I'm here today for zombie school.
[bell ringing]
It's like "American Idol," for zombies.
I am here to be a zombie on "The Walking Dead."
Bang!
That was scary.
You're-you're great in the front.
We're going for a very specific aesthetic.
You have a great, cool, sort of, creepy look.
It just feels a little floaty.
Okay.
So maybe just take all that down.
[Zombies snarling]
I'd love to see more... Yeah-yeah.
Don't do that.
If I say, "Action," and you do this,
then, I'm gonna... It'll be like, "Fine.
"I'm out."
sync and corrections by dreaMaker7 www.addic7ed.com
Welcome to our fifth year of zombie school.
Uh, this-this all started, uh, during season one,
when we really didn't have a TV show
for people to reference.
We started season one,
the show clearly hadn't aired, yet.
So people didn't know what our gauge was
for what we wanted the zombies to look like
and how we wanted them to perform.
So we had made a little reel of clips from different movies,
including, like, "Night of the living dead."
There was a Spanish film called "Wreck."
Even "Shaun of the Dead," we put in there.
You know, we were sort of trying to illustrate
that they're not fast-moving zombies.
They're slow moving zombies, and we put a little,
kind of, pamphlet together. Like, "Here's what we expect."
Zombie school is imperative
because it gives us a chance to see these people in person,
before we've come and done all this work to them,
and have them in the middle of the shot..
That's great.
It all starts in zombie school,
and Greg checking them out
and making sure they know how to move,
and can take direction, and have the right look.
Kind of in there fast.
The walkers are so critical to this show.
They're extras,
but they're kind of the stars of the show, as well.
One of the most exciting things
about "The Walking Dead" is,
it really celebrates practical make-up effects.
There's not a lot of digital zombies.
Everything is practical.
It's all done with prosthetics, foam latex,
contact lenses, custom dentures.
I mean, we really spend a lot of time
to make sure that the look of the zombies is unique.
Something a little different than you usually see
on television.
I mean, you watch anything else,
any other zombie show, it has no comparison.
We are doing... [Indistinct],
that's certainly Greg Nicotero and his people,
are doing an unbelievable job with the zombies.
That work is fantastic.
Three, two, one, boom!
Bicycle girl was my first formal meeting of a zombie.
I just remember being completely blown away
by the quality of the make-up.
And then, also, very disconcerted
when we started having a conversation together
in between takes.
And they start talking to you, and they can't really see you
'cause they wear these contacts that are, like,
clouding over their eyes, and it's just very surreal.
They're all trained so well in the way that they move,
and, I mean, they're just craftsman.
And, um, it was a joy to work with them.
The characters are tremendously important,
but equally important, in my eyes, are the walkers.
It's one thing to get into make-up,
but it's another thing to bring that make-up to life.
There's a-a ferocity that-that we really wanna play.
You know, if-if the zombies aren't scary,
people who are watching the show aren't gonna buy into it.
You-you don't want people laughing.
You know, our group's been on the road for a long time.
So, they've become more efficient killers.
Boom, and then, he goes...
So, the more efficient they are at killing,
then the less frightening the walkers are,
because if you can easily dispatch them,
then, they're less of a threat.
So, we're introducing more elements
that make the walkers more dangerous and more threatening.
Blam!
And then, you, blam!
Shoot him, okay?
You shoot him in the head.
The walkers are what most people
are watching the show for.
I mean, the story is everything.
I think the story is amazing and they keep it going.
The writing on the show is fantastic.
But people watch the show for zombies.
I mean, there's no other show like this.
The zombies are the best in the world.
You forget that there's a person under there because,
here at "The Walking Dead,"
it looks real in person.
Every now and then, I still get spooked by a walker.
They're so well done.
They're so amazingly realistic.
Not that I know what a real zombie looks like,
but I imagine that's what they look like.
Sorry... We're doing a repair.
Not just the make-up that makes a great zombie.
It's the person inside who's giving that performance.
So, Greg and zombie school are where it all begins.
I've been doing make-up effects and creature effects
for 30 years.
My first job was a movie called "Day of the Dead,"
with George romero.
She's gonna stand here,
and she's gonna look right into your eyes.
And you'll be looking at her,
and then, she's gonna chop your head off.
Greg Nicotero, uh, it really can't be over-stated,
his importance to this show.
He is a zombie encyclopedia all by himself.
He'll reference movies I've never heard of,
ever, in my life.
No one has a filmmaking spirit like he does.
Come on... Get in here.
You have to stand here and talk to the-talk to the puppet
like it's me.
The glorious, the beautiful,
the deeply disturbed, Greg Nicotero.
- And again. - Ugh!
[Indistinct]
He's so good at what he does and what his team does,
is that you see the-the lost, dying,
dead, sad person behind the monster,
and that's-that's the creepiest part.
Are they sticking in... What's the matter?
He puts so much effort in training these guys,
from day one and through zombie school.
You know, from the beginning of their walks,
and then shaping it, and then his enthusiasm.
Let's do that one more time.
Let's see a little more in your faces, in terms of,
like, "Ooh, that's-there's some food over there."
To go through that process and have him there,
even now, into season five,
still showing up and being part of that casting process,
it just sets the tone across the board
of-of what the show is gonna look like
and how those walkers are gonna move and interact.
Walkers, these shots are all about you... the POV
We had never cast zombies before
in any movie that I had done,
aside from maybe a few hero zombies.
Usually, it was like, the extras show up,
and you just do make-up on 'em,
and then you send 'em out to set.
But "The Walking Dead" is very different
because we're going for a very specific aesthetic,
which is, you know, we want them to feel emaciated.
We want it to feel like they're rotting.
We want it to feel like they're walking skeletons.
Action.
[Grunting]
Pretty good.
I'm here today for zombie school.
They sent out a casting call for slim, moveable people,
which I'm all about.
It's not just sort of lumbering around a field.
You guys will be interacting with the lead actors,
and if there's kills or something, you know,
even in terms of, you know, if I'm here,
and he's-he's a zombie and he's trying to bite me.
So come like you're trying to... Trying to bite me.
Even more.
Yeah, see, that's good... That's good.
As I'm going through this process,
it's definitely clicking a little bit more.
Um, I'm starting to form a walk that's kind of my walk,
if that makes any sense.
It's pretty cool.
Those performances, like, that moment,
that close-up that we would get of him,
that's what is-adds the scare factor.
We don't want people to go,
"Oh, it's just a guy in make-up."
We want people to think, "Man, those teeth,
he's gonna-he's gonna bite him,
"And then he's dead off the show."
So, we always wanna keep that, sort of,
level of excitement in there.
So that was very good, by the way.
I hope I'm gonna be called.
We'll see.
We've had five seasons of being able to put
the fantastic art that the people at the shop
contribute to the show.
Fantastic sculptures, paint jobs, fabrication.
Just the outrageous ideas that we come up with.
And we get to do it on a weekly basis.
It's not like a movie,
where you have two hours and the movie's over.
We have an opportunity to continue to refine the process,
and try to top ourselves every season.
And that's tremendously exciting,
from-from the artistic standpoint.
Ky covered bacon in his throat.
What we've been able to accomplish
on "The Walking Dead" is something where
we've kind of redefined what zombies look like.
We've been able to create our own, sort of, sub genre.
Twenty years from now, when people think about zombies,
they're gonna remember what the zombies on
"The Walking Dead" looked like.
The zombie experience begins when somebody
just has that yearning to be a zombie.
I'm still shocked by how many people want to be zombies.
You're not too cool for zombie school.
But the lucky few get to start
at the beginning of the season
when we do walker camp or zombie camp.
It's like "American Idol," for zombies.
You know, they're like, "This is my big moment, man."
Zombie school is an audition.
Basically, we bring 'em in, in small groups,
so Greg has a chance to work with 'em.
The make-up is-is half the process,
but the other half of the process
is your guys' performance, you know?
So, the purposes of today will be
for me to get a chance to preview people's performances,
so that we can fine tune them.
And then, number two, preview how you guys look.
We're always looking for the standout ones,
you know, that we can re-recycle and reuse.
I've been 17 different walkers
and I've been killed seven times.
I got shot in the face by Andrea,
kicked in the chest by Michonne and head stomped.
I was crawling up Glen's leg.
I got shot in the face.
Maggie shot me coming out of the bridge.
Tyreese gave me the hammer, which was pretty special.
I have not gotten the arrow yet.
And, turn.
But, uh, I'm hoping.
Having the training at zombie school is-is a huge asset,
because when we're out here and we're filming,
we have a lot to do every single day.
We shoot these episodes in eight days,
which is kind of insane.
So having the walkers, the extras come in,
knowing kind of what's expected of them.
It just helps smooth out the whole process,
so that we're not spending a lot of time
trying to get the perfect walker.
You have a great, like, with the hair and the big eyes,
like, there's a cool, sort of, creepy look.
But you can't smile.
'Cause if you smile, then you look pleasant.
You don't look scary. [Indistinct].
Yeah, I don't need happy zombies.
They're pissed 'cause they're dead.
So...
Zombie school doesn't necessarily
just consist of the audition process.
You know, they come in, they sign up with Patrick.
We get submissions from, literally, all over the world.
But we try to keep casting locally, just because,
it's for no other reason than things change so last minute.
We also get all their measurements done
by the wardrobe department,
so that when those people are chosen,
wardrobe will be pre-made for them.
- These will fit you. - We take photos of them,
so that we can put together a booklet
that has photo reference and my, sort of, score card,
in terms of their look and their performance.
Pretty much everybody, you know,
once they've gotten the training,
they've got enough that they'll get in there somewhere,
but some are, of course, better than others.
Ready?
Action.
We have a zombie school
because everybody's first tendency,
when-when you're a zombie,
is to throw your arms up in the air and walk
like Frankenstein, and it's not what they want.
[Zombies growling]
Frankenstein arms are usually bad.
Last year, we actually had to go in and, like,
digitally erase one-one guy's arms because he was in...
Like, in the middle of a shot, doing this.
And Michonne was right next to him, and it was like,
"God, that shot's great, except for that... oh!"
The walk is tremendously, tremendously important.
You know, if you're shooting a scene
and you have a wide shot with 50 people,
and one guy's walking a little too herky-jerky,
your eye goes right to them... Right to them.
It's, you know...
Gayle and Denise often were at the monitor together
and everybody's eye goes to that same person.
They're like, "Oh, that guy's not walking quite right."
Your eye kinda goes right to them,
and then you have to walk up and go,
"Take it down a little bit," and then I'll walk away.
So, see, now, I put him on the spot,
'cause he was already into it.
So, he's gonna be the best zombie of the year, by the way.
A walker that doesn't quite have the right walk jumps out.
I mean, it's just-it's amazing.
You don't want them to look all completely the same.
We try really hard that they don't-they're not all
moving the exactly the same way,
but if something's off, it really jumps out.
What you guys did was good.
It-what happens sometimes is,
that if you get into one particular posture
and you hold that posture for a while,
then it just-it looks a little unnatural.
All right, you guys all look great.
Okay, good.
Don't do that.
If you do that, I will feel like I've failed.
If I say, "Action," and you do this,
then I'm gonna-it'll be like, "Fine.
"I'm out."
One thing that I learned years ago,
from George romero, was that you cannot,
um, demonstrate,
for a-a large group of people, a zombie walk.
Because if you demonstrate that and then, you say, "Action,"
all 50 people or all 100 people are gonna do
exactly what you showed them to do.
[Zombies growling]
You know, I didn't give them examples
of what I wanted to see.
I wanted them to show me what they can do,
and what their perception of a good zombie
performance would be, and then we went from there
and, sort of, built on those performances.
All right, uh, increase the speed a little bit, guys.
A little more.
I was expecting to walk in and do a few zombie walks
in a line, um, but it ended up being a lot more than that.
There's something that you did, that I love.
There was-there was an interesting thing that she did,
where the one shoulder was up,
but her eyes were kind of locked.
You mind doing it for...
Sort of come towards me like you wanna bite me.
And then, reach-reach-reach-reach out.
Yeah, I mean, it-it's just... Thank you.
I'm like, "Yeah, get out of here."
We should do it that the next person that comes in the door,
you guys should just attack 'em.
Greg Nicotero totally knows exactly what he wants,
and he gives us instruction,
but he allowed us to put our own style on it.
Like, do whatever you feel like as a zombie,
and it'll be a lot more natural.
Great... good.
Okay, cut.
Uh, we have three levels of walkers on the show.
We have background, which are just really in wardrobe,
that don't have a lot of make-up on.
When we're doing big scenes and we have 50 or 60 zombies,
which do happen, and sometimes,
we've had up to 100 and 150 zombies,
we have the deep backgrounds, and they're the ones
who are far enough away from the camera that,
quite often, they're just in wardrobe
and necessarily don't have any make-up on at all,
or they'll have masks on.
The second version of our walkers is
the assembly line, where we have five make-up artists,
and each one has a different color,
and you walk in and they go...
And then you go to the next station and they go...
You go to the next station...
You go to the last station and they douse blood on you,
and then, you go out and shoot.
And then, the third version is our hero walkers.
Hero zombies refer to people
who are gonna be featured on camera,
who we're gonna see a very featured kill.
Direct interaction with our leads,
usually a full body make-up,
and something particularly extra juicy
and gross going on with them.
That's like the v.I.P. Prize.
You know, you get the full prosthetics,
you get the contact lenses, you get the dentures.
We even mix up this vanilla flavored, black mouth stain
to stain your-your tongue black,
'cause nothing looks weirder than, like,
a rotted face with this big, pink tongue on it.
It's sort of an all-encompassing process.
Your hands get painted, we put goop in your hair.
Sometimes we'll even put, like, a bald cap on you
and give you a fake ear.
I mean, it-it's pretty crazy.
So, that whole process is anywhere
from an hour and a half to two hours,
sitting in the make-up chair.
You'll become very friendly with our make-up effects guys,
who are all great guys.
We have a lot of episodes coming up
and lots of opportunities.
The first episode alone has a zillion zombies.
So, we'll be fine.
Hey, you were great in zombie school today.
You did a really good job.
So... okay.
Anyway.
You guys are doing a great job in here.
Good foam.
KNB is the funnest place in the world to go.
Here we are at KNB EFX, in chatsworth.
This is the brain center of the studio.
This is where the entire process begins.
Behind me, you'll see some of the best sculptors in the world,
who create the zombie prosthetics from scratch.
All right, now I'm doing a set of teeth.
I'm actually using a casting of real teeth.
I have a silicone mold here.
For this, I'm using a wax to sculpt the teeth
because it's a lot harder
and can get more of, like, a carving.
And this stuff is great 'cause you can melt it really well.
So, uh, once I finish this sculpture,
then I'll send it to the mold guys,
and they will, basically, put a mold on top of it.
We remove the mold from this, clear out the clay,
put the two halves together,
inject it with whatever we decide to use,
uh, dental, acrylic, or latex, or whatever.
And then, when you open it,
you have a perfect shape that fits perfectly over their face.
When they have something that they really like on their face,
they just become, you know, what they need to be.
Right now, I'm working on a, uh, female zombie appliance.
I'm in the, uh,
sort of the refining stage of all the forms.
And after I refine all that,
we'll throw in this little detail stuff,
like the wrinkles and little bits of rot, here and there.
And that will be the last stage.
The finished detail stage.
To start, we pretty much just start taking little bits of Clay
and throwing them on the life casts, like that,
and smoothing 'em out,
and starting to shape it with the, uh, skull underneath,
and adding more bits of Clay to it
to look like flesh over a skull.
And that's pretty much how we usually start
every-every skull.
They want-they really wanna see, like,
the bone showing through the skin.
They can put this appliance on a ton of people
and have it look different every time.
Like, add little wounds to it.
Take pieces away from it.
Add rot to it, if they want.
But this is pretty much a good base to work off of.
From here, it goes to the mold making department.
They make molds.
Then it goes to the foam latex department,
where they run foam into the molds
and create the actual prosthetics
that we glue onto the extras every single day.
Basically, what Steve's doing over here is,
this is a Hobart,
and he's mixing the foam up in the Hobart right now.
So he's got foam latex inside that bowl.
From there, we'll take this bowl of foam
and we'll put it inside of these giant tubes [Indistinct].
Now the key to it is trying to actually
get it into the mold before it goes from liquid to solid.
Because these are zombies, they have a, uh,
they've got a lot of detail to 'em,
so we really have to get in there
and really brush 'em in real good.
Make sure all the foam gets in all the pieces.
Now, take the positive down inside of the negative.
Press it down in there.
Put a strap on it to close it up nice and tight.
This part is what gives it a nice cutting edge,
so it blends off into the skin.
From there, it basically goes into the oven.
It bakes all night.
And then, the next morning, you're popping pieces.
So you're looking at a good day and...
You know, day and a half.
There you go.
I have several of these on my desk
that are in various stages.
Some are finished, some are not.
This is what it-what they look like
when they come right to us.
This is fresh.
No color, no anything.
This is just the natural color of the rubber.
The one that's on this form,
I have got, um, a light gray flesh base tone
and a couple of just spattered colors.
It's really, really... To look at it,
it looks really haphazard and, sort of, slap and tickle.
If you were looking at that right off, you were thinking,
you know, where's that gonna go?
It's not really-doesn't really look all that good,
but the finished product,
once about eight or ten more layers are put on
and they're all blended nicely, they come out looking more...
A little closer to what the actual make-ups would be,
minus the movement.
Again, for background.
Over the last five years,
we have, uh, stockpiled about 100 make-ups
that we can pick and choose from
through the course of the series.
Some are just individual cheek pieces,
some are chin pieces, some are full face pieces.
So we have such a great variety that,
when the extras and the stunt people show up on set,
we can tailor each make-up
to the proportions in the face of each extra.
A lot of times, you see the same actors
as different walkers.
It's funny.
This one stunt zombie I worked with the other day,
she looked very different 'cause she was
a very different type of zombie than she had been.
But I looked in her eyes and I said,
"Have I killed you before?"
She's like, "Yeah, season three.
"You know, I was up against the pole.
"You killed me with the rope."
"Yeah."
You know, so, it's kind of fun.
Beyond all the zombie stuff,
I can still kind of see through the eyes that,
I remember this kill.
If you're a vegetarian,
then you probably will not wanna eat somebody,
'cause we use barbecue for all the eating scenes.
I mean, Greg Nicotero is a genius.
And I'm never gonna eat spare ribs again.
You know, today was interesting.
I think we had 120-140 people.
I'd say, this group was above average.
There were a few that sort of popped.
That was good... That was scary.
You're-you're great in the front.
I think, every season,
we get 15 or 20 of those people that just are naturals,
and they get it.
The people that we're gonna want,
come in in a zombie mindset,
and those are the ones that you want to see up close in camera.
When we did "Land of the dead,"
we had... this was the funniest thing.
So, we-we started naming the zombies.
So, we had this guy...
And he was the "Get the hell out of my yard" guy.
We had the ice skating guy that was walking on ice.
So, if we start naming your performance,
then, you're doing the same thing over and over again.
I might come over and go, "Okay.
"You're the 'swimming the marathon' zombie,
"'Cause you're doing this."
Then, that will be your cue to not do that, anymore.
I'm here to be a zombie.
Try out to be a zombie, at least.
Well, what it takes to be a zombie, first of all,
you have to be dead.
You have to like human flesh.
You have to walk like you're drunk.
[Zombies growling]
If you ever go to a bar at 2:00 in the morning
and you see everybody walking out of the bar,
that's really good reference for an initial zombie walk.
What we try to do is simulate, sort of,
a disconnect between motor skills and awareness.
Gotta be relaxed, and you have to be slow.
Wewe don't really run.
Anytime there is a zombie attack,
they become excited in a way that
they're maybe a little more energetic than normally.
But, generally speaking, it's not "28 days later"
or "The dawn of the dead" remake,
where they're olympic sprinters running down the street.
Just go out there and act like you got a craving
for some bloody flesh and I think you'll be good to go.
So, this season, you know,
I-if there's ever an instance where zombies
are close to our lead actors,
instead of just kind of walking up and just standing there,
you know, I really want them to get physical,
in terms of trying to grab them, and snarling and hissing,
and, like, open their mouths wide.
I'd love to see a little more...
Yeah-yeah, even opening your mouth.
Yeah, I mean, you got a good-you got...
You got a great look.
My name is Ben Bladon.
I am here to be a zombie on "The Walking Dead."
Try out for it, at least.
I wanna make sure that you're seeing,
not even necessarily squinting, but, like...
You know, you can get really-you can get really scary.
I really like the show, "The Walking Dead,"
and when somebody pointed out that there was a post
for extras, I said, "Why not?"
You know, I signed up for it and here I am.
Open your mouth.
Great... good.
Okay, cut... Thank you.
The future star of "The Walking Dead,"
ladies and gentlemen.
He will be killed 37 times this year.
No.
Uh, that was great, but t u see what I mean?
I mean, it just adds... And all you guys, I mean,
it adds that extra level of energy.
The trick that we-that we strive for every year is,
we don't... the zombies always have to feel threatening.
It's one thing to go, "Oh, yeah.
"They're just kind of slow moving in the field,
"and I could just run through those."
But then, the minute that they turn and they're there,
it gets-it gets kind of frightening
because you see that sort of snarling,
horrible face coming at you.
What would it be like for me to get-to be here on the set?
I think it would be absolutely awesome.
I think it would be one of the best experiences
of my life, so far.
Something we did this year, that we hadn't done before, um,
was a little exercise I like to call "Kill the cameraman."
Action!
Welcome to our fifth year
of zombie school.
Now, I like cameramen.
I have lots of friends that are cameramen.
But in this particular exercise,
I thought it was a really good opportunity to get people,
sort of, amped up into actually doing something,
as opposed to just, sort of, walking around the room
and exploring the space.
This really gave them something to do that,
as a collective experience, when they all started,
sort of, rushing after the camera
and trying to get into the doorway
and trying to force their way in,
it sort of took it to another place.
It's one thing to go,
"Okay, well, I'm gonna go audition for "Walking Dead."
But then, when they, sort of,
Welcome to our fifth year
of zombie school.
were involved in this mass attack,
and then we would say, "Cut,"
and they're like, "Oh, my God... We really are doing this.
"It's kind of not just an exercise."
Don't crush the...
And, cut.
[Collective chatter]
Best one yet.
That was the best one yet... good.
You all right?
I was afraid they were gonna-they were gonna separate,
and you were just gonna be a bloody pulp
that would just fall down.
What's really important for me, as a director,
is how well you take direction.
[Zombies growling]
Zombie school's been really, really helpful for me,
to be able to go through and say,
"These ten, these 12, these 14 people are fantastic.
"They take direction well.
"They look great, they walk great.
"They move well.
"They're kind of scary and creepy,
"and they bring character to the zombies."
So just ignore that I'm writing names down.
Rehearsing.
And, background. And, action.
When you get here, you're thrown into the pit,
so to speak.
You get an education on, you know, walker etiquette
and how we do things.
And they have to be open-minded.
They gotta hit the ground running.
Uh, Claire, the first one was too fast.
And I think they were all trying to match her speed.
If we slow her up a little, then I think we're good.
I-I feel even more direct responsibility
to make sure that you guys are safe,
that you're taken care of,
that you have a good experience on set,
because we have scenes where our lead characters
comes up and swings a machete,
and then five minutes later, you go, "Ugh," and fall over.
The timing has to be right.
So, um, one of these guys said, "Wow.
"It's not as easy as it looks."
It-it's actually not.
I mean, you guys, there is acting involved with this,
and there is taking direction,
and there is a-a physicality to it.
My right, which is your left.
Take five steps to your left, please.
It's important that everyone be on the same page,
so that, when they arrive on set,
and they come out after having had make-up and wardrobe,
they're with the program.
We don't have the time, once we're shooting,
to give individual direction to people.
Ready?
[Bell ringing]
I have faith in you guys.
You know, it all starts with zombie school,
and Greg checking them out and making sure they,
you know, know how to move, and can take direction,
and have the right look.
But the walkers really go through
almost every department on the show.
I'll be with Eric today.
He's gonna be a featured hero walker,
which means he gets the full make-up experience.
Before Eric goes into make-up,
we'll check him out and make sure his clothing fits...
And he's dressed appropriate for what we're doing tonight.
'Cause it's a night shoot, it should be a little lighter,
so he stands out in the dark.
I think what we picked out for Eric is pretty cool
and it's gonna suit him well.
[Zombies growling]
Eulyn Womble, who is our costume designer,
is a huge part of it, in-in what they're wearing,
and she really thinks about, "Well, how did this person die,
"And what have they been through?"
And even though our zombies
all kind of have a similar look and color palate,
they're all unique, in their own way,
from the make-up to the clothes.
Well, it fits.
It's a little short.
I'm just gonna button them up just a little bit,
'cause I like this shirt more than I do the one underneath.
Derek, can you jump in and maybe do
a little bit of shred on him before he goes into make-up?
I wanna see the light coming out of the dark.
Because it's nighttime and the shirt will be really dark,
we bring a light shirt underneath.
With the holes in this shirt,
we'll see the light color coming through.
The more shred there is, the more beautiful it is,
really, at this point.
It's, uh, pretty cool.
I feel a lot more zombie-like.
We're gonna take Eric to make-up now.
This way.
- You ready, Eric? - Yeah, I am.
Let's get you into a walker.
Okay.
I have five core make-up artists
that work on the show every day,
and have worked on the show since season one.
We generally spend about an hour and a half
per hero make-up.
We get to know our zombie extras pretty intimately.
Just kinda ball cap him up.
Sometimes, guys will come in, or girls,
and they've just had a haircut,
or it looks-looks like they have nice hair.
So we don't wanna have it look like these walkers
have been visiting salons during the apocalypse.
The beauty of this is,
we can make you look very different every time.
So, if you're up for it, and you're into it,
and you had a blast doing it, I guarantee, you'll be used.
Today, I'm becoming a walker.
I'm going through all the stages of becoming dead.
I'm gonna be doing a quick scene, getting killed.
Now, I'm in make-up and I've got this thing on my neck.
I'm starting to feel this whole walker experience
kind of come to life.
These are foam appliances, uh,
that we've-that were manufactured back at KNB,
in Los Angeles.
When they walk in the chair
the make-up artist has to look at 'em
and kind of figure out what's gonna fit 'em,
and we know most of the pieces back there now, uh,
'cause we've been working with 'em for so long.
Probably be puttin' on, uh, maybe seven or eight pieces
onto Eric today.
In five years that we've been doing the show,
no two zombies ever look the same.
We want them to look like-like stray animals
that have been out there too long.
Nothing to eat.
No sort of grooming anything.
Their hair can get a little wild.
Andy painted his mouth black
because, in this particular appliance there,
there's some exposed teeth.
When this goes on,
we don't wanna be able to see his lips behind the teeth.
We'll put a mouth rinse in his mouth
that'll make his teeth go away, as well.
Next time you hear from me, I'll be dead.
It's usually an hour and a half for each one of these.
After zombie school, I was just thinking that,
you know, this is one shot.
I hope I don't mess it up.
- Hey, Eric, how you doing? - Good.
What we've done on Eric, so far, is we've got him,
what we call "Based out."
We have a base tone of, uh, what's called pax paint,
on him that's sort of his undertone.
And now, Andy's putting a little bit of spatter
on his arms.
This is a purply-colored spatter that I use
to mimic the look of rotting skin.
You don't want anything to look too red.
It's all gotta be very muted and dark.
If we're doing something at night-time
and it's gonna be dimly lit,
we tend to go a little bit lighter in color.
Otherwise, you're just not gonna see him, at all.
Now, I'm just kinda going in and darkening up the colors.
Yeah, I'm looking pretty scary, right now.
The paint really makes it, uh, come to life.
Or, so to speak.
If somebody came up right now and said,
"We need him on set right away,"
we could probably send him away and he would be okay
for, like, a medium shot.
If it was a close-up one,
we'd probably wanna keep him a little bit longer.
It looks pretty cool right now,
but you give us another 15 to 20 minutes,
we can get it to look that much better.
Sometimes we don't get that ten or 15 minutes.
I think I've aged about 20 years.
You know, I lost my hair.
I lost a piece of my nose.
Amongst other things.
Uh, I'm definitely dead.
I think it completed the zombie experience.
Pretty good.
[Snarling]
- You ready? - Yeah.
Take you up to set, all right?
All right.
A huge part of it's just, you know,
people who we like having around.
You know, it-it's... being a cool person to hang out with, is nice.
So, to be good at it and wanna do it over and over again,
it's a very unique person.
[Snarling]
The walkers are great on the show.
In some ways, I think their acting job's harder
than all of our acting job.
[Indistinct chatter]
This show is very physical.
There may be an instance where somebody
might pull you out of the crowd and go,
"Okay, Daryl's gonna kill you."
Here you go, man... Let me help you.
- Let me help you. - After about six takes maybe,
I had my death fall down to a 'T'.
You just get in the zone.
You don't care that you're gonna fall on gravel.
You don't care that you're gonna hurt yourself.
You're doing it for the show.
You're a zombie, and so you just do it.
Fire!
They had to pick out the gravel out of my prosthetics,
every single time that I'd die,
because I hit the gravel and then it all stuck.
[Indistinct]
I remember when we burned down the barn,
hershel's barn.
I'm sitting on the motorcycle with Melissa,
and it's freezing.
And I look out and there's, like, 1,000 walkers, like,
in snuggies and stuff, like, freezing their butt off.
[Cheering]
Being that we film may through November,
we kinda get all the elements in Georgia.
From 100 degree heat in the summertime,
to, you know, 30 degrees when the sun goes down.
It's hot, it's sweaty.
Even though you think, "I never get sunstroke."
So you're all right, is what you're saying?
It's hot.
[Indistinct chatter]
It gets you into character.
It gets you into character when you're hot and sweaty.
We will make sure that you guys
are always drinking water,
that you always have sunscreen,
that you're always in the shade.
They eat well and we make sure
they're properly hydrated.
We take care of them to me sure that
they're happy and healthy, too.
- How are you? - We're doing good.
I'm not hungry anymore.
I'm constantly bewildered how hard people work.
How people put their bodies on the line constantly.
And yet, how they're able to maintain
an incredibly good humor.
They're very committed and my hat goes off to them,
'cause we couldn't do it without 'em.
- Everybody, back that way! - Follow me.
These guys and girls who are-are walkers,
are-they're bad asses.
I don't know if I can say that.
They... I mean, they are.
They are the true stars of this show.
I mean, they are so heavily featured,
and they are what makes this show real, you know?
These walkers you see, I mean, they are focused.
So you see them in the background doing their thing
and it helps put-put you in place,
where you're supposed to be.
Cut.
All right, check his eye. My eye's doing okay.
How committed they are, as actors,
is really the joy of it all.
Like, sometimes, we'll catch one guy
that's just killing it as a walker and you're like,
"Oh, my God... Look at that dude."
And you'll pick him out of a group of 50 people
that are there,
and it just makes it that much more real for us.
We had a woman who came and, I mean,
she literally dragged the side of her ankle
till she scraped her ankle bone on the side.
She was just doing it to be in the show,
and I was amazed how far people will go
with being a zombie.
She had to walk up to this pole.
We had a retractable pole, and stabs herself.
And she just, no fear, walked right into it,
trusting us 100%.
Stabs all the way through her, as she's just dragging.
And this performance was unbelievable.
We were cheering.
[Applause] Thank you, stunt zombies.
[Collective chatter]
Another good day with zombies.
Every day with zombies is a good day.
There have been several instances
where the crew has all stood up and just applauded the walkers
for the amazing job that they've done.
And the zombies, the zombies, let's hear it for 'em.
[Cheers and applause]
Without fantastic walkers,
our show could not and would not succeed.
They're part of this extended "Walking Dead" family.
Thank you.
You know, I always end up getting great stuff
out of them because I treat them like
they're integral parts of the show.
Because if their performances are believable,
then the audience watching it will believe it,
and the audiences will get pulled into those characters
as much as they're pulled into our living characters.
And we could not do it without them.
There would be no "Walking Dead"
without the walking dead.
And start walking.
Everyone else should be getting up... good.
[Collective chatter]
[Laughing]
[Snarling]
Boy, am I just dead on my feet.
I need a pick-me-up.
[Laughing] Dead on my feet.
I get it.
[Laughing]
What zombies do when there's nothing to eat.
Come on, come on.