Posted: 5th August 2011 by Phoebe Richards
Categories: Concepts & Development
On the story development of Lucy and Dee’s relationship and why it found it’s home in the Sorority vignette
“Sorority” was developed by Anthony van Winkle and me while we were walking back home from a costume shopping trip. We often walk and talk out ideas, characters, and stories to explore in Night Zero. This particular brainstorm started with a question: what makes a person keep going when it would seem all hope is lost?
For me one of the most interesting aspects of post-apocalyptic stories is the human drive for survival. How quickly one must adjust to unthinkable horror in order to survive! You see loved ones die and know almost everyone you have ever known is also dead. What makes you even want to keep fighting? When is enough enough, and death the better option?
Obviously, for some, death is the better option. But, when creating an apocalyptic world, it is much more fascinating to follow survivors than quitters; partly, I am sure, because we all like to think we would be one of the strong people who moves forward no matter what. Also, seeing humans push through hopelessness and come out on top is what comic books are all about!
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Posted: 29th July 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Arena", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, On Location
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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Posted: 15th July 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Arena", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development
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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Posted: 8th July 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Arena", Concepts & Development
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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Posted: 17th June 2011 by Jana Hutchison
Categories: "The Things You Take", Concepts & Development
On the inception and development of “the Things You Take”
This vignette is distinguished from the others in several ways. Not only is it the only one we’ve shot with absolutely no blood or special effects, it also holds the record for the most words in a title.
Although the team has kicked this kind of idea around for quite some time now, the impetus to actually do it came after a particularly bloody and demanding shoot for episode six. It’s funny, when you are cooking along in the days leading up to a shoot, and the shoot itself, it’s easy to lose perspective on the actual photos that are happening. It was one of our bloodiest to date, featuring the commanding presence of our actor Kate Sumpter (who we met in “Special Delivery”, another very demanding and uncomfortable shoot day). At the end of that shoot, after dropping some of our gear and before our post-shoot debrief dinner, Anthony started loading photos from the day onto his computer. We were somewhat…astonished. It was bloody. It was gross. It was violent. We were disturbed.
We needed some relief.
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Posted: 11th June 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "The Things You Take", On Location
On simplifying the production strategies to produce “The Things You Take” as a simple and relaxed shoot.
This brief tale of love and conflict in the immediate dawn of the zombie apocalypse stems from a concept long discussed in Night Zero design: what of the regular couple, the young lovers who face only bad choices when their world comes crashing down? No action, no zombies, no death or blood or pandemonium… just the two of them, having each other. Jana, the creator and writer of “The Things You Take”, will have a blog post next week to talk about the writing challenges and developments. Today, I’ll talk about the production itself.
One of the specific goals for this vignette, from a production design standpoint, was that it should be easy. Our creative team and production team are one in the same, so all story development is influenced by our production capabilities and for this shoot we wanted to take it easy. For that, we approached each of the three major production points: cast, location, and action.
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