying to pull the dog's hair. Um I don't have enough hands. She is grabbing and he's being very well behaved. Anya was just uh grabbing Mr. Whipple's back section and uh pulling all the hair off his body. So, Mr. Whipples, it's okay. He is uh he's not adjusted very well to the baby in the house. He's he's been a little bit depressed, so we've been giving him extra treats and playtime. And since Anya's been eating uh you know big food, not just the purees, he has been enjoying a lot of stuff that hits.

SPEAKER_04: 1:13:04

That's why he remembers what cheese is now. He's like, We're thick as thieves, girl. He's like, I'm your big brother now. So you actually have three children. Okay. I'm so sorry, Mr.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:17

Whipples. I didn't mean to exclude you.

SPEAKER_04: 1:13:19

Yep. I guess he's technically number one because he was there before ZombieCon. So it's it's a whole family. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:25

How old is Mr. Whipples? That's my last official question.

SPEAKER_04: 1:13:29

He's 12. Is he 12? I know he's 14. Oh my god, he's 13. I'm so sorry, Mr. Whipples. No, he's not 14, he's 13. 13. Yeah, we've been together 13 years. We got him when he was like a month old. So it's yeah, he's he's been with us a very long time. He's seen a lot. He has seen all the versions of ZombieCon. Anya has not.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:48

Well, we love you, Mr. Whipples. You've been a great emotional support dog. Thank you for helping bring together ZombieCon Volume 1.

SPEAKER_04: 1:13:55

Hey, thank you. He he will take all the credit.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:58

It was all me. Why are you interviewing these idiots? You should have talked to me the whole time. Uh Ziggy says, Don't never interview me either. I'm just sitting down here. You can't see me, but I've been listening, and I think my parents are stupid.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:17

I give all the emotional support, but they only sometimes give me the dental pushsticks. I deserve fair compensation.

SPEAKER_02: 1:14:28

Well, this has been so much fun. I know that we're reaching nav time for Anya, so thank you very much for joining us on the Zombie Book Club Podcast. This is a blast. And I hope that you have a beautiful rest of your year. I can't wait for ZombieCon Volume 2 to come out.

SPEAKER_04: 1:14:41

Thank you so much. Truly, it's an honor. Thank you for inviting us. And if you ever need another like guest spot filled, please consider us. We'd love to come on. It's been a blast.

SPEAKER_00: 1:14:50

Yeah, our agent though does set our time requirements, as you can see, and she's quite demanding.

SPEAKER_01: 1:14:58

I love double dates, Dan. Yeah, that was a great, great double date. I was gonna say more, I guess. Um, I don't know what it was though. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02: 1:15:09

Aaron and Kyle are lovely, but personally, I think that Mr. Whipple and Anya the baby stole the show at various moments in this conversation.

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:18

And I wish that they could both talk because I bet they have so much to say.

SPEAKER_02: 1:15:21

We'll have to have a follow-up when they're a few years older. Like when ZombieCon Volume 4 is out and Anya has words, and Mr. Whipple um is now has the AI caller, so we can hear everything he has to say. Yeah, or she has to say he, she doesn't matter. He. I guess there's mr. That should indicate their gender.

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:40

It should, but yeah, who knows? We can't assume. We can't assume. Um thanks everybody for joining us on the Zombie Book Club podcast. Even though we were talking about a movie. We do that a lot. We do, we do do that. Um you know there's a place out there that if people wanted to become a part of our conversations, especially about this episode, they they could go there. Where what what is that place, Leah?

SPEAKER_02: 1:16:09

Our friend Ollie calls it Free Treon. Because Patreon is misleading.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:15

Yeah, Patreon implies payment. Yes. Um, which to be fair, that is kind of what Patreon's for.

SPEAKER_05: 1:16:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:24

But uh we have a Patreon, um, but you don't have to pay uh to be part of it. You can um just sign up for the free tier. You do have to sign up for it though, uh, which we found that a lot of people just went there and looked at it and then went away without hitting join for free. Join for free.

SPEAKER_02: 1:16:42

You gotta hit the join for free button. The reason it's free is because we believe community is for everybody. And not everybody has beans all the time. And those who want to share beans, there's a place for them to do it now. There's a few different tiers. But none of those tiers are um paywalls for the community. Everything that we do in terms of book club read discussions, choosing what books we're gonna read next, conversations around zombies in general, uh, is all free and available for anybody who joins as a member.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:09

Yeah. We also did two very short live streams the other day.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:13

One was one minute and ninety one was ninety seconds. Yeah. And one was three minutes. That's it.

SPEAKER_05: 1:17:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:20

And the second one didn't work because we were driving uh from Springfield, Massachusetts, home and had no reception. So it was a fail. Yeah, it just didn't work. But we will be doing more things like that.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:31

Yeah, more stuff like that. Also, we have a bonus episode that you can listen to um about Queens of the Dead.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:38

Yeah, another great indie film. It is. You're right. Yeah. And the most exciting thing is this year in 2026, we are doing official zombie book club reads. We're only gonna do four or five because Dan and I are slow readers, and this is a club for you can read a bunch of books in between those four or five books, or you could just read these four or five with us, or one of the five, or none. Um, but right now we're reading Zone One by Colson Whitehead. It's the 15th anniversary of this modern zombie classic, and the full book club episode is gonna drop on March 22nd. So make sure you're reading along and come chat with us about it on Patreon. Your hot takes need to be a part of that episode.

SPEAKER_01: 1:18:14

Yeah, we need your ideas so that we know what to say about the book.

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:18:18

That's how it works now. We're just gonna take your ideas.

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:20

Yeah, and if there's enough folks who want to do it, we're gonna host a live discussion about the book, and that won't be recorded. That's just for us to hang out together.

SPEAKER_01: 1:18:26

Yeah, hanging out, hanging out talking about a book.

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:30

You can also support the show by leaving a rating or a review, or the old good old-fashioned voicemail up to three minutes at 614-699-3006. It's honestly my favorite way to get fan input, is the voicemail.

SPEAKER_01: 1:18:43

We've gotten some really great voicemails in the in the past few years. Yeah, we should do a compilation of them. Yeah. Um, you could also follow us on Instagram at ZombieBook Club Podcast. We're other places too, but mostly Instagram. There's a Facebook. Yeah. Oh yeah, there's a Facebook.

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:01

In the description down below. We've been told no one reads those, but you really should. We spent a lot of time on them. I think some people read them. Yeah? If anyone's listening that has read the show description notes, please let us know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:19:18

What do you think? Have you found all of uh our subtle jokes that we put in there? Sometimes there are. Some really good links.

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:27

There's so many links. In this case, a link to go buy ZombieCon Volume One. Oh yeah. Help out the people that we are talking to. And you should do that really soon because I hate to tell you, but the end is nigh. Oh, it is. So stay human. Yeah. Also don't die.

SPEAKER_05: 1:19:46

Bye-bye. Bye-bye.