An Interview with a zombie is not something most students were expecting while attending the JACC this year, however this uniquely bizarre situation placed feature writers in a strange position to cover a story that straddled the line between horror fiction and reality.

This freakishly out of place scenario stunned, confused, and captivated the feature writers and photographers attending the 2013 Journalism Association of Community Colleges that was being held at the California State University of Fullerton. While students were tasked with competing against one another by form of writing or photographing, zombies were not something anyone thought they had to worry about, they were wrong.

During the feature writing orientation, where students thought they would be informed as to what they had to write about in a formal manner, a peculiar nightmare took place. Zombies stormed the room and dragged a way a couple of journalism professors including Rio Hondo’s very own John Francis, they were then taken away to a secret location to be transformed into zombies.

This experience was further intensified later when the now unrecognizable professors returned as fully decorated zombies and students were allowed the chance to interview them for the feature story.
The feature writers were presented with an almost unrecognizable Jay Seidel (Prof. of Fullerton College), with ripped apart clothing and detailed zombie makeup and prosthetics. In the same room where students saw him abducted, they were then allowed to ask questions about what exactly had just transpired at JACC in the form of a press conference. Through the numerous questions being asked, students were able to extract factual and fictitious information from the now apparently undead journalism instructor.
Students learned that Seidel and Francis were both taken to the halloween haunt warehouse at Knott’s that is dedicated to turning people into monsters as part of the theme parks’ seasonal attractions. There they undertook the transformation process, that apparently “didn’t take as long as expected” Seidel claimed, “it took about 40 minutes to complete”.
Seidel appeared to be very excited by being able to live the part of a world wide phenomenal horror creature. He was able to go behind the scenes on how people craft such entertaining monsters.
Seidel did a great job at answering many questions as both a human and as a zombie, which was a concept that was both slightly confusing, but highly fascinating. One of the questions asked that crossed the bridge between reality and fiction was, “How is your personality translating from a college instructor to zombie?” Jay Seidel cleverly replied, “I’m feeling more zombie-like each minute, its like me on critique day” he laughed, “I’m trying to see who has the biggest brain”.
Whatever transpired at the JACC on Oct. 11, was a freakishly unique journalism experience that many attendees should not soon forget.