Author Topic: The Walking Dead (Season 2)  (Read 3071 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Mac

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9913
  • Dewey Cheatham & Howe LLP
  • Location: Little Ol Town in the Midwest
    • View Profile
The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« on: August 08, 2011, 01:53:47 pm »
The Walking Dead (Season 2)

October 16, 2011

Love this show and from all account the first season was quite the blockbuster success.

Try to keep up the show's activities.

Dispactch from amctv.com

Ernest Dickerson, the director for Episodes 2 and 3 of Season 2, shares his secret for surviving the wilds of rural Georgia, explains what The Walking Dead has in common with The Wild Bunch and describes trying to outdo Season 1's guts. New Dispatches From the Set are released every week throughout the production.


Q: What was the inspiration to direct two episodes back-to-back for Season 2?

A: It was the set of the highway, which was going to be common to both episodes. So we felt it would be better to shoot all of that for Episodes 2 and 3 at one time because that was going to be the last time that the government was going to let us block off the road. Artistically, it was better to keep it all together. So part of the day I would be shooting Episode 2 and the other part I would be shooting scenes from Episode 3. It got kinda crazy juggling both episodes but it seemed to work. These shows are always fun to do -- they're just difficult. We always had to protect ourselves from ticks and snakes and poison ivy and poison oak and poison sumac along with the weather and uneven ground, all kinds of stuff.

Q: Did any of those afflict you personally?

A: No, I wound up being okay. My fiancée hinted me to the fact that peppermint soap is one of the best things to deter ticks and a lot of other insects, so I was showering with that every night and every morning and shampooing with peppermint shampoo. Usually mosquitoes love me, but I had no problems with the bugs. It turns out everybody that did not use the peppermint soap wound up finding ticks on them whenever they went home.

Q: You cut your teeth working with Spike Lee, and are known for directing urban stories. What was it like to be shooting in rural Georgia?

A: Yeah, I did all those urban films, but I've been a student of good horror since I was a kid. It was also good to get back to the woods because I used to go out camping quite a bit when I was younger. It's interesting shooting in the woods: Like any different environment, you have to go and just adapt. So we just dragged all of our tools and equipment into the woods and tried to make it through the day.

Q: You've said one of your greatest influences was Alfred Hitch****. Is there anything about your work on The Walking Dead that's reminiscent of him?

A: Well, Hitch**** was a master visual storyteller. He believed in something that he called "pure cinema," where the dialogue is almost superfluous. And I do try to tell the story as visually as I possibly can. For The Walking Dead, most of my influence comes from Westerns. Everything is there: Our main characters are pioneers trying to survive in a strange new world, the rules of which they're learning every single day; it's a hostile environment and they're trying to hold on to a semblance of civilization. And that's what westerns are about, especially the films of John Ford and Sam Peckinpah. The Searchers, The Wild Bunch, they influenced me quite a lot.

Q: You directed last season's Episode 5, where Andrea had to kill the zombified Amy. Did anything compare to that intensity in these episodes?


A: I'm really proud of that scene because it was beautifully written and just working it out with Laurie Holden on how to play it worked out really well. I think we got some pretty good scenes this time also: We have a walker autopsy. When we were shooting it, I kept wondering if it's gross enough. I can get pretty critical because I know what everything is, and that this is just plastic or rubber, so is it gross enough? I was actually trying to outdo the episode from last year where Rick and Glenn had to smear the zombie guts on themselves. [Laughs]

Q: What was your favorite aspect of being on set?

A: I think one of the reasons I'm a director is I'm 60 years old, but I'm still a big kid. And hopefully everybody else that I'm playing with feels the same way. Honestly, that's one of the things that I feel is my job as a director, to allow the actors to feel like they can play and try things and bring things to their characters as long as it works with the script. So I think the big kid in me tries to make sure -- as tough as it is, because it is tough -- that everybody's having a pretty good time doing it.

Q: What has The Walking Dead taught you about surviving the apocalypse?

A: Have lots of canned food, lots of bottled water, peppermint soap, and watch your back. Usually people that don't watch their backs, those are the ones that get jumped and eaten by the zombies.
« Last Edit: August 24, 2011, 02:39:14 pm by Mac »
Believe in Yourself
Because the rest of us think you're an idiot.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter


Mac

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9913
  • Dewey Cheatham & Howe LLP
  • Location: Little Ol Town in the Midwest
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2011, 01:59:06 pm »





Believe in Yourself
Because the rest of us think you're an idiot.

Chiprocks1

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 25865
  • Tell me a joke...
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2011, 02:10:27 pm »
I have this on hold at the Library. I'm down to #2 on the wait list. Other than the free Pilot episode shown on AMC's website, I have been in the dark with this one. It's funny, but I have seen more of both Comic Con presentation last year as well as this year than I have of the show itself.

D'oh!! :-[
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Mac

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9913
  • Dewey Cheatham & Howe LLP
  • Location: Little Ol Town in the Midwest
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2011, 02:21:53 pm »
I forget your take on Zombie flicks. This is character driven and just enough Zombie and gore to keep interested. There are one or two episodes with very little zombie action. I remember the hour going very quickly. Hope you enjoy it.

This season sounds like more zombie mayhem yaaaaa
Believe in Yourself
Because the rest of us think you're an idiot.

Chiprocks1

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 25865
  • Tell me a joke...
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2011, 02:24:50 pm »
I forget your take on Zombie flicks. This is character driven and just enough Zombie and gore to keep interested. There are one or two episodes with very little zombie action. I remember the hour going very quickly. Hope you enjoy it.

This season sounds like more zombie mayhem yaaaaa

Well, from what I gathered at the Con it is definitely going to be more gore than Season 1. But I don't know how far AMC can push the gore or not. I know it's cable, but I'm interested to see just how far they are willing to go.
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Mac

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9913
  • Dewey Cheatham & Howe LLP
  • Location: Little Ol Town in the Midwest
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #5 on: August 11, 2011, 07:48:28 am »
The Walking Dead in trouble?

It's always hard to figure out who's the good guy and who's the bad guy in a public fistfight. I personally have heard stories from various camps regarding "The Walking Dead", AMC's live-action series based on Robert Kirkman's incredible comic. All that I was able to deduce, and reported way before the press got ugly, was that showrunner Frank Darabont and AMC were head-to-head with steam spouting out of their ears. My outside observation was the show wasn't living up to its potential, therefore I blame the showrunner -- but a new feature piece in the Hollywood Reporter suggests that maybe AMC is to blame by taking on a project too big for their own britches.

They tease: "The cast is "scared," the crew is crushed after Darabont is canned while working to fix an episode that a director turned in with unusable footage..."

Inside you'll find a few blurbs out of this massive article that could shed some light on the issues at hand, and why the show could eventually fall flat on it's face.

...There also have been no public comments from the cast, and a source with knowledge of the situation says AMC has been "terrorizing" them and their representatives to discourage them from speaking out on Darabont's behalf. "They're scared," confirms another insider. "They're on a zombie show. They are all really easy to kill off."


...What remains a central mystery, even to those closely involved, is what triggered AMC's move to fire Darabont. As noted, AMC's decision to cut the budget dated to the previous fall, when the network instructed Darabont to produce 13 episodes for a second season, up from six for the first season, for less money. Not only would the show get a lower budget, but AMC also decided that Walking Dead would no longer reap the benefit of a 30 percent tax credit per episode that came with filming in Georgia. Now the network was going to hold on to that money.

What is also hugely significant is that Walking Dead is the only show AMC owns, which means the network bears all the financial risk (and could reap much greater rewards in success). That is not the kind of chance that the network had been willing to take before. AMC developed Mad Men and even fully financed a pilot before the company decided that the cost of the first season, about $25 million, was too much to bear. So AMC sold the idea to Lionsgate and licensed it from the studio. Lionsgate owns Mad Men, and Sony Television owns Breaking Bad

...But this source says that AMC had its own ideas about how to make the show more cheaply. The show shoots for eight days per episode, and the network suggested that half should be indoors. "Four days inside and four days out? That's not Walking Dead," says this insider. "This is not a show that takes place around the dinner table." That was just one of what this person describes as "silly notes" from AMC. Couldn't the audience hear the zombies sometimes and not see them, to save on makeup? The source says Darabont fought "a constant battle to keep the show big in scope and style."


This is some absolutely remarkable stuff as the article suggests that AMC took on a project that was too big for them to afford, and thus it's forcing budget cuts and idiotic executive decisions such as tightening the scope. The last time I read a story this depressing, it was regarding HBO's "Deadwood," which died a similar death. The fact that AMC execs are more focused on tightening the budget than doing what's best for the show is the biggest red flag of all. I'm truly scared that "The Walking Dead" is (literally) on its last leg...
Believe in Yourself
Because the rest of us think you're an idiot.

Chiprocks1

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 25865
  • Tell me a joke...
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #6 on: August 11, 2011, 07:59:53 am »
Well since I have been avoiding most spoilers regarding the show till I watch Season 1, I am somewhat shocked to see that they fired Frank Darabont. Am I reading that right? Ya don't mess with the dude that gave us Shawshank Redemption>:(
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Chiprocks1

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 25865
  • Tell me a joke...
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #7 on: August 11, 2011, 08:01:20 am »
FYI, my Library notice says that Season 1 is in route to my local branch. It's been 2 days already! Sheesh!
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Mac

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9913
  • Dewey Cheatham & Howe LLP
  • Location: Little Ol Town in the Midwest
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #8 on: August 11, 2011, 08:30:20 am »
Take the info with a grain of salt, it is unverfied heresay... but ya never know. I hear stories about Studio's controlling the product all the time, more power over the director kinda thing. It sounds like a complicated mess.

I try not to pass around rumor stuff, but thought this was significant.
Believe in Yourself
Because the rest of us think you're an idiot.

Chiprocks1

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 25865
  • Tell me a joke...
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #9 on: August 13, 2011, 07:48:14 pm »
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Mac

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9913
  • Dewey Cheatham & Howe LLP
  • Location: Little Ol Town in the Midwest
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #10 on: August 17, 2011, 02:30:00 pm »
Anthrax's Scott Ian Blogs About His 'The Walking Dead' Zombie Experience

Quote
From bloody disgusting...

Although there were no other details, we were the first to tell you that Anthrax's Scott Ian was transformed into a zombie on the set of the now-filming second season f AMC's "The Walking Dead".

The other day Ian took to his official blog where he detailed the experience and posted a assault of behind-the-scenes imagery.

"Next was making sure I could convincingly walk like a corpse. I just did what felt natural, started with a broken ankle which would cause me to lean, let my arm swing like dead weight, head forward, blackened teeth (Black Tooth!) gnashing. I showed my walk to zombie pro Joe (didn’t get his last name) and he approved. He said I looked dead! No walking notes." said Ian. "No zombie faux pas (typical rookie mistake would be arms up like Frankenstein). I guess I am just genetically wired to play the undead," he jokes. Click the link for more images and the full blog.
Believe in Yourself
Because the rest of us think you're an idiot.

Chiprocks1

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 25865
  • Tell me a joke...
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #11 on: August 17, 2011, 02:38:19 pm »
I like Scott Ian. He is cool and it's only fitting that he end up as a Zombie.  ;D
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Chiprocks1

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 25865
  • Tell me a joke...
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #12 on: August 21, 2011, 11:05:07 am »
iFanboy - Episode #223 - Robert Kirkman at San Diego Comic-Con 2011



Very entertaining interview with Robert Kirkman, the writer/creator of The Walking Dead.

Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Mac

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9913
  • Dewey Cheatham & Howe LLP
  • Location: Little Ol Town in the Midwest
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #13 on: August 23, 2011, 09:48:06 am »
from bloodydisgusting

'The Walking Dead' Special Makeup FX Artist Greg Nicotero

Quote
Q: Congratulations on your Emmy nomination. What do you think made The Walking Dead stand out?

A: Thank you! I think we were able to push prosthetics into a place that we hadn't seen on TV before, in terms of the caliber of design and sculpture. There's nothing television about The Walking Dead. Last year we shot six mini-movies, and they just happened to play on television. And what I thought the most successful aspect of it was, people couldn't figure out exactly how we did it. Take Bicycle Girl. There were people who thought she was an animatronic puppet. There were people who thought we dug a hole in the grass. No one could really put their finger on how it was done. And as far as I'm concerned, that's what I want to feel when I see a movie.

Q: Have you created any signature zombies for Season 2 akin to Bicycle Girl?

A: If I tell you about it, it gives the gag away! But I will say one of the signature zombies we did for this season took us five weeks to build and is the most elaborate thing we did on the show. And we were working on it up to an hour before we were shooting it on-set. But there's a lot more to do this season in regards to the way the story propels itself forward. There's one thing that's really interesting that they've established, which is this herd mentality -- the idea that they travel in these big packs and that there could be hundreds and hundreds of walkers in these herds. The first episode we come upon one of these herds and it's just terrifying.

Q: How has the makeup evolved from Season 1 to Season 2?

A: We really only had six episodes to get our feet wet last year. So when we wrapped Season 1, I made a list of dos and don'ts for the zombie world in terms of things I wanted to change for next year to make the makeups hold up better and to make them feel fresh and original. We sculpted a whole bunch of new zombie prosthetic pieces, we made new contact lenses. We sort of upgraded everything that we had from last year.

Q: What kinds of dos and don't did you come up with?

A: Here's a perfect example: There's a fine line between gluing a wound on someone's cheek and making them look like they're decomposing. So the first thing that we did is I had our sculptors create some prosthetic pieces that would go over the brow and onto the cheekbones. So it would make the eyes look a little more sunken in and make the bone structure look more pronounced -- we've been using those pieces a lot more than we were last season. So we're getting more of a skull-like look to the walkers. Now we have a lot more ammunition in our arsenal. You look at the graphic novel and there's always exposed teeth. So instead of having to make dentures for everybody, we came up with a way to be able to put teeth in any zombie that we want in order to make them look like that grinning skull where their lips are rotting away.

Q: You just finished filming The Walking Dead webisodes. What was that like?

A: Oh it was great. It was so much fun. At the end of last year Frank asked if I was interested in directing an episode. And I told him I'd love to, and then all of a sudden this idea came up about doing some webisodes. So one of the things I always found most interesting was analyzing how people handle the zombie outbreak as it's happening. And we looked at the Bicylce Girl character and there was so much sympathy generated from her zombie -- you look at her and yeah, she's a monster, but she's really sad and there was so much emotion involved that I thought, how great would it be to actually see her back story as a human? To see what sacrifices she makes in the last moments of her life before she's torn apart by walkers. I'm sort of referring to the webisodes as the appetizer before The Walking Dead airs.

Q: Will you also direct an episode later this season?

A: I am directing an episode this season. It's one of the last five episodes, but I don't know anything about it yet. It's driving me crazy. It's like Christmas morning and I'm locked in my bedroom and I can't come out until it's ready. My 30-year high school reunion is the weekend when my episode starts shooting. So all my friends have been like "Are you coming??" And I have to write to them and say, "I can't come. I'll be shooting zombies." And they'll be like, "Pfft. Figures. You never change."



« Last Edit: August 23, 2011, 09:53:41 am by Mac »
Believe in Yourself
Because the rest of us think you're an idiot.

Mac

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9913
  • Dewey Cheatham & Howe LLP
  • Location: Little Ol Town in the Midwest
    • View Profile
Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)
« Reply #14 on: August 24, 2011, 02:15:03 pm »
Teaser trailers







Believe in Yourself
Because the rest of us think you're an idiot.

 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
137 Replies
2377 Views
Last post September 26, 2014, 10:33:43 pm
by Chiprocks1
2 Replies
307 Views
Last post April 01, 2013, 03:12:43 am
by Mac
45 Replies
1403 Views
Last post September 30, 2015, 05:54:17 pm
by Chiprocks1
77 Replies
1154 Views
Last post March 30, 2015, 12:13:00 pm
by Mac
28 Replies
786 Views
Last post May 27, 2016, 01:37:10 pm
by Mac

Automatic Image Resize Code