HYBRIDS AND SURVIVORS: DISCUSSING “DAY ZERO” WITH CREATOR CAL NGUYEN
“Day Zero: The Series” consists of three seasons, all filmed between 2011 and 2022. This dystopian series focuses on America in a future-state, where nuclear war has occurred, and the accompanying radiation has caused the majority of humans to become hybrid beasts who feed off of survivors. ZFA had the opportunity to interview the series creator Cal Nguyen about the project as a whole, inspirations behind the story, and advice for future filmmakers. The series finale won the following awards in October/November edition of ZFA: Best Actress Under 18 (Kayli Brummer), Best TV/Web Series Episode, Best Science Fiction/AI Film, and an Honorable Mention for Best Actress (Kabrina Miller).
ZFA: Day Zero is such a massive undertaking! Very impressive. How long has the project taken as a whole? What are your future plans with it?
Cal: Thank you! It's no small feat - that's for sure. We were filming on a part-time basis for the vast majority of all 3 seasons, with each season being shot differently, however. For example, for Season 1 we filmed nearly all exterior shots in a row first and finished off the rest of the interior scenes together later. This 3rd season was done similarly to how we did it on Season 2 in a more normal manner, but just weekends with the exception that I tried to never film on Sundays, being the Lord's day. This started all the way from 2010 technically, when it was first conceived by a BYU student, Kelsi (now Swensen). But, when she got married, the project halted, and I bought out creative rights to it and finished off Season 1 with my additions, though we had to recast and get new crew, starting mainly with myself and one or two others until we gained a cult following of sorts from interested parties, and this expanded even more so starting with Season 2.
Even though they are short-form episodes filling generally a half-hour type of slot for TV with some episodes varying, and with it being 10 episodes per season, it was kind of grueling at times to get it all done and with this pace. Between pre-production to post, it took 11 actual years to come out with the 3 seasons. But it was a perfect fit for us on streaming services like Amazon, where there are no deadlines or anything like that (which we had on Tuff TV, the over-the-air antenna network, but by that time we had Seasons 1 and 2 already in the can and I just modified it for television, even though they truncated it even further!). When the Amazon thing happened, we pretty much became the very first indie series (micro-budget at that) to appear on their platform. Because we recently completed post-production on Season 3, I ended the finale in a fashion that really wraps it up - except there's a bit of a possible teaser cliffhanger of sorts at the end, but I'm not quite sure yet what I'll be doing in the future with the Day Zero at this time.
ZFA: What inspired the story?
Cal: Day Zero has its theme based after a nuclear world war, and it is focused on a group of survivors who were untouched physically, but they believe they're alone in the world. The show always had a spiritual element dressed up in an apocalyptic-driven story. It is a fantasy, science-fiction action/adventure work, with the creatures being basically radiated humans called "Hybrids" (sometimes "The Infected" with white-eyed "Carriers" among them) who never died. That served as a unique premise, even though we sometimes get lumped in with some zombie genres like “The Walking Dead,” regardless. The fact is, I sort of based it more on the “Stargate Atlantis” recurring "Michael" character, but in reverse, with a touch of “The Incredible Hulk”/Doctor Banner complex.
It wasn't until Season 3 that I transitioned it from a creature-like backdrop set against a core set of survivors who didn't have anything to do with the government, and into a more geopolitical, supernatural storyline that takes place FROM government-type characters, and ultimately military types. As for our main lead in Season 3 (Shawn Stevens who plays "Fr. John" the Carmelite monk), in some sense I based him on the real-life Saint Padre Pio, but with a touch of Robinhood in him, since Fr. John tries to help out those in need against authoritarian types in the war-torn United States ("Day Zero" is a reference to a future World War IV).
ZFA: How long did the finale episode take you? Where did you film it?
Cal: Our third season finale, "Et Verbum Caro Factum Est" (which is Latin for "And the Word was made flesh", taken from the Holy Bible in John 1:14), took the typical amount of days for us per episode, which was probably no more than 4 days if I recall correctly - but again - filmed part-time on Fridays and Saturdays only. We filmed pretty much the entire time in Heber City, Utah at the River's Edge RV park. We were the first ever and only ones who filmed there, according to the owners (at least last we heard).
ZFA: What was the biggest challenge during production and post-production?
Cal: At times there was some confusion by an actor or two, and I even made decisions to more prominently cut out one character's set of scenes because she couldn't make it, and then couldn't stay for long on pick-up day, and it was tough removing those. At one point, I ran into delays that pushed us back a bit and extended the time we were on set. We also had little daylight left for some parts. In the police car scenes, it was done with mainly two actors at a time on different days showing different angles, so that whole interaction was completely edited together as if they were all there. Same goes for the briefing/conference scene, some individuals' parts were filmed separately where you couldn't see them in wide angle. This is a usual theme I'm used to. You'll never guess any different though, and Hollywood's known to have done this themselves, even though they can easily afford to force it the other way. I did end up spending more time in pre-prod as well as post than I did during production, due to life issues mainly.
ZFA: Any advice for aspiring filmmakers?
Cal: Always learn the trade by doing the small things first so you know how to do nearly every position from pre-to-post, and then when you become the filmmaker of your own projects, it'll benefit you in the long run, especially if you're not exactly budgeted or merely self-financed. And even then, don't shy from doing small things on other people's sets. Stay humble. Keep politics off the set and always have a good Assistant Director or two to keep you moving forward efficiently, if it's not yourself making those decisions already.
Try to get first lunch time in by 6 hours even if you're non-union, and try the best you can to film in blocks where your talent can go home each day without waiting around so much on set. I personally recommend going light, be it equipment or otherwise, particularly if you have a small crew. I highly recommend having everyone (including the location staff) to sign a release waiver form so that everyone knows their liabilities and what not is their own responsibility, etc. if you're non-union, but always try to keep everyone safe on set as your first priority by mapping out where staging is going to be and disseminating this information well before shoot days. It's also always a good idea to have set medics of some kind.
Personally, I no longer film in extreme cold or hot weather as much as I can. Additionally, keep communication open and frequent, so nobody is left in the dark and in doubt about what's happening and what's required. I couldn't give that much advice on marketing, even though I've done it myself (social media, billboards, ads, etc.), but don't be afraid of Fiverr.com for many things (custom-licensed music, artwork, CGI, etc.) or even stock footage sites when necessary. Attend film festivals if you can, network and connect with others, watch other work and absorb and learn, and share your knowledge.
ZFA: What is next for you? Any other projects coming up?
Cal: Aside from the festival circuit, I'm taking a break! I am hoping to write and get my first feature film done next year though, if I'm not working on other people's projects or working a fulltime job somewhere.
ZFA: How can we find you and follow your work?
Cal:
Studio website: altareproductions.com
Series website: dayzerotv.com
Series Facebook: fb.com/dayzerotv
YouTube: youtube.com/dayzerotv
Series Twitter: twitter.com/dayzerotv
Amazon Video showpage: Day Zero
