Working within someone else’s world requires a certain degree of intimacy between that world and your work. You can’t just come in with a one-man war of attrition. That’s not how great stories are told. On Monday we talked about the larger freedoms of working in a defined world, and today I want to tell you even more about Double Take’s behind the scenes plan.
By now I’m sure you’ve all thought about how you’d deal with a zombie outbreak, but have you ever had to plan one? That’s what Double Take has brought upon themselves with their “Big Bang” initiative. (Pre-order now) For the unfamiliar, Double Take is launching ten zombie comic series on one day, all based in George A Romero’s Night of the Living Dead universe. So yeah, things may seem daunting, but I assure you they have a plan, and it’s a damn good one.
Zombies always shamble in, kill thousands of people, destroy society as we know it, we fight back, we win, we lose our humanity in the process and the credits roll. But, what if it didn’t have to be that way. What if we had a plan? Well like I said, Double Take’s plan is handed out to every writer in a document called the “escalation schedule.”
So far everything is broken down over a set amount of days. We’re briefed with what happens every hour, as well as given a overview of what that day looks like.
For example:
Sunday – April 24, 1966
Overview:
The titular Night of the Living Dead. Informal posses form in conjunction with local law enforcement. The National Guard is deployed. Z-Men come to Pennsylvania to investigate.
Midday
Murders start.
Murderers band together.
That’s the first day, and the events that kickstart this whole mess into high gear. You might not remember the Z-Men from Romero’s films. But, I assure you while this is the basis for the story, we’re going much further.
Here’s an overview of what’s happening a few days later:
In most areas, the posses and the government seem to be [redacted]. The zombie tide is [redacted]. The military uses a [redacted] with civilians and [redacted]. As the day goes on, however, the [redacted] show that they are still stronger than many have thought. The goal of the government shifts [redacted].
You didn’t think we’d give you the whole story just yet did you?
After a brief like this, Double Take has filled the document with sound bites from some of the most important infrastructures in the United States. We know what NASA is saying, we know what’s happening in DC, and we know what the reporters are saying.
Each individual story has the same tools used to inform it’s storytelling, but that doesn’t mean all the characters will be privy to the information outlined in this escalation schedule. Moreover, it serves as a bible like document for our own internal purposes to ensure everyone is on the same page.
So remember that time Swamp Thing showed up in the pages of Animal Man and your brain melted?
Well Double Take figures it’s high time we start telling zombie stories that way.
