Zombies, Crazies, Zombies, Crazies

Toby Sells, an Atlanta based make-up FX artist has been pretty busy as of late. The last time I caught up with him, he was knee deep in the undead for Zombieland (here). “I look at zombies in two categories: one being the supernatural, like some unseen force makes them rise up, and the natural like bio hazard or infection, and that what was The Crazies,” says Toby Sells. Between Dance of the Dead, Zombieland, and a little feature called Collapse he recently done this past Fall in Iowa City, he was a little burned out doing zombie films. So what attracted him to The Crazies? “what attracted me to the project was the script. Rob (Laid to Rest) Hall contacted me before it started, and I always liked him, so I jumped at the chance. I knew about it for awhile, and I watched the original, eventually they sent me the script and it was good. Now I read a lot of scripts, and being a shop owner, I read a lot of crap, but this was defiantly good. You could tell that it wasn’t going straight to Blockbuster Video, but it was going to get a nice theatrical release.”

Based off of the 1973 George A. Romero film, The Crazies follows some Iowan towns folk as a dangerous virus rips through them, making them all go violent insane.

“The story, the script, working with Rob, all were appealing aspects. The makeups here were a lot different than in Zombieland, that’s for sure, even though I ended up doing something zombie-ish again,” laughed Toby. “Basically, this time last year we started doing the life casts and shipped them to L.A. Then Rob’s team [at Almost Human FX] took over, and on top of that, Rob’s crew was building some dummies and other gags,” explained Toby. “Once we had that going, I was off to Zombieland for a solid month. Then I came back to a staggering schedule; a week on The Crazies, a week on Zombieland, back and forth.”

Teaming with Almost Human FX

“I’ll give credit to where credit is do: I was tagging along with Rob Hall. I was Rob Hall’s bitch!” laughed Toby. “I know that Breck [Eisner] and Rob [Hall] were really involved in the look for The Crazies. The thing I really liked about their design was that with zombies, they’re dead, they died. These people are basically infected, and I think Rob’s exact words were ‘they’re becoming more alive’. This whole busting at the seems look with the makeups, crazy eye thing going on, and just with that is different than the original. It’s hard to speak for Rob or Breck, but with what they did in the original, it’s a far cry different with technology advancements, compared to what they did in 1973.”

Those advancements are made easier now days with a bigger budget, as the original film was working with $200,000 or so. Clearly in The Crazies, these people aren’t zombies, but some comparison might be made to 28 Days Later. Toby explains some of the interesting work being done with these infected people of The Crazies. “Brett Wagner’s character was one Hall and myself did the application for. He was one of my favorite makeups, well they all were, because the designs were pretty rocking and so different. The fact that the design were a combination of a few techniques, and I don’t think this is a spoiler, we applied this soft Silicone Gel to the skin, with some 3D Pro-Aid transfers, that are like tattoos. You plot those on the skin, and rub them off like those cheap water based tattoos. With a combination of those two things, even though it’s something I’ve done over the last couple of years, just that with those designs, made it a unique, fun challenge.”

Juggling Jobs

“Here in my own shop,” explains Toby, “we usually have a few things going on at once, it just keeps you from getting numb and desensitized to the whole thing. It was hard on my wife and my poor dog, but it was a good year for sure. when you’re on something for more than a few weeks it all gets blurry. It’s a fine line, you know, it’s something one loves to do, so it’s not like becoming a lawyer or something that requires going to years of school for, it’s a passion. You cannot compare it to other jobs, you just have to have a passion for it. That’s the fine line, because it is a passion, it’s something you’re totally in love with. When you’re on set for weeks, it is so easy for it to turn into a job, and that can affect the work and the outcome. When you’re going back and forth like I was in between Zombieland and The Crazies, and throw in Tyler Perry’s I Can do Bad All By Myself, it keeps you more awake to what’s going on to just get out of that blah stage.”

The Crazies is coming February 16th, 2010. All photos were printed with permission of Toby Sells Creature Make up FX Shop.

Tags: George A. Romero, laid to rest, Rob Hall, The Crazies, Toby Sells, zombieland