I love the idea of making a zombie film and after thinking about locations and budget I need to think about what’s going to make my film stand out from the crowd. Let’s face it everybody and their wife are making zombie films so I’m going to have to give it a fresh angle, something different. Night of the Living dead created the template for modern zombie movies; a master piece of low budget horror where a group of survivors hole up in a farmhouse besieged by a horde of marauding undead. It’s a formula that’s been copied over and over again.
So one way to make my film different is to avoid a situation where our heroes get trapped in one location. My initial idea is to centre the film around a zombie hunter or a group of scientists who want to tag the zombies to help them see behavioural patterns. Flying against wisdom my other choice is to go extreme and set my zombie in a really confined space like a toilet cubicle that ends up with three or four protagnists in it. All of these ideas work well in terms of location and cost so I’m going to stick with them when I move onto the next stage plotting.
Here’s an interesting book to make into a film – I’m told the film rights have already been sold. I’m tempted to buy it although I think the joke might wear thin after reading just the title.
I’ve sourced this great image though of Elizabeth kicking a zombie’s head in.
For our next film in Blunt Productions Halloween Countdown we have a ghoulish treat: Zombie Public Information Film. A public information film on the dangers of going out after the 8pm zombie hazard curfew.
Today we present one of our most popular 3D films: ‘Peter, Paul and Zombie’ Shot using every trick in our zero-budget arsenal including Zombie makeup, home made squibs, 3D, the backs of heads flying off and some choice swearing, it has everything you’ve come to expect from the Blunt Productions stable. If you don’t have a pair of red-green 3D glasses, try red-blue ones (red goes over the left eye). If you don’t have either scroll down for the 2D version.
It’s almost Halloween and as Blunt Productions Zombie Make Up racks up the hits on youtube I thought I’d take this time to check out our competitors. Yes I know our zombies were too green but let’s see if anybody else made the mistake of over greening their undead to look like monster cucumbers? Although having said that our 1.5 minute film did pack in an intro on greasy actors, a tutorial on making your actor look like (a green) reanimated corpse and a zombie sitcom!
If you haven’t seen it yet you’ll find it here.
I’ve picked three random D.I.Y. zombie make up tutorials (if you know of any better ones out there let us know) to see how they match up.
Well let’s start watching…
HOW TO APPLY ZOMBIE MAKE-UP AS A HALLOWEEN COSTUME
This film is done by Mike the ‘How to Guy’, who also gives instructions on ‘How to build a bird house’ and ‘How to wash a dog’. He comes across as a happy clean cut boy. 1.5 minutes in and Mike has put on a bloodied T shirt and is applying some white basecoat. 3 minutes in and sadly no green make up has been applied, instead Mike creates some dark rings under his eyes while some annoying glockenspiel loop plays. Come on Mike get a move on! Finally it’s over 4 minutes in when Mike gets some fake skin and starts to make a cut for his forehead. Then he sticks some blood around his face and in the cut and that’s it. Generally Mike seems a bit too wholesome to pull this zombie look off and there’s nothing here that’s surprising but it’s ok if you’ve never attempted anything like this before. If you’re looking for something more hardcore though you won’t find it here.
Overall rating 4/10
ZOMBIES HALLOWEEN HOW-TO MAKE-UP: BFX
The original zombie make-up by Indy Mogul who has gone on to do further instalments and with a million hits you can understand why. This is good stuff and at only 2 minutes really gets into it quickly using Super Time Lapse. Indy Mogul talks us through the whole process of applying latex and tissue paper. Still the end result is a little disappointing but later films improve on the tutorial adding larger putrid wounds.
Overall rating 7/10
HOW TO DO ZOMBIE MAKEUP, THREADBANGER
I like the way this begins with a 70’s style zombie homage showing some people fleeing from maurading zombies up a stairwell. Then we’re introduced to a couple of camp New York men who hold zombie parties, they in turn introduce us to their make up artist called Katie. She’s a proper make up artist and recommends a range of products (Latex, face paint, fake skin, sponges etc) to create your zombie look. She talks us all the way through the process which has been edited down to 4 minutes. Unlike ‘Mike The How to Guy’ she has a lot of good tips to give you during those 4 minutes. By far the best zombie but where’s the green? Tagged onto the end of this video after a wedding advert is an Indy Mogul piece about making zombie clothes.
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