Zombies

Here are the freezes from the last scene we shot this past Saturday. The zombie scene. If you were someone who wanted to be a zombie and you were not there, not to worry, there will be plenty of opportunity to be a zombie, especially coming up in July.

This was a fun shoot. I had a lot of fun and I certainly hope that everyone else had as much fun as I. I always love those days when there's a set full of people. William Stine did an excellent job on the zombie make up. Arlanda M. Robinson did her own zombie make up and did an excellent job as well. Arlanda and the rest of the zombies were awesome, especially Skylar playing our resident brain eating little girl zombie.

And the cops were kick ass as well. Richard Gaither and Aaron Plouffe backing us up as featured extra cops. And finally I was able to get my main cops in action, Nicole, Chris, and Brandon. I decided to take my character out of this scene so I could concentrate on the camera work and directing. Wanted to make sure we got this just right.

And of course special thanks to Jacob Hauser who was our first test subject for squibs in the first video blog, he returned for this shoot to be zombie #4 or is it 5? I actually don't know. Very very special thanks to Brian Tally, our resident production coordinator/key grip/trouble shooter. Thanks for once again backing me up and helping all of us out, and for making every shoot as smooth as possible.

And a very very very truly heartfelt special thanks to Kelly Emerson and her family for making us welcome at their home and for allowing us to shoot so much at the Northwoods Stables as well as helping us out with other locations and props. None of this would have been possible with out you Kelly.

Here come the the freeze frames.

Zombie Megan and behind her Zombie Jacob.


Zombie Randi


Arlanda and her excellent make up job.


More of Arlanda's excellent make up.


The Zombie Elijah and behind him part of Zombie Tally.


Brandon (Agent Weir) calls for back up.


Nicole (Agent Jack) comes in with her pistol.


Nicole aims.


Randi gets a bullet in the brain as Zombie Jacob gets blood on his shirt.


The aftermath


Nicole and Chris Plouffe (holding the MKX100 series weapon) witnessing the aftermath.


Brandon also witnessing holding the MKX300 series weapon.


The Zombie Skylar with brain in hand.


The Happy Zombie Skylar.


Your last line of defense against zombies. Left to right Brandon White, Richard Gaither, Nicole Nastazzio, Chris Plouffe, Aaron Plouffe.


Only a few more scenes to shoot. I'm editing as we shoot, then I've got the rest of the score to do, but all in all I should be at a final cut for this short/episode before the end of the month (fingers crossed.)

Coming Down To The Wire

Currently editing the zombie scene.



More later.

The Passing Of A Legend

I'm a movie geek, no two ways about it, I've loved movies forever. My obsession has always been part of my education in cinema and especially in special effects. Early on I understood moviemaking and special fx and the process that is taking what someone has written on a page and figuring out how to make it happen visually. My earliest memories of this education would come in the form of the early episodes of Movie Magic, a behind the scenes special fx show. It would come on late at night and usually as filler for whatever late night movie couldn't fill in the full two hours.

It seems the one they kept showing the most was the behind the scenes look of The Terminator. This would be the first time I would learn who Stan Winston was. It wasn't til much later in 1993 that his name would be burned into my brain as the man who helped create the amazing dinosaurs of Jurassic Park.

Stan Winston has crewed, worked on, and created monsters and special fx and special fx make up for some of the biggest and most popular movies in history, and is a maestro of fx work who has greatly affected the field. In the field of make up artistry alone he's up there with the greats, Dick Smith, Rick Baker, and has worked on some of the greatest movie franchises of all time. Simply look over his imdb page to see how much his creativity has contributed to so many movies.

It's heartbreaking news to hear of his passing. He is a legend, he is an artist, and he is one of the truest and one of the original Monster Makers and FX creators. My heart is with his family, his professional family, and every single one of us who know his name and associate it with the very essence of creative genius. You've influenced me dear sir, and you will be greatly, greatly missed.








Special-effects maestro Stan Winston dies at 62

Nice Shootin

After a pretty crappy past few days, it was finally so very nice to have gotten a great productive night of shooting done. It was the zombie scene and it was alot of fun. I cannot wait to post pics from the evening. Met some new folks, most of them first time zombies. Got bloody, got wet, but we got alot done.

More later, right now I just wanted to post about how great last night was.