Archive for the ‘“Midnight”’ Category

Trapped!

Posted: 19th August 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Inertia", "Jezebel", "Midnight", "Sorority", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development
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On the theme of zombie stories with characters ‘trapped’ together, how the common motifs of these stories draw parallels to our experiences, and how Night Zero tries to avoid rehashing while continuing to explore this topic.

One of our favorite things to do in Night Zero storytelling, it seems, is to trap some people in a room in the midst of the zombie apocalypse and watch their relationships develop or collapse. We had first considered a “trapped” scene as early as Marion’s flashback in Episode One when her boyfriend comes home wounded, but in that case (for pacing reasons) we decided to jump straight into the action. So, our first true “trapped” story was our first vignette, ‘Jezebel’, and in the following years, we visited variations on this theme with the ‘Midnight’, twice over in ‘Inertia’, and now again in ‘Sorority’… not to mention the handful of unproduced scripts and treatments in our back-catalog, all addressing a small group of survivors stuck together in a collapsing world.
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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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Approaching Midnight

Posted: 12th March 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Jezebel", "Midnight", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development
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On the origins and story development of the “Midnight” vignette

Two quick announcements to start: first, we will be spending the weekend at the Emerald City Comicon here in lovely Seattle, so if you’re attending this year’s comic culture celebration, make sure to stop by #708 for some free gore makeup and an HDR photobooth; and second, I’m pleased to announce the launch of a Night Zero sister site that focuses on the production and behind-the-scenes of the project, check it out at http://www.thephotographicnovel.com.

Regular readers of the NZ blog know that one of my favorite topics of discourse is the “origin story” of a particular piece, and the Midnight vignette is no exception. Of all the vignettes to date, this one was the most difficult to get through conception, because it was not stemming from any particular need or opportunity. Jezebel started with “trapped on Night Zero”, Sisters started with “backstory of the Nazarov women”, and Special Delivery started with “shipping container yard”, but Midnight had no core inspiration. Lack of an anchor may seem freeing, but it’s hard to build up from nothing.
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