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!



Zombie Dent progress

So this Memorailia's cosplay (as I think I've mentioned) combines my love of zombies with my love of Douglas Adams, in the form of a zombified Arthur Dent from Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy.  I know, Arthur never gets zombified or anything even remotely similar, but it's an idea which I know will bring me a lot of joy on the day.  Granted I've been very slow getting started with this, but I'm finally making some progress.  I picked up a towel from Wilkinsons on Sunday afternoon, ordered a dressing gown from Tesco Direct on Sunday evening, and when it was ready to collect from the store today I also picked up some pyjamas.

So this evening I've started zombifying them. I've got five consistencies of fake blood and some black facepaint, so I've just been going to town.  For now I've just been working on the pyjama top and one side of the towel, tomorrow I'll do the other side of the towel and the pyjama bottoms, and then it just leaves the dressing gown.

The pyjama top was a bit more tedious, as I had to make a good, thick blood smear around the neck and tapering away as it headed down the chest; dribbled blood from where zombie Dent had been feeding.  I started off by thickly smearing some cake blood in, and then sloshing on increasingly thinner blood until I'd got a nice effect going.

The towel I had a lot more fun with :)

The first thing I did (as I didn't want this towel to look brand new) was to brush black Snazaroo facepaint over both sides of it.  Snazaroo is supposed to be applied with a moist sponge, but to give it more of a brushed on look I just wiped the towel directly but lightly over the open pot of facepaint.  It was a bit time-consuming, but I was happy with the outcome, after all I'm sure that Arthur must have got himself a little bit grubby before he caught his first victim.

I didn't use the cake blood on the towel either, as I wanted to get more of a cast-off look, so I went straight down to the liquids.  First of all I poured a little bit of runny blood (very much with the consistency of water) onto my hands and flicked it up and down the length of the towel to give a bit of background gore. Then I squeezed a trail of gel blood across the towel, before folding it in half and rubbing it in. Once that was done I repeated the process with the stage blood (very gooey consistency), and the result can be seen above.

I did one more thing after this photo was taken which I was incredibly pleased with. I took a mouthful of the stage blood (which was tricky, given its thickness!), rinsed it around in my mouth for a few seconds, and then coughed/spit it out in places across the towel. This gave a pretty incredible spatter effect, which I'll be using more of when I do the other side tomorrow.

 

I'm still undecided about whether to get slippers or not for this costume.  Obviously it adds to the authenticity, but with me dragging my feet around the hall all day it could end up proving painful.

The pyjama bottoms I'll be doing in a similar fashion to the top, but in addition I'll be tearing it a bit around the ankles.

The dressing gown I'll be going to town on a bit. It seems to be a zombie cliche that us walking corpses end up getting singed, so I'll be taking a blowtorch to my gown (out on the safety of the patio!) to give it a bit of charring.  Then it'll be getting a combination of the pj/towel treatments; cake blood, stage blood, cough/spit spatter, the works.  I will feel a bit of regret at this though, as it's turned out to actually be a really comfortable dressing gown!  I may invest in a second one for just lounging around the house.

 

Then of course the final element is the Guide.  I have one I made for my non-zombie Dent, which I'll be using for this.  I was toying with the idea of making a new Guide which simply said "Panic" on the front (in large, friendly letters), but I don't think I'll have the money to do one this side of Memorabilia.

Oh and I've also invested in zombie contact lenses for the first time since I started my zombie career! I've bought a pair of white ones, so I can put a prescription lens in one eye and a white lens in the other. It'll seem weird, but I should get used to it.  Stay tuned for photos in three weeks!

A picture Prefect cosplay...

Well it may be another 4 months until the next Memorabilia, but I've already got the grey cells ticking over with regards to my next cosplay.  I've been to most Memorabilias in recent years, but I've never attended on both days before unless I've been running a stall, but in March I want to cosplay twice so I'll be there on both the Saturday and the Sunday :)

There's going to be a very noticeable theme over the weekend... something to do with Hitchhiking around the galaxy ;)  There are two tweaks that I'd like to make to my Arthur Dent costume, so I'll definitely be going as him again on one of the two days.  First of all I want to get a Babelfish sorted, and second of all I want to get a toy bulldozer, so that I can lie down in front of it to pose for photos!

For the second day I've had the seed of an idea planted in my head, and now there's simply no way to get rid of it!  So cosplay number two...

Arthur's constant friend and companion, Ford Prefect.  The Ford from the movie was terrible (as were a lot of things in that film), so for those who don't recognise this shot, it's the definitive Ford from the BBC TV series.  I've already started on my hunt for the argyle vest top and stripey jacket, and feel quietly confident that four months will be enough time to get this costume together :)  The only problem is that I know my hair won't be thick enough or long enough by March/April to match Ford's style, but I'll just have to do my best with what I can grow!

Stay tuned for updates over the coming months...

Dent Arthur Dent

I managed to get hold of a photo of me dressed as Arthur Dent at Memorabilia on Sunday! :)

This was taken when I was up on stage during the mini-masquerade.  Unfortunately Arthur Dent doesn't have a great deal of dramatic poses he can strike, but I do have a trick up my sleeve for next time ;)

Thanks muchly to Zoe (Romana from Sunday) for uploading this, and seeing as I'm shamelessly stealing her pics it's only fair that I put a link to her page of photos from the day, so here it is.