Zombieing through the ages...

I was just uploading my latest zombie photo to Twitter, and when I went to select it from my zombie photo folder I suddenly felt inspired to make another post.  When I went to the audition last year I'd never even been in zombie makeup before, so here's a nice little selection of how my zombie look has changed throughout the last 11 months!  Some of these are simply down to how the studio in question wanted their zombies to look on the day, and some are developments in my own zombifying skills.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

June 2012: Wish.co.uk's Zombie Audition

The place it all began! On this occasion the makeup was kindly done on-site by one of the other auditionees.

 

 

January 2013: Warm Bodies photocall

My first paid zombie job, and as such the moment I was able to call myself a professional zombie!  Makeup done by myself, and one of my earliest attempts (my first ever attempt was 5 days earlier).

 

 

February 2013: Makeup test

Not for any event in particular, just a makeup test to try out new techniques.

 

 

March 2013: Zombie Bootcamp

My first TV appearence (yet to air), being filmed for a documentary at Ram Training's Zombie Bootcamp.  Makeup done by on-site artists.

 

March 2013: Birmingham Memorabilia/Comic Con

Just a nice casual event, dressing up as a zombified version of Arthur Dent for Birmingham Comic Con.  Makeup and costume all self-done.

 

April 2013: Whitchapel

Zombied up for ITV's Whitechapel.  Makeup done by on-site artists, and clothes provided by me but zombified by the costume department.

 

May 2013: giffgaff advert

Something I can't wait to see on air - the giffgaff advert directed by Matthias Hoene (Cockneys vs Zombies).  The skin tone, eye-shadowing, head wound and nose blood were all done by me, and the veins added by the on-site makeup team.  The costume was a shameless recycling of my Whitechapel outfit!   

 

May 2013: Zombie Weekend promotional video

My very latest (from today, in fact) zombie look. This was for the promotional video for Silent Studios' upcoming Zombie Weekend in August.  Again I provided my own clothes to be slashed/bloodied up there, and on this occasion the makeup/prosthetic was done entirely by my good friend Justin (one of Silent Studios' makeup artists).  He let me keep the face piece afterwards, so I look forward to getting more use out of it in the future!

Interview with... well... me!

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last year, or (far more likely) haven't read my blog or met me in passing, then you must all know by now that I'm a semi-professional zombie when the opportunity arises.  All of this has stemmed from a zombie audition (later given the catchier monicker of Britain's Next Top Zombie) set up by the folks at Wish.co.uk, in which I was somehow lucky enough to triumph.

A couple of weeks ago they asked me to do a brief interview about winning BNTZ and how my life's changed since then, and seeing as I get on with these guys so well and owe my entire undead career to them, there was no way I'd ever refuse.

Now the interview's been published on their blog, so here's the link to the inside scoop on my zombie life...

http://wish.co.uk/blog/zombie-interview-rob-hall/

Interstingly that post contains a link to my blog... which obviously contains a link to their blog... which contains a link back to mine... thus creating some sort of infinite blog loop which may well destroy the entire universe.  It's a price I'm willing to pay though.

...maybe that's how the zombie apocalypse begins.

Re: Your brains. An explanation

You may recall a couple of weeks ago I posted a very brief blog entry about being a zombie. And then I went to the pub.  Well it's explanation time.

Wish.co.uk (whose logo you can see splattered behind me) run a zombie apocalypse survival experience day, where you can go and spend the day in an abandoned shopping mall or old manor house, get given a shotgun, and are tasked with surviving against hoardes of rampaging zombies.  Now obviously until my research is complete there are currently no such things as zombies, which is why they require sporting (but slightly deranged) folk to dress up as zombies and take on the appropriate undead roles for the enjoyment of all.

Well it seems the zombie manor house (located in Warrington, just south of Manchester) is in need of new zombies, so on Thursday June 28th there were auditions run at Pineapple Dance Studio in London to find the perfect walking corpse.

It was a bit of a spur of the moment thing. I only found out about the auditions through Stephen Fry's Twitter feed on Tuesday night, but luckily was able to get the day off at short notice.  At this point I didn't even know if I could feasibly make it to Warrington and back every other weekend even if I got the job, but thought the audition itself would be a good laugh.  So through insane storms I trudged, and against all odds I made it to the doors of the studio in one (very wet) piece.

Seeing as I've never tried applying any kind of horror movie makeup before I just turned up as myself, and once I'd registered I was swiftly lead off to have some wonderful zombie touches applied to my face, and you can see the results yourself!

The actual audition only lasted a few minutes. There was a brief video interview of my zombie character (How did you die? What's your favourite organ to eat? Etc.), followed by a brief interview of myself (Where have you travelled from? Do you mind being shot at with ballistic weapons? Etc.), and then the moment where all of the zombie impressions at the pub finally paid off.  I was asked to leave the room and re-enter in zombie mode, and once I heard an audio cue ("Oh shit, it's a zombie!) I had to go into attack mode and launch myself at the audition panel.

Once that was over all of the zombies just milled around outside the studios, just chatting and following random passers-by down the street.  And when it was all over we were taken down the pub for drinks :) It should be noted that the pub was about a 10-15 minute walk away, and we all (roughly 50 of us at this point) stayed in character for the shamble through the streets of London. We got some strange looks, but it was all good fun!  Unfortunately I couldn't stay too late on account of the 4 hour journey home, but I enjoyed the post-audition mingle nonetheless.  And I stayed in makeup all the way home.

Re: Your Brains...

 

Yesterday I was a zombie.  This may well have been the most fun day of my entire life, so much so that it deserves a gushing blog entry!

However, I'm heading out to the pub in a bit, so the blog entry will have to wait!  Stay tuned though :)