Goal: To be an extra in a trashy zombie flick.
Location: The den of zombies - Los Angeles.
Date: Last November.
Title: Last Rites (as of yet unreleased. we think).
A friend and coworker emailed me one day with with a proclamation:
"Brett found a listing on craigslist for zombie extras in LA on Sunday morning. We're doing this."
to which I replied:
"Haha, that's awesome. Too bad it's on Sunday morning so far away.
"No no, we're doing this.
Who was I to argue?
We all wake up as early as farmers to the sound of a steady rain outside. Zombies fear not rain. We had, as the listing suggested, brought grungy clothes we wouldn't mind being slathered in fake blood in. In fact, our thrift store apparel was simply asking for it.
And we're off.
Downtown LA. Industrial area. Abandoned warehouse. Pouring rain. It was perfect. Well, all except the rain. It turns out that the shoot for that morning was cancelled but they might need us later in the day. We waste hours at museums (artsy), ice skating in the rain (difficult), and poorly conceived driving plans (argh) until they call us back. They desperately need zombies. We desperately want to be zombies. It was kismet.
Wardrobe had their way with us. We were, apparently, homeless 19th century English zombies. It's hard to pay rent when you've scooped out the contents of your boss' skull. Then there was waiting. Lots of waiting. Thankfully the craft services table was always stocked with something lacking in nutrition.
We finally get into makeup and learn another tidbit: We're homeless zombies with an extra terrestrial twist. An asteroid (from space!) infects us; causing our clothes to become tattered, our skin to turn green, and our grunts to have a cockney inflection.
That's right, zombies don't floss either.
We wait around some more and uncover some facts about the film:
-This was the director's first feature. His previous work involved being a 3D artist/director or something for Grand Theft Auto.
-Some of the zombie extras had been 4 or 5 different zombies over the past few weeks. One even got his head blown off in a scene. The camera operator got extensive footage of that guy until his body stopped twitching and he was carted away.
-A guy from Creepshow was also in this.
-The dialogue was Oscar caliber. Brett remarked as much when we were just a bit off set. This was
before the director yelled cut.
Did I mention the waiting?
But after all the waiting, it was finally our turn (the last scene of the day). We get a quick lesson in being a zombie ("Favor one leg. Curl your arms up. Don't turn your head when you want to look somewhere. Turn your whole body."), some green goo to spit out (alien inspired zombies, remember), and lots of movie fog. We lumber towards the camera, grunting and staggering and drooling. It was glorious.
A few takes, a quick thank you, and it was done. No time to wash off the makeup, the three of us take off for a rock concert we were late for. Now
those were some interesting looks we got.
All of the pictures from our adventure are here:
http://photo.demonhood.com/zombies
Our scene may be cut, we may be digitally duplicated so that 5 of each of us are on camera, who knows. But we've made our mark in the B-movie horror genre. What more could a Demonhood ask for?