A New Year for Zombies
You may have noticed a new item decorating the top of the page—it’s time to preorder Night Zero: Volume One. We’ve finished all the preflight checks and production has begun, with expected arrival in early February of this colorful tome. If you’ve been following along you’ve heard me say a hundred times, the look of Night Zero on the printed page is unbelievable, and now’s your chance to see it for yourself (as well as support our little production) for only $14. And if you preorder the book, we’ll even ship it to you for free.
Over the holidays I spent some time talking with Alexander Theoharis, the writer of the “City Planning” serial comic story. He’s a charming and creative fellow who writes Night Zero stories as a means to procrastinate in law school, which guarantees that the heavier the school load is, the more writing he’ll do. We primarily discussed the long-term future of the serial story, developing a roadmap for both the artistic vision and the production approaches to fulfilling it. Conceptually, the story has been pieced together for some time, and we’re still in good shape to finish it out in six episodes. As the vision for each episode advances, elements fall into place for later segments, and the whole work grows stronger. At the same time, however, each new addition inspires its own set of new scenes—interesting explorations into characters that unfortunately extend the story more than we were expecting. If we don’t break into seven or eight episodes, they could start getting very long.
Dramatic flow is another fun element, because not only does each episode have its own flow and balance, but the series as a whole has a flow that rises and ebbs across the episodes. Episode one, the introductory, was particularly up-and-down simply because we wanted both to set a precedent of action and fill the reader in on backstory. Episode two covers more forestory, exploring the plot elements established in episode one and introducing the pieces that are going to play for the rest of the series. Episode three is much more active and mobile, as characters break into new pairings and new locations and we explore more of their world and relationships. Episode four, the primary focus of last weeks’ discussion, is going to be incredibly action-heavy, enjoying the powerful scenarios the zombie apocalypse can bring into play. Episode five recovers from that but throws off the balance so that episode six can come to the dramatic climax and conclusion befitting the characters’ investments in it.
If 2008 was the year of discovery, then 2009 will be the year of growth. Over the past fourteen months we’ve invented, learned, and refined the skills and techniques necessary to create an HDR photographic novel, while producing one at the same time. In 2009, concurrent to producing another three episodes and at least as many vignettes, we’re going to be scaling up our productions and beefing up our size. Two weeks ago I thought our plans for episode three were ambitious… now they already seem simple compared to episode four. We’re going to go to the streets of the city, to the heart of the new world, and we’re going to bring plenty of bloodthirsty scratchers with us. The development cycle on our episodes is a healthy six months, so it’s none too soon that these pieces are coming together. If you’re in Seattle this summer, keep your eyes open. There will be chaos…
As “Jezebel” continues its dark and gritty run for the next few weeks, I’ll talk a bit about the process of creating and publishing a book, the preproduction system of episode three, and invite some of our cast and crew members in to write about their experiences with Night Zero. In the meantime, stay alert to stay alive, and don’t forget to preorder Volume One today!