While cameras continue to roll on The Walking Dead season 3, AMC has posted yet another “Dispatches from the Set” blog via the network’s official site.
The focus this time is on Greg Nicotero, FX artist, contributing producer and director of the hit series. In an interview with one of the founders of KNB EFX, Nicotero discusses the zombie effects of season three, his next turn in the director’s chair and what we can come to expect.
On directing his second episode:
I tend to get these really good dramatic bits in my episodes… I got the script and I read it and it’s huge. Every single character in the show has something to do, something to say and there are great dramatic moments. I also had several key moments from the graphic novel that fans will recognize that I had to establish and set up in Episode 5 that will play out through the rest of the season. And then there’s a lot more zombie action in my episode. Actually there’s a lot more zombie action in every episode this season.
On some zombie FX:
We’ve been able to do a lot more full-body prosthetics. One thing that I wanted to allow for in Season 3 was, you know, rotted chests and rotted backs. So we sculpted male and female rotted torsos that get glued directly to the performers. And one of the ideas we like playing up was that the walkers, because they are rotting and decomposed, is that they’re sort of putrefying — so if you come in contact with any of them and you slash at them, parts of them might sort of liquefy and come off.
On Michonne’s “pets”:
They’re missing their arms, their jaws and their teeth… We actually sculpted the front of the walkers’ faces out about an inch and a half, so when you see the walkers on camera, those are not their real eyes — those are glass eyes that are built into the prosthetic. But by building the prosthetic piece out, we were able to deemphasize their real chin, which was covered under the foam latex piece, so you could stand on set and look at their faces and not see their chin, as if their entire jawbone was torn out. It was a really good marriage of a practical prosthetic face, prosthetics on the body and then the visual effects that erased the arms. It’s pretty amazing.
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