A Giddy Greg Nicotero Gives A Guided Tour Of The Walking Dead Zombie Workshop

AMC is hip deep in zombies at the moment, in the midst of their “Walking Dead Season Three Preview Weekend.” The network is marathoning the first two seasons of the show, and will end the whole shebang with a look at the upcoming third season. In conjunction with this celebratory wallowing in all things undead, AMC has released a new video of special effects wizard Greg Nicotero giving a tour of his shop.

Nicotero gives you a behind the scenes peek at some of the things they’ll be doing with the walkers in the encroaching season. He is working on creating zombies in various stages of decomposition. You don’t want all the zombie corpses rotting on the ground to look like every one has been dead the same length of time. When it comes to their effects the techniques and approaches the crew uses have been growing and evolving along with the series, and will continue to develop as their needs change. One of the things I most appreciate about the show is that while there is a lot of CG animation, they rely heavily on practical effects and props.

Love or hate The Walking Dead, you have to appreciate how enthusiastic Nicotero is about his work. Most of the video he spends reenacting iconic moments from the show, like the walker being stabbed in the eye with a screwdriver. When he demonstrates the new strategies for up close and personal zombie violence, like head axing or face sledgehammering, he’s about to giggle. The man certainly loves his job.