On the first gathering of the principal cast members, and the challenges of an ever-expanding production

The Volume One books have arrived, and are simply gorgeous. We’ve already started shipping out some preorders, and will have them all en route by next week. If you haven’t yet ordered your copy, it’s easy to do so now.

At long last we’ve returned to Marion, Claire, and all our friends in the New City. While “Jezebel” was a fun and interesting diversion, it feels good to be back on track and moving forward with our serial story “City Planning.” This second episode, “Quarantine,” will run until mid-Summer, and has got plenty of fun within it.

This opening office scene, continuing where we left off, also sets a new record for time-to-release on Night Zero. Half the scene was shot on September 28th of last year, which is consistent with our usual 4-5 month leadtime, and half of the scene was shot on July 6th, more than seven months ago. The second-place prize for lag goes to episode three and a scene which was shot two weeks ago, but won’t be online until August (six months from now).

These office shoots were the first time the full cast met each other, and the last time they’ll all be together for quite a while. It was a lot of fun working with such a diverse crew—Alix, an acquaintance of ours, Alexandra, an improvisor at UW, Ben, a local actor who attended a casting call, Jana, a local improviser who I’d worked with, Katrina, a UW actor and improviser, and Tamara, a UW student who also attended a casting call. Of this team, only Alix, Alexandra, and Katrina had met each other prior to Night Zero, although by this point Katrina and Tamara had shot a number of sequences together.

The downside to having all the principles at the same time, though, is the challenge of getting all their characters out there with minimal screen time. It’s not until episode three, when we have a variety of one-on-one scenes between different combinations of characters, that we can really explore each one individually. Marion and Claire being the exception, of course… we’ll be exploring their relationships and histories in great detail these coming weeks. But at the cost of individual face time, we gain this great group dynamic and can play with the different approaches each character has towards the others.

This scene also ends our small cast list, which was a simple way to keep the production under control but limiting in what we could do. These five that we know and love will be joined by a wide assortment of supporting characters, from suave to creepy, saviors to killers. Night Zero has grown enough this past year that casting has become quite a bit easier—as our circles expand and our reputation spreads, dozens more people join our network every month to help us fill the cast and crew registers. That means more stories to tell, more relationships to reveal, and of course, more potential victims of infection, conspiracy, and malice. I can’t wait.