February 4, 1978
George Celebrates his 38th Birthday
On-location shooting at the Monroeville Mall wraps up on George Romero’s 38th birthday.
Following a little party where Romero is being presented with a cake and a special director’s chair, the cast and crew assemble at the mall’s fountain in their Dawn of the Dead t-shirts for a commemorative group photo.
This is also the last day of explosives effects man Gary Zeller on the film’s production team.
February 11 - 14, 1978
Dawn of the Dead’s production goes into its final phase with two days of shooting the opening TV studio scenes at Pittsburgh’s Channel 53 WPGH station, and two more at the Fort Pitt Boulevard “hideout” location.
Romero discusses the film’s opening sequences with actors David Crawford (far
left) and David Early.
February 20, 1978
Principal photography wraps up after filming some additional pick-up shots of the WGON helicopter, and Romero hits his editing table to compose a first rough cut that will eventually clock in at a reported 173 minutes.
February 25, 1978
George Anderson George Romero Dawn
A mere five days after shooting has been completed, the first raw footage clips from Dawn of the Dead are shown by Channel 53 WGPH in Pittsburgh during a live interview with George Romero hosted by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette entertainment editor George Anderson that follows the debut local television showing of Night of the Living Dead.
Scott Reiniger and David Emge hit the cutting room floor.
This vintage preview, which runs for about five minutes and is commented by the director off-camera, features several takes that will not make it into the finished movie, including a hilarious scene of Roger clumsily attempting to help Stephen out of an air duct opening by having him standing on his hands (and both men ultimately falling down), as well as a couple of interesting alternate-angle and “clipboard” shots.
March 23, 1978
Rolling Stone magazine
An extensive four-page Rolling Stone magazine article by Chet Flippo, covering his visit to the Monroeville Mall set the previous January, introduces Dawn of the Dead to a wider “pop culture” audience.
1978
A negative of the work print is shipped to Dario Argento in Rome, who, as per the 1977 contractual agreement between him and Laurel, starts to compose his own version of the film for the European and Japanese markets.
Removing many of the “quieter” character development scenes and almost completely replacing the numerous DeWolfe library cues used by Romero for his original soundtrack with Goblin’s driving rock score, the result is an overall darker, faster-paced, and more “serious” film that quite deliberately has filtered out any “satirical” or even “comical” elements to become a straightforward horror-action shocker which arguably will better suit the viewing habits of European movie audiences.
Although Romero apparently is far from happy with the somewhat radical changes that have been made to his work, he obviously finds himself forced to put on a good face while promoting Dawn in Europe.