STACK #168 Oct 2018

DVD & BD FEATURE

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STACK caught up with the veteran

“It was a great opportunity to make that transition from special effects make- up artist to director; it’s a challenging jump. A lot of the time people think it’s all about the effects. But what I learned from directors I’ve worked with, like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, was if you don’t care about the characters, the effects don’t matter. You have to care about the characters first and that’s where my focus on directing came about – paying respect to the actor and the character. It’s about telling a great story, and it doesn’t matter if you have ten dollars or ten million.” One of the highest rating series in cable television history and now in its ninth year, The Walking Dead successfully thrust zombies into the mainstream, hooking viewers who probably wouldn’t be caught dead watching a zombie movie. However, Nicotero notes that it was video games like Resident Evil  and House

make-up effects artist, producer and director to discuss zombies and multitasking on The Walking Dead . Words Scott Hocking G reg Nicotero knows a thing or two about zombies, having served as an assistant to make- up effects legend Tom Savini on George A. Romero’s classic Day of the Dead  (1985). He has also supervised the grisly prosthetic illusions on  The Walking Dead since the show’s inception, is one of the series’ executive producers, and has directed 27 episodes to date. A partner in the award-winning KNB EFX Group, whose experience in make-up effects spans three decades and over 400 film and TV credits, Nicotero says he had always wanted to give directing a shot, but the full-time job of running KNB had never given him an opportunity.

I have a very strong vision as to how to execute these effects, so they give me a lot of freedom

of the Dead in 1996 that proved instrumental in the resurgence of zombies on screen. “When you have a third person shooter game and you have the

“When we were shooting  The Faculty , Land of the Dead and  The Mist , I would shoot second unit for those directors – they were friends of mine. “It was more a situation of convenience that gave me my first experiences directing. There was a two-year period where I was travelling and working non-stop. I got home from Predators  and had about six weeks before  The Walking Dead  started, and during that time, I directed a short film. “Frank Darabont [former TWD showrunner] was the one who made people notice the film, and when we got into season two of Walking Dead , he said, ‘You’re ready to direct; do you want to direct an episode?’ And he gave me that opportunity.

20 OCTOBER 2018

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