First Zombie Reel by Mark Wells

This is my first published zombie reel.

I have calendared more zombie roles because some folks think I can play a 'believable' zombie in different ways.

The first scenes are from a very low budget 'feature film' titled; "GRACE".

My character dines with other zombies and our 'saying' of grace uses laughter to the point of hysteria, followed by 'relieving' ourselves of what we ate.

I get the only 'real' word in these scenes and I have omitted the other four characters, except for the zombie I was seated next to.

The second set of scenes is from an IGN.com Internet commercial for the Capcom game of;

"Dead Rising 2" and it's newest episode; "Uranus Zone Exposed", which came out on October 11.

My zombie was the featured male and we were 'watching' a former Penthouse Pet who dropped her top in a portion of the video that was shot after our scenes were done.

Myself and the other zombies were to react to a 'green screen' television, being directed by the Director who know what we would be 'looking at' even though we only were looking at a blank T.V. screen.

Both scenes depict a happier zombie than most people think zombies act like.

I can play all types of zombies even though I still don't know much about the genre.

In the second set of scenes, I actually chomped down on the foam foot but I didn't pull off any toes.

The makeup artist left the site before shooting was finished and I didn't have any decent makeup cleaning material so I drove home in the face makeup. I'm glad folks didn't look at me all the way down the 405 freeway. Thankfully, it was a lighter style makeup compared to many other zombie faces viewed throughout the media.

Now I have packed my car with more essentials for a background/extra actor including cleanup supplies and extra clothing.

"Dead Rising 2" Commercial

FIRST! All of the cast, including me 'watched' a green screen on the small monitor I was by and we all acted as if we were watching the woman who was never really there, during our portions of the commercial.

This is a real online commerical I did for a Capcom game's new episode that came out on October 11, 2011.

Zombie games are something I know almost absolutely nothing about. Somebody told me they know about "Dead Rising 2" and it might be a popular game, I just don't really know, though.

There are lots of interesting things about this video's production that folks may not be able to see from it.

First, the commercial was shot in the building that houses IGN.com a gaming site.

But the video was not shot in IGN's suite but rather the former space of a much more well known online company that has fallen onto such hard times, it's 'death' may be at hand.

This video was shot in the former offices of what was the headquarters of MySpace, we were told.

Most of the cast of the commercial know about the particular game and they all know so much more about zombie things than I know, or might ever want to know.

When you first watch the commercial, there is a female zombie heading towards the camera.

The young woman also had her husband as another cast member in the commercial and we all got to view her and her husband's wedding album from the wedding not that long ago.

It was quite a wedding album for most because she and her husband got married in a zombie-themed wedding, complete with makeup, wardrobe and lots of zombie stuff in the background.

These two young people seemed fairly normal to me but when folks learned of her profession, most of them could not believe what she does in another part of her working life.

I will admit I had never heard her name before and I never have had any interest in watching what her other work consists of...lesbian porn videos.

One should never assume what someone else might work as, just by their appearance or the fact they are in a hetero marriage. I liked both of them and together they looked like a fun and very loving couple.

As to the actress that appeared in place of the green screen all of us 'watched', she was basically looking at herself while she was in her zombie persona.

The actress first appears by the water cooler near the beginning of the commercial and then later, she appears near where I was sitting.

If you watch the video and notice that a group of zombies gather to watch what my zombie character is watching, the actress, in her zombie garb is to my left and looking over the cubicle panel, at what I am watching.

It was quite the transformation to see her as a zombie and then, as I was leaving after my scene was 'in the can' see her dressed as she was in the green screen shot, wig and all.

A publisher of a very popular site on the Web came to the shoot to interview the cast and director for an article he was doing for his site.

He asked me if I wished to be part of his article but since I know virtually nothing about the zombie life or genre, I decided to let others who have much more interest in the zombie life and all that goes along with that, be involved in the article.

If you are into everything 'zombie' and you get a look at others who were in the commercial and then appeared in his video article, maybe you can comment back to me and let me know where to find that article.

I was and still am very impressed with ALL the cast members and production crew that created that commercial. NOBODY was anything other that just a real person doing what the liked or loved to do and there was nothing nasty or foul that went on, in any way.

The foot I chomped on was foam, of course. It tasted just like painted foam should taste like. I could have bitten the big toe completely off, but I chose not to so it could be used again.

Another casting call, another fun time.

"GRACE"

Oh, to be a zombie!

This is from a portion of a direct-to-Internet feature in which I play a 'dinner guest'.

The zombie genre seems to be growing in popularity these days and this short scene depicts zombies 'saying' grace in a manner and form I guess only zombies appreciate.

The bit has us conversing by beginning with a light chuckle then heading towards hysteria, until we could no longer hold down the contents of our meal.

The strange, yet unzombie aspect of our meal is that it did not consist of 'brains' or human body parts as so many other zombie meals consiste of.

The producer and director of the feature provided lunch prior to the scene, in a park in West Los Angeles, by the Federal Building.

That 'real' meal was from an Indian restaurant and what the cast offered back was a mixture of the leftovers.

Each zombie provided their own ultimate expression of the leftovers and I was the one to project out what I had taken in.

It took four takes from me to get about the one second of my 'projection' viewed on the video.

The Director of Photography used a Cannon D7 High Definition camera and he sat at another table about 8 feet away from me. I informed him that I might project myself a great enough distance to have him find some matter on or near him...and he did.

I got the only real word in the scene, so I got to add that I got a line to my resume.

I have not viewed the entire feature and I might write a comment to this post once the entire feature is finished.