Archive for May, 2009

The End of Episode Two

Posted: 29th May 2009 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Episode 2 - "Quarantine", On Location
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On shooting Claire’s “outside the wall” montage at the end of Episode Two

So, there you have it. The final page of Episode Two, which coincidentally is our 100th update– a notable milestone for any online comic. Technically it’s not our 100th page because of the numerous two-page spreads, but I’ll take it either way. Coming up for June is a new zombie-filled vignette that’ll play with some new narrative and visual styles, so I look forward to putting those out for you to see and comment on.

These last few pages have been the first real-time montage that we’ve attempted, and aside from the way it draws out over our update schedule, I quite like the effect. In Episode One we did a couple of flashback montages, which I suppose would be more accurately defined as collages because they were designed to establish a past, not progress time and action forward.
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Getting Back Outside

Posted: 22nd May 2009 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Episode 2 - "Quarantine", On Location
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On shooting a post-apocalyptic comic in the middle of downtown Seattle

Last weekend was a heavy-hitting event for the Night Zero team, so no update for the blog. We spent three days shooting a location from episode three that covers seven different sequences over the span of the episode, for a whopping total of 149 panels. To put that in perspective, the entire first episode of Night Zero is 185 panels.

We do all our shooting around the city of Seattle, in both public and private locations. Last week’s pages, with the messenger girls escaping the quarantine building, was our first chance to get down and dirty in the middle of the city. Our local readers will probably recognize the downtown alleyway, which runs parallel to 5th & 6th Avenues, between Pike & Pine Streets. To those who aren’t local, just know that we are in the heart of the Seattle shopping district.
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History of a Photographer

Posted: 8th May 2009 by Eli Black-Mizuta
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Guest Posts, Photography
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Eli Black-Mizuta on being the head photographer for the post-apocalyptic photographic novel

I’m Eli Black-Mizuta, occasionally seen here as a backup cameraman, behind-the-scenes photographer, and dead body.

I went to Night Zero’s first general recruitment meeting, and was amazed at the amount of work already done on the project. I remember making a vague offer to help at that point, but never really followed up on it. My first introduction to the Night Zero operation was as an extra. There was a call for anyone with a car to come to the shoot for the first scene of Episode 1. We made a traffic jam and played dead bodies… good times.
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Getting Dirty

Posted: 1st May 2009 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Episode 2 - "Quarantine", On Location
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On shooting the dusty, dirty boiler room sequence for Episode Two

Visually, the boiler room sequence is one of my favorite scenes we’ve shot to date. The HDR tonemapping style tends to make our characters look somewhat gritty and dirty all the time, but getting on location with grime and dust and crawling on the floor with it… well, you can see what that turns into.

This sequence was shot in the basement of a local ministry house near the University of Washington. We cleared out the chairs, lawn equipment, and miscellaneous supplies they regularly store in there, but left the dust and dirt as it was. What you see in the scene is the authentic effect of the two girls being in the room, with no dirt makeup or forced application. Katrina and Tamara were troopers the whole way through, getting down and dirty and really playing the scene with the fabulous location they were in.
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