Every new image from “The Walking Dead” gets me more and more pumped for the series. As far as the zombies are concerned, this shit looks legit. They’re not sparing us the splatter, as evidenced by the photo above. That’s serious nastiness. (And perhaps a call back to the jawless “Dr. Tongue” zombie from DAY OF THE DEAD?)
The image accompanies a new interview that the AMC show’s official blog (which has been outstanding so far) has put up, this one with the show’s cinematographer, David Boyd. Boyd is a veteran TV and film D.P., having worked on, among many other things, “Firefly”, “Deadwood”, and “Friday Night Lights”. “Deadwood” is one of my favorite shows of all time, so now I’m even more psyched about this! F*CK!
Anyhow, here are a few samples from the interview:
Q: Horror movies usually take place at night. This series takes place mostly during the day. What are the challenges to that?
A: I think the challenges are to just get the idea that there’s something to be afraid of around every corner. Because it’s daylight you’re not normally scared — we’re scared at night. But the levels of this are brilliantly laid out by Frank [Darabont]: The rooftop is a little safer than street level, street level is really terrifying, and below street level gets safer. So the scary places start to be the safe places, and the safe places start to be the scary places.
Q: What kind of visual tricks do you use to enhance this feeling of danger?
A: Just to play it as normal as possible, and prey on the fact that everyone knows that it’s scary [Laughs]. We do tricks like we make it a little cooler — like the warmth has disappeared from the world. And we use film so that the blues come out a little stronger, but I’m trying hard to keep it purely on a psychological level. Also, it’s normal policy to make a camera perfectly level with the horizon, but not here. We don’t do the obvious tilt left or right, but all things are a little bit off. My aim is to make it off-kilter enough to where there’s just something subconsciously wrong with every image — it starts to become a world where nothing’s right.
Q: You’re responsible for the show’s lighting and color, but your source material is a black and white comic. What inspiration can you draw from it?
A: Oh all kinds. Everything comes from the comic book. And then Frank’s taken it to its own place where it needs to be for us. Photographically all I’ve done is take most of the color out — I’ve desaturated things and I’ll bleed the color out. It’s still a color image, it’s still acceptable for television (because you can’t put a black and white show on television any more).
For the entire interview, head on over HERE. “The Walking Dead” will hit this October.
“Walking Dead” star Laurie Holden
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