The Making of George A. Romero's Day of the Dead by Lee Karr

The Making of George A. Romero's Day of the Dead by Lee Karr

Author:Lee Karr [Lee Karr]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780859658881
Publisher: Plexus Publishing Ltd.
Published: 2014-01-15T00:00:00+00:00


Zombie extras and good friends Geoff Burkman (left) and Steven Watkins (right). And a bloody stump. (Courtesy of Steven Watkins.)

Casting assistant, Gaylen Ross, and United Film Distribution Company president, Richard Hassanein, visit the Wampum set. (Courtesy of Taso Stavrakis.)

One particular series of practical jokes would develop into a mini “war” between the make-up effects crew and production accountant, Charles Carroll. And, like most things of this nature, it started out very small. “What they did, they, like, blackened my phone. So, I would talk on the phone, without knowing it, and get this black stuff all over my ears. That was the start of hostilities,” says Carroll. “So then I dummied up these tax forms or something, and sent them all these tax forms and got them all freaked out – and then they found out that was me.”

Another high point during the war – or low point, depending on your perspective – for one particular effects member was very memorable for all of “Savini Land”. One day, while Charles Carroll was getting a haircut in an adjacent room, Greg Nicotero thought it would be funny to surprise Carroll from above – but in the end it would be Nicotero who received the surprise. “Oh God, that was great! That was funny as hell,” says Howard Berger. “Yeah, it was yet another … see, Tom is an instigator. Tom Savini instigates us into getting into trouble. And it’s one of these things that we love about Tom and that attracts people to Tom, because he’s so much fun. Normal people wouldn’t have the boss, where the boss would be causing all the trouble and making his employees do dangerous things, but Tom’s not that way. [laughs] So, I’m the first guy to go, “Hey let’s light a fire!’ you know? So what happened is that – and I want to say this is the ongoing; this was part of the ongoing torture of Charles Carroll. Greg climbed up into the rafters in our room, and it was like one of those cruddy little drop ceilings, and I remember Tom was sitting in the make-up chair and I was facing Tom talking to him, and Tom’s back was to what was happening. Greg was already up in the roof, and I heard him walking around and I just kept talking to Tom and Tom was talking to me. And then all of a sudden the roof gave in. And I kid you not, in slow motion, Greg fell out of the roof, the whole roof came tumbling down. Greg hit a table, his Betacam flew off, smashed on the floor, and Greg rolled off. And Tom sat there, and said afterwards that he’d watched the whole thing happen on my face and my eyes, because I just saw this thing happening. What Greg was trying to do was climb into the ceiling and over, and like drop something on Charles on the other side of the wall, but apparently the ceiling gave out and Greg came tumbling through.



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