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Pod cast Oct 30
Franki Starr
The subject was Halloween, talking with horror legend George Romero. Curt Anderson says this is the Golden Age of Zombies. He says why now? This is satisfying in a way when you see blood and splattered flesh. There has always been an underlying humor and all the different ways they have been killed. Romero never called or thought of them as Zombies at first. Zombies were always considered a voodoo tradition that is associated with the Caribbean. Romero called them flesh eaters that were associated with apocalyptic situations. They were only referred to zombies when critics would write about Romero’s movies and it has stuck since. Romero’s zombies were always the standard up until more recent zombie movies which now are able to run. What’s scary about them is they were once people that could be one of your family members that are dead that become reanimated and are coming to eat you.
Another part of the show talked about a graphic artist Noah Scalin who created a new skull design every day for and year and posted them to his blog Skull-a-Day. They were created with everyday objects like cereal, paperclips and whatever he had available. He was explaining why it is an important object. You see an instant recognition they are apart of our culture like on poisonous materials. Skulls have a long history and were used far back before written language. Momento mori which became popular in mid evil time period is you have to think about death, we have such a short time and we need to cherish our limited time we have on earth. He made some skulls with bullets and army men that had inspired soldiers in Iraq. This project for him was about being forced to really pay conscious attention to his world and really be present in everyday and every moment. He says you can’t help but look at a skull and realize that’s me too.
There was a old pod cast I saw that I got really excited about, it was Tom Savini and his school of special effects up in Pennsylvania. I have already looked into the school because the macabre interests me and I am always trying to include it in my work. What was really interesting was Tom Savini was a combat photographer in Vietnam. That was some thing I never knew, that has really affected his work. He has seen the real gore but he says there was a safety behind the camera and treated like special effects. If he didn’t get the same feeling when he created fake things like he did when he saw the real thing it wasn’t good enough. Curt Anderson put it this way; you can see through out his movies a replay of the horrors Vietnam and it is like therapy for him because now he has control of the horror.
The graphic artist Noah Scalin really spoke to me about his creative process. At one point he said he really pays conscious attention to his world. The photography assignment we are doing now really represents this. You almost have to become obsessive and think of new things to use or watch for. Also the fact that he is a graphic designer and he used everyday objects and not the computer really encourages me.
What was inspiring was to find out Tom Savini was a photographer before he got into special effects. My love of photography is equated with my love of the macabre. Usually great horror writers like Steven King or horror creatives like Tom Savini have gone through something really traumatic that they need to express through film or other mediums which transfers to the audience. When you can transfer your vision of horror, which really shakes audiences to the core you are successful. But what is frustrating to me is I have never gone through something so traumatic. So can I ever be a good horror creative without having something horrible happen to me?
This pod cast really relates to the way I make and think about art. In each class I take I always take one of our assignments and make it scary. Even in paper making I paper casted sculls with gruesome pictures wrapped inside. There is just something about the reaction you get from people, you know when you are watching a scary movie or have a bad dream that sinking feeling you get, and there is nothing else like it.
I thought the show was great; it really got good interviews of great people. I did a comparison of a George Romero film night of the living dead compared to a recent movie 28 days later. George had talked about a rift in the zombie community about how now zombies are able to run. Romero had said there is something scary about a slow moving thing that is hard to stop. The director of 28 days later said that a slow moving zombie is just dated and when something is running at you full speed it heightens the intensity. My opinion is no madder slow or fast it is still scary because it seems like a hopeless situation, but I guess zombies have to evolve to keep us scared I think the running zombies have raised the bar. I also have looked into Tom Savini School of special effects because I might be interested after I get out of school. Some of the classes are very interesting one that got my attention was the psychology of personalities.
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