Zombies & TV

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned an exciting project which had been confirmed and given the green light, so I think it's about time I elaborated a little.

 

Back in January I had a phone call off the lovely folks at Wish (who I am now starting to think of as my zombie agents) saying that they'd been approached by a company filming a documentary series for the Discovery Channel, who were after someone who is just a little bit nuts about zombies.  Oddly enough they thought I'd fit the bill :)  After a few weeks with no news I'd started to forget about it (if the This Morning cancellation taught me one thing it's that nothing is set in stone), and started playing the waiting game for my next zombie role.  But eventually I was contacted again, put in touch with the show's producer, and a week or so later was sat in the corner of the flat as the film crew started tweaking the room to make it optimal for filming.  To say it's been a surreal experience doesn't quite do it justice!

As it's still yet to air I stll don't know how much I'm allowed to say about the show, but it should be hitting the small screen around the world in a few months time, and once it does I know I'll be safe to spill the beans entirely!  The working title for the series is Extreme Worlds, but with a while to go until the broadcast date that's subject to change.  Obviously I will be posting updates closer to the time.

 

In other zombie TV related news, I've got a bit part in a popular british drama series just over the horizon, along with many of the zombies from the Warm Bodies photocall, so it'll be great to work with them again :) Even better to work with them in a capacity that involves actual zombie behaviour rather than just zombie poses!  Don't get me wrong, I loved the photocall, but I do enjoy letting rip with my zombie growl, and that doesn't really come across in a photo!  Once more, I'm not going to jeapordise things by revealing more than I'm allowed to, but as soon as the show hits the air I'll be the first one jumping up and down whilst shouting "Look! It's me!!!"

 

In non-TV zombie news, my makeup attempts are coming along in leaps and bounds.  Last weekend I attended the Birmingham Memorabilia/Comic Con as a zombified version of Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and here's how I looked...

There are a few elements I'm still looking to improve, but with each passing attempt these grow fewer. I'm going to use a blacker/scabbier blood to fill in the cheek and forehead wounds in the future, as I'm still not happy with the fresh red look.  If I'm as rotten as my skin makes out, I certainly shouldn't be bleeding those kind of shades. I was happy with the teeth and the mouth blood on this occasion, but on reflection I was a bit disappointed with the eye shading.  I've done better than this before so I know I can do so again.  Oh and I love the white contact lens, I think it rounds things off just perfectly.

 

So I guess that's it for this update.  I can't wait for the documentary to air so I can embark on a full-on ramble about what an amazing weekend it was!  And I can't wait for the filming on this show in a couple of weeks!  All systems are go in the world of zombies at the moment, and here's hoping they carry on this way!



Losing hope in the human condition

I like to describe myself as a bitter and cynical person, and even though there's usually a light-hearted spin on it, I reckon I'm usually safe in using that description.  But every now and then I drop the cynicism and put a little faith in humanity, and every single time I see the true ugliness in ourselves as a species.

Today (for non-UK readers) is Comic Relief. It's something that comes around once every year or two, and as a nation we try to raise money for charitable projects at home and abroad. Now some good friends of mine are trying to raise some money for this event, and they aren't doing as well as they'd hoped. The donations close at 17:00, so with just over 2 hours to go they've raised a little over 10% of their target (just to clarify, yes I've already donated).

 

So I decided to do the best thing I could, and reach out through the wonderful medium of social networking sites.  And what was the response?  Near enough sweet FA.  5 times throughout the day I posted the link to my almost 200 followers on Twitter.  Did anyone donate?  Possibly one or two (the donations can be anonymous, so it's impossible to tell).  Now I don't like being guilt tripped into making donations, I understand that people don't always have the spare money at the right time, but it costs nothing to retweet.  If I have 200 followers, and one of them has 200 different followers, then the click of a button is all it takes to double the chances of donations coming through.  So how many retweets did any of those 5 posts get?  Not a single one.  As a species we care so little about helping eachother that clicking a button on a website is not worth the effort.

And of course Facebook was much a similar story.  On this occasion I did manage to get 2 shares from friends, for which I was very grateful.  But aside from that I saw my posts being ignored while people instead shared links to funny vidoes and competitions.  I think I found that more infuriating, the idea that people are willing to make more of an effort to share a stupid Youtube vid then they are to help out a charity.

 

Well congratulations, humanity. I popped my head out from bitterness and cynicism for just one day, and you've shown me why I shouldn't have bothered in the first place.



Edit: With half an hour to go I finally managed to get a retweet from none other than Brian Blessed!  By the time clock ticked down to zero the grand total of donations had doubled.  Thank you, Mr Blessed, for making the day's efforts seem worthwhile after all.

Latest zombie makeup test

I've just completed my latest zombie makeup test and I just wanted to share the results...

This is the first proper makeup test I've done with grey facepaint insted of pale foundation, and I'm much happier with the effect.  I'm getting some Mehron grey/green facepaint through the post this week though, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that looks, and hopefully that'll become my go-to skin tone.  This is the first time I've tried out the contact lens as well, and I'm really pleased with that.  Seeing as I need to wear a presciption lens in the other eye I only have the option of wearing a single white-out lens, but I do really like the way it comes off.  This is also my first makeup test with the Grimas tooth enamel, which I'm having a it pf trouble with. It goes on my upper teeth just fine, but for some reason wouldn't go on my lower teeth.  I'll just practice a little more, because again I do like the stuff.  Then the last new addition to the makeup kit was the Mehron stage blood/clotted blood, which I used in the open wounds and to smear around my mouth.  Again I'm very pleased with the colour and consistency, but I was a little too liberal in the mouth smearing, so I'll tone that down next time.

Overall though, the zombification process is coming along nicely.  Once I've got this to a point where I'm completely happy I'll start moving on to more advanced rotten looks.

 

Oh and as for this "top secret" project, it is all set to go ahead.  I still don't know if I'm allowed to mention it yet, so I'm going to continue to keep quiet for the moment.  Hopefully by this time next week I'll have something to report!