Journal Zero

Sometimes the pieces of this little project known as Night Zero come together and fit in such a perfect way, one has to consider cosmic intervention as a factor. Sometimes, not so much. This is one of those times.

Episode Four’s two story arcs were designed in parallel, wherein the dramatic curve of the Claire/Edge storyline was synchronized with that of the Nazarov/protest storyline. Like the combined planetary, space, and lightsaber battles of Endor, the two tales of Episode Four were meant to rise and fall together in true dramatic fashion. Unfortunately the production side of Night Zero was unable to keep pace with this plan, which is why we’re just now catching up with our star-crossed lovers.

As it happens, one of our actors is a Canadian citizen who spends quite a bit of time up north of Seattle in the lovely city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Just prior to the scheduled shoot date for the opening Claire/Edge scene, a car break-in and a stolen passport put the brakes on our work and the shoot was suspended indefinitely. The Nazarov office scene was already shot, as was the complete protest scene (since September of 2009, in fact), so the decision was made to go ahead and run that storyline until we could get Christian and Tamara on set for their shoot. Once we had them, the Claire/Edge thread would be inserted in the next available break-point.

Ultimately it was a ten-week delay before this opening scene was produced, a smooth and enjoyable shoot at the Sandpoint Way Naval Base. The then-current segment of the protest scene had a possible break the following week, at which point the story jumped (back in time) to cover the pages you’ve seen this week and last. What does this mean for the pacing of the episode? For one, it means that the buildup of tension and action during the protest scene is unfortunately being stalled rather than complimented, and for two, it means that the tail-end of the protest battle is being cut into more snippets than I’d like. Since the two storylines were meant to cut back and forth over the span of the entire episode, there are three gaps in the Claire/Edge line originally meant to occur before the first office scene, after the arrival of the scratchers, and just prior to today’s page… and now all of these cuts have to take place in the last two segments of the protest battle. In fact, the original script for the Claire/Edge story had a four segments, but one section was ruthlessly deleted simply to reduce the number of cuts we’d have to force into end of the other storyline.

When the episode completes its online run, I will go back and rebuild the episode as originally intended (for the archives and the eventual release of Night Zero: Volume Three). There won’t be any new pages or content changes (that I forsee), but the overall pace and dramatic arc will become as they were meant to be. Such is the nature of this long-term, all volunteer, low-budget production: sometimes things work out perfectly as planned, and sometimes we just make do with what we got.

Things are not going well for our little town, but after dearth of death in episode three, this kind of shot-in-the-arm is exactly what’s needed for both the comic’s characters and its creators. At the same time, so as to not overwhelm the web updates with pages and pages of gore and destruction (like most zombie comics), we have broken up our pandemonium and interspersed it throughout the other concurrent storylines. What you see here is just a glimpse of what’s yet to come. As part four continues towards its conclusion and the action ramps up even further, these cuts will become shorter and more frequent. Understandably, this is less than ideal for the monday-wednesday-friday updates, but I feel it provides the overall episode with the proper pacing and balance it needs.

Throwing up two pages on Wednesday was an impromptu decision related to this. As I was preparing the mid-week files I felt as though just a page of montage wasn’t much of a substantive update (despite the visual stimulation) so I paired the two together as a doubleshot of zombie action. Both of those pages, as well as Friday’s demise, were on-the-spot guest directed by mister Gale Benning, who was already heading major production responsibilities on set when I called him out to take the helm of the principal photography unit.

We had finished the morning’s work and I had some logistically complex shots to work out for the afternoon, and our schedule in-between was to shoot a variety of snapshots from the carnage unfolding outside the Nazarov government. Confidently up to the challenge, Gale put together dozens of these little moments, some of which appear in this week’s content and others which will appear throughout the episode. I was pleased to have some time to step away and handle my producer responsibilities for the shoot, and ready to see what a new set of eyes could bring to what we were shooting.

The entire sequence on Friday’s page, for example, was an improvised scene that was put together as part of this open shooting time, and I’m very happy that for that. We had so little time to devote to our charming yet tragically-short-lived guardsmen, so bringing them back for a classic former-partner-now-zombie moment was a nice finishing touch.

Justin and Dan, both of the soldiers featured on Friday’s page, are also on the cover of our beautiful book Night Zero: Volume Two. They’re not easy to recognize under the gruesome and gore, but after having such a wonderful time with them at the protest shoot it seemed the perfect fit to invite them back for some more bloody fun. Another of their squadmates, Tami, is featured as the zombie on the back cover of the book, and if you haven’t picked up your copy yet of this gorgeous full-color book, now seems like a perfect time to mention that they are on sale and help support what we do.

Those three, plus Nate, Trevor, (the other) Dan, and Keith all together round out our now-defunct guardsmen. Despite their utter failure as guards, though, they are quite proficient as infected and can be frequently seen spreading their chaos (and virus) throughout the crowd in the coming weeks. Keep your eyes open, there’s plenty more of them to come.

These three are the first to go...

The acting army hangs tight while the production crew army does their thing

Justin and Tami, ready for battle

Keith says "(insert caption here)"

Prepping Nate, Tami, and Trevor for their first shot as infected

Enemies become friends when blood is spilled

Anne, the true zombie-maker, and Dan, her creation

Gale directing his scene with the excellent scrubs-zombie (whose name I cannot remember!)