On piecing together the zombie fight for the “Devon” vignette

This second act of the “Devon” vignette, wherein our hero dost make most violent an altercation with a member of the infected team, was produced in the “quick and dirty” style of a Night Zero production, with a skeleton crew and a short day to produce a short segment. The quality and length of the finished product speaks volumes to how far Night Zero has come since its early days, when it would have taken a full day’s work and thrice the crew to produce something of still lesser quality. Here are a few disconnected thoughts on the piece:

• The biggest advantage going into production on this scene was the previously established location of Quarantine in the New City. Unlike most Night Zero shoot locations, which are secured through city film permits or provided by friends/acquaintances, the quarantine rooms are rented rehearsal spaces in the Seattle Center. The rental fees are nominal and bookings are done with a simple web form, so coordinating schedules with actors and locking down dates is impossibly easy.

• At a recent fundraiser event for a satire horror film produced by some friends, Night Zero contributed a pack of merchandise/swag along with the role of a “featured scratcher” in an upcoming production. As I was designing the auction item, I deliberately neglected to specify what manner of role or which production it would be, as to take advantage of whatever unique characteristics the winner could bring to the page. When the winning bid came from Alfonso, I knew immediately that his stature would be a great contrast to Yevgeniy and restructured the (then in pre-production) vignette to include this intense second act.

• There’s nothing our makeup artist Jana likes more than a bald head, so even though the character is a freshly turned scratcher, the full of his skull was canvas for discoloration, veining, and a nice fresh wound. Although a glycerin solution was used to create an initial layer of sweat, the constant action under hot lights quickly brought out a natural sweat in both Ben and Alfonso, which remained perfect for the whole shoot. Due to the minimalist nature of the shoot, we produced with three small light heads on stands, rather than bringing out the big guns like we do in more extensive locations and all-day shoots, but they’re still plenty toasty in a small room with two fighting guys.

• One of the new features of the recent Photoshop CS5 is a powerful anti-ghosting algorithm for combining multiple exposures, so for this production I decided to put it to the test and shoot HDR without a tripod. This went against everything we had established and refined over the many years of Night Zero production and was a big risk of visual quality and fidelity, but it ultimately paid off. Not only was Photoshop able to clearly merge the exposures, but the freedom to duck the camera in and out of the action without waiting for setups and framing allowed us to keep a brisk pace through the three-hour shoot and wrap in good time. As much as this opens up many possibilities for future work, though, Night Zero’s standard operating procedure will continue to include fixed-tripod setups as the primary camera rig.

There’s one last page of this fight scene that will go up on Monday, then we move to the third and final act of this little tale, where we learn the why for all these goings on and how it impacts the larger world of Night Zero we know through the other stories. I’ll be back here on the blog next Friday with more details on that shoot, along with some behind-the-scenes photos. Until then, enjoy the new pages and stay zombie-safe.