Journal Sloppy's Journal: Saturday 3
In the evening was Alibi Spring Crawl and that's always fun. Beer and bands, you can't beat that. I saw Anesthesia, part of Astray, End to End, part of Rage Against Martin Sheen, part of The Dirty Novels, The Foxx, and Black Maria.
Now, that's pretty good stuff, but let's get serious here: I don't think I've ever made journal entries on Slashdot about the Alibi Crawls before, and I'm not about to about to start now. Crawl isn't the subject, it was just the dessert at the end of the day. Let's get back to that seemingly throw-away statement: "Beer and bands, you can't beat that." I tricked you. It turns out, you can beat that, and on Saturday before crawl, I did.
Because, you see, the big decision I had to make before I drove downtown for crawl, wasn't "which bands am I going to see?" It wasn't, "When do I need to stop drinking so that I'll be reasonably sober by 1 am?" It wasn't, "Who all will I run into down there?" (though that question had some pleasant surprises as well) No, the big question was: should I wash off my makeup? For behold: on Saturday morning/afternoon, I was an extra in a zombie movie!
On Friday, I picked up the Alibi (to get the crawl schedule) and saw that a locally-produced low-budget horror movie, Necroville was in need of a horde of the walking dead. I showed up at the Sol Arts center at about 8:30 am, signed a waiver, and waited. A few dozen people had shown up before me, and they were calling people's names in order that they had shown up, to go into the back and get zombiefied. A couple hours went by, and then, to my horror, there was an announcement that they were running out of gray face paint, because such a larger-than-expected horde had shown up. They had about 17 latex masks, and were going to try to conserve makeup by just putting it around our eyes and whatever else the masks didn't cover.
At this, I was heartbroken, because I sure as hell didn't want to be in a zombie movie and end up anonymous behind a mask. This was my big break to become a movie star! Or at least something that I'll someday get to watch on a DVD with my friends, and have a few laughs as we all watch me get killed. But I decided I would still help out and be an extra, so I stayed instead of getting discouraged. Then -- good news! -- I guess they figured out that even using the masks wouldn't conserve enough makeup, so somebody went out and got more, and I didn't have to wear a mask after all. Whew!
Some pretty lady painted me gray, then Kurly himself (star of "The Stink of Flesh" and owner of Burning Paradise) put some blood and gore on my face. I then went out and rubbed some dirt on my clothes (I thought they looked too clean), practiced my hungry-for-flesh moaning and shambling walk, and I got assigned to "horde west." My destiny was to be mowed down by a lumberjack with a chainsaw.
I won't spill any cinematic secrets, such as the subtle distinction between when the director yells "live chainsaw" versus "prop chainsaw." You little people on the other side of the silver screen, will just have to wonder how the magic of movies works, and how I was able to get killed and yet still be able to write these words.
Well, ok, I tell you a little about it. Everything is filmed multiple times. Each different action we did, we did about 3 times. So I guess they'll have plenty of different things to edit from. I just hope nobody notices that we zombies didn't always do everything quite the same all 3 times.
Blood. Blood is sweet and sticky. It's sugar-based, and bees love it.
The blood turned out to be the deciding factor in me going home and
showering. If I had just been covered with the initial gray paint
and gore, I would have gone to crawl that night, in full zombie attire. But
by the time I got to do my "be a corpse" scene (where I used my amazing acting(!)
talent(!) to
The guys who did this movie have done others before, and will certainly do other low-budget horror movies again. If ever called upon, I'd do it again. Things to remember: put more effort into my clothing. I wore some "expendable" clothes that already had a couple of naturally-occuring holes in them (though it turned out that everything washed out, easily) but next time, I'll actually try to make them really tattered, and -- more important -- dirtier. Maybe next time, I can get an individualized, close-up death scene.
Anyway, the movie (at least in some form) should be out for TromaDance New Mexico in October, and probably a more thorough edit, some time after that. I look forward to seeing it. I'll try to remember all you friends, when I'm a big star.
[Update] Some photos from the set; I can be seen in at least one, maybe two. Hopefully, I don't have enough fans to "slashdot" this page.
kick ass (Score:2)
Congrats on getting your big break
Me too! (Score:2)
Re:Me too! (Score:2)