Finishing off Zombie Girl Week is an interview with one of the producers of Zombie Girl: The Movie. Thanks to Aaron Marshall for providing some insight into the process of making the documentary and his impressions of its young star, Emily Hagins.

Liarsociety: How long did it take to gain a comfortable rapport with Emily and her family?

Aaron Marshall: Not long at all. After a couple weeks of filming, they became comfortable with the cameras.

Did you worry about being influential observers and unintentionally affecting the behavior of your subjects?

It was our goal to be there as observers only. We told the family from the beginning that we did not want to interfere with Emily’s filmmaking process.

Do you think Emily would have finished her film if it wasn’t being documented? Did you sense that your presence created expectations or pressure to come through with the goods?

Yes, I do think that Emily would have finished, even if we hadn’t been there. However, as much as we tried to maintain our distance and let Emily work as if there wasn’t a camera following her around, I’m sure that it did have an impact. Mostly, I think it probably helped encourage her.

Some documentaries about extraordinary kids seem to be the product of happenstance, picking the right subject from a larger group to follow to a successful goal. How confident were you that a pre-teen girl could pull off such an ambitious project?

Initially, we had no idea if she would finish. It was more about just watching what would happen. Had Emily failed to finish the movie, she still would have learned a lot, and that would have also been a story worth telling. But, we were rooting for her, so we’re glad she finished!

You followed the Hagins for a couple of years. Was there a point where you considered dropping it? Did you pass up other opportunities for the sake of the project?

We never considered dropping the project. Though, there were other opportunities that I passed on to keep working on Zombie Girl, it was because I believed in the film and was excited to finally see it completed.

What did you guys do during the downtime in Emily’s production? Did you hang around in case something film-worthy happened, or did the Hagins call you when she got back to work?

They called us whenever they were filming and we would show up — even it it would just be at their house, when Emily was working on storyboards or something like that. With the exception of just a few days, we were only around when they were working on the film.

In interviews you’ve said that you held back from offering help while Emily and her mom figured things out or looked for equipment that you had on hand. When Emily clumsily tears open a stuffed animal with a knife I wanted to shout “always cut away from yourself!” How hard was it to stay quiet when preventable difficulties or potential disasters arose?

It was sometimes hard not to say things when Emily was making a filmmaking mistake, but to intervene would have been robbing her of the valuable learning experience that those mistakes can provide. Emily learned a ton from the production of Pathogen because she was allowed to make mistakes and grow as a result of those mistakes.

There’s a funny scene where a dude in a pickup truck stops to check things out and show off his zombie t-shirt. Did other bystanders give you many interruptions or trouble?

No, not too much trouble. Thankfully, Austin’s a place that embraces filmmaking!

Other documentaries are sometimes accused of making caricatures of their subjects or falsifying their personalities. Did you cut or include shots to help maintain a balanced portrayal of the Hagins?

We tried our best to give an accurate and fair portrayal of people and events in the film. Obviously, when you shoot 150 hours of footage, a considerable amount of stuff is left out when condensing it down to 90 minutes. But, in the end, I think we did the best we could.

You managed to find a subject with an impressive maturity for her age and a very supportive family. What do you think about the attention Emily is getting from your film?

Luckily, Emily has a good head on her shoulders, and she seems to see it all as a chance to learn.

The premise of Zombie Girl has inherent novelty value and hooks everyone I know who’s heard of it. I wondered how the fact that Emily was both so young and a girl would influence the people considering her grant application, regardless of her project’s content.

I’m sure Emily’s age was one of the factors considered by the grant committee. As was the fact that she was extremely well organized and committed to the project. I think the chance to help get someone with such conviction off on the right foot appealed to the committee. Emily is a kid pursuing her dreams, which is something I think should always be encouraged.

Emily promises not to pull a George Lucas and tweak her films once they’re done. How satisfied are you with the documentary? Is it still a work in progress as you prepare for wider release?

Zombie Girl is done. We hope to have the film out on DVD either late this year or early next year. For the time being, it’s still playing at film festivals and independent screenings around the world.

There are always things you can do differently. And I’ll apply those lessons to the next project. As for Zombie Girl, we’re very proud of how it turned out.

What’s up with next or current projects?

I’m developing a comedy right now, while Erik is working on another documentary and Justin is co-producing a drama.

A great thing about documentaries is that their stories continue beyond the films. What do you see in Emily’s future

Movies!

Find out more about Zombie Girl: the Movie at the official site

There are no comments yet. You could be the first!