Posts Tagged ‘dariya’

the Death of Dariya

Posted: 3rd December 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Episode 5 - "Reversals", On Location
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On location for shooting the Death of Dariya sequences

For the day of the Dariya shoot we had a 9:00am crew call: in addition to Eli on camera and myself as director, Eric was back to his lighting magic, supported by Jason and Justin; our post-production gal Jen had her first day on-set as a production assistant; Phoebe was assistant director as usual; Jana was costume and makeup supervisor but (due to her on-camera obligations) the makeup application itself was handled by Sara with the help of James. The bulk of the morning was spent hanging lights and redecorating the conference room to be a makeshift emergency room, while the cast entered at staggered times to meet their respective costume and makeup needs.

From a post-production standpoint, large-scale shoots like the Death of Dariya are more challenging to structure. The typical post-production workflow (handled in Adobe Bridge) separates the thousands of photos in our catalog by shoot date, for easy-to-find sorting chronologically. The downside is encountered when we do large, all day shoots, because shooting 20+ pages in a single day and trying to sort through 200 photos for the right 4-5 on each page is a tiresome process. Instead, for substantive shoots like this I break the scene down into smaller sequences, based on character entrances/exits and changes in action. In this way, a large segment like the Death of Dariya becomes the equivalent of six smaller shoots, each one spanning 2-4 pages and containing 20-30 photos.

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Pre-Production of the Post-Protest

Posted: 19th November 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Episode 5 - "Reversals", On Location, Photography
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On the pre-production, location scouting, and new photography techniques in the “Death of Dariya” sequences

The shoot of Dariya’s death brings together some of our earliest cast members from the Night Zero project, while incorporating all the advances we’ve made over the last three years of production. Yevgeniy, Nadia, and Dariya date back to our first office shoot at the end of episode one in June of 2008—before dedicated costume design, before multi-point lighting, before shot cards and camera-optimized shoot schedules. That all three of these cast members have stuck around so long is something for which I am incredibly grateful; that in such time our production quality has grown exponentially is something of which I am incredibly proud.

Pre-production for the shoot was in some ways simple and in some ways challenging. For the simple side, we already had the full cast and costumes from previous episodes, so the only challenge was scheduling everybody at the same time. When dealing with some pretty prolific theater and film actors, that’s hardly an easy task, and must be done many months in advance. The downside to scheduling like this, though, is that once the cast is locked down for a date, whatever location we want to shoot at has to be available as well; if not, we are faced with having to either scout and secure a new location, or try and reschedule the entire cast and crew.
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A Story of Death Foretold

Posted: 12th November 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development, Episode 5 - "Reversals"
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On the stylistic and plot decisions surrounding the death of Dariya in Episode Five

In preparation for the coming workload to publish Night Zero: Volume Three, I’ve pre-written a number of blog posts surrounding this post-protest sequence with the Nazarov government, which ensures regular Friday updates for at least the next month. If you’re not familiar with our books, take notice of how banner-free and ad-free this website is and then head over to learn more about our self-published collections and show your support for our independent production.

Like episode four before it, episode five is primarily divided into two storytelling segments. Episode four preceded its two segments with an opening montage and interim scene, while episode five will close with the same. The choice was made in episode four to shuffle back and forth between the two halves (Claire and Edge in the warehouse; the protest shoot); in episode five I thought it would be more compelling to deliver each section in solid blocks, uninterrupted. Similarly, each of the sections was shot in a single production, not broken among multiple shoot days and locations as has typically been done. The result is an overall lighter load for the production team and a more continuous story flow, at the expense of diversity. Which is better? Hard to say, but from the beginning Night Zero has been an experiment in photographic storytelling technique and this is just another chapter in that saga.
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Character Deaths in the Zombie Genre

Posted: 5th November 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development, Episode 5 - "Reversals"
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On the philosophies of creating and destroying characters in zombie fiction

This current group of scenes in episode five, collectively summarized as “The Death of Dariya”, is something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. It marks a significant point in the Night Zero timeline: for all the many characters we’ve explored and for all the dozens of zombies we’ve encountered, this is the first time we’ve actually transformed an established “main character” into an infected, striking them from the ranks of human survivors and tallying their name in the register of the apocalypse.

While some critics may argue that a lack of long-established characters’ deaths is poor zombie narrative, I consider it to be a strength of the Night Zero story and philosophy. In a typical zombie-genre work, be it graphic novel, film, or television show, an initial cast of characters is introduced and picked off, one by one, as their surviving party encounters new challenges. The reader can expect, by the end, only one or two characters to remain from the original group; in an ongoing serial story, new characters must be constantly introduced so that the regular eliminations can continue. To this end, character deaths in the zombie genre are essentially progress markers, and each story or episode will be sure to include at least one: the more significant the event, the more established and well-loved the character who dies.
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A Tale of Two Sisters

Posted: 17th July 2009 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Sisters", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development
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On the inspirations for the “Sisters” vignette, and the evolution of its story from concept to production

It’s my great pleasure to bring this brand-new vignette to the Night Zero community, and I hope you’ve been enjoying it. This flash into the past of the Nazarov girls is both groundbreaking and trend-bucking in many ways, which I’m happy to share with you today.

Immediately notable from the production side is the speed with which this vignette came to life. In early April the idea came to do a story about the sisters, and after a number of very different scenarios, the concept began to come together as you see it. Production was fast-tracked amidst a few large Episode Three shoots, a cast assembled from some incredibly talented local actors (who had been long waiting for such an opportunity), and then costumes, props, and a shoot location brought together in swift order.
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Back to Business

Posted: 13th February 2009 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Episode 2 - "Quarantine", On Location
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On the first gathering of the principal cast members, and the challenges of an ever-expanding production

The Volume One books have arrived, and are simply gorgeous. We’ve already started shipping out some preorders, and will have them all en route by next week. If you haven’t yet ordered your copy, it’s easy to do so now.

At long last we’ve returned to Marion, Claire, and all our friends in the New City. While “Jezebel” was a fun and interesting diversion, it feels good to be back on track and moving forward with our serial story “City Planning.” This second episode, “Quarantine,” will run until mid-Summer, and has got plenty of fun within it.
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