The full story

Well I have to be honest, I really did not know what to expect as I drove through downtown Mebane, looking at all the pale looking people walking down the sidewalk. I found a space to park a little ways down the street, near a bar. My brother (Jake) was with me, and our friend Chris, who were hoping to score a role as an extra in this zombie film we had heard about on the news.

I mean, we just had to do it. Around here in rural/backwoods North Carolina nothing really happens, so when you have the opportunity for something like this things get really exciting. So I went down to their little "office" and got the waver form (or whatever they call it) to sign the rights to my soul away for this little independent zombie film. Well, that's overstating it a little bit.

(Im not in this shot, but you can see the sign up desk)

It was getting about dusk, and so after picking which group of undeads we would be filming with, we headed to the makeup section down in the basement of an old bar. The line was sort of long, so people started making small talk of course. That's when I noticed this one guy, he had a really pale-ish eye. Not just pale, it was... like a zombie. I was thinking "Man, this guy really means business, he brought his own fake eyes and everything!"

Well, my brother starts talking to the guy, who also had his girlfriend (or atleast I think it was) with him. After a few minutes of chat, it turns out he had lost his eye in the Iraq war, and that was his replacement. And to think...I was about to ask where he got the cool prop!

After a long wait, we finally started getting close to the makeup people. As we got nearer to the door, we could hear the occasional bottle busting on the floor from the bar above. It was also starting to get really muggy, all those people and so little space. So finally, it comes my turn to be zombified, and I take a seat. The lady starts smearing white cream latex all over my face, on my eyelids, on my ears... everywhere that skin is showing. But I'm not done yet, I wait in another line to get the dark paint put under my eyes and a few final touches.

(Im not in this shot either, but you can see the makeup basement)

So I walk out of the bar basement looking like Alice Cooper, to rejoin Chris and my brother to wait on the director for directions. By now the small town streets are filled with people, zombies and non zombies, waiting on their instructions. Another few minutes goes by (seemed like forever) and a megaphone cuts through the crowd. Phoenix, the director, instructs us to find our groups and for each group to go to their positions and sit tight.

He then addressed one of the other groups, the biggest one, to get ready for their scene. Finally, some action. The truck that was carrying the camera equipment pulls out into the middle of the street, as the crew tries to get the perfect angle. Then it happened. Pheonix yelled "Action!" and a hord of drooling zombies sluggishly started rounding their way around the side of a town building, moaning and groaning. They eventually made their way up the street, closer and closer to the camera as they dragged their feet and clawed at the air.

He yelled "cut!" which ended the scene. For the next hour or so, it was just a matter of waiting, so we found a seat and sipped on some water that the crew had provided and just relaxed. Chris had decided for some reason that he didn't want to be an extra so he was sitting on the sidelines watching all the activity. We observed scene after scene, until it came around to our turn, and finally it did.


We had been provided with 4 tootsie rolls each at the sign up desk, and now that it was our scene we were told to chew these until the drool ran down the sides of our mouth. Our scene involved three of the main characters, armed with farm weapons (rakes and such) trying to defending against an encroaching circle of surrounding undeads. We took our positions and waited for the signal.

(That's me in the green muscle shirt, standing with the director)

Three or four takes later we had completed our first scene, and were looking forward to what was going to come next. We continued to shoot scenes on different corners of the street, but the plot was basically the same, time really flew by fast. We took another break, at which point everyone sort of wondered off. You could hear several different bands playing, at several different bars at the same time.

It was getting sort of late, near 11 pm, so Jake and Chris called in a ride home. Most people were starting to leave, because the shooting was expected to last until 3 am, but I intended to stay the entire thing out. Several more takes were done with us remaining zombies, approaching slowly behind the actress playing the sword wielding zombie killer, at which point I was stabbed and squirted with fake blood. I had been slain.

(The sword wielding zombie slayer, and me standing on the far right)

It was hard to believe, but the time was getting close to 3 am, so everyone was getting tired. Pheonix then walked out and announced that if you where still here as a zombie, you where now a featured zombie. I didn't really know what that meant, but at this point there were about 20 of us zombies left. Now I was a featured zombie (a tired one, but it was worth it) which meant that each of us got a close-up 15 second or so shot of our best zombie moaning and groaning while walking in place towards the camera.

The shoot came to an end, and I walked back to my Ford Escort to start my journey home after a long but exhilarating day of filming. I was especially carefull of the possible tanked driver, I had seen a good few of those leaving the bars and trying to drive themselves home, fortunately some of the crew members were able to persuade them not too.

Jake later told me that he had gotten a few strange looks after going into a nearby convenience store on one of our breaks...I would have liked to have seen the look on their faces.

A week, 10 showers, and 2 scrubbings later the latex makeup started to come off.