A L I V E
An independent feature film
A coming of age tale
A zombie apocalypse movie
"Alive" is a feature film written and directed by David Marantz; and produced and edited by Annie Rachel Hillman.
Latest news: Alive is now available in the US & Canada!
It is finally here! Thanks to our splendid cast, our wonderful crew, our brilliant agent and our fantastic distributor, Gravitas Ventures, Alive is now available in the US and Canada on VoD.
Check out how to rent it, buy it, see it:
The posters are here
We now have not one but two terrific posters for the film! Here they are:
News: sales representation in North America
We’re very happy and proud to announce that we have sales representation for Alive in the North American market. We’ve signed with Producers Rep Alex Nohe of “Blood Sweat Honey”.
Alex is a highly experienced professional with a comprehensive knowledge of the film industry. Having him on board is the best thing that could happen to our film at this stage.
Alex, thank you and welcome!
News: Trailer 3 - "Still Nothing"
And finally, here’s the last of our trailers, titled “Still Nothing”. Enjoy and stay tuned for more news soon!
News: Trailer 2 - "We Are Not Afraid"
Hello again,
Here’s our second trailer for “Alive”! This one features custom music from our brilliant composer, Daniele Carretta. The third and last trailer will be coming next week. Enjoy.
News: Trailer 1 - "Run"
Hello everyone,
Good, if long awaited, news: Alive is essentially finished! Well, not 100% because we’re still ironing some kinks here and there but it’s close enough to its final form that we’re now starting to explore our distribution options.
Hopefully more even better news soon! But to help you wait, we now have some trailers for you and here’s the first one, with two more to come, on May 9th and May 15th. Enjoy.
The story
The Zombie Apocalypse
Helen, fifteen, navigates a ravaged world accompanied by her boyfriend Kevin and her little brother Barney; desperate to find help for the latter after he’s been infected and is slowly turning into a zombie.
They happen upon an isolated house where lives Dan, a man harbouring a heavy secret…
Sound Designer
Belated news: Rob Pepper is the latest addition to our post-production team. Rob is joining us as the film's sound designer and will be in charge of mixing, editing and creating both dialogue and sound effects for the entire film.
Rob's work lifts the quality of the movie to the professional level we strive for and the film would never have been completed to such high standards without his exceptional skills and dedication!
News + Score Composer
Hi all,
Long time no see! Sorry for the radio silence since the last update. To make up for it, we have a couple of pieces of good news:
The film is picture locked, as we say in the industry. That's a significant milestone and we're very happy to have reached it and how nicely the film is coming together. We're not there yet as there is still a little more work to do in the sound department, but on that front....
We are delighted to announce that Daniele Carretta has joined the project as the film's music composer. Daniele's style is a natural fit for the project. The sample he has done for us shows great potential and we're confident his music will lift the movie to even greater heights.
We're getting there!
It's a Wrap!by David Marantz - writer/director
Over fourteen months ago, we started shooting what we thought back then would be the teaser for our zombie feature film, “Alive”. This past weekend, we completed our last day of principal photography.
Of course, we still have a lot of work to do. Editing, colour grading, sound re-recording, sound mixing and distribution are all challenges that lie ahead of us.
But right now, we’d like to take a little bit of time to bask in the glow of what is an accomplishment. And that wouldn’t have been possible without the support, hard work and love of all those who have joined us on this adventure.
So, from the bottom of our hearts, a big thank you and a virtual hug to:
-Our crew-
Tom Allen, our main director of photography without whose help nothing would have happened,
James Skerritt and Nigel Rogers who took up Tom’s mantle when he couldn’t be with us, Misato Yonemasu, Nigel’s tireless camera assistant,
Elkie Yates, Jennifer McLean, Rachel Stephens and Sam Morris, our hard-working 1st ADs,
Claudette Fruchier and Sara Gerwat, our so skilful makeup artists,
Simon Atherton and Chris Atherton, suppliers of “special props” extraordinaire,
Ryan May-Miller, our sound recordist,
Sam Mitchell, Robert Norris, Tobias Henley, Kirsty Davies, Will Thomas Freeman, Rachel Stead, Scarlett Gardner, Charlie Tay and Angharad Nia Berrow, our steadfast production assistants,
Benji Gavan, our fantastic fight coordinator,
and Sarah May-Miller and Sonia Robertson, our reliable chaperones.
-Our amazing main cast-
Ellen Hillman, Neil Sheffield, Kian Pritchard, Andrew and Daniel May-Gohrey, Stuart Matthews, Angus Kennedy, Gill Broderick, Helen Coathup, Simone McIntyre, Nick Ewans, Carl Upshell and Johnny Leigh Wright.
-Our no less amazing supporting cast-
Eileen Adamson, Maria Annibal, Tom Archard, Roz Baxter, James Brierley, Lou Brock, Ian Broderick, Rebecca Childs, Fiza Dhebar, Hannah Ede, Marian Elizabeth, Sam Estall, Martin Gohrey, Emma Harris, Emma Harrison, Benedict Hillman, Daisie Hillman, Carolyn Hollis, Steven Holloway, Abbie-Marie Howe, John Jarvis, Allen Johnson, Gareth Jones, Lisa Kearney, Martyn Kearney, Ria Larcombe, Jacob Lazinga, Jay Lenton, Jo Lockyer, Amelia Low, Isaac Low, Toby Low, Andrew Lickfold, Laura May-Miller, Aaron Natt, Joan O’Byrne, René Olivierre, Reizel Ori, Fletcher Page, Louis Page, James Paoli, Arby Parker, Daisy Parker, Stephen Pereira, Valeria Pilati, Ian Pollard, Margaret Polydorou, John Porter, Xahria Preudhomme, Vincenzo Rizzuti, Evan Robertson, Howard Rose, Brian Shrubb, Alex Shannon, Ian Shannon, Diana Sherman, Beverly Stafford, Lewis Tidy, Janys Turner and Helen Walling-Richards
-Our gracious locations hosts-
Lia Campbell, Adam Day, Chris Day, Luke Hughes and Martyn Hay at Guildford County School,
Mike Goodden, Cee Howeson and everyone at Aldridge Mill,
Paul Bowyer at Wray Park Surrey Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters,
Martin and Wendy Holloway,
James Herd from Surrey Wildlife Trust,
Vicki Brown from the Surrey Film Office,
and Elizabeth Hillman
-And our delicious caterer-
Kris Hanson for The Plot Catering Co.
Once again, thank you all for joining us on this incredible and ongoing journey!
Taking matters into your own handsby David Marantz - writer/director
If you’re a screenwriter, you might have noticed a trend lately. That trend is called: “do a sizzle reel for your screenplay”. It’s both a great idea and a terrifying one. It’s great because, of course, it gives you something more to show and convince producers, executives and financiers than a hundred tedious pages that take forever to read. And it’s terrifying because it means leaving the comfort of your desk, the bubble where it’s just you and the blank page, and be a director and a producer. And you have to talk to people. It’s a massive leap out of the comfort zone.
But we did it. A while back, my partner Rachel and I made a commitment to produce something, anything within the upcoming year. A sizzle reel was the obvious choice. It was contained, it was doable on a limited budget and it would help us move our project forward. Our project: “Alive”, a character-driven zombie movie, a coming of age tale in an apocalyptic world. This was also a calculated choice. Zombie movies have a built-in audience and are therefore easier to sell. The genre has always been used as some sort of social metaphor and so there’s room for doing something deeper than just blunt horror. And it can be done on a relatively low budget.
Pandemic response....
As it turned out, the world outside the comfort zone is pretty exciting. After we had shot the sizzle reel footage, we realised that we should just as well shoot the rest of the film.
We've been shooting the film over a series of weekends at various locations, expecting to finish principal photography some time in April.
However, we won't be able to make that deadline due to, well, the ongoing worldwide pandemic. We are therefore currently on hiatus, eagerly waiting for things to get back to normal and, hopefully soon, resume production.