Dead Hearts

Kia Ora

Thank you so much for visiting our boosted page and supporting our short film Dead Hearts! 

About our film 

“Relationships are hard, especially when your boyfriend is an asshole. They're even harder when you're in the beginning of a zombie apocalypse and don't even know it."

Dead Hearts follows the story of Agatha, a young woman struggling in her toxic relationship with her boyfriend Zac, a manipulative car salesman in training. 

Agatha is a family oriented, people pleaser, and is studying art history at university. She comes across quite naive and this film heavily explores the theme of denial, which is something that is currently ruling her life. Zac is a cocky but mildly funny younger guy who through his charming nature takes advantage of Agatha’s kind nature and manipulates her into taking care of his every need. 

The pair's relationship is full of these toxic undercurrents and Agatha is getting tired of playing Mum for her boyfriend. After a phone call with her mother she realises she can’t keep taking on all the responsibilities of looking after Zac, and not prioritising her education or family. She asks for help but is ignored when Zac suddenly comes down with a strange illness. His condition deteriorates rapidly and he dies, re-animating as a zombie. This turn of events forces Agatha to finally let go of the denial that has been hanging over her and escape. Liberating herself and evolving into a braver and stronger version of herself.

Why this film is so important to us 

From the second pre-production on this script started we both knew it needed to be a girly, punchy film made for women by women. It explores experiences that both of us, and so many other young women, have had or can relate to. Being in these relationships with men as a younger woman, being abused or mistreated, but ignoring it and being in denial because of blind love. 

The film does tackle some intense topics we’ve mentioned already like toxic relationships, abuse, and denial. But we’re coming at it from a more campy and fun approach. We want our audience to feel totally drawn in by the fun, but still connect to the message and have fun with the visuals. 

About the team

Our Director - Samantha Cameron 

Samantha is a kiwi native with a true passion for film and the arts. She consistently makes content that centres women and explores themes that others might not be bold enough to mention. She is the writer behind this script and has been working tirelessly on it to give the absolute best product for you, our audience. Currently a stone's throw away from graduating with a bachelor of communications from AUT majoring in screen production and already doing work within the film/tv space in Auckland she is creative, a talented director, and ready to take this film ‘Dead Hearts’ all the way. 

Our Producer - Emma Strachan 

I’m Emma, a British gal living in Auckland who has instantly fallen in love with the kiwi film/tv industry. My heart is for film-making that highlights social justice, especially stories around women. As soon as I heard Samantha’s pitch I knew I needed to work on this film and working with her collaboratively during pre-production I’ve been handling the logistics of making this film so she can focus on the creative side. I am also very close to graduating with my bachelor of communications from AUT majoring in screen production and have lots of experience working on student films. This short film will be my final AUT production so I’m giving it my absolute all before I cross that finish line. 

Our Crew 

Cinematographer: Bharati Sonu

Directors Assistant: Jordan Dylan Johnson-Taylor

Sound: Matthew Rohrs

SFX: Haylie Gibson

Lighting: Jessie Anne 

Our Cast 

Casting ongoing, more updates to come soon! 

Why we need you! 

Making a film is expensive and the two of us are just struggling students trying to make our way through this life on noodles and coffee, I'm sure you can imagine that we are not currently in a position to fund this ourselves. So we really need your support as our lovely family, friends, and supporters to make this film a reality. ANY donation no matter how big or small would be so appreciated. 

Here are some of the things we intended to use this money for.. 

Sfx makeup (We need to pay for supplies for the looks throughout the film depicting Zac’s unstoppable turn into an undead monster. This sfx makeup can be pricey so we will be using budget towards the purchase of these items like latex, prosthetics, fake blood, and more.)

Costuming (As it’s so important to us that this film is visually appealing this requires some costuming costs to get our cast looking their absolute best.)

Food and drinks (We are currently looking at a three day shoot with almost the entire team being there on a volunteer basis. So to avoid this brain hungry crew turning on us we think it would be best to feed them throughout the process. These funds will go towards lunch for everyone on set and keeping everyone hydrated throughout the day.) 

Travel costs (We need to ensure everyone on our cast and crew can get to shoot locations easily so some of the funding will go towards transport) 

Koha (It’s very important to us that we can offer a decent koha for everyone involved in the making of this film, especially since so many are sacrificing their time for free. We want them to feel appreciated for their hard work and koha is one of the ways we plan to do this) 

Paying actors (Since we likely will need to scout our lead actress from an acting agency this often comes with a price tag) 

Film festivals (We intend to submit this film to the NZ Youth Film Festival and likely will look for some others too that align with our film, these festivals often come with costs for submission so we’ll need some funds left over when production finishes for this purpose) 

As a thank you..

Anyone who donates to this film will be given a mention in the credits so if you wanna see your name scrolling past at the end then make sure to include a name with your donation that we can access. We will also be making stickers and some other fun merch for the film so keep an eye out for that, especially if you're one of our more generous donors.

Ngā mihi nui

Emma & Sam