On joining the Night Zero team, for those interested

If you’ve purchased Night Zero: Volume One, we’d appreciate hearing your opinion of the book. Head on over to Amazon.com’s review page and let us (and everyone else) know what you thought. If you don’t have a copy, they’re available on Amazon or directly from nightzero.com.

Between the Emerald City Comicon and the Left 5 Dead photoshoot, we’ve received a lot of inquiries these past few weeks about joining the Night Zero team and being a part of the post-apocalyptic photocomic family. Today I’d like to talk about the various roles available in Night Zero, what’s expected of our team members, and what they receive in return. If you’re interested and haven’t contacted us yet, give us a shout and we’ll bring you on board.

The disclaimer: Night Zero is, and always has been, a labor of love. Every position is a volunteer role, every contributor is in it for the fun. If you are looking for a professional occupation rather than a unique and exciting hobby, unfortunately Night Zero is not ready to be that place.

The most visible role in Night Zero is naturally that of the cast members, who range from principle cast (Marion, Claire, and the like) to supporting cast (Claude, Aaron, and more to come in Episode Three) to extras (Gavin, Peter, et cetera). We tend to forecast production by a good six months or more, so most of the principle and supporting cast members for the next year are already set. Extras pop up more often, and have a lower level of commitment needed. Fortunately, to balance out the infrequency of new cast members in the main comic, we produce vignettes like Jezebel, which are stand-alone comics with new casts, new characters, and new opportunities for talent to be involved. If you’d like to be added to our talent portfolio, send a headshot and resume.

Another common interest is for writing, to which we say “write on!”. If you’ve got a short story, vignette, diary, or other idea, we’re happy to work with you to bring it in to the Night Zero world while letting you keep control of the story and characters you develop. We’re currently putting together a website to feature our fan-written pieces, which also may be included in future published volumes. If it’s a vignette you’ve written to be a comic book, who knows? We may even take it out and produce it.

One place where we’re always looking for help is on the production crew. Before the shoots, we need location scouts to find, coordinate, and set up our shoot locales. We need artists and graphic designers to draft page layouts and sketch out storyboards for the comic. We need costume designers to help conceive and build/buy the clothing and accessories that make the characters who they are. On set, we need photography grips, gaffers, talent management, and general production assistants to help the shoots move smoothly and efficiently. In the post-production world, graphic designers and photoshop artists are key to wrangling the hundreds of photos and thousands of files that ultimately make the Night Zero comic possible. If you have skills in photo alterations (destruction, aging), special effects (speed lines and blur, depth-of-field), compositing, or touchup, we can use you.

And of course, especially this upcoming summer, we need zombies! Scratchers, and folk-who-become-scratchers, are fun, easy, and a great way to spend an afternoon or a weekend. If you want to get gored up and cause a little chaos, being part of the infected army is the easiest and most available way to do so.

If any of the above appeals to you, visit our contact page and send us a note so we can give you the details and set you up to be a part of the team.