Swine flu alert? No - it's only zombies

[Thorn]

Bit of a switch from what we have been reading eh? All the fake zombie worries that are just swine flu... SHOPPERS greeted with the sight of people wearing face masks in the middle of Grimsby could be forgiven for thinking swine flu hysteria had taken hold – in fact, it was the start of a zombie apocalypse! About 30 extras took part in a unique short film-making event on Victoria Street on Sunday afternoon. Answering a call through social networking sites, people spontaneously appeared on the street and played extras in the months leading up to an apocalypse, wearing masks to prevent themselves being infected by a virus. The film, being shot by local filmmaker Sean Atkinson, is part of a worldwide project to make a mock documentary about zombies taking over the world. The project, called Lost Zombies, sees a flu pandemic turn into horror when attempts to find a cure kill patients and turn them into an army of undead. Filmmakers from around the globe have been submitting their footage to the Lost Zombies website. Sean Atkinson, a media lecturer at the Grimsby Institute, said scenes of people wearing face masks was prescient of the recent images from Mexico in the media. "This was planned weeks ago – long before swine flu hit the headlines!" he said. Among the extras were the Smith family – Rob (37), Louisa (28), Daisy (nine), Erika (five) and Floyd (three). Rob said: "We know Sean and he contacted us via Facebook with a time and a place, and we just turned up!" Louisa said: "We brought the whole family along, so that the extras didn't just comprise of 20-somethings, but showed that the situation in the film would affect whole families too." Daisy said: "It's great – I love being in films. I was in one before which my dad made and I had to show it to my friends three times before they believed I was in it!" "I love acting and am looking forward to being in this film – it's really exciting!" said Erika. And Floyd (three) said: "This is lots of fun!" With the film in the can, Sean said the event proved the internet could revolutionise independent filmmaking. "It's great that people have given up their time at the weekend to do something a bit more interesting than what normally happened on your average Sunday," he said. "This is definitely a great new way to get extras for a film, and I'd do it again." Join in online The Grimsby Telegraph is on Facebook and Twitter. For Facebook, search Grimsby Telegraph and for Twitter, search This Is Grimsby. And don't forget to check out www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk for all the Telegraph's online content. Source: http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/news/...l/article.html Official Site: http://www.lostzombies.com/