Journal Zero

This second act of the “Devon” vignette, wherein our hero dost make most violent an altercation with a member of the infected team, was produced in the “quick and dirty” style of a Night Zero production, with a skeleton crew and a short day to produce a short segment. The quality and length of the finished product speaks volumes to how far Night Zero has come since its early days, when it would have taken a full day’s work and thrice the crew to produce something of still lesser quality. Here are a few disconnected thoughts on the piece:

• The biggest advantage going into production on this scene was the previously established location of Quarantine in the New City. Unlike most Night Zero shoot locations, which are secured through city film permits or provided by friends/acquaintances, the quarantine rooms are rented rehearsal spaces in the Seattle Center. The rental fees are nominal and bookings are done with a simple web form, so coordinating schedules with actors and locking down dates is impossibly easy.

• At a recent fundraiser event for a satire horror film produced by some friends, Night Zero contributed a pack of merchandise/swag along with the role of a “featured scratcher” in an upcoming production. As I was designing the auction item, I deliberately neglected to specify what manner of role or which production it would be, as to take advantage of whatever unique characteristics the winner could bring to the page. When the winning bid came from Alfonso, I knew immediately that his stature would be a great contrast to Yevgeniy and restructured the (then in pre-production) vignette to include this intense second act.

• There’s nothing our makeup artist Jana likes more than a bald head, so even though the character is a freshly turned scratcher, the full of his skull was canvas for discoloration, veining, and a nice fresh wound. Although a glycerin solution was used to create an initial layer of sweat, the constant action under hot lights quickly brought out a natural sweat in both Ben and Alfonso, which remained perfect for the whole shoot. Due to the minimalist nature of the shoot, we produced with three small light heads on stands, rather than bringing out the big guns like we do in more extensive locations and all-day shoots, but they’re still plenty toasty in a small room with two fighting guys.

• One of the new features of the recent Photoshop CS5 is a powerful anti-ghosting algorithm for combining multiple exposures, so for this production I decided to put it to the test and shoot HDR without a tripod. This went against everything we had established and refined over the many years of Night Zero production and was a big risk of visual quality and fidelity, but it ultimately paid off. Not only was Photoshop able to clearly merge the exposures, but the freedom to duck the camera in and out of the action without waiting for setups and framing allowed us to keep a brisk pace through the three-hour shoot and wrap in good time. As much as this opens up many possibilities for future work, though, Night Zero’s standard operating procedure will continue to include fixed-tripod setups as the primary camera rig.

There’s one last page of this fight scene that will go up on Monday, then we move to the third and final act of this little tale, where we learn the why for all these goings on and how it impacts the larger world of Night Zero we know through the other stories. I’ll be back here on the blog next Friday with more details on that shoot, along with some behind-the-scenes photos. Until then, enjoy the new pages and stay zombie-safe.

Taking it easy while Alfonso is in makeup

Enhanced veins are one of many makeup effects accentuated in HDR photography

Shading and discoloration are a subtle but important part of scratcher makeup

From the scratcher yearbook

Rawr!

The Night Zero blog has been quiet for a while, which can only mean one thing: busy busy busy! With the post-production of the Devon vignette, rolling into production of episode five, and an ambitious new comic-shop-outreach program, the Night Zero crew has been working their collective butts this last month, but I’m happy to be back here on the blog.

This new vignette seems the perfect place to start, and if you weren’t positive that Devon is Yevgeniy, there you go. This isn’t a case of actor recycling—Yevgeniy as an assumed name has always been part of the overall backstory, just never overtly addressed until now. You can catch mentions of it throughout the various vignettes and episodes, or just check out his character bio on the cast page.

Just like “Jezebel” and “Sisters”, this vignette was approached as an avenue to explore the character of Devon/Yevgeniy in detail that the ongoing serial doesn’t have time for. As the American inside the Nazarov empire, Devon’s in a precarious position but as a character is most likely to be empathized by the reader. Some times he feels as cold and tyrannical as Valentin himself; at other times he seems the only sane person in the New City. How did he come to be like this, and what is it he’s ultimately after? With that question began the concept work for this vignette.

In addition to backstory expansion, I absolutely wanted the vignette to be an opportunity to get Yevgeniy out of the (literally and figuratively) constrictive suit he wears in the “present”, and take him back to a time when his younger, more confrontational personality would lead to more physical animation. This would be a fun challenge for Ben, who has been portraying Yevgeniy for more than two years without ever breaking a sweat (although he looked it at the end of “Sisters”), and only firing a gun once (at the very end of “Insecurity”). In fact, Yevgeniy’s repeated line “Give me a gun!” from the Brothers in Arms short story (see Volume Two) comes directly from Ben, who shoot after shoot longed to get into the thick of some anti-zombie action. And here it is.

As this fight wraps up and we move onto the third act of the vignette, I’ll be back with more details from the actual production and execution of the vignette, plus some behind-the-scenes photos. I plan to return to the weekly Friday blog posts, and hope you continue to enjoy them.

Finally, over the next few weeks you may notice some changes around the website. I’ve got a nice list of improvements and new content that I’ll be rolling out, some of which you may have noticed already. This is just one part of a new campaign to spread the word about Night Zero (both online and in the world), and with these webpage improvements we hope to be more approachable to new visitors who are unfamiliar with HDR photography, photographic novels, and Night Zero’s unique take on the zombie apocalypse. If you’ve got ideas or comments, let us know!