{"id":1176012,"date":"2024-09-18T13:03:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T20:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/?p=1176012"},"modified":"2024-09-19T13:50:07","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T20:50:07","slug":"micah-khan-zombie-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/micah-khan-zombie-wedding\/","title":{"rendered":"Micah Khan on The Zombie Wedding \u2014 Ripped From the Headlines of the Weekly World News"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"iframe-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"ZOMBIE WEDDING Director Micah Khan on How to Improve Your Visual Storytelling\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1MS9u-53JpY?start=2&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Micah Khan on visual storytelling in <em>The Zombie Wedding<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Micah Khan directed more than 30 short films as he looked to break into making a feature, but it was his musical short &#8220;Meetcute on Danceworld&#8221; that caught the attention of <em>The Weekly World News<\/em>. When the beloved supermarket tabloid looked to make its own feature film debut with <em>The Zombie Wedding<\/em>, it turned to Khan because of his visual flair and talent for combining music, crowd scenes and narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He had honed it over a lifetime of watching everything from blockbusters like <em>Terminator 2<\/em> to nuanced stories like <em>The Last Samurai<\/em> to Bollywood song and-dance spectacles \u2014 as well as the films of M. Night Shyamalan and Sam Raimi, which fueled his fondness for genre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When <em>The Weekly World News <\/em>presented him a story that combined romance, comedy, dance floor drama and zombies, he was more than ready. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can listen to our full interview with Micah Khan on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/micah-khan-the-zombie-wedding\/id1487350721?i=1000669840250\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apple<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/7LohWahFd7aMmkw1YJYqf5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spotify <\/a>or here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"iframe-container\"><iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Micah Khan (THE ZOMBIE WEDDING)\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/7LohWahFd7aMmkw1YJYqf5?utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Meetcute on Danceworld,&#8221; in which subtitles explain the meaning of every musical movement, had earned attention and praise from filmmakers as esteemed as <em>Game of Thrones <\/em>co-creator David Benioff, who said it was <a href=\"https:\/\/projektor.com\/u\/micahkhan\/meetcute-on-danceworld\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;fresh, original and it kicks ass.&#8221;<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Zombie Wedding<\/em>, based on one of the most popular of all the exclusives to inform checkout-aisle  <em>Weekly World News<\/em> readers, is the story of a human bride (Deepti Menon) who decides to go forward with her wedding even after the groom (Donald Chang) becomes a zombie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Also Read:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/ondi-timoner-last-flight-home\/\">Ondi Timoner Filmed as Her Father Ended His Life. It Helped<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The zombie and non-zombie sides of the aisle must come together as witnesses to a new kind of love. The stacked cast includes Cheri Oteri, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Vincent Pastore, Heather Matarazzo, Seth Gilliam, Ajay Naidu and the Monkees&#8217; Micky Dolenz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We lovingly call it a zom-com because it&#8217;s a zombie romantic comedy,&#8221; Khan explains. &#8220;It&#8217;s very silly. It&#8217;s very campy. It&#8217;s it&#8217;s got big performances and a heart that is, for some reason, still beating, because everyone&#8217;s dead.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Micah Khan on Mixing Camp and Visual Narrative in <em>The Zombie Wedding<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>But for all the camp elements, Khan takes the filmmaking seriously. Shooting in 18 days across 35 locations, with 21 speaking roles in the last act of the movie, he juggled an ambitious schedule but still found time for his first love: visual storytelling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium_large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2016\" height=\"1512\" src=\"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=768,height=576,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20221022_230658_E5123B.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1176016\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=2016,height=1512,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20221022_230658_E5123B.jpeg 2016w, https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=592,height=444,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20221022_230658_E5123B.jpeg 592w, https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=1180,height=885,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20221022_230658_E5123B.jpeg 1180w, https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=321,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20221022_230658_E5123B.jpeg 428w, https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=768,height=576,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20221022_230658_E5123B.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=1536,height=1152,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20221022_230658_E5123B.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2016px) 100vw, 2016px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>(L-R) <\/em>The Zombie Wedding <em>stars Ajay Naidu, Mu-Shaka Benson and Christine Spang with director Micah Khan.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As he details in the video above, Khan is closely attuned to how blocking, camera movement and framing can add subtext to a scene, cueing viewers to how the characters are relating to one another and the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a fascination he has explored in a series of interviews for MovieMaker with directors including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PqawHrRlQd0&amp;list=UULFv4uOLnyzZYL4Np-Ll68NBA&amp;index=61\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spike Lee<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uuXEKe5qXyc&amp;list=UULFv4uOLnyzZYL4Np-Ll68NBA&amp;index=43\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Denis Villeneuve<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0AQ1IyiYLq8&amp;list=UULFv4uOLnyzZYL4Np-Ll68NBA&amp;index=41\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joe Wright<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I think the thing I learned most on this movie is to adapt and listen to your crew, your cast,&#8221; Khan says. &#8220;Be prepared to pivot. You can come in with the best ideas on the planet. But then maybe you only have two hours to shoot all your coverage. &#8230; You don&#8217;t have the time to do the dolly move to a zoom to this shot to <em>this<\/em> shot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Something I learned from Joe Wright, actually, from doing interviews with <em>Moviemaker Magazine<\/em>, is how do you distill the visual theme down to one word? So for me, the word was connection. How was any person connecting with another person on screen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The bride and groom \u2014 how are they connecting? Not great. So they&#8217;re far away. Simple. The <em>Weekly World News<\/em> reporters, how are they connecting? There&#8217;s something in between them. OK, great. One&#8217;s in the foreground. One&#8217;s over here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s what motivates the framing and the blocking. It&#8217;s a super simple thing you can do to just improve your visual storytelling. Just distill it down to one word and figure out: How is any one person connecting on frame, right now? How are they connecting with characters? And then how are they connecting with the audience?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In our full interview with Micah Khan, in the podcast above, we also talk about what he&#8217;s doing next \u2014 which may include a very large duck, or a forest creature who is very familiar to the readers of <em>The Weekly World News.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Zombie Wedding <em>is now available on video on demand from Freestyle Digital Media<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Main image: <\/em>The Zombie Wedding<em>, courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media and <\/em>The Weekly World News<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Micah Khan directed more than 30 short films as he looked to break into making a feature, but it was [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1641,"featured_media":1176015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"disable_comments":false,"tpd_featured_posts_arr":"","hide_featured_img_single_post":false,"msn_featured_video":[],"_msn_custom_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41543,16611],"tags":[],"feeds":[],"class_list":["post-1176012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-podcasts"],"primary_category":{"term_id":41543,"name":"Interview","slug":"interview","taxonomy":"category","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/category\/interview\/"},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=270,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/AltarWeddingParty.jpg","fimg_url_thumb":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=270,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/AltarWeddingParty.jpg","featured_img_medium":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=704,height=444,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/AltarWeddingParty.jpg","author_name":"Tim 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