Bite Size Bio:

Dan Sullivan had an idea, he wanted to make a zombie movie, he was inspired by the  Stephen King short story Night Surf, Stephen King agreed under his "Dollar Baby Deal". This movie ended up being one of the RIT's School of Film and Animation biggest projects , it consists of nine separate shoots with nine different directors, and then was put together for the final product, Project Nine. 

Dan Sullivan

Dan Sullivan - I had multiple roles on this production. I conceived the project and proposed it to the faculty for approval. I was also head writer for the project, coming up with the basis for all of the stories, as well as the particulars about the infection. From there, once we were faculty-approved, I moved to a producer capacity, organizing auditions and assembling crew. Once that was taken care of, I scheduled shoots, secured locations and tried my best to get enough extras. Then I had my chance to direct one of the segments (#6), which was the final segment shot. Once I wrapped my part, the film was wrapped. Then, once my post-department head was established, I became a worker for him, editing a different segment than my own. And finally, I became a "distributor," sending the finished film to festivals and websites such as yours. I guess now that would make me spokesperson? 

The film was really created because of Stephen King. I was on study abroad and I was looking for some good reading material overseas when I found a book of his short stories. At the time, I was looking into adaptation of different materials to film and I read a particular short story that really intrigued me: Night Surf. It was the story of a group of kids living near the beach after an infection wiped out the rest of civilization. I read it and though it could be transformed to be visually intriguing as well, so I practiced adapting and refining it. Stephen King had a lot more to do with this becoming a part in our film because he has what he calls a "Dollar Baby Deal." Any student may write to him saying they would like to adapt a short story (no novels) and for the cost of only $1 he will grant you the rights. Of course there are rules about not profiting from the film, but festivals were a place he encouraged the films to be sent. So once I signed the forms and paid my buck, it was just a matter of starting with an ending to a film and working my way back.  

Some of the greatest difficulties for filming were time management and finding enough extras. The extras part doesn't sound so bad, but when you have a film like ours that potentially takes place in nine different areas of the country, we didn't want the same extras in the background each time. And we couldn't offer much more than free food and a copy of the finished film for their help. The time management was something we tried to factor in because everyone involved was a college student. It was just rough during the transitions between breaks and class changes because all of a sudden, everyone has a different availability. But eventually we worked it out.

The film was largely funded by myself. I had finished my senior thesis project early and it hadn't cost as much as I had planned for. So I took the extra money I was going to use and put it toward "Project Nine." I covered a lot of the location fees and other things that just happened to come up like expendables and such. As for food on set, that was the responsibility of the individual directors. So each film we were usually treated to a different person's taste in food, which was nice. And the last large expenditure was the art department. Our art department head took on the responsibilities of what should have been at least 5 people, and ended up spending a lot of money for fake blood, liquid latex, and a ton of props.

I collaborated with all of the directors to find appropriate locations for each film. I let them search on their own and they knew they could ask me for help if they were running short on time. When I wrote the scripts, I had ideas about where in Rochester, NY I would shoot, but I could only suggest places to the directors. The choice was ultimately up to them where they would like to shoot. As for casting, again, the directors were in charge of choosing who they would like to be in their films. Rochester has a wonderfully large group of people who volunteer their time to act in student films. Over time, we got to know a lot of them and they were really intrigued by the idea. So with our own actor file at the school, friends and co-workers we knew, and through other actors and actresses' recommendations of people we may not know about, we were able to cast the film.

You can never have enough fake blood on set!

I'm going to bend the rules a little and give you my favorite pre-production, production, and post-production moments. My favorite pre-production moment was the instant the faculty approved our project AND allowed anyone logging enough hours to earn 1 credit. Now that one 1 credit may not seem like much, but it was a huge victory for us because it was a sign that the faculty believed in us enough to give us a class. My favorite production moment was during the filming of Part 7 when we were out in the woods. The camera crew was setting up and our grips were setting camp fires as a source of light. And for a moment, a bunch of us sat around the fire, talent and crew together. It was the last hour of a 16-hour shoot (we shot Part 7 in one day) and we all kind of realized what we were about to accomplish that night. And finally, my favorite post-production moment was when the head of the post-production department hit the Render button on our editing system and went to lunch. The files were so large at the time that the film had to be compressed and all we could do for a few hours was head to lunch. Definitely memorable moments for me.

My personal favorite is Part 7, due to the fact that we did shoot it all in one day, the unconventional fire-lighting, and I am one of the infected men who gets killed on screen. The post-effects and fake blood used looked so good, during the screening my mother had a hard time watching it, even though I was about 20 feet from her, perfectly fine.

There were mixed feelings when we finished the film. I feel proud of myself and everyone involved because we created a feature-length project in 15 weeks, while attending out classes and working. And it may not seem too bad because there were different crews each time, but in reality there were people who came out to almost every set to help and to learn. And since we were at school, I'm happy we provided so many opportunities for people to learn from upper-classmen who had the experience. I knew going in that this film would look nothing like what I imagined because once I handed the script to the director, they had 95% of the creative control of their film. I only stepped in if a decision would effect a different segment of the project or if I thought something would be out of our time range. But the excitement for me was seeing a finished product and comparing to my original vision of it. It was a great experiment.

Since graduating from RIT, I'm enjoying the role of assistant director, and I had an opportunity to 2nd AD on a feature in Philadelphia. So I'm using my experiences there and from RIT and trying to make things happen in New York now. I've also kept up with writing, if only for practice, but it's something I enjoy in my spare time. I'm currently writing the next installment of the "Project Nine" series, taking place in Africa. It'll occur at the exact same time as the first project, but will have totally different stories and characters. I don't know if any of my new stories will ever be produced, but I'm hoping to cover many countries in different installations and see what the outcomes will be.

Oh, I'm a survivor. I'll be taking care of the zombie problem long after most of the world has turned.

I prefer slow zombies. There's just something a lot creepier about them and their slow advancement. The fast zombies do intrigue me though and I'm definitely not against seeing them on screen. But slow zombies all the way.

I'd need to go on a shopping spree with a few friends through a sporting goods store, strap a bunch of guns and ammo to ourselves (optional hunting knives) and camp out on the roof of a grocery store. Don't think I haven't thought this plan out before!

I have to say that George Romero's original Night of the Living Dead still gives me the creeps. And that films is the epitome of a low-budget zombie movie.

I'd have to say the worst I've seen is Night of the Living Dead 3D. It's tough to explain where everything went wrong, but watch it and you'll see what I mean.

I'm not much of a video game guy, but I do enjoy the thrill of killing fake zombies. I'd go with Call of Duty; World at War: Zombies, but I'm really pumped to see what the new game Dead Island has to offer. I watched the trailer for the game and it blew me away.

I just have to thank the RIT faculty and staff for being so supportive of the project, as well as my entire cast and crew for going along with this idea and seeing it all the way through. I hope people learned from the experience and maybe something like this project will come along again some day.