Archive for the ‘“Arena”’ Category

Battles in the Backyard

Posted: 29th July 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Arena", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, On Location
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On the day of production for the epic outdoor cage-match vignette “Arena”

The production of our just-concluded vignette “Arena” was one of Night Zero’s biggest shooting days, in terms of cast and crew size. Any shoot with so many actors requires a bit of scheduling negotiation, so for our day we divided the script into three segments and shot them in reverse order. First would be the fight of Claude and Jennifer versus the scratcher, then we’d shoot the dialogue portions in the middle, and finally we’d shoot the opening fight between Rex and Bobbie.

Our crew had the standard 9am call, and fortunately the backyard location had direct alley access for a simple load-in. We marked a staging area on the patio, which would be unseen by the cameras, and the team set to work. Jana setup her makeup chair and started work on the cast right away, applying everything from facial scars to zombie faces to rope burns and bruises. Eric and Justin set to work loading in the lighting gear and rigging up our power for the day, while I took care of building the cagematch stage and spectator area.
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Post-Apocalyptic Thunderdome

Posted: 15th July 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Arena", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development
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On putting the pieces together for production of the “Arena” vignette.

With the premise of the skullhunter vignette laid out, the time came to start fleshing out the characters, setting, and logistics of the upcoming shoot. One area where we had no trouble was with the casting, thanks to Night Zero’s expansive network of talented and enthusiastic actors and improvisers. Of all the Night Zero world, skullhunters are the most fun to cast because of their quirky and eccentric nature, and we landed some amazing talent in no time.

A typical Night Zero shoot hosts a crew of 4-6 and a cast of about the same, but to build a crowd of skullhunters we were going to need two or three times that. Friends from work, friends from theaters, friends from death metal bands, all were called down to spend the day with us. Our usual collection of skullhunter gear and accessories was assembled, but the group was given the opportunity to bring items of their own and that worked very well.
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Show Me Some Evil

Posted: 8th July 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Arena", Concepts & Development
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On the challenges faced while developing a skullhunter-centric vignette, and the story progression that led to the “Arena” story.

This is the year of the Night Zero origin vignettes (or “originettes”), whose purpose is to explore the lives of our various faction members in the months between the post-apocalypse and the serial story. When the Night Zero saga concludes with the epic finale in Episode Six (coming end of 2011!), we want our readers to be familiar with each faction and some of the different characters who are fighting on the front lines.

While discussing various characters and vignette ideas, we came to realize that we focus a lot on the “good” factions: the messengers and the military. It’s important, of course, to show the good guys’ struggles more than the bad guys’, but a quick inventory of our skullhunter characters revealed that, for all the talk of them being evil, sadistic monsters, we only actually have ever met a few of them, and in those meetings we see very little of that evil nature.
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