Archive for the ‘Episode 5 – “Reversals”’ Category

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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the Three Speeches

Posted: 4th February 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Concepts & Development, Episode 5 - "Reversals", Photography
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Announcing the opening of Volume Three pre-orders, and on the formulation of the “three speeches” that close out episode five.

Before I get into the actual blog post, I’m very pleased to announce that preorders for Night Zero: Volume Three are now available! Our third and most stunning volume yet, this graphic novel collection weighs in at nearly 200 pages of full-color post-apocalyptic HDR beauty, and includes all the comics we produced in 2010 as well as the protest shoot from 2009. A full list of details and a pre-order link is available at the Volume Three info page, so support Night Zero and buy your copy today!

We’ve now entered the final act of Episode Five, a little number I like to call “the Three Speeches.” If this were a movie, there would be sweeping camera shots of the speakers building up in volume and cadence, inter-spliced with close-ups of random members of each party, all underscored by a dramatic musical crescendo with plenty of horns and gravitas. Which is exactly what I’ve attempted to recreate here, but without sweeping camera movement or underscoring music. The photographic novel does have limitations.
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the Potentials

Posted: 28th January 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Concepts & Development, Episode 5 - "Reversals"
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On the development and design behind the messengers at home, and their parallels to the Potentials from BtVS.

Since the very first episode, we’ve talked about “messengers” as some collection of runners and soldiers and spies, but the only evidence thus far was Marion’s regular presence and Natalie’s appearance in the Special Delivery vignette. In my design, however, they’ve always been a sorority of survivors, a sisterhood of support and cooperation that makes them a powerful force in the post-apocalypse. And now, finally, we have the chance to enter their realm.

When you take a world with supernatural creatures, form a collective of young women to fight them, and put them all in a house together… it’s hard not to draw a parallel to the Potentials of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season seven. I was aware of this when designing the messengers’ scene, but rather than trying to find a way around it I opted to embrace it.
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Lawful Evil, Chaotic Evil

Posted: 21st January 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development, Episode 5 - "Reversals", On Location
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On the exchange between Valentin and Jezebel, following the protest attack and Dariya’s death

The Valentin/Jezebel scene we recently came out of was not the first meeting of these two characters, as eagle-eyed readers know, but it is their first significant exchange even though it arrives so near the end of the serial. We always knew this scene was coming, but its tone changed significantly as we discovered more and more about the two.
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A Holiday Gift

Posted: 24th December 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Episode 5 - "Reversals", On Location
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On the full day warehouse shoot between the Claire, Edge, and the Trio, plus a holiday gift

With the holiday breaks there will be no new pages on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, but here’s a special gift instead. In preparation for the publishing of our next book, Night Zero: Volume Three, I’ve been re-reading and proofing some of our vignettes and taking advantage of the comic reading apps on the iPad to do so. For anybody out there who uses a comic reader (on whatever platform), here’s a collection of some of our vignettes in CBZ format. And please let us know, is this something you’d be interested in more of?

The warehouse scene which just concluded last week was another of our all day affairs, taking the approach of knocking out a huge chunk of comic with a single marathon shoot. This meant we’d need a full crew on set, starting with Eli on camera and Jana on makeup/costumes. Eric returned to do his lighting magic, this time accompanied by long-time Night Zero fan/contributor Justin, who took up the ropes learning grip work. Eli was assisted by Kai on the camera side of things, and Phoebe coordinated the show as Assistant Director with Mike supporting her. The full call was eight cast members, just shy of the Dariya’s Death shoot but still much larger than our average shoot.
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Stories and Secrets

Posted: 17th December 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Concepts & Development, Episode 5 - "Reversals"
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On the development of Claire and Edge’s encounter with the Trio, and the unexplained backstory elements of the Night Zero apocalypse

Once again, I have the pleasure of welcoming a favorite character back to the Night Zero website. It’s been just over a year since we last saw Marion on our pages, which isn’t the longest character hiatus we’ve ever done but it’s still a good while… especially considering she appeared on every single page of Episode One and nearly every page of Episode Two.

This scene between the Trio and Claire/Edge goes back a long ways, to the earliest drafts of episodes four (and then five). Its primary purpose is rather straightforward—it needs only to bring the Claire/Edge arc back in line with the Nadia/Valentin arc, by way of Marion. Pairing the duo against the Trio provides a more interesting dynamic than them just making their way back to Nadia on their own, and the action (although brief) is a chance to shift the power balance a bit and give Claire some new strength.

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