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Brains DigestCDC Goes World War Z
Inside this issue...
How the threat of the zombie apocalypse has
actually made you safer
2.8 Hours LaterThe infamous cross-city zombie game
returns to Scotland
Get The Zombie
SFX make-up artist
Sarah’s Scars
shares her best tips
for zombie make-up
Issue # 1
Look
Inside this week’s issue of
Brains Digest...
Get The Zombie Look - p.3
CDC Goes World War Z - p.4-5
Gore make-up specialist Sarah’s Scars
gives us a run through of her favourite
make-up effects - and how to apply them
Maggie Silver from the Centers of Disease
Control, America, shares the story of the
CDC’s zombie prepardeness campaign - and
how it’s actually preparing us for emergencies
2.8 Hours Later:
A Survivor’s Perspective - p.6-7
Last year’s survivor Liam Franklin shares his
experience of the biggest cross-city game of
all time, and game team Slingshot give us a
sneak preview of what’s to come for Scotland
this time around
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Get The Zombie LookWhether it’s for your planned in advance Halloween costume, your
upcoming appearance as a zombie in 2.8. Hours later this year, or your next
viewing party of AMC’s The Walking Dead, Sarah McCracken has the
make-up tips to ensure you’ll be the most gruesome zombie in town.
“Shotgun Eye is one of my most popular requests,” Sarah tell us. “ And
it’s much easier than it looks. “To achieve this look, start off with some
thick paper or thin card. Draw a circle roughly the shape of your eye and
a bit of the surrounding area. Colour it in with black marker, cut it out
and stick it over your eye. I use liquid latex because this is the safest,
but eyelash glue also works with minimal damage. Leave it on for five
minutes and be careful not to get any of the adhesive in your eye. Use
scar putty to make the flesh around the eyehole - the stuff can be
messy, so don’t worry if it’s not perfect. The messier the better, anyway.
Next, use a powder foundation and blend the scar putty in with your
natural colour. When you’ve done that, get some fake bloody and smear
it around the bullet hole. Also make sure you cover the black card with
fake blood, because it’ll give the hole a shinny kind of surface and make
it look less like felt tip coloured paper and much more like an actual
wound. Viola!”
And what about those all important zombie bites? “Of course,” Sarah
says. “You can’t be a zombie and not have the bite to prove it.
“This, again, is actually really easy. All you need is fake blood, and
basic knowledge of what a bite looks like. I’d advise going on Google
images just to get a better idea. If a zombie bit you, it would use it’s
most forefront teeth, meaning the five or six you can immediately see
at the front of someone’s mouth. It probably can’t sink all it’s teeth into
your arm. I would take a thin pen and lightly mark out on your arm
where the teeth marks should be. Once your satisfied with the position
and shape of the teeth marks, take your fake blood and fill in the
shapes. It’s also a good idea to get a thin paint brush, dip it in the fake
blood and flick it across your arm for a blood spatter effect.”
Based in Falkirk, Sarah is the proud owner of special
effects make-up business Sarah’s Scars. She
embarked on her career in 2011 while employed as a
youth worker, and has long been interested in gore
make-up. Her notable credits include the make-up for a
music video of Glasgow band Siphon, as well as
various film, music and stage productions. She also
quotes working on Glasgow’s 2012 Halloween Ball as
one of her ‘best experiences.’
Sarah has also used her talents for good causes.
“I noticed there was a strange need for scar workshops:
burns, fake cuts, bruises, etc.
“I know what you’re thinking. Why would anyone want
that? Well, there is certainly a fun element to the
workshops as far as young people are concerned.
“However, depending on how a workshop is used, they
can also be very beneficial for learning.
“When giving a talk to young people about fire safety, for
instance, the addition of a scar workshop lets them see
just how much burns can affect body image. When doing
a First Aid course, they will find themselves bandaging
very real looking wounds. These additional touches can
really help impress upon young people the importance of
fire safety and knowing first aid.”
Sarah also makes and sells costumes, masks and props,
as well as buying in certain stock to sell on.
Today, though, she’s going to give us some tips on how to
apply the perfect zombie make-up.
For more information, visit sarahsscars.co,uk or call Sarah on 07858 266591
CDC Goes World War ZHurricanes, floods, tornadoes, epidemics… and the zombie apocalypse. The
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) may not take the latter
seriously, but the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in America have pulled out all the
stops to ensure the general public is ready for an outbreak of zombies.
What began as a tongue-in-cheek way to engage with the
public back in 2011 has become a full-blown campaign in
preparedness – and an incredibly successful one. The idea? If
you can survive the zombie apocalypse, you can survive an
earthquake, hurricane, epidemic or terrorist attack.
Margaret Silver, CDC worker and co-creator of the Zombie
Preparedness Campaign, sheds light on why she and her
co-workers decided to use zombies as inspiration.
“The idea to use zombies came from Twitter conversations we
had observed,” Margaret says. “Following the Japan
Fukushima disaster we posed a question on Twitter and we got
a surprising number of responses that mentioned zombies.
Since we were in the process of brainstorming for Hurricane
Season and how to drum up attention we decided, why not
give the people what they want and craft a preparedness
campaign around zombies?”
The CDC’s emergency preparedness campaign
features zombie themed posters with the slogan ‘Get
a kit. Make a plan. Be prepared,’ as well as a graphic
novella called ‘Zombie Pandemic’ in the style of the
original Walking Dead comic books. They also offer a
slew of information on how to deal with an outbreak,
including how to put together a survival pack and
how to prepare friends and family for disaster.
Despite the public’s obsession with zombie pop
culture spreading like a pandemic itself, the United
States is still the only country to fully acknowledge
the incredible advantage that this love-of-all-things-
zombie actually has for emergency preparedness.
The ECDC seems unlikely to follow suit, as do
England’s own Health Protection Agency (HPA) or
equivalent organisations in other countries. However,
Margaret explains that, at least within and near the
United States, she has seen other ‘copycat
endeavours’ on a much smaller scale.
“The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) got on board with a lot of our materials and
local emergency management agencies have taken
the idea and run with it for their local events. The
Canadian Centers for Disease Control have also
used zombies in some capacity…I’m pretty sure it
was a heart health campaign, although they were
very supportive of our zombie preparedness
campaign.”
The campaign’s blog post on the CDC’s website has
been viewed more than five million times, and
Margaret tells us that in the campaign’s first week
alone, a media reporting agency estimated that the
CDC has a reached over 3.6 billion. She also noted
that following the launch, the CDC’s website traffic
increased by more than 1000% compared to the
previous year. So, overall, a pretty successful
campaign?
“It was definitely much more popular than we had
ever anticipated,” Margaret confirms. “It was just
three communicators who came up with and
designed the initial campaign – we just thought we’d
try something new and threw it out there. We were
swamped once it went viral. The purpose of the
campaign was to simply raise awareness about
4
personal preparedness and drive traffic to our website. On
those levels we definitely succeeded.
“We saw conversations being sparked online through our
website and social media. Anecdotally, we had people
leaving comments on our blog about how they were
approaching preparedness with their friends and families
now that they could frame it in the form of a zombie
takeover. And of course with the huge amount of media
coverage many more people were being exposed to our
message.”
As a co-creator, Margaret’s favourite part of working on the
campaign has been how much the public have enjoyed it,
commenting that the feedback has been ‘overwhelmingly
positive’.
“Having complete strangers, once they hear that I work for
the CDC, say how much they liked the zombie campaign.
It’s become synonymous with our agency and I love being
able to tell people that I worked on it.”
Zombies are a unique thing in popular culture. Of all the
other movie monsters to garner such widespread public
attention, nobody has ever followed Max Brooke’s
example and written a Vampire Survival Guide, or put
erious thought into how to protect their families against
werewolves, ghosts or any other number of pop culture’s
greatest supernatural foes.
“Zombies are much more ‘in’ right now than other mon-
sters,” Margaret explains, in response to why other hor-
ror movie staples have not been used in the campaign
instead.
She’s right, too; with America’s (and the rest of the
world’s) ever-growing love of popular AMC series The
Walking Dead, zombies are very much in the spotlight.
Combine this with Max Brook’s ‘The Zombie Survival
Guide’ and ‘World War Z’; the popular as ever Resident
Evil video game series; and George A. Romero’s origi-
nal ‘Dead’ trilogy that still stands the test of time, the
zombie theme is never far from the public eye.
The living dead exist not only as a beloved icon of en-
tertainment, but also (and perhaps more darkly) as a
reminder that human beings are not immune to death
or disease. The zombies of horror movies, video games
and novels are examples in and of themselves of what
happens when ordinary people are ill-prepared for dis-
aster. Maybe, then, the CDC’s Zombie Preparedness
Campaign really is the best way to encourage the pub-
lic to plan for emergencies. Besides, if a horde of flesh-
eating undead really do crash through your door, a
planned escape route and knowledge of how to use a
shotgun probably won’t hurt.
CDC Goes World War Z
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2.8 Hours Later: A Survivor’s PerspectiveIt’s difficult to scare a hardened zombie fan, but running through dark city streets in desperate pursuit of
safety - all while being chased by the relentless undead - may just do the trick.
And that’s exactly what happened to participant
Liam Franklin last year, after the hugely successful
cross-city game 2.8 Hours Later returned to
Glasgow for it’s second successful run last year.
Named after a rather infamous action-horror movie,
the game is the ultimate test of not only physical
speed and
endurance, but also of the player’s ability to
strategise and piece together the clues scattered
across the city. It’s a truly enjoyable – and
nerve-wracking – experience.
“When you buy your tickets, you’re emailed this
secret location where the game starts,” Liam
explains. “For us last year, it was actually the top
car park of the DVLA building in Glasgow. When
we got there we were briefed, told the basic do’s
and don’ts, and we were given this map and had to
find the first checkpoint. There were three
checkpoints all across the city and you had to
make it to each one, and then the safe zone, in
under three hours – it was roughly 2.8 hours,
hence the name. When we played, the Asylum bit
was actually Strathclyde union, and there was a big
party there after the game.”
Liam laughs when asked how players are ‘infected’
by the zombies. “Well, everywhere you go – and I
mean it, everywhere – zombies are there waiting
for you. If they manage to grab your wrist, you’re
supposed to go back and let them draw on your
arm with these pens they all carry. The ink doesn’t
show up on your skin under normal light, so you
don’t know if you’re infected or not until the end of
the game – when I played, there was this mad UV
light tent at the safe zone at the end of the game.
When you walked under it, some of the pen marks
showed up under the light. I did get grabbed and
penned a couple of times during the game, but
luckily I wasn’t infected and I got ‘Survivor’
stamped on my wrist and some free drinks at the
after party.”
And what about those who weren’t quite so lucky?“
Every single one of my pals were infected,” Liam
laughs, “and they were all taken to this room up-
stairs on the way to the bar and had their make-up
done. They were all made into zombies. I think I
saw like twenty people, including myself, who survived without
being infected. Almost every person at Strathclyde union was
zombified.”
Liam’s advice to future players? “Keep running!” he says. “And
beware the side missions.”
Liam, like thousands of others, plans to play again as the game
returns to Edinburgh and Glasgow this year in May and August.
As always, the adrenaline-fuelled frenzy is strengthened by an
intricate storyline and host of compelling characters. Now in the
third run of the game, 2.8 Hours Later: Survival begins where
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2.8 Hours Later: A Survivor’s PerspectiveIt’s difficult to scare a hardened zombie fan, but running through dark city streets in desperate pursuit of
safety - all while being chased by the relentless undead - may just do the trick.
the previous game Asylum left off. Whereas last year’s players were
rewarded by finding the last safe place in the city, this time around the
aim of the game is to survive the hordes of living dead in search of
supplies outside the safe zone’s walls. Asylum is still secure, but
without food, water, and medical stock, how long can the survivors
last?
Slingshot, the group behind 2.8 Hours Later, feel pretty happy with
what they have in store for zombie enthusiasts this year. Despite being
busy organising the Cardiff game, they made time to answer a few of
our questions.
Liam, pictured at bottom, after last year’s game
“It’s the next part of the story,” Kara Fraser,
part of the storyboard team, tells us.
“Everything has been cranked up to eleven
since last time. When we premiered the
game back in 2010, it was just the beginning
of the story. Last year’s Asylum was the next
chapter - running not just from zombies, but
from police, vigilantes, and some generally
unpleasant characters.
“This time around, you’re picking up right
where you left off - you’re in Asylum now,
but supplies are dwindling and you’re going
to have to run for them. I can’t give much
away, but think last year’s game and
multiply it by one hundred. That’s the level
of intensity we’re talking.”
When I ask Kara if anything other than the
plot has advanced since last year, she’s
somewhat reluctant to respond.
“I can’t give much away, like I said. It’s one
of these quite secretive games - you know
what it’s like, we don’t even email you the
starting location until a few days before the
game starts.
“But I can say that the zombies definitely
aren’t the only monsters you’ll have to worry
about now.”
That sounds cryptic. Are we talking Resident
Evil style baddies?
“In a sense, I suppose. You could say the
zombies have evolved, somewhat. They’re,
uh... faster. I really can’t give more away.”
it sounds ominous, but it certainly seems
like a massive upgrade from previous
games - which were already difficult enough
to top. Let’s hope Liam survives this one.
For more information and to book tickets for
any of this year’s games, visit
2.8hourslater.com
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