More Zombie Night news

Ok, since I have no idea how long I will have to type all this up (I'm at work, alone, with nothing else to do - for now) and considering my track record with con-reports I'm going to try and distill this down to the best stuff.

The rest of Week 1

We actually had very few zombies during week 1. We spent most of our time making props (like corpses and zombie masks) - including my infamous "Alien Autopsy BBQ'd Baby".

"The Baby" came about because we needed a baby/child corpse and Carlos, out of time and resources had no choice but to bring along a couple cheap plastic Halloween grade skeletons (rather than an anatomically correct baby skeleton). The cobbled together skeleton with a head that was just a wee bit out of proportion (not to mention the fact it had demonically shaped eye sockets) looked like something out of X-Files - hence the "alien autopsy" part. After a bit of surgery (like the removal of the bottom jaw) it looked a little bit better.

The "BBQ'd" part came about when it fell to me to paint the thing. Kat was borrowing my airbrush to paint the adult corpse so I decided I would use the remaining airbrush paints and sponge paint the baby. It worked but the final layer I added was black. Over a thin layer of brown it gave the whole thing a decidedly "barbecued" look. The boys went ga-ga over than darn baby! At the end of the shoot I let Ryan keep it since he was so fond of it.

(Hee hee apparently it also made one of the actresses scream. She had to hold it for a scene and she wouldn't let it anywhere near her. Ryan had to give her a very detailed description of what it was made of.)



One night we had to do a fight scene in which a zombie was decapitated. This involved taking a stunt guy and making him up to match a foam head that Carlos had. The make-up was decent but rushed and although Carlos said it would work he was not happy.

Anyways this head had an awful black wig on it. The idea was that Jeff, the stunt dude, would don the wig for the set up shot (where the heroine swings at the zombie with the machete) then we would switch the wig back onto the head and roll that into frame to show the "results" of her swing.

We'd just finished a late supper when Carlos comes running into the station. Apparently the wig was just too fake looking to use and we needed something else. The only other thing Carlos had was a long brown hair piece. The problem was it wasn't a full wig so we had to figure out a way to stick it to Jeff's head. Jeff, btw, had a brush cut so we couldn't pin it in place.

Suddenly I had a brain storm. Grabbing a pair of nylons I'd brought for doing droopy lid make-up etc I quickly made a wig cap. Then I borrowed needle and thread from wardrobe and hastily tacked the hair piece to the wig cap. Thankfully the hair was long enough and the set dark enough that you didn't see any of the cap peeking through.

Carlos was amazed. "You realized you just saved our asses?" "But, but - it was only an old cosplaying trick"



I think I'm going to save most of the "week 2" stuff until I get some good pics to link with them (especially since the pics will probably help jog my memory)