Moonshine of the Damned, Production Journal Part 12

This past weekend ended up being a washout as far as filming went. I'm a little disappointed, but it happens and the reason were pretty valid so I can hardly get upset about it - still, would've been nice to have those two days done with, I'm hoping we can make them up this coming weekend or so since I've nothing else scheduled because the workload of FX is starting to get ahead of me.

The biggest FX element I'm trying to get through is the Zombie Eater.  It's the most elaborate character I've put together for a movie, some of the photo shoots have had more going on in the costume department, but as far as a character in a movie it's the most work.

The biggest and most worrisome aspect is the head. I've got it all sculpted, the teeth ready to go and finally got to moulding it yesterday. I really hate that part. You spend so much time on something and then you have to destroy and if you're really lucky it's not permanently gone.

I originally thought of just a full head prosthetic, so I'm going with an Ultracal 30 mould. It felt like it went alright - even though it took the better part of a day to do. However when it came time to cracking open the mould I wasn't too happy. The back half pretty much fell away in a couple seconds. The front half no so much. I left it and came back later, having made a make shift pulley, the first attempt did exactly what I suspected it would (why I went through with it, I don't know) and just ripped through the back of the head (the positive mould, so not a total loss) and the second attempt just pulled it out in a couple seconds perfectly.

There weren't too many issue with the surface, nothing that anyone who didn't know would even notice really. So I can't complain there. It's a little thinner than I would have liked, but that might prove to be a benefit in some way - better than too thick and end up with a heavy useless piece.

So, instead of just jumping right into a foam latex piece - I still have to finish the oven anyway today - I decided to go with a couple backup plans. Before anything else is run through the mould, I'm going to try making a silicone mask - not the best method, but given my limitations on this, it can't hurt even if it doesn't turn out. Then I'll try just a regular old latex mask - not the best option to put on screen, but I will if I have to, it's better than nothing. And finally I'll try the prosthetic version.

I'm hoping one will pan out decently enough to use and that the Zombie Eater won't go through too many looks onscreen. If the silicone works, I'll be using that for sure. The mask, maybe if I have to get a stand-in or for long distance reshoots. I'm really hoping the prosthetic version turns out - and it's more contingent on my oven not being a disaster - so we'll see what happens in the next few days. All three should be done by this time next week.

There's also a couple other aspects to the Zombie Eater I've never gone into too much detail about here and I probably won't. I'm putting a sort of black out from here on to the final release of the movie on any images of the Zombie Eater. I'll be taking lots myself, but nothing will be featured on this blog or Facebook or anywhere. Aside from one little teaser image perhaps.

I'm really hoping it works out, it's been a lot of work and the whole project really rides on me being able to pull off this one effect. Without it, the movie doesn't have the same impact. They've always been fairly low key as far as FX goes and I really want the last one to go beyond the expectations of what I've set in place so far with the first two BZK! movies

And if the full head prosthetic works, it marks a bit of a change in some of the things I might be doing in the future. Time and money will tell.

So for now, I'm scheduling shoots as best I can and working on the last remaining FX elements and hoping to hell we pull it all off this time.

One more push for the Moonshine of the Damned Fundraiser.

We're well underway with filming on the movie now, most of the FX are taken care of - however, there's still room and time for more, the more money we have the more FX get put in the movie, and that's where you come in. Instead of donations, we're selling some of the props, and related items, being made specifically for the project. What kind of stuff? Here's some pictures, because reading about this stuff is only so much fun.

 Fake Chicken Foot.

Zombie Finger Puppet.

Partially Eaten Brain Keychain.

Severed Zombie Heads.

A Latex Zombie Mask.

Think if it more as a simple retail transaction rather than a donation. Since I'm making all this stuff, it's easy to sell it for close to what I would at a retail price. Everything is limited edition as well, some are available in fewer quantities than others and prices range from $10 to $40, depending on what you want.

And what do you get in return? Well, the item or items you bought, a thanks in the final credits and a chance to win some of the larger props being made for the movie. Right now I'm still making stuff so I'm unsure of what exactly those pieces will be. I'm aiming for 3 prizes, one of which is this:

The Spiked Zombie Head Mace. This one here pictured is the one that will be featured in the movie, and I'm planning on selling only 10 of them afterwards at $150 each. They're extremely time consuming to make because it's 10 separate pieces which all have to be cleaned up, assembled and finally painted.

For more information, you can email: brains @ themonkeyrodeo.com or visit the funding website for a more accurate price list, www.themonkeyrodeo.com/BZK3

2nd Phase of Fund Raiser - Limited Edition Latex Zombie Mask

Limited Edition Latex Zombie Mask - the 2nd Phase of the Moonshine of the Damned Fund Raiser.

This mask will be used as a background zombie in the series and I'm selling only 25 of them, for $25 each. I'll point out that this is NOT foam latex, prosthetic makeup, it's a simple, Halloween-type, reusuable latex mask with an elastic strap.

Same deal as the Brain Keychains, everyone who orders one will be getting a thanks in the final credits of the series and a chance to win something awesome.

Payments can be made through Email Interact, Paypal orders add $0.50 per item. Shipping is $5 Flat Rate.

Orders can be directed to: brains@themonkeyrodeo.com.

Latex Zombie Mask

I've tried this before and wasn't thrilled with the results, or I was hesitant to get into painting latex masks...or whatever the reason was. In any case, it's done now. This also reminds be why I don't (and often discourage others from doing so) use the term "mask" to refer to prosthetics, it seems to make people think I'd be gluing something like this to their face - which would utterly suck.

This week I've started work on the 2nd Phase of the Moonshine of the Damned Funding Campaign. So far the Brains have been selling pretty well, but I'm worried I might not make the goal in time, so I thought I'd add to it by selling these bad boys: 

This picture was taken about 10 minutes after the paint job was done - and to be perfectly honest this was my first attempt at actually "painting" something like this, I've done a couple other pieces but they were more like shading or highlighting than actually painting. It's not too bad and I actually intend to use it as a background zombie in the series - although since it is a mask and would be pretty obvious, the actor will be wearing a hoodie to hide the out edges and makeup around the eyes to blend it in a bit better.

I'm hoping to get it online for sale next week and get things going on the 2nd Phase. There will only be 25 of these sold (I will be making at least one or to to be used in the series though, so there might be an couple extra floating around out there) and they'll be going for $25 each, which just like the Brains will include a thanks in the credits and a chance to win something more awesome once it's all over.

The downside here is that I need more supplies to start my run of these, so I'll be taking a few pre-orders, and by that I  mean actually collecting money in order to afford the materials to do a run of 25. If you're interested, same rules as the Brains - email me at brains@themonkeyrodeo.com and ask about the Zombie Mask.

They will officially be going online next week, expect a 5 day turnaround at the longest on orders of these.

Demon photo shoots for 2013 and possibly beyond

With a few changes to how I do things in regards to prosthetic makeup, I'm moving into doing some much larger pieces. I'm constructing a much larger foam latex oven this year (hopefully soon) and the photo shoots will involve much more elaborate makeup this time around. Like full head pieces, arm and hand pieces, and other pieces to really demonize people a little bit more.

The previous book contained stuff that was really intended for resale, most of the stuff in the new round of shoots won't be because it's being custom made for each model - although there will be a few of the simpler shoots thrown in there.

I've picked out a small group of both men and women who I will be doing lifecasts of (mostly just their heads, but all depends on what the shoot needs). Because the makeup will be more drastic in obscuring their natural features I don't mind reusing the same people for the more elaborate shoots - plus it'd just be too expensive to do head casts for every single person - plus I don't have the space to store all that stuff.

So what do I have planned? All sorts of stuff, this time around I want to do some more iconic type characters (iconic in my estimation at least). One I have planned is a demon version of Kratos from the God of War videogames - that should be pretty awesome, Kratos is already kind of demonic. I'll be using John MacDonald for that one - if you familiar with my previous shoots and don't know who John is, he'll actually make the original Kratos look scrawny in comparison.

Lara Croft and even Nathan Drake are being planned as well - in separate shoots. Both are pretty easy and I chose them because if you're into videogames they're both fairly recognizable because they keep a consistent costume style and look. I'm sticking with the more realistic human characters, so no, I will not be doing a demon PacMan or Mario, it just seems a little too retarded for me.

I'm thinking a demon Indiana Jones would be cool. I have a friend who's a huge Indy fan so I'm looking to get him to do it, just need to find a really good location for that shoot.

I was toying with fairy tale characters as well, the first I came up with was Little Red Riding Hood as a werewolf - that one seems pretty obvious and logical, if I think of others that work a well as that I might do a few more of these. Could be cool, but offhand I can't think of too many iconic type fairy tale characters who would be recognizable as a demon or without a explanation. I'd like the images to speak for themselves and have, at least, a good portion of the viewers able to recognize the character.

These are all going to require some crafting of props and costumes, I was thinking I'd just buy a couple of the cheap foam Sword of Chaos props for the Kratos shoot, but last night I was thinking they might look a little small in John's hands - until I see them in context I'm toying with making my own.

One of the more intricate, and possibly annoying, shoots will be the Steampunk Demons, it'll feature (all fictional characters) Dr. Mordgog and his two assistants as they travel through time. That'll be a 3 person shoot and could be awesome if I really take the time with the props and costumes. The thing with Steampunk is, if it isn't don't right it looks stupid. You can't just throw on a victorian-esque suit and some goggle and declare you're into Steampunk, you need some crazy assed looking shit to go with it. This is going to be a big one and really hard to do right, luckily I've been planning it for awhile.

Otherwise I'd like to do a demon Samurai (could be awesome or terrible depending on the costuming ideas), might go with a more "Samurai Jack" approach to this one, don't know for sure just yet.

I think a Geisha Demon (continuing with that theme) could be pretty awesome, need a good setting though for this shoot. We don't really have the best gardens that I feel I'd need to pull this one off well.

A Victorian Age Demon, a female one with the huge crazy dress, I think that could look pretty cool.

And one I've been debating about for some time and really need to work on the design is Hellgirl. I made a remake about another shoot I had done where I painted up the model in all red, that she kinda reminded me of Hellboy's little sister - if he had one. Then I thought, why not? I've seen a lot of female cosplayers doing their version of a female Hellboy, but I don't want to do that, it's too easy.

I want to do a fully realized character that would fit into that world, more del Toro's than Mignola's maybe, that could very well be the sister of the Right Hand of Doom. In this case she would be known as the Left Hand of Destruction (tentative name). She wouldn't be an identical twist on Hellboy, other than having horns (of a different configuration) and being red - I kinda think you need those things in order for it to resemble the original. That could be cool.

I'm sure there will be more, I have a few others I'm playing around with to see if I can form them into a decent concept. I'm not putting the same timeline for completion on this project as I was the first, this one is going to take a lot long, maybe 2, possibly 3 years even. Who knows at this point.

Demons, Calendars and Stuff

Been busy working on stuff, just a series of random stuff. Just finished shoot number 6 for the Demon Calendar - so far so good. Got the rest all lined up and shoot dates tentatively book for a few.

Meanwhile, I've pretty much wrapped up producing new prosthetics for the shop. I've got 3 female sized finished that all look pretty decent (I've got to come up with a better of way of phrasing that, female oriented? Female only? Whatever), they'll be going online, along with a few other pieces next week. As well, I'm working on a new large pair of ears and a new nose piece that should be ready for next week as well.

Since I'm running low on supplies I've been working out what best to focus on and I've decided to give latex pieces another try. Like horns and whatnot that you just slip on, no makeup required. I figure pieces like this might be more enticing for non-makeup oriented folks.

I've got an idea for a weird horned latex headpiece, might work, might not - but there's only one way to tell for sure. I think I'll do it up for a photoshoot and if it tuns out, I'll think about putting it online.

Here's a couple outtake shots from the last two shoots:

Otherwise I'm just trying to sort of some FX for the BZK! web series next summer, so far I've got some pretty cool stuff lined up and some of which will be for sale online. I'll be posting some progress about that once I make some good headway.

And I'm finally going to take a serious attempt at building a larger foam latex oven this winter. We'll see how that goes.

Skullcap Prosthetics - 1st test

I finally got a chance to test my first Skullcap prosthetic. If you've never heard me mention it, I had an idea to create prosthetics for either bald people or people who like using baldcaps - it was sort of inspired by my annoyance of other prosthetics out there on the market that force you to use a baldcap (or actually be bald) but neglected to tell you in the product description.

So I figured, why not. Might be a really niche item in an already niche market - but the moulds are made and it turned out alright, so why not offer it up for sale to anyone who wants it.

Firstly, it was designed on a 21-1/2" head and the model here, John MacDonald, has a 22-1/2" head - and it went on relatively well with only the slightest little fold on one side that ultimately wasn't actually noticeable as a flaw in the end. Will it fit everyone? I highly doubt it, like all prosthetics like this they're generically made and made to fit an average size, so if you feel your skull is average sized, you might be alright. I would guess that anyone with a small head circumference might be in for a problem, although noticeably larger might be perfectly fine.

It took a whole batch of foam to make this one, so it might end up be a slightly more pricey piece along with the horns. However, because it's so thick, the edges held up really well and could be more reusable than most pieces - so it might be worth it for some folks, I guess I'll let them decide.

The design...it's alright. Hard to do something like this for the very first time when you're not sure of the potential problems and all that. It looks okay, I would never brag about it being a great design, but it works really well with the new Baalmoor piece.

I will be throwing it on the site and seeing what the response is. With the appropriate warnings of head sizes and all that. It'll be around $65 I think given how much foam is needed and the amount of resin horns. Still pretty decent price though for something with more reusable potential than most pieces.

So there you go. If you're bald and always wanted to slap a prosthetic on your skull - now you can.

A whole bunch of random crap

I've been working on a few things at once, so this post is going to be a little everywhere all at once.

First, I've been trying to do a Demon Calendar, nothing too spectacular, just about 12 new images. I've got 4 done so far and I think about 3 more shoots lined up and I'll see where it goes after that. No idea where I'll be printing them or how I'll be selling them. All I know is, I'm trying to keep it on the non-expensive side.

Here's a few outtake images from the shoots so far:

I've been airbrushing only as well with the makeup this time out. Slightly faster, when the airbrush isn't clogging up - but way better end results, so it's worth it.

Second, I'm hoping to wrap up some new props by tomorrow. You've probably seen them or heard or read about me mentioning them before, the "Thing in a Jar" props. I've been meaning to get around to finding proper jars and finishing a 3rd one and I should have them online by tomorrow night if all goes well.

Third, I've been slowly whittling away at some ideas for the reshoot of the BZK! web series and one thing I really want to refocus my attention on are the FX. I've complained about this before and I really wasn't happy about how I was handling the zombie makeup. That's not to say I wasn't happy with what my two makeup artists, Maggy and Krista, were doing - they were doing exactly what I told them and they did a great job. I'm referring more to keeping things more organized and on track.

As the shoots went by, with each one, the makeup become more and more rushed. That should never have happened and was the biggest mistake (aside from letting just anyone volunteer) on the series. So for next time, we're really going to make an effort that the quality of the zombies is much better and not rushed.

One thing I'll be doing is trying some "out of mouth" dentures. At least that's how I've heard them referred to, they use them a lot on The Walking Dead and it's where you create a pair of dentures that latch onto your teeth, but they overlap your lips, so when a prosthetic is applied over them it can have the lips peeled back way more than humanly possible with series pain or surgery. If that makes sense.

The overall principle behind making them is pretty simple and I reckon I'll attempt a few test pairs over the winter. It should go a long way to really sell the zombie look and I might even be able to offer them up for sale with a bit of work.

Another thing I'm debating about, and again this was inspired by The Walking Dead - is their use of animatronic or puppet zombie heads in the foreground. There were a few shots in season 2 where I noticed in the extreme foreground, so you only saw it's face or down to it's shoulders, a very decayed looking zombie. You really only saw them for maybe a few seconds, enough to really get a sense of the thing,  pretty simple effect and if I have enough of a budget I'll be trying that trick as well hopefully.

Other than that, I'm finishing up my last prosthetic of the year. I'm running low on supplies so I don't want to make another huge expense for myself so I'm doing as much as I can with what I have left and I'm running low on master mould supplies. I've got my 3rd female oriented piece to finish up today and then perhaps a new pair of ears and that will be it for this year.

I've got a few older designs I want to redo, but they'll have to wait for now.

And lastly, while I haven't even started it yet, I do plan on building my foam latex oven this winter. Could be awesome, could be a disaster - I won't know until I get around to it I guess.

Dust Troll Redux

I started my first redesign of one of my older pieces, one of many. As I believe I started before, the reason behind this is just because some of my older pieces were never master moulded and the original moulds are long since gone, so I thought it seemed like a good time to update them - having not only seen what potential problems there were with them, but just because they were older pieces and I've improved a lot in the sculpting department since then.

First up was the Dust Troll, this is one I really wanted to redo. I really liked the design when I first made it but over time saw how many issues there were with it. It kinda lacked any character - plus the tusks were a pain in the ass. All future pieces with horns, tusks or spikes, will all be using the resin pieces instead of having them as one solid foam piece. Making sculpting, moulding and casting so much easier to do it this way.

Just letting the mould dry out after cleaning it for now and I'll be master moulding it tomorrow and hopefully doing a shoot with it this weekend. Really looking forward to seeing how it looks applied and painted up.

Post Halloween Syndrome

For me Halloween is pretty much year round, so it's not so much all that special in the sense of I can finally see people in costume and all done up looking freaky - I see that all the time. And it's not so much a relaxing time of year as I'm busy getting everyone else ready and usually don't really feel like doing that much myself. Although, without Halloween I wouldn't be making as much money, so for that reason, it is indeed awesome. And it's finally over.

This year was a little quieter than last, for a number of reasons. Although I did a higher amount of retail business, which I was rather happy about. Still having trouble really breaking into the wholesale market. I have a couple clients, but I'd really like 2-3 more. I think it would push things over the edge into making the business much more viable in the long run. So I'm starting early to get that process moving forward rather than waiting until next spring.

One of the things I'm doing this year, and I've mentioned this before, is introducing a couple new prosthetic lines. The main one being female oriented prosthetics, since around 95% of my retail business was from women and I've been told by a wholesale client that it's definitely an unfilled niche in the market - I'm thinking it might not be so niche.

I've got my main positive mould done and I'm about to start testing them to see if they'll fit women better than my current pieces - which I'm well aware won't fit them well. These ones are a little shorter in length from forehead to chin, so I'm hoping it'll work. I'm about to line up the first of a few shoots with some new designs over the next few weeks.

Here's the first sculpt, it's already been moulded and I'm doing a silicone master right now. No name for it yet, I'll decide on one once I see it applied as a character I think. Overall I'm happy with the design, I'm trying to make these ones less monstrous and simply more "obviously not human" looking. This particular one will have some chin spikes as usual, I seem to like doing that.

We'll see soon enough if it all works out. And I hope to be trying out the SkullCap Prosthetics soon as well.

I did a few makeup jobs last year and I think one or two even the year before that, but this year was a bit of a bust. I had a lot lined up and pretty much all, but one, flaked out on me and just never showed up. One cancelled, I'm fine with that, but just not showing up I found a little rude. Their loss.

Anyway, the one I did end up doing turned out awesome. I even kinda impressed myself with it. My first time relying totally on my airbrush for all the makeup. Not one bit of grease or creme makeup was used.  You can't really see the details in the picture, but overall it was blended pretty well and looked decently freaky. I used the Borom Demon piece and just did a fleshy colouring with it, some spots and reddish colouring as well, it wasn't too crazy. We went for a more, I guess you could call it realistic look. And he bought a Shrunken Demon Head to fill out the look.

It's been years since I've seen the movie, but this piece unintentionally reminds me of Rawhead Rex.

I'm not cranking out piles of prosthetics a day for the moment, so I can take a bit of a rest and start working on redesigning some older pieces that were never master moulded and creating some new ones. And even working on a few more Demonic Antiquities pieces, first on that list is a Mummy Hand. We'll see how that goes.

Another new line of prosthetics

There's a while backlog of stuff I've been meaning to do this year for Halloween, but life and the whole web series thing really got in the way. Now I have more free time to actually work and I've started working on a couple new things, 2 new lines of prosthetics.

I know I mentioned one of these before, either here or just on Facebook, I don't even remember anymore where I mention things. I really should keep track of that.

Back when I was just buying prosthetics online one thing I encountered that continually annoyed me was the size of some of the pieces. Most of them were way too high on the forehead for the average person to wear without needing a bald cap - however next to none of them ever mentioned that fact so I would end up with a piece I couldn't use on just anybody with having to apply a pain in the ass bald cap as well. And some were just too large for female models or actors so I had to trim them down and try to blend in these massive edges as best I could.

I decided when I started making mine to never do that, to try to stay within a defined area so that nothing but the piece and makeup would be needed. And that they'd be wearable by most everyone - that's pretty difficult since women have small or shorter face, might not seem like it but it's pretty obvious when you try to put an average size prosthetic on them.

This all lead me to two ideas that I'm finally getting around to:

Skullcap Prosthetics
Now there might be a good reason why I've never seen these before, I guess I'm willing to find out the hard way. During the course of doing the first "Demons" book I worked with quite a few bald folks have encountered more since who are interested in this stuff so I began thinking - if there are already pieces out there that require a bald cap why not make pieces specifically for that? Both bald people and those that don't mind using bald caps.

The idea is to keep them fairly small and one two part moulds, I don't want to get into doing 3-4 part moulds. So they'll stick pretty close to the crown of the head or maybe the front or back. This would give a little more variety and dramatically alter the shape of the human head. I'm just hoping I can get them averaged size enough. Slightly on the small size would be stretchable at least to a few sizes larger, that's the best I can think of right now.

This is sort of a top-down angle on the very first attempt at one of these pieces. It's pretty simple, kind of Predator inspired. The holes are obviously for the many various resin spikes and horns I have. I'm hoping if this one is a success, I'll need to try it on a few different people to be sure, then I'll move on and finally get around to creating some big-assed horns. With a large piece to attach them to, it should work. Time will tell.

Hopefully they pan out, could be a decent corner of the market.

Female Only Prosthetics.
As I mentioned earlier on, there's a huge issue and a gap in the market for prosthetics that fit women well. The ones I've tried, full faces at least, tend to be way too long and end up looking sloppy. Or way too high on the forehead - same results.

I wouldn't have thought there was such a market, but I've had more women interesting in doing demon photo shoots than men on average and I've been told my one of my major wholesale clients there is indeed a huge hole in that market no one has yet to really show any concern about. And if this Halloween season has been any indication, he's right. Almost 95% of my retail orders were from women this year.

So I'm hoping to get these started this weekend and online in time for Halloween as soon as possible. At least one of each, all depends since I have to start from scratch and I need to test them to make sure they're doing to perform as intended.

I might even start doing female versions of some of the already existing full face pieces, who knows.

Day 4 on BZK! Undead in the Water

Today went off without a hitch and nearly right on schedule - that rarely happens. Even with a bit of delayed start we still only went half an hour (maybe even less) over schedule. Not too shabby with only 4 hours and 6 pages to shoot.

Today we did all of episode 2 and I think to date that put us at 1/3 of the way through? Maybe 1/4 at the worst. Pretty good for the major problems that cropped up this past week, like losing our lead villain. One major rewrite later and losing one full episode and 11 pages we got back on track pretty quick. The overall thing moves faster and I was able to remove at least 2 troublesome, potentially repetitive elements. And recasting was awesome. I couldn't be happy with our new lead villain, John MacDonald. He was brilliant. Just the right blend of huge scary motherfucker and campy cheese.

I finished the only real prop of the day just a few hours before the shoot, a foam sledge hammer. Worked great. Really happy with how it turned out.

We arrived a little, got to shooting a little late, but once things got going it was awesome. I kinda feel like I might've been a little out of practice until today. We hit a good stride and everyone seemed to really have a great time. Plus it was a perfect day for filming.

Vance getting hosed down for being a background corpse.

John and Jill as Bo and Daisy.

John reveals how rednecks take a leak.

James Davey as Piss Zombie - you'll have to see it.

Very quick makeup job on Dempsey as Vance

Mary, Amanda and Morgan as some hapless kidnap victims.

Most of the cast from today. Missing are James Davey and Troy Gallant.

Everyone did a great job, I think it's actually going to be pretty damned funny. And of course, the best line of the day:

And finally finally, thanks to everyone who came out today. Great job.

BZK! 2nd Day of Filming

We had our 2nd day of filming, looked like it was going to be off to a bad start when finally we had the very first Sunday of the summer that rained. Well, it was supposed to rain - we lucked out and managed to avoid it completely.

It rained while we were in transit from one location to the next. It was pretty grotesquely humid, which actually worked out great on the 2nd location.As you can see from the still from the footage below. There was an awesome fog that seemed to always be lurking on the edges of the shot and added a haziness to some of the footage, it looked pretty cool.

We gathered up for a quick shoot at Hardy Mill Pond with the leads, it went as expected, no problems whatsoever and we left slightly ahead of schedule.

While driving between the two locations we had a massive downpour and stopped in at my place along the way to wait it out, it put us a little behind schedule, but better to wait there than in the rain.

I've never shot here before, the 2nd location was Scales Pond. It's absolutely beautiful and rather grim looking at the same time. We also ended up swapping out canoes with inflatable boats. Might not have been the most brilliant idea, but I think in the end it made it easier moving things around.

I've also never filmed people in boats in the water, so this was a pretty new experience and one I really had misjudged just how difficult it would be.

While we shot some stuff with the leads, I had a couple makeup folks get the zombies ready in the background.

And that meant it was time to pile the girls in the boats. They weren't meant for 3 people, but they will hold them well enough.

And this is how I spent most of the day, in waders that had a leak in them. By the end of the day (and the zombies suffered much worse) I been walking around with one leg soaked to the knee in a boot full of water.

Even on the still camera the fog was pretty prominent.

That hardest part was resetting each time. I had a couple zombies get in the water and they were constantly pulling the boats back into position and letting them go while I tried to get a few shots. Overall I think it worked, might look a little awkward, but I'm hoping that translates to slightly silly looking.

Steve here, in the background was getting ready to be the first underwater zombie. He had to submerge himself and pop up at just the right moment, speed and position. It took only a few takes and it looked awesome in the end, perfectly creepy.

All day I was dreading the zombie attack sequence. There were so many things I couldn't show, didn't want to and had to hide it made the whole thing slightly stressful. Once we got all the zombies in the water and had very carefully shot some leadup footage I had no choice but to just do it. We also were constantly moving the boats into random spots of the river with different depths to accommodate what we needed. I don't think it shows, but I'm not going to pay too close attention - or even really care for that matter.

This was probably somewhat safer then putting the girls in canoes and tipping them, clumsy, but that makes it kind of funny anyway.

Everyone was incredibly patient, it was nice that despite it being such a difficult shoot, there was never a moment of tension or any time where anyone was very visible upset or put out because of something that was happening or not. Although I do believe the closeups of Heather in the boat when the zombies attacked her was genuine and not acting.

We had more to shoot after the zombie attack scene, but it was just taking too long to get what we had that I just didn't feel like I should expect anyone to want to stick around for another scene, so at the risk of falling behind, I decided it would be best to call it for the day and just deal with it later. We got some great stuff, but it was so exhausting - wandering about in waders all day certainly didn't make it easier on me and I doubt anyone else was really enjoying being cold and damp either.

We ended a few hours later than planned, even with dropping the next 2 scenes, we finished in the early evening I believe. And thanks to everyone who stuck it out, it was painful by times but this was the most difficult shoot on the whole series. The location was pretty remote and the weather was making everything damp, so I'm really hoping the next few shoots will be drier and easier.

And now for the best line of the day: