Archive for the ‘Serial Episodes’ Category

The First Catch of the Day

Posted: 18th May 2012 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Episode 6, On Location
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On the muddy exterior shoot for the “Diversion” scene that opens Act One of the final episode, featuring the first gunfight between soldiers and skullhunters.

The opening of Act One for this episode, a scene called “Diversion,” was designed to set the tone for the episode, and to introduce each of the major factions involved. For the good guys we have the soldiers and the messengers, for the bad guys we have the skullhunters and the scratchers, and in between are the civilians trying to escape the New City before it’s destroyed for good. Little scenes like this are occuring all over the city, but since the comic will only be able to show a few of them, we wanted to get everybody involved as much as we could.

The location for “Diversion” is the abandoned Fisher Flour Mill in Seattle, the same location as the “Ally” vignette from last year (and a number of other scenes later in episode six). In fact, the entire gunbattle sequence (as well as some upcoming continuations) were all shot in a single day, the day before we shot “Ally.” But while “Ally” was a tiny cast and a minimal crew, “Diversion” was a massive undertaking.
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Our Heroes’ Reunion

Posted: 20th April 2012 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Episode 6, On Location
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On the production of Three Paths, the title scene of Episode Six, on the ghost ramps of Seattle’s 520 freeway.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been fifteen months since we last saw our heroes Marion and Claire on the front page of nightzero.com, but it has indeed. The originettes were a fun and adventurous diversion, but it’s good to be back with the main storyline, back with these familiar faces that we’ve come to know over the last four years.

This scene, entitled “Three Paths”, was shot on part of an abandoned freeway segment here in Seattle. Back in the sixties it was destined to be a shortcut between the 520 and I-90 freeways, but that plan was abandoned after only a small causeway and some onramps were constructed, so here it sits. There are three scenes in Episode Six that use portions of these “ghost ramps”, and they were shot completely differently.
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Exodus

Posted: 13th April 2012 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Episode 6
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On the prologue of Night Zero’s final serial episode, and why the name “Exodus” was chosen for this final chapter.

And so begins the final episode of the Night Zero serial “City Planning,” episode six. “Exodus.”

After so many years, I felt it would be helpful to begin the episode with a recap of sorts, an explanation of all that precedes this story to refresh our readers on where the New City and its heroes stand. This was not part of the original script, and only came into consideration after the prologue had been shot, so it was an interesting task to cut the dialogue and filler portions from that scene and use it as illustration for the voiceover. Something we’ve never tried with Night Zero before, but I’m pleased with how it turned out.

These past two weeks have also given the Night Zero team a full workload with conventions, with our fourth annual presence at the wonderful Emerald City Comicon and our first bout at the more eccentric Sakura-Con. At both shows our new book Night Zero: Origins was a smashing hit, buoyed by it’s accessibility as a stand-alone title in combination with its remarkably low price point. It’s just twenty dollars, less than the cost of a celebrity signature at the convention or two tickets to a movie, and contains seven self-contained vignettes from the Night Zero world plus behind-the-scenes, director’s notes, and more. And like all our books, these are proudly printed in the USA, so you can support American workmanship and help the economy while getting some quality graphic novel stories at the same time. We start shipping next week, click here to order now.
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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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Five Hundred

Posted: 16th September 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Concepts & Development, Serial Episodes
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On Night Zero’s accomplishment of five hundred published pages, a true milestone in photographic novel history.

Today represents a major milestone in Night Zero’s lifetime: our five-hundredth page. It’s only approximately our five-hundredth online update, between the occasional holiday non-update and the occasional two-page-spread double-update, but page 19 of Sorority is the five hundredth page in the Night Zero photographic novel collection, counting back through our vignettes, serials, and the pilot.

People sometimes asked why we didn’t maintain all our comics online, and honestly, it wasn’t a ploy to get you to buy our books (although if you do, we sure appreciate it). It was honestly because our early stuff just wasn’t as good, and we didn’t want new visitors to start at the beginning and give up based on the quality they saw. Our hope was that visitors would check out some of our best vignettes, see the high quality of our work, and be more forgiving when they bought the books and saw much different it was in the beginning. It was a strategic selection, showing only our best face, but not anymore.

That’s right: in celebration of this milestone, every single one of our five hundred pages is now available to read on nightzero.com, including the plotless pilot and the awkward first two episodes, with special forwards prepared for the occasion. If you haven’t read through some of our earlier works in a while, take a wander through the archives and revisit the past. You may be surprised by what you find there… I know I sure was.
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The Penultimate Finale

Posted: 11th February 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Episode 5 - "Reversals", On Location
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On the various casting, costuming, and shooting challenges for the “Three Speeches” finale of Episode Five

Despite terrible weather battering the Midwest, the presses for Night Zero: Volume Three are alive and on-schedule. We expect to start shipping preorders the second week of March, with delivery to comic shops and the rest of our orders shipping the fourth week. If you enjoy reading Night Zero, if you appreciate the free thrice-weekly updates on a completely ad-free website, please show your support and preorder your copy today. Just twenty four dollars, independently produced and proudly printed in the USA.

On last week’s blog I talked about the movie-montage inspirations for the “Three Speeches” closing of Episode Five, as well as some of the developmental stages we went through to piece the whole sequence together.  That’s all essential to the pre-production, but coming up with a concept is only the beginning. The true success or failure lies, of course, in the execution of the design, and on that front I’m pleased to say it came together swimmingly.
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