Archive for the ‘Concepts & Development’ Category

Holidays with the Syndicate

Posted: 30th December 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Syndicate", Concepts & Development
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On the storytelling value of two post-apocalyptic factions, and why the Syndicate is so much fun to produce.

The holiday season is upon us, so in customary webcomic fashion Night Zero is taking one day off each week and wishing the best for you and yours in the new year. Our production schedule is winding down to make time for our next book release, due out in March for the fourth consecutive year. More details to come!

In the meantime, though, “Syndicate” works its way onward, with two weeks left in its run. Although brief, it’s a vignette I’m quite pleased with, particularly as a final “originette” backstory piece. The relationship between the Syndicate and the New City is one of the oldest elements of Night Zero lore, and today I’d like to talk about playing with the power balance and how writing factions into the world mythos created a different kind of post-apocalyptic comic.
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A Few Familiar Faces

Posted: 9th December 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Syndicate", Concepts & Development
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On the pressure and challenge of creating the “Syndicate” vignette, knowing it would be the last production before the premiere of Episode Six.

And so we begin “Syndicate”, the last vignette of the year (and possibly the last vignette ever). It’s a short story, compared to many, because it embraces the storytelling philosophy of “start in the middle” and is tightly trimmed from its original drafts. Which isn’t to say all the action and exposition is gone, rather that it’s been distilled down to a high concentrate of awesome.

Readers familiar with Night Zero may recognize many of the faces already, which is appropriate because this vignette isn’t the first time we’ve encountered the eponymous Syndicate in our storytelling. Obviously this new vignette takes place well before the others, as its purpose is to show how the schism between the Nazarov government and the Syndicate came about. And also to give guns to a load of good-looking people in good-looking costumes.
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Ally and Jacob

Posted: 4th November 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Ally", Concepts & Development
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On the development ideas and iterations of the vignette “Ally”, and how it fits in (or doesn’t) with the “City Planning” serial story.

As I’ve discussed more than once over the course of this blog, Night Zero vignettes can originate for one of a couple different reasons, and ‘Ally’ falls right-square into the category of Actor Vehicle. For a very long time Night Zero and Kyle Kizzier have been exchanging flirtatious glances, waiting for the right time to get together… both in terms of scheduling and the perfect role. And while I haven’t known Sara as long, from the first time I saw her perform on stage I knew she’d be perfect in the Night Zero world. The serial episodes were well on their way to completion, with no major roles left to be cast, so I knew they would be vignette characters… but what vignettes would each of them get? Early this summer I first had the thought to pair them opposite each other, and spent a solid 4-5 months toying around with what type of scenario could take advantage of these two actors’ experience, talent, and great looks.

It was clear that they’d have to be strangers, because suspicion and conflict are great storytelling elements. Having characters meet each other makes exposition much easier, and story arcs happen more naturally when the characters have different objectives. Our heroes gallery is heavily favored on the female side, so for diversity I wanted to position Kyle’s character as the “main” character and introduce Sara’s character as the foil to him. The vignette would have to consist of an introduction, some character dialogue, and of course a fight with an infected or two… but who were these characters, and what would be their story?

** minor spoilers ahead **

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Ally, On the Road to the Finale

Posted: 21st October 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Ally", Concepts & Development, Digital Production, Episode 6, Photography
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On the continued production of Episode Six throughout the year, simultaneous to the production and online runs of the origin vignettes.

This week we begin a new vignette, ‘Ally’, which is our sixth vignette of the 2011 year and our twelfth vignette overall. Some of you may be asking why we’re spending so much time on vignettes this year, having already produced in nine months as many as we have in the previous three years combined… while the grand finale Episode Six remains nowhere to be seen. For today’s blog post, I’ll be talking about what our production is doing, why the vignettes are so important, and when you’ll be seeing the elusive final episode.

When the production of Episode Six concludes, when the final photo is taken and the last shoot wrapped, that will be the end of Night Zero as a photographic novel. There is no episode seven, and there will be no more vignettes. This has been our plan from the beginning, and one of the reasons we chose to do a six-episode-arc rather than only standalone stories. With that choice came an inevitable conclusion, which itself is directly responsible for the production schedule we’ve taken. Knowing that Episode Six would be our last, I laid down a production mantra for the year: “Go big and go outside”.
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To Reveal or Not to Reveal

Posted: 30th September 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Sorority", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development
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On the developmental question whether to include Jill in the ‘Sorority’ vignette, how much of her story to reveal, and what that meant for Jack.

As a writer and a consumer, I really like mysteries. I like the large unknowns with only hints and allusions, I like the unanswered “what happens next” more than a perfectly-wrapped package, and I don’t think it’s much of a secret that this type of storytelling is a big influence in Night Zero. Right in our first vignette ‘Jezebel‘ I went for the ending of ambiguous fates, rather than pegging down where Jezebel went, whether Tracey followed or stayed behind, and whether Clint died, turned, or survived. The entire backstory of ‘Special Delivery‘ remains a secret, as do Jezebel’s motivations in ‘Devon‘ and the fate of Tom and Sadie from ‘The Things You Take‘.

It was with this same desire for non-closure that I put together the ending of ‘Inertia‘, where Jill and Jack take their chances out in the world while Richard and Elisabeth remain in their room and await rescue or death. In a perfect fictional world, that would be the absolute end, but I already knew deep down that Jill would become one of the primary messengers in Episode Six, so it never was an air-tight ambiguity. That said, though, I thought leaving the time between ‘Inertia’ and Episode Six a mystery would be suitable, letting the reader wonder what happened to the two of them, how Jill ended up with the messengers, and whether Jack is still alive.
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Dramatic Character Changes

Posted: 23rd September 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Sorority", Concepts & Development
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On the reintroduction and transformation of Jill from the ‘Inertia’ vignette to ‘Sorority’, and the unexpected surprises along the way.

In every fiction serial, especially those in visual media, one of the great creative freedoms comes from the opportunity to show existing characters in dramatically changed roles. From alternate-timelines like Fringe and Buffy, to space/time-leaps as seen in Heroes and Battlestar Galactica, and all the hundreds of alternate/non-canon comic book lines, there are few things as rewarding to the long-time fan as the complete displacement of a character (or characters) into a new environment, a new perspective, and a new aesthetic.

With Night Zero’s non-linear vignette style, we’ve done a number of time-jumps with our characters with varying changes (but no parallel universes or time travellers… yet). The ‘Sisters‘ vignette placed the Nazarovs back in time but without much noticable shift in personalities, mainly because not much of their personalities had been revealed in the serial to that point. Yevgeniy’s appearance at the end of that story was a fun change in appearance, but his real character change was in the vignette ‘Devon‘, which looked at him as a fresher, more rambunctious leader. And of course there’s the character of Jezebel, who changes dramatically at every turn and yet still remains ever the same.
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