It's a sad day for horror film fans. The father of the zombie movement has passed away.
I feel a personal connection to George Romero on many levels. First off, he was a Pittsburgh guy. Well at least we like to claim him as one of our own. He attended Carnegie Mellon University and shot many of his films in and around Pittsburgh. He also worked with Mister Rogers and as a Pittsburgher, I can tell you that only adds to the list of things that made him a true Pittsburgh film guy!
A second connection is his love for the horror film genre. That goes without saying I suppose. The film that really put his name on the map was his film Night of the Living Dead and is credited as the precursor to all zombie/undead projects to come. (I mentioned this in a previous post, but fun fact on that film was that the word zombie was actually never spoken.)
I suppose my real connection to him though is just the fact that he decided he wanted to make a movie and that's what he did. He worked with an incredibly small budget by any standards and drove the movie himself to studios to try and get someone to buy it. That's the definition of gumption in my book.
I never had the opportunity to work with him, though I'm honored to say I knew many that did. When I first started in the film industry I was given the opportunity to work with many talented crew members that had been working in the industry for many years. Pittsburgh was a huge movie hotspot in the 80's and early 90's (and thankfully has been revitalized in the 2000's!) and so the depth of crew talent was/is quite large. I remember being on my first set and thinking to myself, holy hell I have no idea what is going on! I had seen everything in theory in school but honestly there's nothing like stepping onto your first set to make you feel like you've learned nothing in university.
I must have had a deer in headlights look because the gaffer (head electrician) called me over and said something to the effect of stand by me kid, I'll show you everything you need to know. His name was Ed and he was the best gaffer in town. I will forever be thankful to him for that first shoot because true to his word he taught me more in that first day than I had learned in all of film school. Over the years I got to work with him a lot and every shoot he taught me something different and introduced me to other crew members who did the same.
I'm bringing this story up in a piece about George Romero because my favorite story Ed ever told me was about one of the first projects he ever worked on. He said he got to work on this little film where everyone pulled double duty on set. He said not only was he in the g&e (grip and electric) department but he was actually in the film itself. He said he still gets a kick out of it all these years later because if you watch closely in one of the scenes you can seem him coming over the hill in full zombie mode. That film was Night of the Living Dead.
So here's to you George Romero. Not only were you a great filmmaker and father of the zombie movement, but you were an inspiration to generations of film crews that you worked with and those that came after. Rest in peace.
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