ZOE is a ZOMBIE

Despite looking gruesome, the blood and brains we made for our promo are actually made of regular household items.

Making the brains was a rather simple process.

The only specialty item we bought was a brain mold. You can buy them super cheap on Amazon.com.

From there, all you’ll need are jello (for the texture), evaporated milk (for opacity) and food coloring (to make your brain a grey color).

Buy a brain mold HERE

Find the jello brain recipe HERE

This was our jello brain once it popped out of the mold. It was plated and ready to be bloodied up.

The blood itself is my favorite recipe.

After years of trying different combinations involving corn syrup, laundry detergent, etc, I’ve finally settled on this recipe: 3 parts strawberry syrup to 1 part chocolate syrup

Not only is it cheap and easy, it is also completely edible and washable.

We perfected this recipe while making a no-budget vampire short film several years ago called, “Last Day, First Night.” As you can tell from the photo, our lead in that film was a true sport as she walked around a creek covered in “blood” all day.

Check out the trailer HERE

As for the chunks in the blood, we smashed up some frozen raspberries and added them to the mix.

And there you have it! Cheap, easy and not so disgusting blood and brains.

This was George’s first concept of Zoe’s make up look.

We talked a lot about the difference of Zoe when she is hungry and Zoe when she is normal. More or less, she is supposed to look severely cracked out, rather than a stereotypical zombie – this allows her to pass in public.

On an average day, Zoe’s hair is messy, and teeth are decaying. Battle wounds and scars mark her complexion. When she gets hungary and needs to eat, her eyes fog over.

We’ve also talked a lot about keeping the look more subtle to avoid creating an unbelievable character. The goal of our first test was to define the line between believable and unbelievable.

Jennifer refined and enhanced George’s initial ideas by determining the exact look of the teeth and adding a fantastic detail – veins.

When Zoe is hungry, her blood is pulsating, making her facial veins pop agains her skin. It is a perfect way to bridge the looks between normal Zoe and hungry Zoe.

We talked a bit about where the vein placement would be and where veins naturally lie on the face.

Jennifer also provided some great references for the teeth. When Zoe’s mouth is open, her teeth make her look much more shocking. But, by keeping her mouth close, she can pass as a person more easily.

We were unable to get the foggy contacts in time for the make up test shoot, but here is an example of what her eyes will look like when she is feeding.

Our actress Elliott was a true champ, allowing us to zombie-fy her for a few hours.

This is the first pass at the make up look. This test was to see how subtle we can make the look before Zoe starts to look comedic.

In person, the make up came across perfect, but we will be boosting and strengthening the look so that it will read better in camera.

You can see some of the vein work creeping around her cheeks, and a gnarly battle wound scarring her pale lips. Her foggy contacts are missing.

The scar and her teeth came out great and read well on camera.

The next test will play up those veins and add more shadows to her eyes. We are considering adding a few more wounds to her mouth, as shown in the reference. The look will be finalized with those foggy contacts.

Our SEED & SPARK fundraising page is officially live! Check it out, along with our promo video below. We have 60 days to raise $10,000. Will you help us get there?