So even without any funding in place, Avendano continued to hold auditions, assuring his production team that "people were ready to invest" and that there was "enough money already in place to start filming." He also required actors to attend free acting workshops to get them ready for callbacks and for the actual shoot.
"We would have everyone work with our acting coaches," said Cynthia Aline, Avendano's current girlfriend, who also had a role in the film. "We were doing everything possible to set them up for success."
Andy Martin didn't consider himself an established actor, but he had been on a handful of TV shows and independent film sets before. When he was told he would have to take acting classes, he thought Avendano had it backwards. Plus, he said, the amateurish teachers reminded him of acting exercises he had done in middle school.
"The classes were a waste of everyone's time," Martin said. "You don't make actors take classes after you hire them. Ramiro was a nice guy, but he had no idea what he was doing. It almost felt like I was a part of an Ed Wood movie."
But even Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space had a $60,000 budget in 1959. If Zombie Reign did have in fact a financing base, it would mean the cast and crew of 100-150 would get off volunteer status and be provided official contracts so they could begin filming and actually get paid.
It seemed that moment where everyone could breathe a collective sigh of relief had finally arrived in September, after Avendano held a red-carpet event at SA's Santikos Palladium to screen the latest promotional trailer. It was then when he announced that everyone was getting a contract. Actresses Mae McEntire and Aly Real thought it had all been worth it.
How Many Leading Ladies?
McEntire became the latest iteration of leading lady, cast for the role in March. At that time, she was told contracts would be distributed within two weeks. But it didn't happen. Avendano, in his perennially convincing ways, reassured her all was OK.
"He would say things like, 'Our investors are asking us to shoot one more scene before we can get contracts in,'" McEntire said.
Real was also offered a lead role. She was cast last summer and was also told contracts were on their way. Over the following months, Real met with Avendano to repeatedly rehearse kissing scenes. Investors needed to verify that she was right for the part, she said he told her.
"I remember once, there was a guy there filming us with an iPad. [Ramiro] kept saying we needed to have more passion and more tongue so we could get the character development right," Real recalled. "I honestly thought he was showing these videos to investors so they could see we had chemistry since they were putting so much money into the production."
No matter how many leading ladies he cast or how much tongue action took place, Avendano remained steadfast: It was all about the work. The scenes had to be right. He insisted that he kept it strictly professional, never doing anything inappropriate and always making sure there was someone else in the room during rehearsal.
His girlfriend, for one, didn't mind. She understood steamy scenes come with the territory in the world of filmmaking.
"Even Brad [Pitt] and Angelina [Jolie] had to have those kinds of screen tests before they did Mr. & Mrs. Smith," Aline said. "That is completely normal in a production."
Lingering worries for the actresses seemed to go out the window when Avendano presented them with contracts — $30,000 for Real and $48,000 for McEntire. They looked official and all, even listing for the first time actual production dates: October 26, 2014, to January 31, 2015.
"When he gave me the contract, I was like, 'Wow, he has money!'" Real said. "It was exciting."
It lasted for all of three weeks.
That's right. After all the ups and downs, months or even years with no pay, cast and crew still didn't get a buck. Avendano called a meeting at his home. He had some bad news: All contracts were "null and void." That's because his company, which he called RA Productions, was going to merge with DK Productions and create a new company to produce Zombie Reign. The move supposedly brought good news: The film's overall budget would increase and everyone would receive new contracts with higher pay.
Cue a collective roll of the eyes.
He may have completely concocted the whole story about the contracts or, again, he may have misunderstood certain conversations. Either way, perhaps not surprisingly by this point, his plan didn't pan out.
"There's no merger. There's no contract. There's no nothing," DK's Chambers said.
