Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category

A Dark Day At the Bar

Posted: 10th September 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Devon", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, On Location, Photography
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On the day of shooting the “Devon” vignette bar sequences

The primary shoot location for the Devon vignette was the small bar in Seattle’s Market Theater, home of the improv troupe Unexpected Productions (source of many great Night Zero cast members). Despite producing a full range of shows each week, in addition to classes and rehearsals, the team at UP was happily willing to let us take over their bar for a full Sunday shoot, which is where our story begins.

Crew call for the day was the usual 9:00am, and the production team consisted of myself as director, Eli on photography, Phoebe as assistant director, Kai as 2nd AD and assistant camera, Jana on makeup and costumes, and Eric in charge of lights with Jason as best boy. As always, the first step of the day was to review the space and start shifting it to our liking: moving and removing chairs and tables, rearranging the bottles and accessories on the bar, adjusting or removing posters and other decor. A separate space away from the bar was set up for makeup, and another to stage the various lighting gear that may be needed throughout the day.
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A Matter of Pace

Posted: 28th May 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Concepts & Development, Episode 4 - "Insecurity", Photography
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On the pacing and cutting between the “Claire/Edge” and “Protest” halves of Episode Four

Sometimes the pieces of this little project known as Night Zero come together and fit in such a perfect way, one has to consider cosmic intervention as a factor. Sometimes, not so much. This is one of those latter times.

Episode Four’s two story arcs were designed in parallel, wherein the dramatic curve of the Claire/Edge storyline was synchronized with that of the Nazarov/protest storyline. Like the combined planetary, space, and lightsaber battles of Endor, the two tales of Episode Four were meant to rise and fall together in true dramatic fashion. Unfortunately the production side of Night Zero was unable to keep pace with this plan, which is why we’re just now catching up with our star-crossed lovers.
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When Night Falls…

Posted: 19th March 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Midnight", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, On Location, Photography
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On shooting the “Midnight” vignette

Covering the new page update with a spoiler warning… that’s a new one, but better safe than sorry. With two new pages going up and the possibility that the second one would spoil the first, I have hidden one from view. Awkward, but effective.

Depending on the size and complexity of the work at hand, Night Zero produces either a full-scale shoot or a skeleton shoot. Full-scale shoots are equivalent to a feature film, including the DP and AD, a gaffer, grips, production assistants, catering, location contracts, and the works. The Sisters vignette, the skullhunter’s house and Yevgeniy’s house in episode three, and most of episodes one and two were produced in this method. A skeleton shoot is just the opposite, where the crew is minimally a director, photographer, and (occasional) production assistant, shooting in a single simple location with a small cast. Jezebel and the untitled vignette, Claire’s escape montage in episode two, and the Nazarov sisters in episode three were all produced quickly on minimal staff, as was the just-concluded Midnight vignette.
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From a Single Shot

Posted: 29th January 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Special Delivery", On Location, Photography
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On shooting the “Special Delivery” vignette freehand, without the definitive ‘Night Zero’ HDR method

For the last two years, nothing has been more “Night Zero” than triple-exposure HDR, the very foundation that allows us to produce the surreal images that give Night Zero its unique look. With single-exposure shots, the low dynamic range lacks the information to calculate rendering such a look, and in the few instances where we’ve attempted to mix a single-exposure action shot with a page of multi-exposure HDR shots, the process is terribly time consuming and the result always muddy at best. High dynamic range means that the number of shades between the darkest black and the lightest light exceeds that which is physically visible at a single time, while low dynamic range has only a few shades between. From the same setup and procedure, a single exposure (after much fanangling) may be able to passably emulate part of the range of the HDR image, but the shadows will clip to black sooner and the highlights will blowout to white sooner, and the final image will be less colorful and more contrasting that its “true HDR” sibling. However, matching one single-exposure to dozens of HDR shots is different than shooting an entire story in single exposure.
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Delivering a New Kind of Night Zero

Posted: 22nd January 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Special Delivery", Concepts & Development, Photography
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On the artistic and logistic factors that together created a unique approach for the “Special Delivery” vignette

Like “Jezebel”, this vignette is based on a very simple premise (ten words or less) and designed to be shot bare and plain. At the same time, while “Jezebel” was built around heavy dialogue and a confined space, “Special Delivery” was built around no dialogue and a very open space.

“Special Delivery” was, more than anything else, an experiment in which our hard-developed production techniques were upended: our tried-and-true methods were abandoned in the pursuit of something new, and there were two major factors (one logistic and one artistic) that prompted this decision.
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Home at Last, Home at Last

Posted: 18th December 2009 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development, Episode 3 - "House Calls", On Location, Photography
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On shooting the Episode Three scene at Yevgeniy’s house

Scratcher catchers has the distinction of the longest script-to-shoot leadtime (12.5 months), and up until recently Jezebel held the record for shortest script-to-shoot (2.5 weeks). Sisters is probably going to forever hold the shortest shoot-to-online turnaround (6 hours), and here we finally get to see Yevgeniy’s house, which tops the chart for longest shoot-to-online turnaround (10 months). It seems so long ago that we all got together to shoot our first scene from Episode Three, and yes, that’s because it WAS so long ago. And thanks to the shift from single-storyline to segmented scenes, this one photoshoot comprised the entirety of Katrina and Ben’s commitments for the Episode. Good for them, getting it out of the way early, but still a bit sad for everyone not having as many excuses to work with them throughout the year.
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