Phelps 1 Fans of George A. Romero The fandom that revolves around George A. Romero is real. I have been a fan of his for many years. With the advent of Facebook it has been an opening door for us fans to be able to connect with each other and it also allows us to share stories, photos, and the recent news of any new projects that George A. Romero is currently working on. That is the main source that keeps us updated. Ever since I joined Facebook, I have met so many wonderful people who adore this man as much as I do. During my time in the groups, I met William Sanders and Matt Blazi. Those two, in my opinion, are the people that I look up to most. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate through interviews on how important George A. Romero is to the fans that adore his films. Then, I have a quote from one of the actors who worked on one of his films. Not only has he made the best zombie films in the world but how he has changed the lives of so many. The fan culture that surrounds George is huge. By doing this paper, I hope that I can capture how these guys actually feel. A brief history of George A. Romero: George Andrew Romero was born on February 4th 1940 in New York City. When he was a teenager he received an 8 mm camera, where he began to shoot everything on site. After he graduated from High school he and his parents moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He went to college at Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied Paint and Design. George ended up dropping out of college, because he was eager to begin his movie career. He then turned to making commercials and short movies before he and his friends created The Latent Image. The Latent Image consisted of eight people who he had met from running reels to and from studios. George was never too keen on shooting commercials and then FA 790 Manuscripts & Folklife Archives – Special Collections Library – Western Kentucky University Phelps 2 decided that he wanted to make a feature film, so with a budget of $114,000 he and his company produced, Night of the Living Dead in 1968. There wasn't much success with Night of the Living Dead. When they able to get a distributor, the Walter Reed Company, they forgot to put the copyright label on the film. After this was noticed, the film then became public domain. Years after the film gained an audience and became one of the most influential films of all times, George and the rest of the company never received any benefits from their hard work. There have been talks about getting a proper copyright title for the movie but until then, the movie will remain in the public domain. After no success with Night, George never wanted to do another dead film. But, when Dario Argento (an Italian director) saw Night, he came to George and offered to finance another dead film. George had been working on a script and Dario offered to fly him out to Italy, so that he could finish the script without being bothered. So, In 1978 George Romero gave us Dawn of the Dead. The film is considered by most people to be the greatest film that he created. And is definitely my favorite film of all time. Then, after much success with Dawn of the Dead in 1978, George gave us Day of the Dead in 1985. To most fans, this is considered to be the least favorite of the three. In this film, George had a bigger budget than the other two. Due to not having the budget that he really wanted, he had to change the screenplay and cut some of the scenes. But, to George, this is his favorite of the dead films. My opinion of this film is good, however this is considered to be my least favorite. Even though, I love all of his films, I still watch this when I get tired of watching Night and Dawn. FA 790 Manuscripts & Folklife Archives – Special Collections Library – Western Kentucky University Phelps 3 My view of George A. Romero: George Romero will forever have the legacy of being a great independent filmmaker. I have loved his films over the years and will continue to do so. When I have kids, I will to the best of my ability, show them how much he has made an impact on my life. He is the reason why I am in school to be a director. His influence has shown that a person that can go from being a low-budget director to being an independent high-budget filmmaker. In my opinion his legacy will be heard worldwide. He is the father of the modern day zombie. His contributions to zombie walks, conventions, and to documentaries have proved this thus far. As a fan, I would like to see one more zombie movie made by George. His plans at the moment are to do different things, but the fans would love to see more. The fans cannot get enough of zombies. Matt Blazi's Interview: Matt Blazi has been a fan of George Romero for about thirty years. He first watched Dawn of the Dead when he was three or four years old. On Saturday mornings, he would get up and go into the living room and pop Dawn of the Dead in the VCR. It was something that stuck with him and he has continued to watch it over and over again. There was a time where he didn't watch it but he started driving and sort of rediscovered it again. While out driving, he went into Blockbuster Video and saw it for sale. He had never seen it for sale before and bought it. Then a couple of weeks later he discovered that there was a director’s cut of the film. This was before the internet was popular and after researching it, he found that it was made in Pittsburgh. It was only a three hours from where he was at. The film took on its own life and snowballed into more watching, dissecting, researching, and more learning. It was just something about the movie that other films didn't have. Most fans believe it's the social commentary but for him it's knowing what kind of man George A. Romero is. FA 790 Manuscripts & Folklife Archives – Special Collections Library – Western Kentucky University Phelps 4 The Man in the Movies: Matt has been in a couple of George's movies. He was a zombie in Land of the Dead and Survival of the Dead. It first started with Greg Nicotero (producer of The Walking Dead) Matt had met him at a convention and spent the whole weekend getting to know him. They exchanged emails and kept in contact with each other. Nicotero's special effects company ended up getting the job for Land of the Dead and contacted Matt to come up to Canada and be a zombie in the film. That's when George wanted the fans to be a part of the film. George has received so much from his fans, so he thought what a better way to get them involved. When Matt first got on set, he called Greg to tell him that he was there. Greg came out of the make-up trailer and told the production assistant to get him in make up as soon as possible. Then in an hour and half, he was in make-up and on set. Then Matt was able to get into Survival of the Dead. It started off as a joke between him and his friends Rob and Glenna, who also live in Canada and who were also in Land of the Dead. They had been emailing back and forth and Matt said that Rob and Glenna should get in contact with George and see if they could get involved with Survival of the Dead. Rob emailed George and asked if they could be in Survival. George said, yes! Rob handled the details and then shortly after that, they were on the set. Matt was asked how attached he was to his hair and asked if he was afraid of fire. Matt started to laugh. Rob said that it was possible for them to get into make- up and get in front of the camera. George's wife greeted them and took them to the extras tent and told the production assistants to get them into make-up. The budget for the movie was very low and they were not promised a cameo, but since they were George's friends, they ended up being zombies in the film after all. FA 790 Manuscripts & Folklife Archives – Special Collections Library – Western Kentucky University Phelps 5 A Collector of Mall Memorabilia: Matt Blazi's love for George A. Romero, has took him to where George directed Dawn of the Dead, the Monroeville Mall in Pittsburgh. Matt visits the mall quite often and when the mall was tearing down the JC Penny's to replace it with a movie theater, Matt was able to get inside of the store and save the wood paneling from being demolished. This is where David Emgee (Stephen) died when he suffers bites from the zombies. The wood paneling is special for some people. For a true fan to get a piece of the paneling is a dream come true.