The Importance of Practical Effects

Some people call me a grandpa. I like to fish, I like classic rock, and I'm pretty much ready to retire. My old school ways carry over into my production tastes; I prefer to do things practically, not relying on all this new-fangled digital nonsense that the kids are using these days. We've all heard the age-old adage "fix it in post." I hate that. For me, whether it is lighting, special effects, makeup, or sound design there is no better way to accurately depict it than to actually create it. Don't get me wrong. CGI and the like have the potential to create some  truly amazing things that would be entirely impossible to recreate practically, but I don't the current trend that seems to be relying on digital effects almost exclusively. 

One show that has received a lot of praise for its use of special effects is The Walking Dead. Executive-producer and special-effects expert Greg Nicotero is the man behind the terrifying zombies, all created almost exclusively with practical effects. Nicotero has worked as a makeup artist on many films, including the third installment of the holy grail of zombie movies,  George Romero's Day of the Dead.  The zombies of TWD are given an immense amount of individual attention; to even appear on the show all of the actors must graduate from "Zombie School" which teaches them the correct way to move, gesture, and interact within the narrative world.  Each zombie is hand crafted, with makeup applied that accents and hyperbolizes the individual features of the actor, making each zombie unique. The zombies have evolved as the show has progressed, becoming more decayed and grotesque with the passage of time in the story world. Here are some examples: 

The results of this individual attention is incredible.  Most of the effects on TWD are practical; there's nothing a hate more than CGI blood-splatter or animated gore. I want the real stuff. 

This is actually Greg Nicotero as an extra on TWD. He has made several cameo appearances.

Nicotero doing his thing

 This show isn't filmed with a bunch of extras wearing chroma-key green suits with motion tracking dots all over their face. The Walking Dead has real zombies. Well, as close to real as you can physically get.  The results are terrifying and certainly take the show to the next level. TWD does use some digital effects for exotic backdrops and more involved zombie kills; in fact I read an article that revealed that season six of the show will use more digital effects than any previous season. Call me old school, but I just love the use of practical makeup and other effects. Digital effects certainly have their place, but there are just some things that can only be created, not recreated on a screen. 

Sound in Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead is a zombie movie parody starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. While the entire movie is definitely worth watching, a main staple of the film is the sound effects. Using intense and defined sound, that is typically found in action movies, for everyday activities heightens the humor of the scene. His mundane life comes with a soundtrack, muting outside noises, the viewer focuses on the loud stumbling on a curb, or listens as opening a soda can becomes an epic action. But all this is even before the dead come back to life, the climax of the movie. These dramatic sounds accompany his actions from the very beginning. Sounds like these direct the viewer to a genre or reference they are about to experience.

The movie also strongly brings music into play. Aside from using music from other classic zombie movies, director Edgar Wright incorporates it right into the action. In this scene, they are fighting off zombie in a pub, and become rhythmically intertwined with the music playing the background, fighting off zombies to Queen's Don't Stop Me Now.

Production wise, the sound is very clear. The ambient sound such as subtle music and constant zombie groans seem natural when paired with the main dialogue.

Community's Halloween Episodes and Parodies

To many people Community is a television series about a group of students at a community college but it is so much more than that. The series heavily uses pop culture references and meta-humor often parodying film and television clichés. These episodes include a holiday stop-motion episode, a clip show of memories that never happened, a parody of westerns, and even a recent episode that had seven alternate timelines. Every single of one these are worthy of an entire blog post but today in the spirit of Halloween I am focusing on their annual Halloween episodes.

In the first season their Halloween episode was called “Introduction to Statistics” and dealt with Jeff and his decision to blow off his study group’s Halloween party in order to score with the young Statistics professor. However the b-plot of the episode is a great parody of superhero films and Batman. Abed is a student that is obsessed with pop culture and entertainment, much like the show’s creator Dan Harmon and the writers. At Halloween he dresses up as Batman and more specifically as the Christian Bale reboot version. At the end of the episode he saves the day as a chair and desk fort begins to collapse on Jeff who is trying to comfort Pierce about realizing he is old and “un-hip.” Jeff is usually the first to complain about the absurd behavior of Abed but at the end of the episode after he made his decision to choose the study group over the teacher he accepts Abed, his behavior, and his new batch of friends. The ending moment is then a straight parody of the heroic music and narration Batman will often do which was just recently seen in the movie The Dark Knight.

Last season the Halloween episode was called “Epidemiology” but most fans know it has the zombie episode. In this episode the study group is left to fend for themselves when their classmates become “zombies” due to tainted food the Dean cheaply bought. While it was actually an outbreak of rabies instead of them actually being zombies, the episode features numerous horror movie clichés the would be seen in a zombie or horror movie. First was a cat rustling in an abandoned area. Many times in movies characters are often spooked by some animal like a cat flying past them when they are trying to hide and escape the real evil outside. Community parodied this by having the cat constantly keep reappearing and showing it unconvincingly flying across the screen. Another funny comment on horror movies the show made was on music. Usually horror movies have scary, dark, and very intense music but on Community the music was the greatest hits of ABBA mixed in with the Dean’s voice memos. Unable to leave that section of school to change the playlist, upbeat songs like “Dancing Queen” played as the zombies attacked and bit the study group. Finally another comment on horror movies (or any movie in general) came when Troy tries to run through crowd to save the day and turn down the thermostat (which is believe to slow down the symptoms of the zombies before they suffer brain damage). While normally the action hero will burst through the group and destroy all the bad guys in his path, Troy is immediately attacked and stopped. He ends up reaching the goal but after he was bit himself.

I love Community and their themed episodes like their past two Halloween episodes. Tomorrow night at 8 pm on NBC their third episode airs called “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps” and I am sure based on the title and the prior history of the show that it will continue to make fun of and comment on horror movies, pop culture, and entertainment in general. I for one can’t wait for the hilarity and references to ensue.

Halloween=The Walking Dead

About this time last year, I started watching a new television series on AMC called The Walking Dead. With Halloween around the corner, this new show is packed with guns, violence, and you guessed it, zombies. The second season just started up this past Sunday, and left the audience in shock with a surprise ending. Compared to the other zombie movies and shows, this one definitely has the most realistic looking zombies and a practical plot that every other zombie movie is missing. After a virus breaks out, a group of survivors are forced to leave their home in attempt to find a secure location that hasn't been infected yet. There is no vaccine and they are getting by day to day with what they can find. The streets are blocked due to all the traffic that tried to escape, so the use of vehicles is almost imposs
ible. This is what a zombie apocalypse would be if one

were to happen in the US.

The presentation of the zombies is awesome. Each one is unique and acts differently to the one standing next to him/her. The makeup artist and costume designers both won awards for last years season at the Saturn Awards Ceremony for TV shows. Below you can see a before an after picture with the makeup and effects. Picture

Last, I wanted to comment on the music and sfx in the show. Almost every dramatic scene is silent on this show. At first, I didn't like how they were setting the tone, but later I realized that with no music, you could never tell when something was gonna happen or pop up. You can't guess, which sometimes pisses me off, but makes for great TV. The Walking Dead is a mini series and I seriously suggest you catch up on the episodes if you want a good scare and plot. You can find all the episodes at amctv.com or 1channel.tv. Any questions or comments, please ask. I love discussing this show.