The nail-biting canteen scene in the first and second episodes of ‘All of Us Are Dead’ was done in one take

Remember the nail-biting canteen scene in the first and second episodes of Netflix’s All of Us Are Dead? Well, according to director Lee Jaekyoo, the particular scene was actually done in one take.

To recall, it was a moment of mass hysteria when zombie-fied students burst inside the cafeteria of Hyosan High School with the remaining survivors including Nam Onjo (Park Jihoo), Lee Cheongsan (Yoon Chanyoung), and Yoon Gwinam (Yoo Insoo) were left to escape. 

The iconic scene also featured Onjo being saved by Chanyoung when she was about to be bitten by a zombie.

In a behind-the-scenes featurette, Jaekyoo revealed that the exact scene was done in one take where a lot of meticulous preparations took place. “To make it look more realistic and lively, we used many one-takes and long-takes in the beginning… We shot the [cafeteria] scene in one take.”

The director shared that rehearsing the particular scene was “everything,” adding that “hundreds” of crew and actors spent the whole day preparing for it alone. 

“In fact, how the actors acted and reacted changed the whole storyboard. All the cameras did was try to capture how the kids reacted,” Jaekyoo added.

Jaekyoo added that the actors portraying characters who transformed into zombies were required to learn a “zombie choreography” where the “kids practiced it over and over” with the help of a choreographer.

The director also revealed during the series’ virtual press conference that the zombie actors and crew members would do multiple test shootings and rehearsals to make the scenes more “realistic.”

“I wanted people to feel, to be in that scene themselves. So that’s why we had multiple rehearsals and I think they really helped us create great scenes,” Jaekyoo said.

All of Us Are Dead is a modern zombie series revolving around high school students determined to survive a zombie apocalypse that swept the fictional town of Hyosan.