On finding and securing a shoot location at a shipping container yard on the Seattle waterfront

The beautiful location for this “scratcher catchers” scene is on the bank of the Duwamish River in south Seattle, just before the river opens up into Puget Sound and the Seattle waterfront. Many thanks to Jim, Jody, and Randy at ConGlobal Industries for making our shoot possible.

Early drafts of the script were pretty flexible in terms of where this scene could take place, but for the most consistency with the Night Zero lore, there is no place with older or more deadly scratchers than the docks. Despite the danger, it’s naturally also very profitable for skullhunters to frequent such locations, which is why the house is not far from here.

By good fortune and the talents of Justin and Kelly, we were able to keep real-world continuity as well: the container stacks surrounding the scene here are the same container stacks that Claire is walking past at the end of Episode Two. For that shot we were on the street outside the shipyard, but for this scene, we had to be well on the inside.

When I envisioned this scene from a design standpoint, my constant reference was a scene from Batman Begins, where a shipyard identical to this is used for some late-night crime. It was not an easy process to get a shoot scheduled amidst a stack of shipping containers, and Justin recounts the path he took to secure the location:

You want this scene to take place where?

Justin Hammond here. I have many roles in Night Zero: Production Manager, Special Effects Tech, stunt guy, and actor to name a few. I am usually seen wrangling bloody actors on set, but for this scene I was involved from the planning straight through the last shot.

It began simply: This shoot needs to take place down at the docks around all the container yards. Okay, sounds resonable enough. It isn’t even the weirdest place we have filmed (FYI: basement of a church).

So Step 1: It’s off to location scouting
Well after doing some research into the piers and terminals it turns out that most of them on the waterfront are government owned. What that means for us is going through many state agencies and more permits and red tape than is necessary.

Step 2: Back to location scouting
This time Kelly and I drove down Highway 99 taking pictures and entering local businesses on the waterfront.

Helpful tip: Private businesses are generally much easier to work with both in communication and requirements for filming. Plus, they generally like the free publicity.

We settled on two locations to try and follow up with: Duwamish Metals and Conglobal Industries.

Step 3: Be proactive
Interestingly, though both places were very nice about us using their space to film, neither had a lot of free time to email and discuss things. The trick that I found that works, though email communication is a must these days, is face to face. Setting up an appointment is best, but when I didn’t hear from someone for a while I just showed up at the office and re-introduced myself. The proprietor of the container yard was a great gentleman and very helpful.

Helpful tip: 3 key things to nail down: date and time of shoot, insurance requirements, who is going to be there to unlock the gate. Also payment or compensation, but if they don’t bring it up, neither should you.

Step 4: Confirm everything as the date approaches
The week before the shoot I think I went down to their office twice and was in constant email contact. That does seem in hindsight a little much, but you get the idea. The worst thing that can happen is that it turns out they never got a copy of the insurance or ‘oh, I thought it was next Sunday.’

With all that settled the shoot day finally arrived and what do you know? It’s pouring down rain, I love shooting in November. Well we powered through the shoot with umbrellas and hand warmers and even managed to get a bonus shoot out of the deal.

Hey, we have this awesome location. Why not?

Everyone at ConGlobal was incredibly friendly and supportive, even granting us use of their space for an entire day at no cost, which is always a good thing for a low-budget production like ours. Part of our deal to shoot, though, was a requirement of liability insurance (which is completely understandable, from ConGlobal’s position), and when you add to that the cost of truck rentals and decorations, this little half-day shoot billed in at nearly the cost of the entire Sisters production.

An expensive shoot, in terms of cost-per-photo, but absolutely worth it. You couldn’t fake these shots, and you couldn’t pretend by shooting from somewhere else. Night Zero prides itself in doing it for real, and the results speak for themselves.

A quick reminder that Night Zero: Volume One makes a great holiday gift for that zombie-loving friend, family member, or significant other. Order now and it’ll arrive in plenty of time for the Holiday Apocalypse.