Saturday was the big final day of filming for the zombie flick “Dead Moon Rising”. The film’s being produced by a crew in Louisville and their last day of shooting involved the movie’s biggest scenes during which the city is overrun with zombies and motorcycle bikers band together to fight them off. The director Mark Poole put out the word well in advance to get as many zombie and biker extras as possible. He was not disappointed.
We left Cincy early Saturday morning and arrived on set right on time, 11am. The location was a city block right in the heart of downtown Louisville (between 1st and 2nd streets) and was closed to traffic all day. The base of operations was a huge biker bar. Here the cast, crew and extras could get of the sun, get makeup, have a drink and a seat. After signing in we got in the line for makeup…a line that was already a few dozen people deep. We were wearing old tattered clothes, light in color (to show blood better), and sans logos as requested. After waiting a half hour they annouced that due to lack of time and make-up it would not be possible to give everyone the official zombie treatment. They encouraged everyone to stay so they’d have as many bodies as possible and just not to expect to be in any close shots. After driving for a couple hours this was disaapointing. But at least 100 other people were in the same boat. A lot of people came with their own makeup already done – some of which were elaborate and disgusting, others not so much. Here’s a few of our favs:
Right as the first big zombie shot was being set up, a fellow extra showed up with a large container of fake blood and a bunch of us non-madeup folk slathered up. Now dripping with red ooze, we felt much better about running the streets with the other undead.
The first scene was a large mob shot on the street where two hordes of zombies gather at an intersection then run down the street toward the cameras. Donna lost a shoe and fell on the first take and I nearly had my sunglasses trampled on the third, but it was great fun. Here’s the director and AD consulting us in proper zombie acting technique:
Next it was the bikers turn for filming. Here’s a clip where they first all roll up – must’ve been 100 bikes or more.
Part of the fun of the bikers-only filming was just seeing the zombie extras on break. Very surreal seeing a bar full of people with fatal wounds chatting, smoking, drinking beer, and such.
Later came the big scenes where the bikers and zombies clash in the streets. Take after take was filmed of zombies rushing at bikers, bikers rushing at zombies, and the resulting bloody mosh-pit. It sounds rough, but it only appeared that way. Getting ready for the rush:
Next individual scenes were shot with bikers being surrounded, pulled from their bikes, and eaten. The scariest thing all day was how some zombie extras releshed in their role and ripped apart intestines with their teeth.
By 4:30 it was a wrap. We thanked the director for a memorable day and headed home…still dripping.
