STUDIO RELEASES OCTOBER ISSUE - THE PILOT PREMIERE OF ZOMBIE REIGN!

This Blog entry also has an editorial by David Quintana & is to be considered as "liner notes" for future reference; for openly sharing his opinion to the subscribers of this e-magazine. His opinion is not the opinion of the cast and crew who work with him on his film projects.

As promised, the October issue was released for preview to everyone on the web. But the open release was only intended for the first 15 days of the month to help bring in new subscribers. Subscribers will still receive two extra issues of the QSE this year to make up for this free issue release on the blog.  Amended as of: 10/17/2016

- D. R. Quintana

This issue received a ton of hits on our blog and was linked to many Facebook pages, blogs, and posts on the internet giving the listed pilot a strong promotional push; all due to the first ever free preview of the entire E-magazine during the first fifteen days of October. I had the privilege of following this team of filmmakers through their journey to get the finished pilot episode to it's premiere. And through thick and thin, the members of this project jumped hurdles to reach the point where their work would be seen on the big screen for anyone in the San Antonio area to see. 

They have kept to the goal of completing their work and there is news that the pilot's director, Ramiro Avendano, is making statements about continuing work on the show should things land their way to get more done. With the exception of some production costs being covered by a few of the cast members, now considered as "producers" who helped finance the project, the rest of the project was an all collaborative, all volunteer production with no verified investors that assisted them in getting the job done.

I would never recommend for any group of actors or studio to go into an "all volunteer project" unless you were promised to be immediately reimbursed for any out-of-the-pocket expenses which you may have endured in helping out. Some projects are kind enough to cover gas for travel or meals between breaks. Some studios put together small contracts which provide a "deferred clause" to help pay you back IF the project makes any money...but keep in mind that a large majority of projects with deferred contracts rarely pay out at all, and most of the time, lose out more than their share on smaller Independent film gigs. Deferred contracts usually leads to a lot drama and power struggles within a group who sticks it through to the end...That's just a fair warning to all.

How Zombie Reign [ZR] continued to make it to it's premiere with the core of it's actors and it's director still intact is a guessing game that defies explanation. The pilot certainly penned itself as a dream project that "just wouldn't die" and stunned many of the San Antonio area acting teams by actually admitting to and presenting a completed project to it's cast, crew, family and friends.

The project has a lot of strong actors assigned to it: some of who have accredited and extensive acting experience with a long list of projects under their belts. This part of the cast are "veteran level" actors, filled with on-set maturity and have had their share of national exposure in local commercials, national television, and some movie time. It's a large array of talent on a project that would have certainly died an early death if any of them were missing their participation in the production and all of them volunteered their services to help the first time director complete his pilot episode.

This being Avendano's first film, he was lucky that he had a great team to work with and not have to worry about their performances during action and dramatic scenes. But I do have concerns about this production; i.e. for some of the production/actor members this was their first time as a production team and there were signs that they were thinking far too ahead of themselves by claiming larger appraisal from outside sources before the pilot or any real pitch material was ever complete. This was a huge problem for the team in the recent past which caused a lot of drama, as I am sure it will continue until reasonable thinking takes over. There will be problems with ZR's future unless certain leading figures in the production team learn to let go of big dreams and just reach the projects mission first; complete the series.

"Flash" certainly isn't a problem for this pilot; pre-promotion releases were full of it. Presenting dark photos and character bios to give viewers a small glimpse of what to expect in each character before the pilot was ever released. There was no "Promotions Director" for this project, as most of the dished ads and promo shots were prepared and released by it's director in good faith. But in my opinion, over promoting a slew of characters for a one hour premiere seemed a little dire to give character development through promo ads. 

In the past, I have seen that these type of flash ads from "first time" amateur film makers that don't do any good in getting new fans in to see the project. When flash ads are done too early, most of those projects rarely get to see the time of day; primarily because the finished product fails to completely deliver telling the full story or they suffer because the finished project just doesn't get in-depth enough with all of the required character development to bring it all in. Flash promo ads are often manufactured to keep actors happy on film projects that are taking way too long to complete; it's usually an unwarranted practice done while a project is still in post editing, but usually happens when someone thinks everyone is capable of running away to do something else. Actors are allowed to work on other projects after the current project has wrapped, that's just the way of things in the field of making movies...that's just how I see it.

And make no mistake, I have not seen the pilot, however I saw plenty of footage to let me know that there is a pilot to present. All of the actors should get copies of the DVD in the near future to burn demo reels out of it, which should be impressive for the actors next projects. There are many cast members who are happy to see this project actually [and finally] get released. This one pilot has been in post editing for over a year now and through all of the diversity it's honed over time, I hope only best success to the team that helped get this project reach the goal of being released for preview!

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