You’d be hard pressed to corral punk scenesters, bikers, sci-fi geeks and skaters in the same room but if you could, there’s a good chance they’d all bond over Mutant Zombie Bikers From Outer Space. Madison-based filmmaker Tom Zickuhr recently released the short film on his Vimeo channel and while it isn’t his first effort, you wouldn’t be out of order for assuming so. Scrapping together animations, kitschy CGI, recycled footage, first-person shooters and even tokusatsu pulp, Mutant Zombie Bikers wears its influences on its sleeve tattoos with an in-your-face B-movie aesthetic.
Zickuhr, who was born and raised in Menominee Falls, moved to Madison with his wife in 2001 and owns Neon Lab Signage and Design, the city’s only neon shop, off of Lexington Ave. Finding time on nights and weekends, he rounded up a few motorcycle buddies for Hellfire Messenger Service and started Red Chicken Productions, an umbrella name that, in Zickuhr’s own words, was more or less meant to function like an “official-sounding company thing.” It was official enough to get an animation piece accepted at Brooklyn’s Motorcycle Film Festival last September.
For this latest project, Zickuhr worked on and off over the last year with his own budget and some of those same biker buddies, calling in favors from local acts like the Mutton Daggers and his own band, Blood Runs Green. The end result plays like something a bunch of skate punks might whip up using their parents’ camera equipment and a lot of aggressive creativity. Over a series of emails, I talked with Zickuhr about his collage aesthetic, shooting without permission, and why genre cinema is so much more fun with motorcycles.
Why motorcycles?
Well, I guess for lack of a better word, motorcycles are awesome. I’ve been into bikes since I was a little snot, and it’s gotten deeper as I’ve reluctantly grown into adulthood. That, and I think they make cool subject matter to base a campy sci-fi piece around.
I agree. What is it about motorcycles that lend themselves to genre fare?
As the old saying goes, write about what you know, so I write (and draw and film) about lunatics riding motorcycles shooting at each other. I was raised on a healthy diet of violent TV shows and movies as well as cartoons.
Motorcycles can be pretty dangerous, though. What was it like directing a bunch of guys on bikes, especially in neighborhoods and public streets?
I was fortunate to convince my friends (who are all really good, experienced riders) to help me out with this crazy idea. Directing them was a challenge to say the least. Motorcycles are loud, and there were seven of them who needed to know where to be and what to do. At times, it went great, at times it was apparent I didn’t have my shit together. They were all good sports about it and kept good spirits however, and I’m thankful for that!
You didnât necessarily have permission to shoot in some of the locations you did and had to operate a guerilla-style production. Were there any weird run-ins where people would catch you shooting pre-FX motorcyclists pretending to âlightning boltâ one another to death?
We did shoot this guerilla-style for sure, and that also added to the challenges and constraints. Having said that, these bikes are all very loud, and sometimes finding ourselves on private property, it definitely added to the excitement. It kept us on our toes. We worked fast, shot what we needed and moved on before we drew attention to ourselves. This meant some of the locations I really wanted to use didn’t make the cut, usually because we didn’t get the shot right. I’ve been a skater for just as long and always loved the poached spots to get the shot. It gives it energy. Fortunately, we only had one small encounter with a lady and she was actually pretty cool with it. Her dog on the other hand was a bit upset.
What happened?
Just about anybody who has driven a motorcycle (or even a bicycle) [past] a dog could tell you what happens! Some dogs go bananas when a bike rips by!
There’s a great collage feel to Mutant Zombie Bikers where you’re pulling from your own shots, pre-existing news footage and animation. Was the combination of source material a budgetary decision? Or a creative one?
A little bit of both I guess. I had storyboarded out all the newscasts and [shots of] the local police, but as fall turned into winter I ran out of daylight and needed to get creative.
With the 48 Hour Film Festival, filmmakers always talk about how that competition’s restrictions actually force their creative hand. Did operating on a self-financed budget and “unofficial” locations have the same effect?
The only restriction I had was to get the short film in the can by early June. [This was] for many reasons, including festival entries, but I work way better with a deadline. We shot all the footage last October over a couple of weekends, and it took me some time to do all the visual effects and animation. Having a day job and all that goes with it, but I was able to work on this at night and on weekends.
Was there any attempt to design live action aliens?
I have always animated, and I knew I wanted to animate the aliens and the spaceship. Before films, animation, or motorcycles, it’s always been drawing cartoons and giving them personalities.
I love your music selections but apart from (Madison’s own) surf rock weirdos Knuckel Drager, I am woefully unfamiliar with any of them. How hard was it convincing these bands to let you use their music in a B-movie about spaceships and exploding zombies?
I have played in a bunch of bands over the years and a couple of the other guys in the film are also players. The riders (including me) contributed songs from The Mutton Daggers, my band Blood Runs Green, and a song by Aaron Fisher. I am friends with the guys from Knuckel Drager and they were cool about it (of course I showed them the trailer.) I found Cullah on a music database, contacted him and he was into it as well. He’s from Milwaukee, so the music was about as local as it gets.
You also shout out to your “kick ass wife” in the credits.
She’s awesome. Think about it, she’s the only other set of eyes seeing most of this for eight months. Can you imagine? She was always honest yet kind with her critiques, and believe me, it was needed. I spent a lot of time hunched in front of a computer while she picked up my slack. She was very patient with me during all of this, it was really cool.
You mentioned festival submissions. Where all have you looked to submit?
This was a big part of the June deadline, getting it into festivals. I will enter into various sci-fi fests and a few in Wisconsin. It would be amazing to get into the Wisconsin Film Festival. We shall see. I cough up anywhere from $25 to $50 for each [submission] and wait. They are all juried, and who knows if any of these “film experts” are into mutant zombie bikers from outer space?