Original subtitles

they're still here

they're after us there's no more room in

hell

what when there's no more room in hell

the dead will walk here

when you make a film like this some

people are going to think you know gee

this guy's doing something interesting

over here

and some people are gonna you know

want to strangle you you know but people

just flipped out i mean screaming

yelling

cheering i couldn't believe how people

loved it i thought oh my god it's so

sick

a lot of people couldn't watch the film

it was so over the top

i'm thinking oh my god what did i get

myself into

it's a great film the humor the violence

and the pulse keeps pushing you and

pushing you

when you say the word zombie to most

people dawn of the dead comes to mind it

is the

zombie movie

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

i was always attracted to the horror

genre and

when i was old enough to go to movies by

myself

they were re-releasing the universal you

know the famous monsters

the original frankenstein original

dracula as a kid i

got to see those films big screen and

they're beautiful you know they're just

gorgeous

and then came the sort of early 50s

sci-fi

things big bugs and day the earth stood

still in the original

version of the thing so those were the

films that really influenced me when i

was re

at that really early sort of formative

stage

but in addition to that the tales of

hoffmann

film by the archers powell and

pressburger

that's the movie that made me want to

make movies i think

because the effects were obvious you

could see how he did it

you know he said well gee i might be

able to do something like that

i always thought well that's you know

it's a nice it's a pipe dream

it's nothing that can ever happen now i

came to pittsburgh to go to carnegie

mellon

to study painting and design and i just

got antsy and

left school without graduating and went

down and

would hang out at one of these film labs

cities like pittsburgh

had film labs because the news was on

film

my first job i guess was bicycling these

newsreels around to the tv stations in

town

and i would hang out with these

journeymen guys smoking cigarettes and

gluing together newsreels you know i

learned all the basics from

from them and then some friends of mine

and myself

got together and started a little

company to do commercials on film

the calgon story what happens when a

calgon research team in their submarine

are reduced to micro size and sent on a

dangerous mission deep inside a washing

machine

we were pretty successful for a few

years and we wound up accumulating

lights cameras

equipment and

always we would talk about why don't we

try to make a movie

i had a little short story that i had

written about zombies and it was

basically a rip-off

from richard matheson's i am legend

so i took the first part of that short

story and started to write the

screenplay for

neither living dead

then we decided to just go ahead and

shoot 10 of us kicked in

600 bucks a piece and we would shoot for

you know three days come back

shoot a beer commercial go back and

shoot some of the movie again

it was real gorilla film making

we lived in that farmhouse there was no

running water we had to bathe in the

little stream out back i mean

this went on for almost a year so we

were just lucky that

you know all the actors stuck with us

and nobody got

hurt or killed or anything and we were

able to finish the film

welcome to a night

of total terror

night of the living dead

the film wasn't very successful right

away actually returned money

over the first six months or so but it

never was a huge success and then it

came back it was sort of discovered in

france and then a few

critics in the u.s started to jump on

the bandwagon and say gee there's more

to this film than meets the eye

theater owners would show neither living

dead at midnight people would would go

and it became this event we started to

get phone calls from hollywood

saying you know can you make another one

of those or do you want to come and make

a horror movie for us and

i was just resisting completely i didn't

want to get type cast

so we managed to scrounge together a few

bucks to shoot there's always vanilla

and a few bucks to shoot the season of

the witch

[Music]

and then then the crazy but none of

those films got seen by anybody they

weren't getting good distribution

and at that point i mean i dropped

pretty much off the radar

because you know having taken these

several more

shots at the wheel and nothing turned

out

and you know how hollywood is if you

don't you know if you don't hear from

hear about somebody in the last week

well they must be

they must have died or something you

know i met richard rubinstein and

richard was able to

go and raise the money to shoot martin

martial

in the meantime i was out taking a tour

of the mall

one day we had friends here in

pittsburgh who owned the monroeville

mall it was one of the first indoor

malls in the country

and they said you know you could survive

up there if in the event of

a nuclear attack or something so i said

well gee what about a zombie attack

that gave me the idea i said this is a

perfect way to do another film have

people trying to escape the living dead

and they

they wind up in this shopping mall you

know this consumer

paradise why do they come here kind of

instinct

memory what they used to do

this was an important place in their

lives i actually started to write the

screenplay and

simultaneous to that um

dario argento called up from italy and

said that he would be interested if i

was interested in doing another

[Music]

[Music]

uh

so dario said you come come i said i'll

write it he said no you can

come you're right here you're right here

georgia

[Music]

um

[Music]

we get flown to rome to live in an

apartment in the

most beautiful part of the city and

george would have to write

for two days and then some translator

would pick up the stuff

every couple days and translate it and

then

dario argenta would come over and take

us out to dinner and discuss it it was

wonderful

you know he was a wild artist flamboyant

and wild

and he didn't speak much english then

and the two of them it was

they would just smell each other in body

language you know

it's so funny dario and i never talked

ideas i mean his salute he was

he was very sort of very respectful that

way

[Music]

around

[Music]

he said you make film you make the film

you want to make i finished the script

in this little apartment

it took me about three and a half weeks

to finish it my wife chris was saying to

me the whole time you know you're nuts

george this is too big it's too big you

think you're

mgm or something i mean this is huge we

can never make this you know

but he said oh yeah we can we can don't

worry george

i have learned always writes his vision

and then says i'll figure a way

and he always does what he wants and

somehow he pulls it off

i think that we felt that we could do it

for under a million

richard rubinstein he always used to say

i'll tell you what the parameters of the

box are

once you're in there you can do whatever

you want he was great that way

we didn't know the proper way of making

filmmaking at that point so

okay okay let's call up and see who can

you know who can do what

who are you gonna call you call your

friends you know i got a telegram from

george and it said

hey we've got another gig start thinking

of ways to kill people

wow what's this so of course i called

him immediately and then i think um

i think i got the script the script for

dawn of the dead i followed his

his instructions to the letter starts

thinking of ways to kill people

we had a casting session in new york

where my wife chris and

and a lot of other friends of ours who

were actors used to work

i was working in a restaurant called

lady asters where

um david m ghee also worked i was

cooking

in this restaurant and i would get to

work around 4 4

30 every afternoon george came in with

chris his wife

and he mentioned that he was in new york

uh casting

for a movie he was about to do she asked

me if i wanted to audition

for dawn of the dead i said well

certainly

i could run i went through it once

and then i went to a call back i could

run right tonight

then he just put his hand on my shoulder

he said okay you got it

it was that simple and i said can i

audition

i said sure why not and uh i did

hello hq this is police dunk

operated dead post abandoned

after the audition uh he i was told that

i had the role so

which was exciting wake up sucker with

these and we're bad guys that's exactly

what we are

dwayne jones who starred in the night of

the living dead

was a friend of mine i said to wayne

i want to do dawn dead then sequel the

next one

he said he said really say hello to

george for me i said okay

sorry you found out i'm pregnant because

i don't want to be treated any

differently than you treat each other

i went into this audition and

i got the part which was the good

the bad news was i didn't know how to

act

i never worked professionally before in

my life

everybody said oh this is really great

but i was terrified

we drew heavily upon the people we had

always worked with of course

once the news came out that george has

another film

um the walk-ins came and our friends

came and we knew

pretty much who we were going to be

using i'd say maybe 15 people at the

most

and we just put them put everybody

together and started to talk about how

we're going to pull this off

it's the our gang style of shooting you

know let's make a film

you know that's the way it was it was

done pretty much

it was the very first day

of shooting it was the first feature i

had ever done

and i'm nervous as production manager

i was just responsible for getting

everything together

to be where it needed to be at the time

it needed to be there

i was very young too dumb to realize how

much was on my shoulders

and george turns to me and he says we

going to make a movie

i'm not so sure what to believe doctor

all we get is what you people tell us

and it's hard enough to believe

in fact it's fast it's hard enough to

believe without you coming in here

you're not running a talk show here mr

berman you can forget

pitching an audience the moral bullshit

the first

five minutes it's a powerful scene

jordan told me and david that he

he needed our scene to be really

energetic and all this kind of stuff

because it's the lead-in to

the rest of the movie david early and i

who was my scene partner he was the

interviewer uh

had been in some plays together so we

were used to working together and i said

look we got this part

to this role together why don't we get

together and

run some lines so when we get there

we're ready

it was at uh wpgh studios channel 53

in the north hills i said well george we

rehearsed a little bit he says really

people aren't willing to accept your

solutions doctor and i for one don't

blame them

every dead body that is not exterminated

becomes one of them it gets up and kills

the people it kills get up and kill i

think he bought the first take

then later he gave me this hug and

george is big i mean he can pick me up

off the floor

but it's like giving me that big bear

hug i mean that's george

i was saying yeah that's this film

acting is really easy

[Music]

there's a scene in the project it was

such an

exciting event there were so many things

happening i mean

guns shootings explosions squibs

dead people coming to life everybody was

into it

and everyone was excited about it

[Music]

dawn of the dead was a learning

experience

my job was special effects take the

script and create what's in there as

realistic as possible

[Music]

the script says blowing the head off

we'd read the screenplay and

uh how the hell we gonna do this we had

this rubber head

we filled it with condoms filled with

blood

apple cores you know shrimp dip you know

anything on the craft service table went

in that head

we sealed it with plaster so when i

would turn it over or

or open the molds up i would have this

rubber head

filled with these goodies so we did it

brown like a puerto rican and the afro

wig sort of in the goatee

and they said everybody come in tom's

going to blow off the head and we're

going to

uh shoot this head off you know they're

not doing that

and uh yes they are oh great let's go

see this

we all go trooping out there i'm

thinking wow okay now i got an audience

too

and i remember we cleared the area the

camera was behind me and i just blasted

the head off with that shotgun

it blew up real good it was an eyeful

and an earful and a stomach full it was

impressive

it was really spectacular and then the

crew applauded

when that head went off that for them

was the moment when they thought wow

this is going to be something special

nobody has seen stuff like this before

if they're going to do that in the

beginning of the movie what are we in

store for

then the bites oh my god more goodies i

just went oh

good there's no holding back

[Applause]

and then we're called downstairs to

shoot the scene the basement and all the

zombies are there

and they're eating each other and i will

never forget

i never forget walking in there and i

looked

through the wire and i went

oh my god this is disgusting because

that actually made me sick

i was taken aback by it and i said my

god this would never play the united

states

the sensors just won't let them it's too

gory

and i looked over at george i said

george this is disgusting

he just looked at me he went i know

and he's just korean

i knew that we were pushing the envelope

with the gore a little bit

i didn't want to shy away from that and

i also

had this feeling that it's a real sucker

punch

we needed that kind of sucker punch just

to say that this is real

horror guys

[Music]

meet me on the roof at nine o'clock get

loud i don't believe we're gonna get out

in the chopper

steven we can't we've got

[Music]

it's 9pm all right stephen we can't

we've got this we've got to nothing

fran we've got to survive somebody's got

to survive now you'd be upstairs at nine

o'clock and don't make me come looking

for you

go ahead we'll be off the air by

midnight anyway the emergency networks

are taking over

our responsibility is finished

i love the story and i think people

watch the film and they think well what

i do in that situation

you know i think what really speaks to

people is the relationship between the

four characters

roger always felt that he was able to

succeed

no matter what the odds no matter what

the obstacles are and that's what he

prided himself on which was also

his tragic flaw i read the script and

i said i can't wait to do this i mean

you're the cowboy you're the hero

i think it's every kid's dream to put on

two holsters

a rifle the bandelier around the chest

and i couldn't wait loved it loved it

loved it

i played the guy who was slightly off

kilter a little bit he was just an

ordinary guy he would look

silly at times he'd make wrong choices

he would fail where the

swat team guys would heroically succeed

in the beginning of the film fran was

the drag

the weak thing you know pregnant getting

morning sickness on the other hand she

sort of came through

as as as a heroine and not just somebody

that they had to

take care of you know i liked it when

franny got strong

usually horror films had women running

around in underwear at that point

screaming

and crying and being chased by the

monster and i think

why there's such a um respect for

this film is because it it

went to another place

we were at the airport and there was a

zombie

and george wanted me to scream

i i i said i'm not going to do it i

won't scream i'm not going to fall down

i'm not going to do this i'm not gonna

do that he's like

what do you mean you're not getting i

said i'm not screaming i wasn't gonna

run and scream or cry

or do any of that and galen sort of woke

me up to the idea that that's not

necessarily the way it should go it was

early feminist pre-sigourney weaver

pre-alien where the woman was the

protagonist that hadn't been explored

yet in horror films

after that he never asked me to scream

maybe he thought i couldn't so why

bother

there were two days at the airport the

monroeville airport literally

was a grass strip one dinky building

and a couple little wooden hangers and

since i was brought in just for this

particular section

i didn't have a lot of the continuity of

knowing other people

who were involved as well

[Music]

i was trying to ask the other zombies

how's everybody else doing this

thing basically uh there's little

direction other than

we have this great scene and you'll get

your head taken off by a helicopter the

script says

the zombie stands up and that helicopter

blades take the top of his head off

so again it was how the hell are we

going to do this so well what do i need

to see i need the guy

stands up head disappears blood flows

out wow that's simple enough

the appliance that tom had put together

added

about two inches or so to the top of my

head and he was able to build out around

with a foam type of component then i

would i

sliced it in many sections and attached

each section

with varying lengths of black fish line

laying in on the top of my head

were two tubes which ran then down

my back and all the way down back

through the bottom of the pants legs and

two guys behind the boxes

with the hand pumps filled with the

blood and those were in place

through the walking sequence and so

forth when i got onto the crates

the helicopter wasn't running at the

time the blades were animated in later

you know i just handed that fish line to

a guy and said

run and when he ran with the fish line

jim's head unraveled

[Music]

and then we just pumped blood in through

tubing up jim's legs

to the headpiece spraying out of the

head that was it

that was a take

[Applause]

when i shot the kids at the airport tom

savini's nieces and nephews i think

i didn't enjoy that

no didn't enjoy that shooting the kids

thought that was a little crazy

[Music]

jesus it's everywhere

we're still pretty close to john's son

those rednecks are probably enjoying the

whole thing

i knew that that armory was there and

the national guard was there

and it was my job to go and try and get

it and i just

went and knocked on the door and spoke

to you know lieutenant colonel whoever

everyone in pittsburgh including all the

national guard and the people of the

army they knew who george was

and they let it happen i guess

probably the national guard that were

due to work that weekend

um came out with their tanks and their

guns and

all their stuff

it's funny how pittsburghers you know

they

they just got behind everything and uh

it became this this sort of you know fun

thing to do it was an event

[Music]

people really viewed it as kind of a

picnic everybody was

very enthusiastic

[Music]

it was great george was so happy you

know

[Music]

what the hell is it looks like a

shopping center one of those big indoor

malls

once we started in the mall it became a

whole other kind of filming

we were up you know breakfast was was

four o'clock in the afternoon then we'd

all gather down the lobby of the bigelow

hotel and we'd all get in the car and

drive out to the mall we were supposed

to ride with them all about seven

o'clock

and it'd be full of people the mishmash

of things going on

i would make up the appliance zombies or

um

think about what what effects were going

to happen that night we'd all be

planning or trying to rally

meetings with people about okay what

we're going to do tonight

we needed everybody to put in 120

percent

i typically would arrive very early

along with tom davinski

and start loading magazines and looking

at gear cleaning lenses

and they'd start rolling camera i think

like 10 o'clock

then you'd work all night and continue

shooting until morning

it's a little difficult you know to

adjust to in the beginning

we were just so immersed in doing the

project that it was

you know i i don't even you lost time we

were just doing it that's all it was

and there was no other life i don't

remember

not working i've been sleeping some of

us had to work all day

to get ready for the night the elixir of

choice by the way

it was coffee

we always had styrofoam cups of coffee

we used to jokingly say george never ate

never use the restroom only drink coffee

and that's real jack daniels

which we enjoyed because it was cold as

crap in pittsburgh at that point

inside we were like shaking like this it

was so

cold i never forget it it was like

freezing cold

it was the dead of winter we had one

night

uh that it snowed it was getting a

little late

once lunch is coming in it's not coming

in there's no way

it's not coming in we're snowed in they

can't get here

said what we typically wanted to rap out

by about 8 30 at the latest

because the mall reopened so we shot

some incredible hours in terms of

working around the

business schedule the mall and it

wouldn't seem like it went on forever

working seven days a week 24 hours a day

and really for not much money i mean

no one made anything but everybody was

up no one was ever down in the dumps or

depressed

everyone always maintained a high spirit

we all got along

and it was all a big adventure i try to

make it as much fun as i can for people

you know we're not doing surgery

you might as well have as much fun as

you can and i love to work

collaboratively with people i mean if

you have

20 people in a room you want to hear

their ideas he listens to everybody

craft services

i remember george showing the federal

express man the budget

of a motion picture and he was very free

to share the responsibilities of a

creation

george would come onto a set he would

say say man we're going to be shooting

in this direction and we've got a group

of zombies coming this way and he'd walk

away

i would start designing a shot i think

george would come back and say how's it

look man

george was great to work with gives you

a lot of freedom as an actor

i was supposed to run down the escalator

and i just said george well what if i

slide down there

and he went what i said i just kind of

slide down the center of it

he said okay

[Applause]

he was always flexible you know to try

something else what i

soon realized was that i was being

directed in this horror film by this

incredibly kind man who

would let me do pretty much anything

that i wanted to try

and you never wanted to feel like you

were letting him down

george was able to get whatever he

wanted out of the crew without asking

for it

do you want to do something for someone

who treats you

so well and respects you and your ideas

you know it makes you a part of it

because you want so much to be a part of

it

who cares if 12 13 16 hours have gone by

what can we do next okay and actually

the mall itself was like this huge

playground

if they wanted to get into a store or

something some guy would show up with a

thousand keys

and open up jc penney's we really had no

adult supervision

you kids have a good time and turn out

the lights

it is an unreal feeling

to walk into a mall and to own it to own

it and inhabit it

you're walking around the mall in and

out of stores nothing was closed off

obviously there had to be insurance and

we had to be careful and we weren't

allowed to

you know rob the bank or wipe jc

penney's

and then don't forget the atmosphere was

halloween every night

we're doing stunts we're making people

up you know having a blast in this

playground it was just

a dream existence you know i couldn't

sleep life was

so boring compared to being on the set

of dawn of the dead

i got a call from mozilla clinton

one afternoon saying we have a

continuity error

and we need somebody to come out and

just do a bit gag you know would you do

it i said okay fine i'll do it

scotty's running from one end to the

store to the other

is coming towards us he has a sweater on

wrapped around his waist going away

in the confusion and the chaos of just

getting it done sweater was not on

so somehow he had to lose the sweater so

the cut would work

and the cut works because i'm standing

there and then i grab him wrestle him to

the ground in the process i rip it off

tom had a retractable screwdriver which

he promised me wouldn't go into my brain

and it had a tube and as it went in

he pumped the little ball and flooded my

air with blood

i still can't hear you the effect came

off great and it's probably the thing

i'm still most known for no matter what

i do in my career being a screwdriver

zombie

is what everybody remembers

[Music]

[Music]

scotty and ken those two guys hit it off

right away and seeing the two of them

there's a little guy in this big guy

i just think it's it's pretty hilarious

what do you think bag it or try for it i

need lighter fluid

you know they really are a team scott

was a little bit of a pain

no i'm kidding i'm kidding no we had a

good time and the sort of humor that we

have

that sort of naturally developed they

used to drive to the set

together in the morning kenny tended to

be just always like a little bit late

right and i'm like waiting in the garage

and it's freezing

cold in the parking garage of the hotel

and i'm heating up my car

and kenny sort of summoners over you

know he's taking his time and he

pops in he says okay let's go i'm going

okay gee i'm glad you're here and all of

a sudden we turn on the radio

and they they have the song short people

those short people have two

they don't deserve that i looked in and

said

that's you that's you that's the song

what the hell time is it anyway not

quite nine

nothing as long as we're getting a

pattern that must mean they're sending a

signal

we actors you know we would eat together

talk together go over our lines together

it all sort of worked in our personal

lives the way it was working in the

script

everybody suddenly went into character

ken

became the strong silent

i can handle this scott became

the joker david he wanted to be like

them

and i was the drag i would have made you

all coffee and breakfast but i don't

have my pots and pans

the guys would go and do stuff and they

wouldn't include me i want to know

what's happened

and you're not coming with us

that was the dynamic behind the scenes

as well as in front of the

camera

i don't like conflict i mean i shy away

from conflict in life

and uh certainly on the set i really

don't like it uh

i do tend to write about characters in

conflict sometime

pretty extreme conflict and you know

it's playing it's

playing cowboys and indians is what it

is it really goes back to those kid

games well i'll be the good guy you'd be

the bad guy

and uh that's what it's about

i looked at my dailies and it was

appalling i was sure they were going to

fire me any minute

stephen i didn't have a clue

what acting on camera was and i'm trying

to figure out

what am i going to do so i was going to

an acting coach whose name is mira

ristova and mira

was this fabulous old-school russian

acting teacher from moscow theater

school little tiny bird-like woman and

what she had was a scene class

and everybody would come on monday

nights and they'd

read a scene from a play they were

working on and you know the people

bringing in seagull and other people are

bringing in you know

hamlet so i thought okay

i'm bringing in dawn of the dad she goes

okay

what have you got galen i can't

believe i did this and i said well this

is the thing and i'm in the shopping

mall

and i'm being chased by this harry

krishna zombie and

what is a zombie you know and i said

well it's a dead person who walks around

and tries to eat

it eats human beings and she's doing

this incredibly seriously as if it was

you know just another classic that she

had to deal with

you must do surprise here

you must do terror

then i started bringing her scenes from

from dawn of the dead privately

and she would sit there in her living

room and go okay

now what is the zombie doing today to

you gala

he comes in he grabs your leg what do

you

do now another zombie and it worked

so i i had a little help by the time i

got back to the shopping mall

[Music]

dawn was the most fun probably any

project i've ever done

the role was terrific it was a terrific

role because it has a

that character is a real arc in the

story

roger come on man get your head together

we got a lot of work to do

he really believes that he can he can

beat this

we got this man we got this by the ass

he was wonderful in that wasn't he in

that scene this great

great great bit of work er

my bag i left my goddamn bag and we got

a truck

i'd like to see what i tell scott all

right trooper

you better screw your head on yeah come

on come on let's go i made it man

now you're not just playing with your

life you're playing with mine

when we shot that scene we really

thought we were

on top of it

the emotions were going we felt good

about it we're committed to it

that's it man

gotta deal with that leg man i'm dealing

with it man i'm just dealing with it

don't you worry about it

there's a lot to get done before you can

afford to lose me that was that was a

a nice scene there was a feeling as we

were making the film

that this was different and it was

special

i wanted to try to give it the same

thematic

core that the original film had and

speak about some of my own ideas about

society and i don't think it's

underlying message i think it's like

in your face right up front

the way society has been conditioned to

think that as long as you have this

stuff

life is wonderful and being falsely

attracted and seduced by things that

really

shouldn't have value in your life but do

everybody would love

to hold up in a shopping mall or

wherever you want it's right there

jewelry money it's a fantasy come true

a whole satire at the consumerism i just

thought that was so interesting how

you know george was tuned into that and

george had

the bead on that in the late 70s

when shopping malls weren't as popular

as they are today i was really surprised

by the intelligence of the script

it's a reflection of who we are and it's

funny

donna the dead in my mind is much more

comedic than it is

scary i don't think it's a scary movie

it's a comic book it's a romp

[Music]

with this underlying sense of society

going to hell

i wanted to have that mash-like effect

of saying you can laugh

you can have as much fun as you want

with this but remember

there's something else going on here

can't we do something can't we take him

to a med unit

i've seen half a dozen guys get bitten

by those things

none of them lasted more than three days

after i am dead and i come back to life

tom had to make me up

that took about an hour and a half he

layered

my face with this moisture and this

tissue very very thin tissue

and then he would just let it dry and he

would blow dry and it would just shrink

my skin basically

did george give me any direction

i don't remember i don't think so

uh about being a zombie because i

remember thinking it through

in terms of my preparation so okay so

what is this about

okay i'm gonna be a zombie no one really

knows you know

what's going on in the mind of a zombie

i remember thinking that

i'm fully a zombie now but there was

like this

little piece of awareness still

left one little shred of roger

left you know which then fully

disappears as i fully sit forward

i was just playing with that as an actor

never had problem recruiting zombies

everybody that we asked would say sure

i'll come out and be a zombie i mean

seriously everybody i think i ever knew

in my whole life came out to be a zombie

i mean it was come out to the mall

you know there'll be some food and

coffee wagon and watch people shoot

watch these crazy guys shoot a movie

it was almost like a tailgate party

everybody was

gracious and having a good time and

working

all night for a dollar and a donut and

as

time went on recruiting zombies got

easier and easier because people started

to hear about it

a lot of it was word of mouth and people

just wanting to be a zombie

in a george movie

[Music]

and then it's not just that they want to

be zombies they want to be juicy zombies

they want to die in a bloody way or

something

which i never could relate to i couldn't

believe that all these people want to

get themselves shot or bitten

they wouldn't take their makeup off they

wanted to go home and show it to their

family and stuff

leaving the mall the looks they would

get i can still see some of the people

with their children you know licking and

pointing and there were a few local

legends about

zombies wearing their makeup home and

stopping at the mcdonald's or the eaton

park

so word spread pretty

must quickly destroyed on site

tom had to make a decision about what

color are these zombies going to be

night of the living dead was a black and

white movie but this is a color film

my solution to the zombies was everybody

just should be gray you know

which was not a good idea sometimes it

photographed green sometimes they

photographed blue so

i don't think anybody was ever really

just gray but that was the solution

mainly it was me just slapping gray

pancake makeup on

and on big zombie days we brought all

our friends in to slap this grey makeup

on them

i'd be slapping on scars and gaping

wounds you know

or you know false teeth or something

generic stuff

that we just threw on people and luckily

it fit and later on

my friend tasso came in and helped me do

makeup

it never could take longer than two or

three hours because we need a mass

amount of zombies and at nine o'clock

they started shooting so

we were just whipping them out i was the

nurse

zombie i remember how excited i was

going to the set

and i couldn't wait to get there and how

everybody was happy and how you doing

i love doing it i love being part of it

george kind of lets you

you do your thing you know he wanted

everybody to be individuals and i think

that if

he started telling people what to do

would be what george wanted to do and it

wouldn't be your individual zombie

it's just much more fun to let people

invent their own

dead character and some are very

inventive some of them really do

interesting quirky things with their

with their bodies we let us do what we

wanted to do

and let us take it from there and you

had to stay in character as a zombie

you couldn't change and be a different

type of a zombie when you made your

movements you had to be the same type of

zombie

all the way through the film and so you

cut yeah the concept of how you are and

how you have your eyes and how you walk

and so forth you make that up yourself

i just imagined what a zombie would feel

like

it was blast everybody was laughing and

howling and having a good time and

it was hard to keep a straight face

[Music]

they were troopers there were some real

trooper zombies on dawn of the dead they

were a staunch bunch

my sympathy always went to the zombie

extras in this incredible

sub-zero temperature

that fat guy in the bathing suit and he

was in a bathing suit instead of winter

and then he comes inside and gets shot

and falls in the fountain that guy was

so cool the bathing suit guy

george would get connected to certain

zombies for instance

the nun in in the shopping mall

the nun's habit is trapped in the door

she can't get out

and i'm about to shoot her george

came over and he goes don't kill her

you got to let her go and i said what do

you mean he goes

you can't shoot a nut so we let the nun

go and i just

opened the door and let her have it

slide out

you know it's like an animal it's not

inherently an evil

thing he had a very interesting take on

on what was okay and what was not and

very catholic

we had worked with mike for years when

you have a long-term relationship with

somebody

you don't have to sit and ponderously

and talk about

style or about intention or anything

else

we can talk in shorthand about things he

was like

talking to a brother i was uh very much

in tune with the director

and his script there was a kind of joy

personal joy had in

understanding his vision and his style

and he worked like a

fiend on this i mean to make the number

setups that he made

sometimes he was on a dolly and then

there are some handheld scenes he was

just able to take that old

bl and sling it on his shoulder and walk

around but it wasn't steadicam it was

mike's muscle power

we designed a very loose lighting style

so we wouldn't be bogged down with those

big moves

which are typically lighting if you had

to you know spend

two hours lighting every setup it would

have been absolutely impossible and we

stayed very very portable

shooting quick and dirty so to speak

okay just watch as you're going up this

way

mike's just this tireless guy just a

terrific diligent

shooter i mean his stuff looks wonderful

we shot a lot of coverage

i used to call it the cover your ass

style of directing

which is just get a lot of shots and

don't move the camera left

if you cover a lot of different angles

you can basically cut that together any

way you want you can cut

dialogue put it somewhere else move

things around change the speed

of action you leave yourself a million

options if you shoot that way

i always enjoy editing my favorite part

of the whole process

you can sit there with your coffee or

your glass of scotch and

think about it for the first time

without having to make quick decisions

you know

god is just a phenomenal editor i would

sit and watch

just watch him physically work and then

he he worked on this little

movie scope he worked on this little two

and a half inch square thing he run the

film through there and he would

just cut all of these shots and hang

them all over the

all over the room and then he would go

through and just pull them

like this and use a scissors to cut in

tighter than you could normally do it

between frames

and then put tape over and it would be a

perfectly cut sequence with overlapped

with action that matched

[Music]

it's an amazing process to watch him

we couldn't have made this movie without

tom savini i mean he's so energetic and

he's so inventive

and he's he's just got a terrific sense

and glee

whenever he's got an effect ready and

brings the stuff out on the set

we all sit there waiting like kids

waiting for

christmas to see it happen and if they

don't work he's got something in his hip

pocket to try it again

in a simpler way and he'll never leave

you without

something he's invaluable that way he

was a real showman

and he could lift the spirits of a set

just by his very presence

savini was a very talented guy that was

crazy

and thought he could do anything

we were pumping out three or four

hundred zombies and you know i was doing

stunts on the film i was never

officially a stuntman you know

but i was the gymnast you know in high

school and there were some stunts coming

up you know so i said you know i could

do that stuff

[Music]

i used to carry a sleeping bag around

with me at the mall

because you know seven o'clock at night

till seven in the morning you know

if you're not doing something it's nice

to catch some z's you know

invariably somebody will admit tom it's

time to do a stunt

tom we need some more zombies over here

so that's what made it halloween though

because you know i'm doing all these

things

[Music]

wow you must get into the roof son of a

bitch

what do you think go get them now or

tonight

[Music]

we knew they're going to be bikers in

the movie then the bikers showed up and

you know and they're real bikers it's

the pagans you know

like hells angels type people they were

very nice all

really nice people they came out and

brought their bikes and you know just

for the goof of it we had the whole gang

for a day or two we also needed people

who were able to deliver lines

and tom savini said well what about us

we're macho actors stunt guys you know

and dawn of the dead

we gotta you know be part of this group

with the sledgehammer that was his

character he was sledge and i'm blades

they were just great i mean you know

they were just again energetic and they

added a lot of flavor and color and

actually created these couple little

characters that people remember holy

shit

they'll get in they'll move the trucks

there's hundreds of those creatures down

there come on man that's a professional

army

looks like they've been surviving on the

road all through this thing

the biker invasion was actually over two

nights

we did some uh preliminary shots of the

approach

the biker invasion was very surreal and

very very loud

[Music]

one of the ways that they got in was

blowing out a b-glass window okay

and everybody came down to see the

effect gary zeller was mr special

effects guy

gary's whole idea was bigger better they

put too much explosive power behind that

bomb i think the entire glass side of

the mall

went up in a huge explosion

and then we did the big flood entry of

all the bikes and bikers

and they were great the leader was

really cute and i rode on the back of

his motorcycle in a shot you just see a

flash

of my back that was fun for these guys

to ride their

bikes through a shopping mall it must

have been a charge

[Music]

they did everything we asked whipping

around the mall in their motorcycles

it was kind of hard to tame them down

when they first wrote into that shopping

mall the sound was

unlike anything i've ever heard i mean

it was just

incredible because you know you have all

this marble and all this

the echo there's just a noise of just

reverbing and coming back into each

other

then i have the headsets on and i

thought i was going to go deaf

it vibrated the whole building of course

it blew off all the

burglar alarms

it was one of those stunning moments you

know where you say

what have i wrought well it really was

our biggest event

because now we're talking probably

literally 500 zombies

plus bikers

[Music]

it was chaotic and it was probably as

close to combat photography

as you can imagine because we didn't

have two cameras and we just ran around

shooting the chaos communication was

almost impossible

george and i lost total communication i

didn't know where george was

he just kept rolling

george came to me and said i'd love to

see a biker go through our storefront

window

yeah yeah sure i'll do it you know so

they built the plate glass window and

they laid it on the floor and i don't

think the form was even because

the glass poured up about that thick

okay

it was like going through a brick wall

but the motorcycle broke it the bike

went out from under when i hit the

ground

i should have been paralyzed i should

have been killed perhaps i show this

accident to people oh my god

did you you broke your neck

there's a scene where we used a

volkswagen sirocco

to travel through the mall at high

speeds we paid nothing for the sirocco

i mean i remember being on my knees at a

car dealer begging

for the car

we put some sizeable dents in that thing

i think actually tom and maybe tossless

demarcus did a couple of

falls across the hood of the siracco and

then we wrecked it

it hit a pillar what can i say then

returned it and said

thank you very much

[Music]

at that point i said this is so nuts

what don't we have we don't have a pie

fight let's have a pie fight with the

zombies you know we may use it we may

not but that's good for a laugh

so okay it's pie fight there are pies

the seltzer bottles and suddenly were

the three stooges and i remember people

sliding around

on the whipped cream and eating it

and laughing

i think that it's a giggle i thought it

was horrible

well i just thought it was over the top

ridiculous but you know what obviously i

was wrong because people love all that

stuff

you know so i'm glad he doesn't listen

to me

um

[Applause]

bible where the hell are you

we took it it's ours

what the hell are you doing

we're starting to get near the end of

the film i start realizing a lot of the

pas and grips

are getting in small parts as zombies

and bikers i'm thinking you know i'm

kind of being left out of the situation

so i don't lean over to george i hey

george you know i'd like to do a zombie

24 hours later i'm getting this machete

in my skull

getting kicked across the floor and i'm

enjoying every minute of it

[Music]

my thing was always to use the real

actor as much as possible

we could have chopped a fake head with a

machete but somehow

seeing the real actor who can react it's

the real deal you know

i'm grabbing on his pants and i'm

raising myself up and i'm going in for

the bite when tom savini comes down with

the machete

camera cuts okay then they take the one

with a whole cut in it they place it in

my head

camera rolls he pulls it out then they

print it in reverse

say goodbye

and it worked it was a wonderful effect

every time i see it i go like that

[Music]

tasso had to die and there's a

slaughterhouse close to my house so

i guess it evolved from that thinking i

could get some pig intestines

you know we had a rubber chest and we

put that rubber chest

on him and put the pig intestines behind

it throw some blood tubing up his legs

into that area

and that worked because they just tore

him apart

those intestines coming out they are

some clean intestines and that's because

tasso

just washed them rinsed them you know

and scoured them under hot water

squeezing them and getting all the goo

off them because they were going to go

against his skin when they come out they

are pristine

it used to astound me that zombies

would argue over who got to eat

something i wouldn't want to come within

10 feet of

people would fight to be the one i'll

eat that i'll do it

i will let me

i was appalled i couldn't believe some

of the ideas cevini came up with i

couldn't believe that george would want

to do about something enough

i think tom and george like to check

things out on me if i'm really

if chris is really grossed out then this

is good

my stuff has the reputation of being

very realistic

my time in vietnam had a big influence

on me

as a combat photographer in vietnam and

that's what i try to put into the

effects and that i do

[Music]

if i don't get the same feeling that i

got when i saw the real stuff then the

fake stuff

isn't real enough for me

special effects are magic tricks there

are certain things you need to make the

effect

shot work if there's a weapon involved i

always try to establish the weapon

as taking a chunk out of the wall or

give the weapon some strength so when

the rubber weapon comes in it still has

that power

in your mind

i'm fighting zombies and i get shot i'm

supposed to fly

backwards so when i did it i'm just

diving

and you'll see it in the film it's me

coming straight off the balcony and

there's a bunch of mattresses and

cardboard boxes

except when i did it i missed

my feet went slamming into the ground

and on my heels

george runs up and shakes my hand and

that's all i needed you know

acknowledgement from george he liked it

great let's move on what's next

being the zombie was something i could

just like grab onto

i sat there for weeks and weeks watching

all of these people coming up with

their zombie and i'm thinking what

am i going to do

i had to come up with something that was

distinctive enough so okay now

what happens to this guy he gets bit in

the neck

he's bitten the leg he's shot in the arm

so basically

the zombie image came

out of the wounds that he received

first time the elevator opens and i come

out it was show

[Music]

you time i think george liked it a lot i

remember him

going wow king zombie man that's

great his zombie walk is

yet to be equal i don't know how he did

that with his

foot i mean i really pushed that whale

and i love the thing with the gun it's

not even aware that he's got a gun

hanging off his finger

those were all things that david

invented his body language it's

really worthy of lon chaney and i was

very much at home

playing the zombie i mean i just had a

hoot playing a zombie

i really do

[Music]

i read the script for don of the dead i

think the original script had the uh

very horrible tragic ending

the zombies are coming up and there's

really no place to go

get out of here

[Music]

jesus christ beer i don't want to go

there's no reason to fly off anymore in

a helicopter

i shoot myself in the head with the

damager just

end it all you know i just give up

and put my head into the helicopter

blade and kill myself

that was i thought a particularly strong

ending at the same time i could

understand why they thought that would

be

too difficult i'm sure i was always

saying you can't kill everybody you

can't do it

i say george it is too much fun to

wipe them all out he doesn't always

listen to me but he cares what i think

you know so we never shot ken shooting

himself we never shot

her head disintegrating and george

decided to have an up ending

you know these people have been through

so much let them get away you know

[Music]

i think they made a great choice there

had to be some kind of

uplifting ending

[Music]

how much fuel do we have not much

all right i love that swell the strings

when they fly away in the end

you know how can you live without that

[Music]

man

[Music]

i used all these schmaltzy library

tracks and it's

it winds up being so corny in places but

i i dig that

and the first time dario saw the film

that's the way he saw it

and so we made an arrangement that you

know well

i could do the edit for english language

countries and

and he could tweak it or cut it for

non-english language

countries

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

just

[Music]

[Music]

the film initially had european

distribution it really made

a lot of money but we didn't have a u.s

distributor

and we took it around and showed it to

the usual suspects you know american

international the people at that point

at that time uh who were distributing

sort of

exploitation films and people

wrote it like a pony but would always

come out of the screening room and say

well

that's really rough uh let's see what

can we do to clean this up a little bit

but richard and i both believed that

this film's best chance at success was

to let it be as strong as possible

so in the end richard said well you know

what i'm gonna just prove that there's

an audience for this film

and he ran at a theater to show it and

he took out a little one-inch ad

in the new york times one screening

and uh we showed up there that night and

the the the mob was all the way up the

street

and we showed the film and it blew the

roof off people

went crazy i mean people were screaming

and yelling and

it was incredible it was the best

audience experience i think that i'd

ever had

salah hassan who ran united film

distribution

came to the theater that night saw that

reaction and in front of the theater in

the midst of that mob i think made a

deal with richard

in 1968 george romero brought us

night of the living dead it became the

classic horror film

of its time now george romero brings us

the most intensely shocking motion

picture experience

for all times dawn of the dead

salah was willing to release this film

without a rating

and i think that while it

contributed and made the film as popular

as it is

that limited its success because it's

considered an x in those days it was an

x

you can't advertise in prime time

televisions

you can't advertise in some newspapers

at all but they

we knew it was going to be hit when the

film opened at the rivoli

we saw this crowd down times square

and i'm going gee what movie is that for

and it was for us

[Laughter]

it was very exciting time i was thrilled

to see it with an audience

but it was at that point i realized what

we had done we had frightened the hell

out of people

the reward for me was picking somebody

in the audience and just watching the

evolution of their heart attack for some

people it was too much i think you know

i went to see dawn of the dead when it

opened at the united artist theater in

new york with my grandmother

i told her not to come i warned her

ahead of time

she said no i'm coming i'm coming so i

sat with her

the guy's head was blown off

she just went oh my god i said you want

to go now don't you she said

yes so i escorted her out quickly

somebody went running out of the theater

and threw up

so you know the early on the legend was

born

i know it was too much for chris romero

you know i was like oh my god what will

my dad say

you get a varying degree of reactions

depending on who's watching it you know

some guy's getting his head chopped off

with the helicopter

people are like yeah show us more

i wasn't really surprised at the

reaction your hero on one hand and the

devil on the other hand

and i was satisfied that we'd made a

film that pays off

on several levels horror fans dig it

people that want its messenger it's

satire

dig it it's a fun ride and i knew

that if we'd done anything at all we

had made a crowd pleaser

those were golden days because we were

so unrestricted

and i think that those films reflect

that kind of freedom you know somebody

was actually paying me to go play with

electric trains you know

well i thought it was great you know i

was so excited to be part of it and it

was just all

it was just everything was just so fun

and exciting

the only bad part about that is we

thought all the movies would be like

that

silent wanted to do a sequel right away

and i said i wanted to wait i had a

script called night riders that i wanted

to make

and we had developed a relationship with

stephen king

and steve rode creep show so

our plate was pretty full

[Music]

eventually we made another zombie film

but it had you know smaller distribution

and didn't do any business

so we may have hurt ourselves a little

bit there but

that's the way it went

the fandom behind dawn of the dead it's

amazing

i mean people come from all around the

world to visit the shopping mall

we had a special trip from charlotte

northland just to get to this mall

came all the way from germany and a

little really number one

dawn of the dead so coming here today

for the dawn of the dead mall

is a special treat especially with

george being here looks different but

the

keep looking after zombies that blows me

away

and whenever i go to festivals or

conventions the number of fans and the

loyalty that they have to this film is

really

gratifying there is an industry out

there

of fans who just love this film

and have followed it i'm just shocked at

how many people are out there

worldwide who really love this film they

remember this film as like some sort of

seminal thing in their

their lives people will tell you in

complete honesty

that it's changed them this guy came up

to me

and he started to talk to me about how

the movie changed his life

you changed my life and

you're responsible for the person that i

am today

i said are you kidding i've seen the

movie 40 times

i've seen this movie 125 times

i've seen the film 365 times how often

do you look at it

every friday night every friday night i

looked at his wife and i said that's why

you don't have any kids

this one guy came up to me and he says

you know i've driven 14 hours to meet

you

i've been waiting to meet the nurse

zombie for years

you're my favorite zombie when i die i

want the movie in my casket

he rolled up his sleeves and i kid you

not he had tattoos

like all over him and like he pulled up

his shirt showed on his chest

of every character from george's movies

you know

it it blows you away it's it's i mean i

think it's nice for george i think it's

really nice that he has

those fans dawn of the dead little did a

lot for me i mean i got

friday the 13th the first friday the

13th

because of dawn of the dead and began

the splatter craze

i worked from movie to movie i worked

for a long time

and don had a lot to do with that you

know a lot of the jobs that i have

with the michael manz and the marty

scorsese all come out of the fact that

they respect george

it's been so easy for so many of us who

came to hollywood from pittsburgh

we've all done quite well and that's

thanks to george

he really mentored and he may not even

have realized he was doing it and you

think

who is this person who makes these

horrible movies it's this

lovely bright sweet

man that yeah you give 110

for because you want to he's one of the

best

people i've ever known as i look back

i'm happy i made the choices that i made

and i'm very comfortable with sort of my

body of work if you want to

call it that i think i'm still

considered by hollywood mainstream is

being a maverick what's that guy

going to do if we give him money

[Music]

cut freeze as long as i can keep doing

it

i'm happy as hell that's really all i've

ever wanted to do

yeah let's uh let's let's go again

there's no doubt in my mind that there's

a market for for a fourth film

and particularly these days this seems

to be sort of the year of the zombie or

something i mean there are all these

zombie films coming out

uh or have been out or that are coming

out including a remake of dawn which i

didn't have

anything to do with the fourth film as i

have it written

is basically about ignoring the problem

it's sort of like trying to live with

terrorism you know

and i think it does reflect sort of

what's going on today

you know it's a little bold and a little

more expensive i might have to shoot a

couple of versions

so if it all works out fine there are

some hardcore true

zombie fans out there who are just

waiting for the next romero zombie movie

you know

and all these other ones are just

warming them up okay

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