Issue date: 4/15/09 Section: Features

What do you get when you mix a website community, a little creativity and a love for zombies? For 8,000 people, the answer would be LostZombies.com, a networking site created by and for zombie fans.

"If you think of three horror characters, you think of vampires, werewolves and zombies," said Ryan Leach, one of the creators and the head of marketing of the website. "I think part of the reason zombies are so popular is that they are the most 'real' - they don't have special powers or anything." Ryan is a Sacramento State alumnus and former marketing major.

LostZombies.com was originally thought up by Ryan's brother Skot, who attended the Academy of Arts in San Francisco as a film major. He thought of the idea when he wanted to create a mockumentary zombie film where it wasn't just the brothers doing all the filming.

Based on a time line, the Leach brothers and their friend Rob Oshima wrote themselves, the film's setting takes place from 2007 to the present. On a section of the website called The Grid, the creators show a list of scenes they need filmed, such as people wearing dust masks to protect themselves from the zombie virus. Members of the site film and upload a scene or scenes onto the website to show the creators, as well as the other members, their work. If the creators like the entry, it is placed in the film that has been in progress since the site was launched in May 2008. While some may provide material for the future film, others have pictures of zombies posted for fun.

"Most people either really love or hate zombies," Skot said.

When the website was created, the Leach Brothers and Oshima merely wanted a way to make their film - Ryan admits the website evolved on its own.

"We just wanted to do something fun that people could enjoy," Oshima said.

Like all network communities, it is this love of a common interest that brings people together. This can be shown by the impressive membership records - some as far away as Australia and Japan.

"People are familiar with zombies all over the world, and we're as far-reaching as you can get," Ryan said.

However, the creators will tell you that while having the idea is easy, it's getting it started that's the hard part.

The Leach brothers and Oshima could not afford to make their own website, so they ended up building on a platform set by Ming Software - a company that allows people to form a website foundation. As the website grew, however, the program didn't. Making sure the website could accommodate the scenes and photos was one issue.

"It took a lot of creativity and manipulation to get it to do what we wanted it to," Skot said.

In February, the site upgraded to allow more room and accessibility to visitors.

In March, LostZombies.com was the winner of the Community and People's Choice Awards at South By Southwest. South by Southwest is an intermingling of interactive, film, and music festivals and conferences that all come together in Austin, Texas, to celebrate modern art and media. The Community Award is given to website communities that have developed in size and contributing members in a short amount of time. In the past six years, the only other website to have won both awards was Eminem's music website.

It was on a mere whim that the creators submitted LostZombies.com to South by Southwest.

"We were sure that we probably wouldn't win, but we wanted to give the judges something to look at," Skot said.

Not only did the judges enjoy the website, but when members of the public were asked to vote for their favorite among the finalists chosen by the judges, LostZombies.com was again the winner.

"It was very humbling, because they are the ones who enjoy it and make it what it is," Ryan said.

Those who enjoy zombies can be found at Sac State as well. Barret Roloson, junior history major, said what he enjoys about zombies is "as far as fear goes - they're about as scary as it gets."

When asked about his interest in the site itself, Roloson said: "If it was done well, sure I'd check it out."

With a large following and awards under its belt, the creators do not have plans of slowing down. Oshima said they hope to finish their film by the end of the year, and be able to post the whole thing on YouTube.

"We eventually want to do something that puts the website into all media types," Ryan said.

But perhaps the biggest challenge that the creators hope to overcome is give others a platform to make the kind of interactive communities as Lost Zombies.

"We believe that this kind of storytelling has value," Skot said.

Kyrie Eberhart can be reached at keberhart@statehornet.com