Oh, the Horror!
The missing blog posts these past few weeks can only mean one thing: Night Zero is busier than ever, bringing the post-apocalypse to life like only we can. We’ve unleashed a load of new projects recently, all the juicy details of which you’ll be getting right here as we return to our regular weekly updates. It’s good to be back.
Two weeks ago the Night Zero team returned to the show floors with our appearance at the Seattle Crypticon Horror Convention. Three days of blood and guts, horror celebrities and horrifying costumes, all descending upon the Seattle Center to celebrate that which is gruesome and terrible. But in a good way.
Just as at the Emerald City Comicon, our approach at Crypticon was to share the Night Zero style with the convention goers, to give them a sense of what we do. On the one side of our booth, Jana Healy gave the magic of makeup to anyone who wanted a battle wound, a fresh gash, or some old-school zombification. On the other side, our photo team outfitted would-be zombie hunters (and sometimes zombies) with an arsenal of anti-undead weaponry and snapped HDR photos for our Crypticon Flickr gallery. In the true spirit of Night Zero, this was all done for free by our wonderful and tireless crew.
The biggest lesson we learned from ECCC was a simple one: get a box truck. Our booth setup requires four sections of chain-link fence, freestanding blocks to mount them, and all the hardware necessary to rig them up safe and sturdy for a weekends’ worth of crowds. We used a pickup truck and zip-ties before, and it was less than fun. Renting a 10′ box truck was a much easier and faster way to travel, despite the added expense.
Our neighbors for the event were all very charming, and it was a pleasure to spend the weekend with them. In front of us were sitting Charles Cyphers and Tom Atkins, horror film veterans and animated old men, whose banter provided constant entertainment to our crew. Across the aisle we swapped makeup strategies with Brian Sipe and his prosthetics team, who were demoing intricate gore effects and freestanding sculptures. Just around the corner was the ubiquitous and animated Doug Jones, whose impressive resume doesn’t even begin to describe how incredible the man is. I’ll not gush or rave ad nauseum, only say this: whether you’re familiar with his many works or not, meeting Doug Jones is a life-changing event.
As usual, we’ve left the show with a hefty batch of booth photos, which are all available on our Flickr Crypticon Gallery. While we were busy busy the whole show, we did manage to snap a handful of photos of the Night Zero booth in action, seen below.
A little gash to start off the gore fest, free at the Night Zero booth
The cute guests get cute gore, for consistency
This little boy asked for brains leaking out of his head, but we settled on a simple zombie for his parents' sake
Night Zero production intern Chris directing a group for their HDR booth photo
The team at work, registering photo guests and explaining the unique project that we undertake
When there's no space, gore the face. When there's shoulder and neck, what the heck?
I would like to apologize for the rhyme in the preceding caption
This enthusiastic woman referred to herself as "Night of the Rolling Dead"
Our neighbors Chuck and Tom stepping over for a photo
The one and only Doug Jones