Julie Mata’s debut middle grade novel, Kate Walden Directs: Night of the Zombie Chickens, is a
laugh-out-loud funny book on friendship, film, and fowl. Twelve-year-old Kate
Walden dreams about one day becoming a big-time Hollywood director. Finishing
her first movie quickly turns into a big-time nightmare, though. Her mother’s
organic hens seem out to get her, and Kate’s BFF and star actress abandons her
for the popular crowd at school. Kate writes the perfect script to teach her friend
a lesson, but she soon learns that life is way trickier than any Hollywood
movie, especially when it involves friendship… and fowl.
School Library Journal says of this book: “Fans of Wendy
Mass, Sharon Draper, and Rebecca Stead will appreciate this clever and quirky
piece of realistic fiction.” Today, publisher Disney Hyperion is giving Motherhood Moment readers the very first
peek at the book trailer for Kate Walden
Directs: Night of the Zombie Chickens!
They trailer was produced by Mata and her husband, who own a
video production company, after Mata’s agent suggested a book trailer might
help attract a publisher. Mata shared a few of the behind-the-scenes challenges
that went into making it:
“It was a lot of fun to make, and most of it was filmed right in our back yard. One
of our daughters even agreed to play the zombie—after I assured her that only a
few New York publishers would ever see her dressed in the creepy getup. Then,
Disney Hyperion bought the novel and they liked the trailer so much that they decided
to use it! My daughter still hasn’t forgiven me. Of course, she’s very excited
about the book, just not the part where the whole world gets to see her in bad
zombie makeup with food stuck in her braces! The hardest part was filming the
chickens. Just like the hens Kate works with, they did not want to perform. Between the feathers, the straw, and the dust,
my allergic husband said it was the toughest shoot he’d ever worked on! Getting
the blood splatter at the very end of the trailer was also tough. We probably
threw blood at the lens a dozen times, and every time it missed the mark. Each
time, we’d have to hose down the clear sheet of plexiglass in front of the
camera and try again. We used up almost all the fake blood and I thought I
might have to open a vein! Our yard looked like a murder scene by the end, but
we nailed it!"
In cased you missed the trailer the first time I posted, here it is again:
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