WHAT would you do if there was an outbreak of zombies at your school?
Actor Myles Pollard helped students at Coodanup Community College (CCC) find out when they filmed a zombie movie on campus recently.
More than 60 CCC students were involved in the film, which was shown at Murdoch University’s open day last month and was part of the Aspirations and Pathways for Universiy Project, which aims to get young people interested in university study.
Mr Pollard, best known for his roles in McLeod’s Daughters, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Australian surfing film Drift, directed the film and was on hand to give students acting advice.
“I’m really proud of how hard the students worked on this project – all of the students who acted auditioned for their roles and others were involved in working in the makeup department, assisting the cinematographer and helping with catering,” he said.
“It was treated like a professional production with a full camera set-ups and time restrictions – we had the best crew in Western Australia working on this.”
CCC student Jay Bresser played one of the main roles in the film and said getting bitten by a ‘zombie’ was an experience like no other.
“In the film we were in the woodworking area and some of the students get flicked with blood, become really angry and turn into zombies,” he said.
“There was a slow-motion scene where I got bitten on the neck and had a pipe with fake blood running up my back so it would spurt out everywhere and more fake blood in my mouth.
“But it turned out at the end, all the zombies really wanted were jelly beans.”
Jay took out a Best Actor award for his role in the film and will take part in a four-day, intensive acting class run by Mr Pollard which will start next weekend.
“It was intense but really fun, I’d never acted in front of a proper camera before – I’ve only filmed things with my friends,” he said.
“My favourite was when I got to improvise – I really enjoyed the whole process.”
The students also got to work with industry professionals including production designer Jeremy Shaw, who collaborated with Peter Jackson on the Lord of the Rings series and director of production Jim Frater, who has worked on many Australian and United Kingdom pieces.
Producer and Murdoch alumni Brad Major, who worked with director James Cameron on his National Geographic film Deep Sea Challenge, was also involved with the project.
CCC principal Vicki McKeown said she was impressed with how dedicated the students were and hoped the school could work with Murdoch University again next year.
