This all began with a simple idea.

I would create a self-assigned project that would be creatively fulfilling and intensely challenging. I wanted to work in one of my favorite fictional genres—the post apocalypse. Since seeing Mad Max roll across the screen when I was a kid, I've been a fan of the genre—from the lowbrow (and amazing) film Class of Nuke'Em High, to the classic dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, all the way to Octavia Butler's stunning Earthseed Trilogy. I wanted to play in this field. I wanted to give myself the assignment that could only come from a place like HBO: create the marketing campaign for a not-yet-aired post apocalyptic TV show.

It meant starting from scratch.

I decided that to make this project more intense, I'd create the whole thing. The world, the characters, the stories—I'd start with nothing and create it all. To be clear, I knew it was a big undertaking—I knew I'd be sticking my head in the lions' mouth: I needed to write. I needed to create a narrative arc, a world and backstory for all the characters. I needed to know what the characters were wearing & why. I needed to know what they'd been through, what they wanted out of life. I needed to know all the secret stuff a writer has in store for these characters. And then there would be the no-small matter of the photography. And this was all going to be self-funded; I had to build a post crash world from scratch on a non-existent budget.