Zombieland Exclusive: Hideous Secrets From the Makeup Trailer — Getting a Zombie Ready for Its Close-up » 30ninjas

Zombieland Exclusive: Hideous Secrets From the Makeup Trailer — Getting a Zombie Ready for Its Close-up

Share on Facebook posted 10-02-09 by Julina Tatlock

We think this zombie clown looks pretty damn good. The rich, saturated colors that director Ruben Fleischer and cinematographer Michael Bonvillain shot for Zombieland highlight with vivid detail the zombieriffic gruesomeness of the movie’s Undead. Since we’ve never made a zombie (that time in high school in the back seat of Dad’s Chevy doesn’t count), we wanted to know: Just how long does it take to make one? Kim Winther, our Zombieland insider, walked us through how it works. First, it depends on how much blending you have to do between the “real”-person character and the zombie; for instance if he’s a mailman zombie or a bartender zombie, he might take longer. After that, there are three levels of zombies:

The A-level Zombie: 3-4 hours. This is your close-up zombie (like the clown you see here). All of these zombies wear contact lenses to give their eyes that “I’ve Been Up For Weeks, Stoned-Out-of-My Zombie-Gourd” Look. These zombies aren’t in many shots, but what we see of them is grade-A zombie-meat fun. The camera gets so close to these guys that you get to see all the things that are most zombie-u-tiful, like spit, vomit, and blood!
The Mid-Range Zombie: 2 hours. Mid-range means exactly what it sounds like — you don’t see these zombies close-up, but they’re not terribly far away. They’re your basic, middle-of-the-road, Middle American, middle-class zombies. These zombies also wear contacts, but these guys don’t hog the mirror as long in the makeup trailer, getting their bloody gashes perfect.
The Long-Range Zombie: 45 minutes. These are your down-and-dirty background zombies. These guys were mostly individually cast extras that were found in open calls. Who knows, your college math professor could be one of them. The makeup prep? Throw some blood on them and on their shirts, point them in the direction of living human flesh, and set them free.

Read Part 1 of Zombieland Exclusive: Insider Spills Gory Details on Double-Barrelled Woody Harrelson and Zombieriffic Action Finale With 250 Rabid Zombies! Read it Now!

4 responses to Zombieland Exclusive: Hideous Secrets From the Makeup Trailer — Getting a Zombie Ready for Its Close-up

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Steve Prouty

Hi, I was in charge of the make-up effects on set for Zombieland and just wanted to correct the numbers you were given as to make-up times.
Our close up zombies were in the chair for no more than 1 and a half hours.
Mid range looks took 30 to 40 minutes.
Background were 15 minutes.
On our busiest nights we had upward of 175 zombies all being done by 9 make-up artists in a 5 to 6 hour marathon of work.
Our crew really went above and beyond to accommodate a very ambitious production schedule. I’m glad the movie has done so well as was proud to be a part of it.

Julina Tatlock

Thanks for the clarification, Steve. I based my information on my chats with Kim Winther so it’s great to get it from someone who was actually doing it! The zombies look awesome and those marathon zombie-making factory sessions sound crazy!

Tom Oliver

I really enjoyed this movie and watched it several times. Do you know the name of Woody Harrelson’s stunt double?

Julina Tatlock

I don’t know his name offhand but I’ll try and find out for you!