Zomblies Auditions
A few months ago a local film production company got in touch with all the highly experienced parkour/freerunning groups from the Westcountry as well as a few select teams and individuals from further afield. We were invited to apply to take part in a 30 minute action movie about zombies and that was about as much detail we were given. The only thing we knew was the reason we had been approached for this part because what ever the director had in mind was beyond the physical ability of the majority of 'normal actors'.
Last week an email was sent out informing us of Auditions for the part which were due to be held in Exeter. This took place yesterday afternoon and attendance from the freerunning community included myself, pretty much everyone from Escape Parkour in somerset and one guy from South Coast Parkour.
I arrived early and turned up to find most of Escape had already arrived and were training on the railings outside the building. We practiced here for a bit before going in and making outselves known to the production team. Here we were presented with a load of paperwork which we had to get signed off as well as the signing our lives away with the inevitable contracts.
It was a relaxed and chilled out atmosphere, sitting outside on a sunny terrace while people took photos of us and took other details relating to the filming due to take place in a few weeks time. We each had a private interview with the director which seemed to go well for all of us and we got the chance to talk abit about ourselves as well as finding out more details on what was planned for the filming.
After this we were split into groups of 4 for the "zombie pen". Again all the detail was spared and we didn't really have much of an idea of what we were letting ourselves in for, but what followed had to be the most crazy and exciting part of the day. We were taken into a small empty room with an unpainted concrete floor so it was just us and a camera crew. Here they proceeded to set us a variety of small challenges to see how we were able to work with the instuctions and interact with the people around us.
First challenge was learning to move and act like a zombie. We were taught how to walk like a zombie and the type of noises that zombies make. Imediately afterwards we had to demonstrate our zombie walking ability to the camera walking around the room like zombies which was really quite hilerious.
Second challenge built upon the first and was to dance like a zombie. This is harder than you might think but we rose to the challenge and gave it our best shot.
The third and 4th challenges had to be the best part of the day. First of all we were introduced to the game of Zombie Tag. One zombie, three humans, when a human is tagged they became a zombie and had to get the other humans. Don't be fooled by the name though, this was no game of tag you might have played at school. To 'tag' somone and turn them into a zombie it wasnt just a case of making contact, you had to physically get them to the ground. Now imagine for a minute, a small room full of hyperactive freerunners who had just been instructed to basically attack anything that moved. I think the exact instructions were "Imagine they are real zombies and do whatever you would do in reality to protect yourself" What followed was what could only be described as a cross between a mosh pit and an east london street brawl. It was a case of running, jumping, kicking .. flying at your opponent grabbing them by the throat and smashing their face into the floor, all whilst moving in a zombie like form making zombie-like noises.
This then developed into the 4th challenge which was a bit more freestyle and we were being 'shot at' by the prodution crew and their airsoft guns whilst we had to react to what was going on, pretending to have been shot and also trying to attack those with the guns.
Everyone I spoke to who took part throughoruly enjoyed it and it was the best part of the day without a doubt. If the filming is going to be anything like that was then its going to be a lot of fun. That was the last challenge of the day and everyone headed home shortly aftewards. We're now all waiting to hear if we have qualified for the role of 'core stunt team member' and are eagarly waiting to hear from the makers of the film.
You can be sure that any info we are allowed to publish will be posted here as soon as we know more.