Archive for December, 2008

Colorful Noir

Posted: 26th December 2008 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development, Photography
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On struggling with the wide range of styles available in HDR imagery and finding the ideal ‘Night Zero’ look

As anticipated, last weekend’s shoot was snowed out. We’ve rescheduled for this weekend, and will be fast-tracking through post-production to maintain our ambitious schedule. Concurrent to this vignette production, we’re prepping for the final few shots needed to wrap up Episode Two, scouting locations for Episode Three (which features eight unique locations), and running our final rounds of proofreading for the book. Make no mistake, the Night Zero team is a busy, busy bunch.

I often speak of how Night Zero was formed as a combination of various, disparate influences. The influence that was major in jump-starting the project, but that’s been difficult to synchronize with the rest of the work, is the notion of ‘film noir.’ I love classic noir, both in film and fiction, and wanted my zombie comic book to play in that dark, ambiguous world. The pilot episode played a lot of strengths in this arena: heavy shadows, dark characters, cold narration.
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Expanding Horizons

Posted: 19th December 2008 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, On Location
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On the various types of locations in Seattle where Night Zero is shot, and the procedures necessary to access each of them

“Lost and Found”, this four page short story from Volume One is an example of the broad artistic range that Night Zero is able to utilize. In the post-apocalypse, everybody’s got a story, from the highest leaders of the land to the lowest deviants that prowl the night. There are stories of life in the aftermath, chaos in the collapse of society, and dreams of days past, before it all turned to hell. We hope you enjoy these variations on the theme, and look forward to joining back up with Marion, Claire, and that whole saga in late January.

This has been a busy, busy production week for the Night Zero team. The scheduled vignette shoot for last weekend was canceled due to severe temperatures. A replacement shoot has been scheduled for this weekend, and moved to an indoor location, but icy roads and continued low temperatures could bring this shoot to a halt as well. This past Tuesday we shot 8:00am to 6:30pm and completed an ambitious schedule, wrapping up the major shooting for Episode Two. The hardest part about it is now having these gorgeous and exciting photos that won’t be part of the story for another three or four months.
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To Be Continued

Posted: 12th December 2008 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Episode 1 - "Ashes", On Location
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On the challenges of shooting on-location with variable lighting and large casts

And that’s a wrap! Thus concludes the first episode of the Night Zero serial comic series, “Ashes”, and soon will begin the second episode, “Quarantine”. Although part two won’t begin until January 19th, stick around because nightzero.com will still be getting it’s thrice-weekly updates.

The serial comic is just a scratch on the surface of the post-apocalyptic world, and this gap between episodes is the perfect opportunity to present some other perspectives of life after infection. Coming up next week is a piece of short fiction about a one-man “search-and-rescue” business, and then a stand-alone comic story of love and loss. Add in a few one-shot photographs, and we’ll be back to Marion and Claire before you know it.
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The Faces of Night Zero

Posted: 5th December 2008 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Episode 1 - "Ashes"
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On casting the first two episodes of Night Zero

It was one year ago this Monday that Katrina joined the Night Zero family, becoming the first actor in our ranks, and we couldn’t be more blessed. She gave her all when Night Zero was still just a concept, help nurture the idea and develop not only her character, but the world as a whole. She stuck through the learning adventure of creating the pilot episode, with long cold nights and early freezing mornings, trials and reshoots, blood and guts. Without her committment and enthusiasm, we’d never have made it to where we are.

Katrina is one of the many people in the production family that we recruited directly.  Forest and I both knew her from the improv troupe at the University of Washington, for which I was Technical Director and they both in the ensemble. She was also in the cast of a show I directed for the Undergraduate Theater Society at UW (in which Tara Miller also starred, and Forest stage managed). Having worked with her for years, having seen many sides of what she can do, and knowing that she meshed well with the other members of the team, she was a natural first choice for the lead.
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