Posts Tagged ‘storytelling’

Exodus

Posted: 13th April 2012 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Episode 6
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On the prologue of Night Zero’s final serial episode, and why the name “Exodus” was chosen for this final chapter.

And so begins the final episode of the Night Zero serial “City Planning,” episode six. “Exodus.”

After so many years, I felt it would be helpful to begin the episode with a recap of sorts, an explanation of all that precedes this story to refresh our readers on where the New City and its heroes stand. This was not part of the original script, and only came into consideration after the prologue had been shot, so it was an interesting task to cut the dialogue and filler portions from that scene and use it as illustration for the voiceover. Something we’ve never tried with Night Zero before, but I’m pleased with how it turned out.

These past two weeks have also given the Night Zero team a full workload with conventions, with our fourth annual presence at the wonderful Emerald City Comicon and our first bout at the more eccentric Sakura-Con. At both shows our new book Night Zero: Origins was a smashing hit, buoyed by it’s accessibility as a stand-alone title in combination with its remarkably low price point. It’s just twenty dollars, less than the cost of a celebrity signature at the convention or two tickets to a movie, and contains seven self-contained vignettes from the Night Zero world plus behind-the-scenes, director’s notes, and more. And like all our books, these are proudly printed in the USA, so you can support American workmanship and help the economy while getting some quality graphic novel stories at the same time. We start shipping next week, click here to order now.
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Holidays with the Syndicate

Posted: 30th December 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Syndicate", Concepts & Development
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On the storytelling value of two post-apocalyptic factions, and why the Syndicate is so much fun to produce.

The holiday season is upon us, so in customary webcomic fashion Night Zero is taking one day off each week and wishing the best for you and yours in the new year. Our production schedule is winding down to make time for our next book release, due out in March for the fourth consecutive year. More details to come!

In the meantime, though, “Syndicate” works its way onward, with two weeks left in its run. Although brief, it’s a vignette I’m quite pleased with, particularly as a final “originette” backstory piece. The relationship between the Syndicate and the New City is one of the oldest elements of Night Zero lore, and today I’d like to talk about playing with the power balance and how writing factions into the world mythos created a different kind of post-apocalyptic comic.
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A Few Familiar Faces

Posted: 9th December 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Syndicate", Concepts & Development
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On the pressure and challenge of creating the “Syndicate” vignette, knowing it would be the last production before the premiere of Episode Six.

And so we begin “Syndicate”, the last vignette of the year (and possibly the last vignette ever). It’s a short story, compared to many, because it embraces the storytelling philosophy of “start in the middle” and is tightly trimmed from its original drafts. Which isn’t to say all the action and exposition is gone, rather that it’s been distilled down to a high concentrate of awesome.

Readers familiar with Night Zero may recognize many of the faces already, which is appropriate because this vignette isn’t the first time we’ve encountered the eponymous Syndicate in our storytelling. Obviously this new vignette takes place well before the others, as its purpose is to show how the schism between the Nazarov government and the Syndicate came about. And also to give guns to a load of good-looking people in good-looking costumes.
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Ally and Jacob

Posted: 4th November 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Ally", Concepts & Development
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On the development ideas and iterations of the vignette “Ally”, and how it fits in (or doesn’t) with the “City Planning” serial story.

As I’ve discussed more than once over the course of this blog, Night Zero vignettes can originate for one of a couple different reasons, and ‘Ally’ falls right-square into the category of Actor Vehicle. For a very long time Night Zero and Kyle Kizzier have been exchanging flirtatious glances, waiting for the right time to get together… both in terms of scheduling and the perfect role. And while I haven’t known Sara as long, from the first time I saw her perform on stage I knew she’d be perfect in the Night Zero world. The serial episodes were well on their way to completion, with no major roles left to be cast, so I knew they would be vignette characters… but what vignettes would each of them get? Early this summer I first had the thought to pair them opposite each other, and spent a solid 4-5 months toying around with what type of scenario could take advantage of these two actors’ experience, talent, and great looks.

It was clear that they’d have to be strangers, because suspicion and conflict are great storytelling elements. Having characters meet each other makes exposition much easier, and story arcs happen more naturally when the characters have different objectives. Our heroes gallery is heavily favored on the female side, so for diversity I wanted to position Kyle’s character as the “main” character and introduce Sara’s character as the foil to him. The vignette would have to consist of an introduction, some character dialogue, and of course a fight with an infected or two… but who were these characters, and what would be their story?

** minor spoilers ahead **

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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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The Relay Vignette

Posted: 9th September 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Sorority", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development
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On the origin of the hallway chase sequence, a shelved vignette known only as the ‘relay vignette’, and how its transplant into ‘Sorority’ led to some interesting decisions.

The hallway action sequence that separates the two acts of ‘Sorority’ is a piece that I’m very proud to have included, for a brief but action-filled interstitial. The sequence itself is more than a year old, and was initally developed as the third act in a story that never got so far as a real name, only a working description: the relay vignette.

The relay vignette was a sequence of three separate scenes, hitting on three separate factions of post-apocalyptic Seattle and underscoring how, despite their differences (differences which are fully explored and understood in the serial), each faction can be brought to work together given the right motivation. Additionally, it was intended to be an action-heavy piece, developed during production of the action-light Episode Five, as a way to continue challenging ourselves and keeping things fresh.
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