On the quick turnaround of the Jezebel vignette, and how the vignette concept fits with the overall Night Zero production model

This is the last week to preorder Night Zero: Volume One, so if you’d like to have a beautiful, tangible copy of the first batch of Night Zero stories, don’t delay.  The Jezebel vignette ends on Monday with a double-page update, we hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into the survival stories of some new characters. Maybe we’ll see them again later on (wink wink).

The original Night Zero concept did not follow a serial episode arc like we’re currently producing—the design was to have a variety of unique characters, each with their own stories and objectives, all living their lives independently from (but connected to) each other. Stories would be told, cycling between the characters, as they developed and intertwined over time. Our first script was designed and drafted in this vision, but before production began we revisited this approach and decided that, while an interesting story mechanic, it would be too scattered and difficult to follow in a webcomic format, and that characters would be forgotten before they returned, storylines dismissed before they had a chance to gain traction. At that point we shifted to the six-episode story arcs that we’re now producing, and that’s got us to where we are today.

The vignette approach is a return back to that concept, of telling short complete stories about new characters and new situations, and it’s a ton of fun. We have a catalog of vignette stories that we’ll be producing this year, exploring as many sides and stories as we can fit. Vignettes have an great return-on-investment, where one day’s work produces ten to twenty pages of comic (compared to the serial episodes, which have ten to fifteen shoots over a few months, yielding forty to fifty pages). Even more exciting is the opportunity to work with new actors, who wouldn’t have an immediate place in the serial comic.

The Jezebel vignette is an extreme example of the fast-track production process. We had originally scheduled the production of a fan-contributed story (yes, we love fan stories), but sudden and dramatic weather postponed the production indefinitely. In the span of a week, the untitled “garage” story was conceived, drafted, given characters, cast, and storyboarded. Nearly the entire comic was shot in one day, with three actors we’ve wanted to work with but never had the opportunity. It was a great chance for them to be a part of Night Zero, and was a fun break for myself and Forest to produce something dark and gritty without the weight of the serial comic.

The day began early with coffee and egg casserole while all the cast and crew met, got costumes and makeup, and scoped out the shoot location. Even though we had designed Jezebel to avoid the cold-weather-troubles that shelved the previous vignette, we were still shooting in a subterranean, unheated, concrete garage. Being on-camera was the enviable position, standing under a toasty-warm trio of 650W stage lights. As always, the blood became sticky and the air remained cold, but everybody trooped on and we ended up with something fabulous. The first page went online the very next day.

Because of the fast-track that Jezebel took, the script lagged behind a bit on copy-editing and revision work, so the following two weeks were applied to the story even while it was running online. After receiving some cuts, reworkings, and substantial backstory reveals, we had a second shoot to fill in the gaps and flesh out the story a little more. It’s rare that we overhaul a story so substantially, but the difference made was absolutely worth it.

The postponed vignette is now scheduled for production in March, when it’s reasonable to have a horde of scratchers running around without coats, and will run online mid-summer. Around that time we’ll be producing another vignette, perhaps one we’re holding in our portfolio, perhaps the original episode we wrote last year, or perhaps one submitted by our readers. In the meanwhile, we’ll continue work on Episode Three (which had its first production shoot last week), and move tirelessly forward towards Episodes Four, Five, and Six.

Next week we return to the story of Marion and Claire, the New City, and the warehouse fires. Episode Two: “Quarantine”, begins Wednesday.