The Walking Dead – The Shot that Almost Never Was

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While I admit I am looking forward to Season 3 of The Walking Dead, I might be more excited about the impending release of Season 2 on Blu-ray and DVD. I love new stories – only occasionally re-watching a season of television when I have nothing new to watch – but nothing excites me more than seeing all the behind-the-scenes goodies they cram onto the boxsets. Case-in-point: on the Blu-ray release there is a video – brought to you by Tvline –  of the final episode, “Beside the Dying Fire,” that shows the final moments of shooting the season. If you like watching buildings burn in a brilliant fashion, this is just the video for you.

The clip shows the last day of shooting which just so happens to be the day they burned down the barn on Hershel’s farm, the main location for Season 2. Robert Kirkman, the creator of the comic books series the show is based on, lamented the torching of the barn, but I personally think he’s crazy. What’s better than lighting wooden structures on fire while zombies roam about? The video shows us just how those zombies, played by heavily make upped extras and stuntmen, were lit on fire. They really were set ablaze, but this was done from the safety of a soundstage where a blue screen could be used to insert them into the fiery inferno in postproduction.

Do you remember that shot of the zombies shuffling away from the barn as it finally collapses? It turns out that shot was a bit of an accident. The AD saw a beam inside the barn fall down and immediately called for all the extras to return to their starting marks to get the shot again. It’s a good thing she was so quick, because it wasn’t long after that the barn finally gave in to the fire and burned to the ground.

With extras like this, the Season 2 boxset must be a worthwhile purchase. I’ll definitely be picking it up when it’s finally released on August 28.