Banksy | Luis' Illustrated Blog

Baby Ambrose got sick. Free game mastering book. Breaking down Act 1 scenes.

January 20, 2011 in Banksy, FAMILY, ROLE PLAYING GAMES, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Last week was my first week doing story reel work and I didn’t really get a lot done. Mostly because I had to stay home to take care of baby Ambrose who got sick. This week has been really hectic for me because now I have to work hard to catch up on the hours of work I missed. It’s been a bit stressful. Since I haven’t done any story reel work since Show 1 (The Fool Monty) of this year, I had to remember what the job entailed and what I needed to do, on top of everything else. It’s been a busy week.

In other news, Banksy put up the rough boards he did that I used to work off of in order to do the final version of the story boards for his Couch Gag, on his site (CLICK HERE). Take a look:

I wish I could put what I did you could compare.

FAMILY
I stayed at home this week on Thursday and Friday to take care of baby Ambrose. He caught a cold or a flu or something. I’m still not sure exactly what it was. He had a temperature, diarrhea, sneezing, and a runny nose. To make things worse, he’s also teething. I’m not sure if he had a temperature because he was teething or because he was sick. He definitely didn’t have any energy at all. I made sure to give him plenty to drink and let him sleep as much as he could. I felt so bad for the little guy. He was miserable.

By Sunday he was all better. You have no idea what a relief it was to see him back to his normal self.

Thank you Simpsonology on Twitter for the link.

ROLE PLAYING GAMES
Played some more Dungeons and Dragons 4E this weekend at our house. I also ran another mini adventure for Elizabeth and Dante. This has me thinking about role playing and specifically, “Game Mastering”. In other words, running adventures. Specifically for Elizabeth who keeps asking me to run games for her. It’s fun to do, but last time I thought it was a bit tedious so now I’ve got to come up with a way to not only make interesting for her, but I have to make it interesting for myself. It’s tricky since she’s only four and doesn’t exactly go out of her way to write a back story for her character for me to work off of.

Coincidentally, on one of the game sites I usually go to, Purple Pawn, had a article on a book on Game mastering that could be downloaded for free online. It’s distributed under the creative commons license. I downloaded it and it’s actually really good. I recommend it for anyone who is thinking about game mastering a role playing game. It teaches you all you need to know to go about doing it. There’s a lot there that I agree with. Check it out:

GAMEMASTERING book

WRITING

(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)

Below is an excerpt of what I wrote the last two weeks, as set up for what I’m writing about THIS week, in case you’re interested in following along with more depth:

Right now, the theory of story that I like to use to flesh out my plot is the DRAMATICA theory. Unfortunately the DRAMATICA theory is so complicated and convoluted, that I can’t really sum it up in a nut shell. If you want to get an idea of what DRAMATICA is all about, click the link below:

What is DRAMATICA?

In order for you to be able to understand it fully, you would need to download and read the FREE book on pdf. Click the link below:

Free DRAMATICA pdf book

or listen to the FREE audio book podcasts by clicking the link below:

Free DRAMATICA audio book

or read the FREE text of the book directly from their site by clicking the link below:

The DRAMATICA book readable on the net for free.

As I did the last two weeks, I’ll put up the DRAMATICA Table of Story Elements in order for you to understand what I’m talking about and so you can follow along. For a clearer pdf version of the chart (download chart now):

I’ve decided to start breaking down each scene. The Robert McKee book (Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting) suggests I write out a one or two sentence statement, describing what happens in each scene and how it turns on cards. I don’t have any cards so I’ll just type them out. The McKee book also suggests I write what part of the story each scene fulfills. I’ll see if I can do that too.

The DRAMATICA system suggests Elements that will be in conflict in each of the scenes I write. Here’s the thing, DRAMATICA also suggests that if I’m writing a short story (which I am) I shouldn’t breakdown the story as far as I have. In other words, I SHOULDN’T breakdown my story into the Elements level the way I’m going to do just now. I think it’s because you can’t possible stick 24 scenes into a short story. Okay, then I’m going to see how many Element comparison I CAN put in and be satisfied with that.

First, I’m going to look at what I have already written as the four Story Throughlines for Act 1. Using that as a guide I’m going to then start breaking the scenes down for Act 1.

Act 1:

OVERALL STORY THROUGHLINE

Memories- The main character, remembering how good the hot dogs at a certain hot dog vendor are, uses the money he struggled to get, to buy one. While always being cautious of the memories of all the times he’s been attacked by the Sorcerers that are after him.

Memories ======> Type 2. Impulsive Responses- Not realizing that those very Sorcerers have spotted him and remember what he has done to their fellow Sorcerers. The Sorcerers confront the main character who knows what’s coming from the memory of his past experience. They’re hatred of him cause such anger inside them that they impulsively attack him.

MAIN CHARACTER STORY THROUGHLINE

Obtaining– Rob has happily obtained the Hot Dog he’s been wanting for a day and a half. He looks forward to eating in peace and quiet.

Obtaining ======> Type 2. Gathering Information– As he sits down to eat and is confronted by the three Sorcerers. He tries to find out from them, what he could do, in order to have them give him a few minutes to eat his lunch in peace and quite. When they tell him, he gladly does it.

IMPACT CHARACTER STORY THROUGHLINE

Conceiving an Idea– The Lead Sorcerers tries to convince Rob that Rob is evil. That the Sorcerers are truly the just and justified between the two of them.

Conceiving an Idea ======> Type 2. Developing a Plan– Rob dismisses the idea so the Lead Sorcerer then puts forth that he should let himself be imprisoned by the Sorcerers, so that he could be watched and not become what the prophesy says he will.

MAIN vs IMPACT CHARACTER STORY THROUGHLINE

- Past– The Main Character and the Lead Sorcerer share a collective conflicting past. Many of Sorcerers the Lead Sorcerer knew, have been beaten by the Main Character. The main Character knows who the Lead Sorcerer is (or at least his type) based on his passed dealings with other Sorcerers. While the Lead Sorcerers knows the main by the reputation of those who have fought him in the past. This instills tension between the two parties. Especially since there is an incomplete understanding of what REALLY happened in the past that the Main Character attempts to clarify without success.
- The Past ======> Type 2. How things are Changing– Their collective negative past immediately lead to distrust, hatred and aggression. Especially since their past is so misunderstood, which leads the Lead Sorcerers into attacking the Main Character.

Act 1 Themes: False/Suspicion

Scene 1 (Equity/Projection)

Rob waits for his hot dog impatiently as his stomach grumbles. Once he gets it he sits down and to eat it. He decides to share it with is White Raven.He’s about to cut it in half when he sees the Sorcerers coming toward him and gets bummed out, knowing he’s in for a bad time. (Introducing the characters)

Scene 2 (Inertia/Order)

The Sorcerers confront Rob about his past and his future. Rob defends by explaining the circumstances behind those moments. If left alone nothing would happen. They try to convince him to turn himself over to the Sorcerers so they can lock him up and keep him from becoming evil. Rob tells them he has no intention of taking over the world. The lead Sorcerer tries to convince Rob that his cause is just. Rob just want to be left alone. The Sorcerers won’t do that. Rob asks if he could at least have ten minutes to finish his hot dog. They discuss it among themselves and grant him ten minutes on the condition he hand over his weapon. (inciting incident)

Scene 3 (Speculation/Inequity)

Rob hands over his weapon believing the Sorcerers will keep their word leaving him out numbered and without protection.The Sorcerers laugh at the weapon and throw it in the bushes.Just as he’s about to cut the hot dog they attack him. (First Act climax)

Well, I was only able to create three scenes. It’s suppose to be eight scenes per Act but I couldn’t fit anything else in. To be honest, I don’t know if I broke thing down into scenes or just broke down ONE scene into three parts. I also didn’t quite stick to the one or two sentence description of each scene format.

I found it very helpful that I’d written out the description of each Story Throughline. It reminded me of stuff I’d forgotten. I think it’s turning out okay so far. I’ll see how Act 2 goes. I wonder if there’s going to be more than three scenes in that Act?

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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My experience working on the Banksy Couch Gag. Just a little bit of coloring.

October 14, 2010 in ART, Banksy, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Wow. As of the time of this writing the Couch Gag written by artist Banksy, has just aired. It seemed to have made quite a stir. I thought I’d write about my experience working on that Couch Gag.

the_simpsons_banksy_slice_01

In July, I was put to work on show 6. The show was directed by veteran Director Bob Anderson (at the time, I cryptically wrote a little bit about it HERE and HERE under THE SIMPSONS NEWS. When I refer to the “guest writer” I’m talking about Banksy). Show 6 had gone through the Story Reel stage, which basically means that the writers and producers had seen a rough story reel version of the show and had made changes to the script. My job as a storyboard revisionist is to take those notes and make the changes necessary to the current storyboard to reflect said notes. This is what I expected to do when I went into Bob’s office that Monday. Instead, he told me he wasn’t giving me an Act to fix but rather, he was going to put me on the Couch Gag.

I raised my eye brows,

“Oh, okay.”

He smiled and gestured to a chair,

“Here, have a seat. You get to do something special.” I sat. “Do you know who Banksy is?”

“No.”

“Oh.” He blinked, “He’s this famous artist tagger guy. They made a documentary about him.” Bob proceeded to enlighten me on what he knew about Banksy and what he thought. I listened,

“Yeah I’ve heard there was a special Couch Gag they had gotten from a special artist.”

“Oh yeah? Who told you?”

“I don’t remember actually. Just came up in conversation.”

“Well, this is it. You get to storyboard it.”

“Okay”.

He took out sketches papers and notes, “These are yours. I’ve already made the notes so I’m going to go through them with you. These are the notes from Al, and this is the ‘script’. Which really isn’t a script but you’ll see.”

He handed me a bunch of papers and explained what they were. One group of papers where Banksy‘s “storyboards”. Which were actually drawings drawn on letter paper with little squares on the left with a drawing and a description on the right describing what the drawing on the left meant. This was “the script”. The other group of sheets were the same little squares but put into storyboard format. Only, they really weren’t working since the drawings where more story sketches than storyboards. Bob explained that it was my job to take Banksy‘s story sketches and make a functioning storyboard out of them. He had drawn in red Sharpy all over the rough “board” indicating what he thought the camera ought to be doing and making adjustments to the drawings. He explained to me what he wanted done, what shots where the same shots, where the cuts were, what details needed to be on them,…etc. He recomposed shots and gave me suggestions on what I needed to do to make some shots work.

He then showed me the “character designs” of the “Koreans” Banksy wanted. There was a note, from the producers, on one of the sheets that read, “Make sure Korean animators are not ethnically offensive. No Buck teeth, etc.” Ironically they all looked Chinese (straw hats and all).

During this meeting I turned to Bob confused,

“Okay, so this is a commentary about how messed up we treat Koreans but he makes them all look Chinese? How does that make sense? Is that part of the joke?”

“I don’t know, but that’s what they want.” Keep in mind that Bob is married to a Korean woman and he seemed a bit annoyed. Ironically, there was a description of a Mexican worker stuffing the Bart dolls; which I later drew as a Sombrero waring, big mustache toting, poncho using guy (I’m Hispanic and I though it was funny). The note from Fox was that it was too racist and they had me change him into a Korean. It made no sense to me because I drew a Mexican stereotype to represent a Mexican, but Banksy had drawn a Chinese stereotype to represent a Korean.

In the final version, the one that aired, all the Koreans looked Korean. I guess they had enough time to think about it and change their minds.

And then there was this conversation:

“So is the decapitated dolphin head dispensing tape, or is it licking the boxes shut like an envelope?”

“I think it should just come across the top of the box as if it had tape on it.”

“Does the tongue have tape?”

“Not sure yet. You can try making it lick the box as if it was an envelope and we’ll see what they say.”

“Okay.”

In the end, they didn’t like it. They had me change it.

And then this conversation happened:

“Yeah this scene where the kid’s arms melts in the toxic waste tank is out. It slows things down.” Bob stares a the sketch, “Why is he dipping cells in the toxic waste anyway? Is it bonding the paint to the cells?”

“I don’t think it matters, does it?”

After the two hours it took to explain what need to be done, I took the work to my office and stared blankly at my computer screen.

“Wow, this going to be a lot of work.” I rolled up my sleeves, read all the notes again. Looked at Banksy‘s story sketches and began trying to make it all make sense.

For two weeks I worked on the Couch Gag. I had to find ways to keep the spirit of Banksy‘s sketches while reinventing the shots. I looked at INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM for some inspiration. I added shadows and atmosphere to the boards in order to try to “sell” the final look of the thing. At one point, I had to reapply the shadows because the grays I had originally used where too dark to be reproduced in the copy machine. This set me back a bit.

Sometime during the process, my old office mate came in and asked me what I was doing. I told him and showed him the boards and sketches. He stared at them and stared at me and was just wide eyed,

“Are you serious?! They’re doing this?! No way,” staring at the sheets, “These are HIS drawings?”

“Yeah, and check these out,” I handed him Banksy’s designs of the Koreans,

“Wow, this is so messed up. Wow. Crazy. Can’t believe they’re doing this.”

I had fun drawing the panda getting beaten, and the unicorn I drew was pretty much used verbatim when they did its final design. Bob’s comment when he saw my unicorn was,

“That’s one sad looking unicorn.”

We sent the board to the head director of the studio who had notes I had to integrate. I was also pressured to hurry up so they could get the board sent to Banksy and Al Jean for their notes, which I also had to revise the board for. There were last minute notes and late nights just trying to get it done. I ended up doing two version of the final board. One for Fox and the other for the studio. The Fox one had less drawings in it so that the producers didn’t think the final version was going to be too slow. The longer version was so that it could be more easily shot and turned into a story reel, since it had more poses per panel.

At one point, I started this conversation with Bob,

“Man, they’re really making a big deal out of this Couch Gag. I mean, It’s just a Couch Gag right?”

“It’s important to them.”

“Yeah but, it’s not like anyone is going to pay attention to it. How will they know it was Banksy that wrote it. I mean people are just gonna look at it and think, ‘That was a weird Couch Gag,’ forget about it and just keep watching the show.”

Boy was I wrong.

There was a LOT of pressure on me those two weeks because I new the producers would be scrutinizing what I did. When it was finally done, I was relieved and proud.

A week or so later, someone coming near my office, asked me if I’d done the Banksy boards. I said I had. She then turned to the coworker behind her and told her I had done the boards. It seems the person that asked, was asking in the other person behalf. That coworker nodded and walked away without looking at me. At first I thought that coworker had wanted to know because they were cool. I took it as a compliment, but then I realized, she was Korean, and I had probably insulted her because I had drawn the Koreans looking Chinese.

I wish I could put up my boards and Banksy‘s drawings here on my site but I’m afraid of getting in trouble so I’ll play it safe. I’ll just link to the Couch Gag:

ART

Started to “model out” the drawings this week. I only got to work on the drawing on Sunday so I didn’t get much done. I only got two out the three Sorcerers started. I still have a bit more to do on them but it’s a start:

I think this is actually what I want. I like the way it look and I’m enjoying myself. I’ll see how much time it takes. If it isn’t too bad, I’ll color the whole cartoon this way. It’s not like I’m going to animate it so I can get away with a more rendered out look.

I’m using my tonal study as a guide and I’m very glad I have it. It’s taking away the guess work so I can concentrate on getting the look and the brushes right. Hopefully next week I’ll have more to write and show.

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

Comments Off on My experience working on the Banksy Couch Gag. Just a little bit of coloring.

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Baby Ambrose got sick. Free game mastering book. Breaking down Act 1 scenes.

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My experience working on the Banksy Couch Gag. Just a little bit of coloring.

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