Flashing Back
Every character’s “night zero” story is going to be revealed through flashbacks (and the occasional vignette) as the overarching story moves along. The world of the graphic novel is exploring the “what happens next” part of the post-apocalypse, but the actual unfolding of events deserved to be told as well.
The actual backstory here, of Marion and her boyfriend Aaron, was developed by Katrina Hamilton, the actor who plays Marion. As part of the collorative nature of the Night Zero project, much of each character’s history, personality, and survival story is developed by the actor rather than the design team. Each cast member is invested in their character, understands their choices, and brings new ideas to the project in a surprising and exciting way.
Not-so-coincidentally, while Katrina developed the backstory for her character she visualized the events as they would take place in her own apartment (method acting is prep work for the real zombie apocalypse), so it only made sense for us to shoot the sequence there rather than building a new set to match. It’s always tricky shooting on-location indoors, where walls and ceilings restrict camera placement and lighting options. For this particular sequence we shot in the late afternoon to get as much natural light as possible, which is easier to diffuse and reflect as needed than it would be to rig up light sources (and constantly move them out of camera sight).
Kelly Ota, the assistant director for the production, and Eli Black-Mizuta, freelance photographer, are also our behind-the-scenes photographers, and special moments backstage will land on this blog after their pages air (to avoid spoilers).
You cannot imagine how painful and blinding it is to have the sun reflected into your face, but Katrina takes it like a pro.
Highs of 96 degrees and not a cloud in the sky
Tara Miller provides on-set guidance to the actors
Shannon, lighting assistant extraordinaire, and Eli, freelance behind-the-scenes photographer
We had to digitally remove the wonderful Rob and his light disc from pretty much every photo in the shoot
Forest Gibson is always ready to shoot
An unexpected (and deliciously cold) on-set visit from Alexander, who wrote the script