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!

In the grim darkness of the far distant future, there is only... cosplay?

On stage at Memorabilia this weekend I was asked what my dream cosplay would be, and I have to admit my mind went completely blank.  In spite of the fact that I was expecting that question, I just suddenly couldn't think of a single thing I'd like to do.  But if my brain had been in gear and I'd been thinking straight there would have been one dream cosplay, and one alone, which would have come to mind...

From The Black Library, and the pen of Dan Abnett, Colonel Commissar Ibram Gaunt.  The commanding office of the Tanith First and Only from the Warhammer 40,000 universe.  I've always loved the commissars in 40k, and their uniforms are just fantastic, and Ibram Gaunt has that edge over the rest of them with the iconic Tanith camo cape and the sword of Heironymo Sondar.

So there it is, my dream costume.  And ye gods I promise to myself that one day I'm going to do this, and grace the stage at Memorabilia as one of the greatest military commanders the Imperium of Man has ever seen!

For Tanith.  For the Emperor.

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.

Memorabilia Sunday

So Memorabilia is over for another six months.  From a trading point of view it was still pretty disappointing, but from a fan's point of view it was a lot of fun again :)  I met a lot of nice, like-minded people, and had a good laugh with some friends and new folk alike.  In terms of spending I didn't pick up anything else for myself, but I started my Christmas shopping :)

So now I'm knackered and ready for bed, but first of all a quick costume roundup...

Indiana Jones was a nice surprise :) Not a costume you see very often.

Then I saw The Riddler from Batman.  There tend to be a lot of comic book cosplayers at Memorabilia, so I had to snap one when I saw him.

Two of the sponsored costumes at the show - Xena and Captain Jack Sparrow.  Both of them looked really good, and 'Jack' had the mannerisms down to a tee :)

From one of my favourite videogame series - Chris Redfield from Resident Evil 5

And another comic book cosplay - Loki, from Thor :)

Then a little later on I saw this group of three Final Fantasy XIII cosplayers, and was very grateful for a group shot :)

And last but definitely not least, Romana from Doctor Who :) This was Zoe, who I'd been nattering to on the Memorabilia forums and was a delight to meet.

The only one I'm missing is myself! I completely forgot to get a photo of me in my Arthur Dent costume, so I'll have to see if I can find one on the internet or get one from a friend.

So that's my Memorabilia experience for November.  Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for bed :)

Memorabilia Saturday

Well, day one of Birmingham Memorabilia is over!  From a trading point of view I have to say it was very disappointing.  We barely made one-fifth of what I really needed to make, so I've just got to hope that I can pull out all the stops tomorrow to clear a lot of stock and make some money back.  I've got a few tricks up my sleeve though, so we'll have to wait and see what happpens ;)

From a fan's point of view it was a pretty damn good day :) The nice thing about having an anime stall is getting to interact with all of the fans, and it was great to have a good long babble about Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach, and a few of my other favourite anime series with the people who stopped by.  Even the ones who were only spending a pound, or even who weren't spending anything, it was great fun to just chat with likeminded people.  I didn't get a chance for many photos, but I did take a few...

First up, Kenpachi and Yachiru, from Bleach :)

Then Reno from FFVII (I think), Matsumoto and Byakuya from Bleach.

 Followed by myself as Ichimaru with Matsumoto from the previous group.  Anyone who knows Bleach will know the history between these two characters, which is why I wanted to get a photo of just the two of us.

Then a pretty awesome Battle Royale contestant, complete with exploding collar!  From the fact that she's still alive I'm guessing she must have won ;)

And then finally, from Bleach once again, Ulquiorra.

I did see a few more cosplays, including a pretty cool Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII, but I didn't have my camera on me for a lot of the time.  Tomorrow I'm going to have access to pockets (yey!) so I'm going to try and keep my camera on me at all times so I don't miss any cosplay photo ops.  I'm also going to be entering the masquerade tomorrow, so hopefully that should be fun.

On the shopping side of things I didn't go too nuts today.  I bought a bulk pack of Pocky from Tokyo Toys, one of my favourite anime retailers, and I bought the Kick Ass graphic novel, which I've been wanting to read for some time.  I also got myself three autographs - those of Derek Jacobi, Bruce Boxleitner, and Alice Krige.  They were all really nice folks and I even get to witness a really nice moment when Brice Boxleitner actually approached Derek Jacobi's table to shake his hand and tell hime how much he admired his work.  I've never seen that happen before at one of these events, and it really put a smile on my face.

Tomorrow's shopping list is largely work-based.  I'd like to get a calender for the wall or my desk, as well as some nice geeky coasters and a mousemat.  Aside from that I just hope to have a good day's trading, meet some more awesome people, and have some fun in the masquerade.  I shall blog again tomorrow night with tales of the final day as well as more cosplay photos!



Memorabilia jitters

Well I wanted to get a good night's sleep and be well-rested for the weekend's Memorabilia show, but it seems that's not going to happen.  I hit the hay about 11:00 last night, but then woke up at 12:00, 3:00, and finally 5:00, and this time I haven't been able to get back to sleep.  I think it's safe to say that nerves are the cause.

It's been 18 months since I last worked a Memorabilia, and 2 years since I last worked the pre-Christmas one.  But I think the biggest point of anxiety is that this is going to be my last Memorabilia, so I need to get as much stock sold as possible, otherwise it's just going to be left cluttering up the loft.  And seeing as all proceeds are going to paying off my debts so I can move out, there's a bit of extra pressure to do well.

I think the most important thing is that I just try and relax and enjoy the show, there's some great guests there this year who I can't wait to meet :) Today I'm hoping to meet Derek Jacobi (British acting legend, has appeared in damn-near everything, but my personal favourite was the title role in I, Claudius), Bruce Boxleitner (TRON in... well... TRON), and Alice Krige (The Borg Queen from Star Trek: First Contact).

Memorabilia Countdown

Just got home, all set up for Birmingham Memorabilia tomorrow :) Just need to have a shave and sort out my Ichimaru costume, and then grab an early night!