Journal Zero

As you can see, this next vignette is another character backstory piece, and a dark one at that. I’m very pleased with how it’s turning out, and I look forward to telling you all about it in the weeks to come—but first, some final reflections on the recently-ended episode four, “Insecurity”.

For many of reasons, the fourth episode was a paradigm shift for Night Zero, as a production and as a family. The technical challenges of the protest shoot I’ve already discussed on this blog, but it was more than just the impact of large-scale production. The scope of the protest shoot involved more than a year of planning and preparations, and the entire production team was heavily invested in its success. The timing of the shoot coincided with the end of production of episode three, so the event itself was a fitting “last hurrah” for five of Night Zero’s team members (including two from the very first days) before they moved on to their own projects.

Aside from two final shoots for episode three, the protest shoot marked the end of scheduled production and the transformation of energies to the proofing and development of Volume Three. Book productions are a wholly consuming task, and as 2009 turned to 2010 we found episode three finishing its online run and all we had of episode four was the protest shoot. No scripts, no sets, no shoots scheduled, and no writer, no director of photography, no assistant director, no production intern, no publicist. Night Zero was in a quagmire, without a map and running low on time.

In some considerations, vignettes are creative opportunities… chances to explore new situations and new characters without committing them to the full serial arc. In other considerations, vignettes are a highly efficient production tool that can create up to a month and a half of comic in a single day’s shoot. During a shoot for episode three we produced the “Special Delivery” vignette, so with another day’s shooting we would easily make it through the winter, buying some time to build back our strength and assemble a new team. Along came “Midnight” and onward we went.

Throughout this interim period Night Zero was most fortunate to have Justin, running double duty as production manager and assistant director, and Jana, whose combined acting and makeup roles were joined by all manner of UPM and PA work. Eli assumed more control on the camera end to cover the camera-side responsibilities that a DP would normally have, while Eric joined in as gaffer and covered the DP’s light-side. Chloe once again served as temporary assistant director while Phoebe learned up the ropes, and we even managed to bring some extra photographers and photo assistants around. And on the post-production end, with tremendous importance but little fanfare, we were blessed to be joined by Jen and her talented work on page layouts and design.

With new talent comes new insight, and with the turnover in staff we continued to improve our efficiency and quality of work throughout episode four. By the time we produced this newest vignette, (currently) titled “Devon”, we were back and running as smoothly as ever before. I look forward to the following vignettes and episode five, where all our new family members will be able to fully grow and flex their creative muscles.

It wasn’t until the final update of episode four, when the full credits were posted, that I realized how much our family had changed over the course of the production. Between the first and last shoots, nearly the entire production staff had turned over or shifted roles, yet the enthusiasm and energy remains strong as ever. All our retired members (whom I still often see) are doing well in their ongoing adventures (with decidedly more free time), and our new ones are just getting started. I can’t wait to see what this next year will bring, for all of us.

I love comics and was eager to attend this year’s Emerald City Comicon to meet the legendary Stan Lee. Armed with a bag of comic books, and dressed as American McGee’s Alice, I ran from booth to booth getting books signed and commissions drawn by my favorite artists. The booth for Night Zero stood out among the many vendors present at the show, and I stopped by for a closer look.

Night Zero’s friendly cast and crew often attend local events (like the recent Red, White and Dead Zombie Walk in Seattle) and part of their booth is outfitted to take HDR photos with a backdrop right out of the comic (gun props and all).

I couldn’t resist their offer of having a free souvenir photo taken as a zombie hunter and I bought a copy of Night Zero: Volume One. I was impressed by the comic’s unique look and entertaining story and quickly caught up with the recent issues online.

A page near the end of Night Zero: Volume One, called for actors, artists and graphic design volunteers. As a graphic designer, I have always wanted to work on a comic, so I inquired about being a part of the project and I was pleasantly surprised when the comic’s creator, Anthony, responded to my offer. He graciously took the time to meet and provided me with an overview of Night Zero’s production and detailed instructions on the page layout process that he has developed over the past few years. I was amazed by the amount of work that goes into the comic.

An immensely talented and dedicated group work on Night Zero, and recently I‘ve been lucky enough to have an early look at their latest work while I have been assisting with the page layout of Episode Four. After reviewing the comic’s script and storyboard, I utilize a page template in Photoshop to mask, resize and arrange unaltered production photos. I also add dialogue and word bubbles, and with feedback from Anthony, I create mock-ups of the comic pages that will eventually be published on the site. Once the mock-ups are finished, they are sent back to Anthony and he exchanges the production photos with the finished HDR photos which he has designed and rendered at his workstation.

I am excited to be constantly learning more about the entire production process of Night Zero, and recently I attended a pre-production meeting for an upcoming shoot. Working with the new script, we made rough sketches on note cards to create references for the photos that will be taken on set. Readers will be happy to know that an action-packed story, with a few naughty scenes, will be produced shortly and should be making its debut later this summer.

Working on Night Zero has been an incredible learning opportunity for me (word bubbles can be a bit tricky!) and I’ve enjoyed making a small contribution to the production of a very cool zombie comic (and getting a sneak preview of the story a few weeks before anyone else, spoilers!). In the future, I hope to experiment more with the layout of the comic, and I am looking forward to seeing how the story and look of Night Zero will develop.