Posts Tagged ‘jill’

the Color of a Character

Posted: 25th January 2013 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Uncategorized
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On the conscious and continuing use of color in character costumes, and how that impacts the telling of Night Zero’s various stories.

For many years I’ve been looking forward to writing a blog post on the use of character color in Night Zero, but every time it felt appropriate I thought of another future scene I’d want to reference, and again this post would be postponed. Now, at the end, that time has finally come.

There are many design ideas and decisions endowed into the world and detail of Night Zero, little touches here and there that are neither important to nor referenced by the stories we tell, but that mean a lot to us. Some are small actor choices that affect the actions and demeanors of their characters without being made explicit. Others are tokens and trinkets that represent untold stories, perhaps at one point intended to be explored but now known only by those who would have told them. These all are little treasures within the fictional world of Night Zero designed to help the actors connect with their characters, but the most significant and deliberate secret of the production design is part of the storytelling, not the story: the subtle use of color designed to help the reader identify, distinguish, and remember characters across the span of Night Zero tales.
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the Longest Day

Posted: 31st August 2012 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Digital Production, Episode 6
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On the meeting of Marion and Jill, and the considerable length of Episode Six in the scheme of Night Zero comics.

The scene that ran last week and this, entitled “Rescue,” is a brief but pivotal moment of Episode Six, as well as a notable crossroads. It is the intersection of Marion and Jill, two central characters of Night Zero and two of the most represented.

Marion was created at the beginning of the Night Zero serial, drawn from character ideas and discussions with Katrina. She began shooting on our first production day, attended every shoot for the entire first year, and appeared on every page of Episode One.

Jill was created at the beginning of the Originette period, drawn from character ideas and discussions with Krista. During the following year she attended more production shoots than any other actor (averaging more than one a month), and quickly became an iconic part of our world.
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The First Eulogy

Posted: 1st June 2012 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development, Episode 6
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On the character of Jill, a strong presence in the last year of Night Zero, who’s passing marks the first major casualty of Episode Six.

The very first scene of Night Zero introduces the idea of messengers working in pairs (even though some, like Marion, prefer solitude), and from early in the development of Episode Six it was clear to me that while all our messengers would be featured, Lucy and Jill would be particularly important in the day’s events. We first met Lucy in the fall of 2010, when she and the other messengers gathered to hear Nadia Nazarov’s pre-battle speech. She was just one new face among many at the time, but even then I knew that hers was a face we’d be seeing again.
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the Sisterhood

Posted: 14th October 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Sorority", Behind-the-Scenes Photos
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On choosing the name “Sorority” for Lucy’s vignette, by way of discovering the message of her story and its place in the Night Zero universe

For a long time, this vignette had no name because we weren’t really sure what it was going to be. We knew the story, we knew the characters, but didn’t know what the message was, what it was teaching us about the world of Night Zero. In the beginning it was just called the Lucy vignette, and when we named Lucy’s sister it became the Lucy/Dee vignette. Based on their relationship, the only other name that really seemed to fit was “Sisters”, but we already had a great vignette by that name.

Another thing that was undecided about the vignette was the ending. We knew where act two began (with Lucy and Jill meeting) and we knew where they ended up (a pair of messengers), but when and how their first meeting would end was unknown. It seemed fitting to have a scratcher encounter with the two of them, so at least that much was assumed in every version. The number of scratchers would be more of a practical matter, depending on what our location was, how well-armed the two would be to fight them, and how many extras we’d be able to cast on whatever day we shot.
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To Reveal or Not to Reveal

Posted: 30th September 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Sorority", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development
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On the developmental question whether to include Jill in the ‘Sorority’ vignette, how much of her story to reveal, and what that meant for Jack.

As a writer and a consumer, I really like mysteries. I like the large unknowns with only hints and allusions, I like the unanswered “what happens next” more than a perfectly-wrapped package, and I don’t think it’s much of a secret that this type of storytelling is a big influence in Night Zero. Right in our first vignette ‘Jezebel‘ I went for the ending of ambiguous fates, rather than pegging down where Jezebel went, whether Tracey followed or stayed behind, and whether Clint died, turned, or survived. The entire backstory of ‘Special Delivery‘ remains a secret, as do Jezebel’s motivations in ‘Devon‘ and the fate of Tom and Sadie from ‘The Things You Take‘.

It was with this same desire for non-closure that I put together the ending of ‘Inertia‘, where Jill and Jack take their chances out in the world while Richard and Elisabeth remain in their room and await rescue or death. In a perfect fictional world, that would be the absolute end, but I already knew deep down that Jill would become one of the primary messengers in Episode Six, so it never was an air-tight ambiguity. That said, though, I thought leaving the time between ‘Inertia’ and Episode Six a mystery would be suitable, letting the reader wonder what happened to the two of them, how Jill ended up with the messengers, and whether Jack is still alive.
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Dramatic Character Changes

Posted: 23rd September 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Sorority", Concepts & Development
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On the reintroduction and transformation of Jill from the ‘Inertia’ vignette to ‘Sorority’, and the unexpected surprises along the way.

In every fiction serial, especially those in visual media, one of the great creative freedoms comes from the opportunity to show existing characters in dramatically changed roles. From alternate-timelines like Fringe and Buffy, to space/time-leaps as seen in Heroes and Battlestar Galactica, and all the hundreds of alternate/non-canon comic book lines, there are few things as rewarding to the long-time fan as the complete displacement of a character (or characters) into a new environment, a new perspective, and a new aesthetic.

With Night Zero’s non-linear vignette style, we’ve done a number of time-jumps with our characters with varying changes (but no parallel universes or time travellers… yet). The ‘Sisters‘ vignette placed the Nazarovs back in time but without much noticable shift in personalities, mainly because not much of their personalities had been revealed in the serial to that point. Yevgeniy’s appearance at the end of that story was a fun change in appearance, but his real character change was in the vignette ‘Devon‘, which looked at him as a fresher, more rambunctious leader. And of course there’s the character of Jezebel, who changes dramatically at every turn and yet still remains ever the same.
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