Archive for the ‘Episode 3 – “House Calls”’ Category

Post Vignette, Ergo Propter Vignette

Posted: 27th November 2009 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Jezebel", Concepts & Development, Episode 3 - "House Calls"
2

On Jezebel’s arrival in the serial story arc, and how she came to star in her own vignette a year prior

It is with great pleasure and a greater smile that I welcome Jezebel back to Night Zero. She’s one of my favorites in our post-apocalyptic world, both on and off the camera. Her origin story you already know, at least to some extent, but her origins as a character are just as engrossing.

It amuses me that, even though it was produced and aired nearly a year before this scene and takes place as a prequel to the serial story, the Jezebel vignette is actually a spinoff of from this very scene. What you’re seeing now, here with the truck at the docks, was the first (and at the time, only) scene written with her character. After floating around in Alexander’s brain for who-knows-how-long she arrived in the first released draft of Episode Three, delivered to the production team in early November ’08. She was immediately notable for her opening character description, which was a full paragraph instead of the usual line or two, and revealed a complex character as well as the basic aesthetic notes. Even though she wasn’t going to be seen for a year, her mannerisms, costumes, and motivations were already an engaging topic of conversation amongst the production team members.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Evolution of Episode Three

Posted: 20th November 2009 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development, Episode 3 - "House Calls"
0

On the first time rehearsing a scene with actors prior to a photoshoot

And so the truth comes out… or does it?

It’s a challenge to pace out episodes that are both comic books and web comics, with some sequences working naturally more in one realm than the other and other sequences falling slightly flat by splitting the difference. Part of our growth as we move from the pilot episode to the grand conclusion is toying with these balances, and at this point in episode three we can begin to judge how we’re doing.

The Big Bad

Posted: 23rd October 2009 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Episode 3 - "House Calls", On Location
3

On the arrival of Valentin into the story, and creating a split-scene conversation

I’m very pleased that not only did the Nadia/Valentin interlude come in at a tight three pages, but also that those three pages lined up within the same week of updates. Coordinating page content with upload dates is hard to do, and most of the times (like this week) when it happens, it’s strictly coincidental.

Designing and shooting these two scenes was an opportunity to switch up our routines, as much on the page as on the set. Placing Nadia outside in the night and Valentin inside his lair naturally split the images into deep blues (for her) and complex reds (for him), an aesthetic separation that mirrors both their physical distance and character differences. Having a conversation over radio provided some new flexibility in bubble placement and which lines could be positioned in which frames, something that’s not as easy to tweak with both characters in photo (or even in the same physical space). I hope that the crackly radio text bubbles read distinctly from the standard text bubbles, it’s an experimental approach that may or may not work for the standard reader.
Read the rest of this entry »

The pieces start to come together

Posted: 16th October 2009 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Episode 3 - "House Calls", On Location
0

On decorating a house to create the “post-apocalyptic” look of the skullhunters’ domain

And with page sixteen, things have come full circle and the stage is set for the next act of our drama. Now we watch and see who’s after what, and how far they’re willing to go to get it. There is one more character we get to meet, and that’s something to look forward to next week.

The skullhunters’ house was shot over a grueling weekend, fighting against the sweltering summer sun and the nigh-impossible schedules of actors at season’s end. For the weekend, the Night Zero team took over the house of some good theater friends, a location known as “the Octagon” and famous for its themed parties and unkempt state. The first day of the shoot was spent simultaneously cleaning and dirtying the house, clearing out room and optimizing the interior for our needs while fabricating boarded-up windows and a chain-link fence around the perimeter. The construction of the window boards was handled by Eli and myself, while the amazing Steve painted (freehand!) the looming skull for the facade.
Read the rest of this entry »

So Begins Episode Three

Posted: 2nd October 2009 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Episode 3 - "House Calls", On Location
0

On shooting the opening scene of Episode Three, between Claude and the (skullhunter) Trio
Right away you can see that Episode Three moves to a more broad storytelling approach than its predecessors. Rather than directly following Marion and Claire on their adventures together, we now explore the larger world that they inhabit. This episode splits our main characters into new pairings, adds introduces nine new characters, and features seven all-new locations. To start off, it’s Claude and the Trio at the quarantine processing and holding cells.
This scene was a long time coming, the ultimate conclusion to the course of action established at the beginning of episode two. It was shot in June of this year with a skeleton crew and cast of first-time roles, so there was a heightened level of challenge for the whole team. This happened before the “Sisters” vignette, making it also our first use of prosthetic makeup on-set. We were back at the University of Washington, not far from all our episode one exteriors, but a year later and unimaginably better prepared. It was the weekend of UW Commencement, so we were without Kelly and Forest on the set. Eli was our photographer for the day, and assistant-director duties were managed by the wonderful Chloe.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Trio

Posted: 18th September 2009 by Jana Hutchison
Categories: Concepts & Development, Episode 3 - "House Calls", Guest Posts
1

Jana Hutchison on developing the costumes and characteristics of the Trio

The beginning of Episode three gave us a wonderful opportunity to introduce three new characters, and also a whole subset of the Night Zero world: the Skullhunters. Except for fragments about the charming Edge, we haven’t quite gotten the whole story on the Skullhunters. So now, meet the trio: West, Axel and Sawtooth. We thought it’d be interesting to discuss the process of how each of the trio wound up with their distinctive look.

These characters allowed for us to really branch out past our born-of-utility drab and dingy color. The skullhunters are personas of their own invention, without societal constraints (think super-villains).  The script presented descriptions of the trio, ranging from specific to vague. This was the most premeditated costume design, with a small costuming budget and a long back-and-forth process between myself and Anthony, the director. I did some visual research for my ideas for each character with photographs found online, which allowed us to speak with the same language when discussing ideas, which we had not before. We found that we don’t all use the same words for describing costuming. What comes to mind when I say “suit”? Does that just mean a tie with jacket? Is it a three-piece matching affair, or perhaps a jacket isn’t essential for the “suit” look? Sending off two pictures and saying “more like this one or the other?” helps us narrow down ideas and pick out essential elements.
Read the rest of this entry »

Newer Entries