Brain Waves
Brain Waves
Interview with Scout Raskin, producer of ZOMBIES MURDER EXPLOSION DIE!

surfzombie
ZOMBIE MURDER EXPLOSION DIE!

As Scout said to me before the interview, this series gaurantees each of the things in the title. You can see the trailer on YouTube here, or you can also check out the show on Twitter and Facebook. To find out even more, you can also read the interview below:

You mentioned that you're the producer for ZMED! Did you also have a role in creating it?
The initial concept for the show was brought to me by Jeff Campbell (Nickelodeon's Neopets, Seismic Games). He's the artist responsible for the look and art of the show. Our director, Andrew Racho (Your Dungeon My Dragon, Robot Chicken), came up with the title. The three of us developed the characters and fleshed out the premise.

You mentioned that Machinima is distributing the series, but I notice that the YouTube channel refers to Sonic Bunny Animation. Are these the same organization?
Not exactly. My company, Sonic Bunny, produces the episodes and delivers them to Machinima, who airs them on their YouTube network. My Sonic Bunny Channel is under Machinima's umbrella and will feature bonus videos such as behind-the-scenes, lost vlogs of Robbie our supernerd, and footage of Chance, our celeb, on movie sets.

What kind of work does Machinima/Sonic Bunny typically present?
Machinima caters almost exclusively to the gamer audience. Many of their series (Mortal Kombat, Dragon Age) are created and sponsored by the video game companies. They also have a lot of indie series. Sonic Bunny produces cartoons in the vein of Adult Swim.

Is ZMED! the first series?
Yes, ZMED! is our first series. We made the trailer last year and pitched it around at the major networks. Luckily, Machinima loved it and offered to distribute it!

How many episodes do you envision?
We would love to do six episodes for the first season, but that depends on the viewers. If we can get enough hits to sustain the series and/or get a sponsor - we're doing it!

Did you consider other formats for the story before going with an animated series?
It was initially conceived as series, but we have talked about releasing a graphic novel and hopefully a flash game as well.

How long after the initial zombie outbreak does the story occur? Or is the outbreak included in the story?
When we meet our characters, it's been a few months since the outbreak. We don't have any plans to include the outbreak in the show unless it's in a flashback.

There are a lot of distinct characters introduced in the trailer. Do they all get equal attention, or does the story focus more on some than others?
We would love to be able to feature every character in every episode. Since we're only doing three minute episodes, it would be too crazy! Most of the time we will be focusing on our teen characters (Chance, Mike, Robbie, Janey, and Heather).

Does the story follow the classic zombie rules, or does it break out in any ways?
In general, we will follow classic zombie rules. You can't get the zombie disease through zombie blood - because getting covered in zombie blood is too much fun :)

Are there any inspirations from or references to any other zombie stories?
We may have "easter egg" references in the episodes to other films or TV shows, so be on the look out for those! We hope to be able to get some stars from classic zombie flicks to lend their voices to an episode or too!

Any other zombie stories in the works?
Nope! But we have a lot of other projects in the works. You can check them out at the Sonic Bunny website.

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