Scene
Ext: Bruns’ Bridge Franklin County, Missouri

We had spent weeks driving to remote locations looking for the perfect bridge. And when we finally found Brun’s bridge, our mind was made up inside of 20 seconds. It was THE bridge we wanted. And now all we had to do was shoot the scene.

So last weekend was the logistics nightmare that made me loose sleep. It was a series of shots that we had tried to film, and had to scrub once already..because we didn’t have enough people there to make it look convincing. After a sleepless night, and a lot of worry, we showed up, got the cast in wardrobe, and we had enough extras show up. We were GO!

Justin, Tina and Karen all did makeup, which took almost 5 hours to do foreground, middle and background zombies, we had shot the lead in, and we were ready to go.

First off, let me say, I admire my cast immensely. These are the people that are breathing life into these characters, and they are putting it all out there. Whether we do it in one take or eighteen. They are willing to deliver exactly what I have in my head, and I feel like a proud parent. I am constantly impressed with the depth of talent we have in the cast. There are some truly exceptional performances in this, and I when this is all said and done, I want all of them to be able to go on, and do any project they choose. I’ll be spotlighting several of them in upcoming posts.

But the extras. These are people that drove out to the middle of nowhere, to spend hours being slathered in latex and fake blood, and waited for hours to be included in this project, without knowing much of anything about the project. That is a whole different level of dedication. More than that, several of them have shown up multiple times. And they’ve been willing to do take after take, hold a mouthful of fake blood (which is just nasty tasting, even with the artificial cherry flavoring) until just the right second, and jump into freezing water. And all that for a few seconds on film, and their name in the credits.

Not only are they great for just showing up, but occasionally, you’ll get great stories.   This is an email we got from Jeff Bateman, who’s shown up twice to zombie out for us:

“I was coming into Union when i passed a cop..doing 50 in a 40…he immediately hit the lights and filpped his car around….I thought..”no freakin way am I being pulled over looking looking like I just hacked up somebody…smoked crack and then ate them!”..I pulled over in the gas station parking lot and the cop comes up..and i shit you not says..”what in THE fuck?”…I immediately blurted out that i was in a zombie movie being filmed here. He was like….”Really”….sarcastically at that… Anyway he turned out to be pretty cool and let me go without a ticket…we had a good laugh about it when I got out and showed my full zombie look….I wished i would have taken a pic with him..would have been good for the movie outtakes!!”

And just to round out the tales of Union Missouri Law Enforcement, when Tim and Maria came over on Wednesday night, they told us that they too had been pulled over.

Tim and Maria where driving on Hwy 50, and Maria told Tim to slow down.  They were coming up on Union.  As they came up over the hill, a police officer heading the other direction whipped around and pulled them over.

Tim pulled over, turned his engine off, and placed the keys on the dashboard of the car.

The officer came up to the car while Tim was searching for his insurance card.  The officer came to the window and asked “Do you know why you’ve  been pulled over?”

Tim answered, “I don’t. I’m not from around here, and I’m working on a film that we’re doing…”

The officer said’ “You were going 55 in a 45.”

Tim acted surprised because he was surprised. Tim was a bit nervous  as he told the officer “I’m getting a little freaked out here.  I can’t find my insurance card.”

The officer asked, “What kind of film is ths?”

Maria calmly explains, “A zombie film”

To which the officer says’ “Oh.  That’s cool.  I just pulled someone over that was in zombie makeup.”

To which Maria proudly responds, “Oh, that was one of ours!!!!!”  beaming with pride!

The officer starts laughing.

Tim asks, “Was his name Jeff?”

The officer responds, “Yeah, I think it was…. When I first pulled him over, I thought he had food all over his face.”

The officer said, “I’ll give you a warning. for speeding, and not having your insurance card.”

So thanks to the Union police department for letting what seems like half cast and crew off with a warning.  I’m sure he won the contest for the best stories as the station that evening.