Posted: 20th January 2012 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Digital Production
On the creation of the “Classics Gallery” for your enjoyment while we ready Night Zero: Origins to go to press, and prepare the great Episode Six to go online.
Every year, January and February is a busy busy time for the team as time and resources are devoted towards the publication of our annual volumes. Night Zero is a completely independent group, so every last detail is our responsibility: the layouts, the spell-checking, the color profiles, the type of paper… everything. It’s a fascinating experience to be a part of, but there’s a lot of self-pressure to make sure that not only are all mistakes caught and corrected, but that every detail is attended to and every page looks as clean and brilliant as it can. And of course, it all has to be completed in time for printing, pressing, and delivery from Chicago before the book’s unveiling at the annual Emerald City Comicon.
At the same time, every year we’re still on a schedule to maintain thrice-weekly website updates and continue production of photoshoots, so it can get a bit intense. Usually the pages going online from January to March are part of the book as well, which means that they are already completed and ready to be posted to the website. This year, however, the last of our book-ready content ended in early January and the only thing left is our grand finale, Episode Six.
Not willing to sacrifice time from the book to focus on Episode Six, but also not willing to give Episode Six any less attention than it deserves, I’ve decided to put the online comic on haitus (for the first time ever since the website went live in September 2008!) so that we can ensure the highest quality of both the new book and the new episode. To keep the site from ‘going dark’, and for your enjoyment, I’ve assembled a “Gallery of Classics” featuring curated images from our long production history, which will maintain the thrice-weekly update schedule our readers have come to count on.
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Posted: 13th January 2012 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Syndicate", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, On Location
On the day of the shoot for the Syndicate vignette, and how all the pieces came together to create this final origin story.
The shoot for Syndicate was a long and busy Saturday, tucked in the basement lounge of the Rendezvous bar in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. Crew call was our standard 9:00am arrival, with Jana setting up her makeup station while Eric, Justin, and Jason loaded in the light gear. The shooting area was divided into two halves, with the script moving from one to the other and then back again. Our first setup would be the “middle act” in the far room, so all our gear was staged in the near room and we set to work making the space our own. Fortunately there wasn’t too much we needed to alter to create the scene we wanted—we put out a table, pushed some chairs to the side, and took some signs off the wall; but overall, the look we were going for was already there.
To avoid a huge rush of costume and makeup demands at the same time, the cast call was staggered and as our talent arrived and got ready, we began shooting some of the closeups and two-person shots. By 11:30am the whole group was there, and we did our wide shots and group conversation. Wide shots can be tricky in a place like that, not because of the distance of the walls (we have wide lenses to take care of that), but because with low ceilings all of the lighting gear and electric becomes visible. It’s possible to crop the photos to remove the lights, or digitally remove the stands and gear, but as I’ve lamented many times in the past, just having the light visible on camera really screws up the HDR tonemapping process. But we shoot on location, and that’s just part of the price we pay.
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Posted: 6th January 2012 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Sorority", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Digital Production, Photography
On the discoveries of how to light for HDR photography, and how the standard choices for film and theater create a lot of work for the post-production workflow.
As Syndicate moves towards its conclusion next week, I hope you’re enjoying not only the story but the soft beauty of the photography we present here. Photography is kind of our thing, our schtick if you will, but you’d be surprised how much we’re still discovering about how to do it well. Most of our team comes from theater and film backgrounds, where the rules and results of stage picture, presentation, and lighting are completely different. Theater light focuses on hitting the actors where they are and toning down everything else, counting on the audience’s eyes to adjust according to the changing overall light levels; film light focuses on contrast and multiple sources, each of varying brightness to make the actors “pop” on camera.
When lighting for HDR, the biggest factors are not how bright or dark the scene is overall (gamma), but how wide of a range there is between the brightest part (white point) and darkest part (black point), how many different measurements of brightness are between them (levels), how these levels are distributed (luminosity), and how smoothly or dramatically the levels transition between one another (contrast). Earlier I lamented shooting in and near direct sunlight for exactly this reason, but for shoots like Syndicate we’re in the opposite situation and it’s simply stunning.
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Posted: 30th December 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Syndicate", Concepts & Development
On the storytelling value of two post-apocalyptic factions, and why the Syndicate is so much fun to produce.
The holiday season is upon us, so in customary webcomic fashion Night Zero is taking one day off each week and wishing the best for you and yours in the new year. Our production schedule is winding down to make time for our next book release, due out in March for the fourth consecutive year. More details to come!
In the meantime, though, “Syndicate” works its way onward, with two weeks left in its run. Although brief, it’s a vignette I’m quite pleased with, particularly as a final “originette” backstory piece. The relationship between the Syndicate and the New City is one of the oldest elements of Night Zero lore, and today I’d like to talk about playing with the power balance and how writing factions into the world mythos created a different kind of post-apocalyptic comic.
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Posted: 9th December 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Syndicate", Concepts & Development
On the pressure and challenge of creating the “Syndicate” vignette, knowing it would be the last production before the premiere of Episode Six.
And so we begin “Syndicate”, the last vignette of the year (and possibly the last vignette ever). It’s a short story, compared to many, because it embraces the storytelling philosophy of “start in the middle” and is tightly trimmed from its original drafts. Which isn’t to say all the action and exposition is gone, rather that it’s been distilled down to a high concentrate of awesome.
Readers familiar with Night Zero may recognize many of the faces already, which is appropriate because this vignette isn’t the first time we’ve encountered the eponymous Syndicate in our storytelling. Obviously this new vignette takes place well before the others, as its purpose is to show how the schism between the Nazarov government and the Syndicate came about. And also to give guns to a load of good-looking people in good-looking costumes.
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Posted: 25th November 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Ally", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, On Location, Photography
On the shoot day for the ‘Ally’ vignette, and why direct sunlight is the worst type of weather for Night Zero’s HDR style.
The shoot day for ‘Ally’ was a unique production for us, and an all-around great experience and achievement for the team. We were back at the abandoned Fisher Flour Mill, our fourth day (of five) this year shooting at that location. Just the previous day we were there with one of our biggest Episode Six productions: thirteen characters, three scratchers, eleven extras, and ten crew members, for an all-day gun battle and scratcher fight. For ‘Ally’, it would be one of our smallest shoots: two characters, two scratchers, and five crew. The major difference, though, was that the Episode Six shoot was on Sunday, meaning the mill property was closed and our gaffer was on set. Ally was shot on a Monday, meaning that the entire property was abuzz with trailer trucks, backhoes, and moving trains, and for lighting we were at the mercy of the weather and a handheld diffusion/reflector disc.
We started with our usual 10:00am crew call, first checking in with the freight supply company whose trucks and trains we’d be evading all day (and grabbing some reflective safety vests from their dock manager). Then it was to base camp, which was conveniently in the same location as it had been the previous day (which itself had been the central location of a different Episode Six shoot a month earlier). Snacks were munched and coffees poured while the cast made their way into costume and makeup, with Kyle finishing first to go shoot his opening walking sequence while Sara’s more elaborate costume, props, and makeup were put together. After a few minutes of test shooting to determine the best camera settings for the morning light, we got to work just after 11:00 and moved swiftly onward. With the opening walk finished, we returned to base camp to fetch Sara and begin the two-character scenes out in the sunlight.
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