First week back at work. I miss the kids. Though Ambrose seems to be waking up around the same time I do and hangs around as I get ready for work.
I’m revising Act 1 of show 1.
OH! And I found out about the new programs we’ll be using this season, which I wrote about last week. Last week I was under the impression that we where going to start using a program from a different company. Not so. We just upgraded out Toon Boom programs, so now the Layout Crew is using Scene Machine, and the board artist are using Storyboard Pro 2.
Last week I went to a class that taught us to use Scene Machine, but I had no experience with Storyboard Pro 2. Turns out that Scene Machine had so many similarities to Storyboard Pro 2 that it was pretty easy to pick up. I like the new program. It fixes some issues that I had with the previous one.
ART
I’m FINALLY done thumbnailing the shots for my film. It only took TWO YEARS to get to this point. It should NOT have taken this long:
I feel like there should be a parade or something to mark the occasion. I’m so glad I didn’t pushed through and finished it. 429 shots! That’s crazy. The Simpsons boards have this many shots.
Well, now the that the hardest part of the boarding is done, I finally get to execute the project. I begin the process of making it come to life. This is the fun part. I’ve been waiting a long time for this.
So excited.
VIDEOS
I saw this video posted in different Social Media sites but never bothered to click on it until much later in the week. Turns out it’s fantastic. It’s Neil Gaiman (one of my favorite writers) giving a commencement speech at a college. I highly recommend you watch it if you’re into art or interested in it in anyway.
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This is my last week of hiatus but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be in the studio this week. I was asked to come in this Friday for a meeting. We’re going to be using a new program to do boards this season and the meeting is going to help us get up to speed on it. I’m curious to see what the program can do. So far we’ve been using Toon Boom’s Storyboard Pro. It’s a decent program, and it works for what it is, but we’ve had issues with the compatibility of the program and Toon Boom’s Pencil Check.
Not only that, but the board artists have been asked to do Quicktime movies of their boards in order to pitch their Acts in a easier way. This has lead to trying to find a program that does this even easier than Storyboard Pro. Even though, I think, Storyboard Pro does a pretty good job of doing this.
I’ll give you my two cents of what I think of the program next week. Especially since I’m going to be using one of the two program on my personal project.
BUSINESS/BOOKS
Just a bit of an update on the books I’ve been reading this week when it comes to money management and business:
INVESTING ONLINE FOR DUMMIES:
I haven’t read further than Chapter two, but I like it so far. Hand holds you into the investing thing and it’s very informative about what goes into the process.
LINCENSING ART 101 3rd edition:
Good little book that gives you an overview on the art licensing world and what to expect. I’m reading this so that I can see about taking advantage of any webcomic or cartoon I put on the web. I also want to see if there’s a way to make a little money on the side with random personal art.
CREATIVE, INC.: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO RUNNING A SUCCESFUL FREELANCE BUSINESS:
Got this on my Kindle App. I started reading this at the doctor’s office on Tuesday while I was in the waiting area. At first I thought I had made a mistake getting the book. After all, I’ve done the freelance thing. I LIVED it.
Well, turns out there’s more to it that I hadn’t done, that, if I had, I would have probably been more successful. It really should just take out the word “freelance” from the title. It’s a really good book on how to start a creative business. I didn’t run my freelance career like a business when I did it. I should have. I think know, if I ever work on my own again, I’ll do what this book advices. Very informative, even for people who are working on their own now. It might give you ideas for things you hadn’t thought to do. I recommend it.
On top of that, I’ve also been thinking about selling a few things on ebay. Mostly stuff we don’t use around the house, but I’m also think of putting up a drawing or two. Mostly to continue to make some side money in order to pay off as much debt as we could. I’ll think about this some more. In the meantime, I’ve got to research a bit on how it’s done.
ART
Page 9 is done! One HALF page left to go! So excited. I’m gonna get done soon! Hurry for sticking to it:
MY WEB COMIC
I’ve been taking advantage of my time off to work on my webcomic. It’s all outlined out. I just need to fix up a detail here and there and it should be ready to script out. I’m taking a much more streamlined approach to the writing than I did with my cartoon above. I just want to get it done as fast I as can.
That said, there’s quite a few characters and stuff to design. It’s what’s taking up most of the time. I’ve very excited about it though. For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
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Well, I’m on my first week on hiatus. I’ve been spending a lot of time with the kids and doing a few commissions on the side. Next week will be my last week of hiatus and then, back to work. I’m enjoying my time off.
BUSINESS
My sister sent me a book for my Kindle App called: SECRETS OF THE MILLIONAIRE MIND by T. Harv Eker. The book really opened my mind to the way I think about money and wealth.
A friend of mine at work who has his own business on the side has this same mindset and he’s doing really well financially.
Reading the book has really made me interested in business, of all things.
In order to start putting the principles of the book into practice, I got a copy of Dave Ramsey’s THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER. We’ve begun putting the methods in the book, into practice. We plan to be mostly out of debt by the end of the year which will allow us to start truly making our own money.
I’m planning on making money off my art, comics and cartoons. To do this I need to get out of debt and start pursuing money making strategies that work. This includes, investing any surplus money, which I’ve only done a little bit.
So, not only am I educating myself on story and drawing. Not only am I researching the genre that my webcomic will fit in, but now, I’m learning business and money management. And for the first time ever, I find that prospect exciting.
ART
Man, compared to page 7, page 8 was a breeze to thumbnail:
I’ll be done in no time now. Hopefully, by the time I get back to work, I’ll be ready to start boarding.
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So I finished my work and within the hour I was getting booted right out the studio door. Well…not really, but it sure felt that way. I worked as hard and as fast as I could on the boards I needed to do. I started the clean up process late Thursday and it took me Friday, Monday and Tuesday to finish it all. Wednesday night and most of Thursday I spent creating a rough Quicktime Animatic of my board in order to find out how long the short would be.
I stayed late Wednesday working on the first rough pass of the animatic. I showed it to the director and he had the same problems I had with it. Namely, it was too fast in parts. It was difficult to tell what was going on. We went over, about a third of the shots and retimed them before we got too tired and decided to call it a night. I told him I’d come in nice and early Thursday to tighten up some timing before he got in. I usually come into work around 7am.
Imagine my shock, as I was ready to go bed that night, when I passed by my Jury Duty notice and realized I had to call in that night to see if I had jury duty the next day. Turns out I did. Everyone was counting on me being in Thursday and it turns out I had to go in for jury duty the next day. Panic time.
Well, at the court house the next day, I had to make all the phone calls to all the director and production staff, about my situation. They were less than happy about it.
Lucky for me, about an hour after I had done that, I was dismissed and on my way to work. Not a moment too soon, since one of the production coordinators had called me to ask about the location of my boards in my computer. They were releaved when I told them I was on my way.
I got to work at noon and worked on getting the animatic finished ASAP. The director and I managed to finish it on time and we showed it to the Head Director of the show, who really liked it. He gave us a suggestion or two and it was time to finish cleaning up the boards.
As I wrote above, I got done by Tuesday. No sooner had the head of production received a copy of my board, when she was having me turn in my last time card so I could go on my hiatus. It was pretty crazy. But it was necessary. They needed to process my as soon as they could so I could sign the right paper work. Otherwise I would have to come in the next day for no good reason.
I was originally suppose to have 4 weeks off, but because of how long this project went, I now only have 2 1/2 weeks. That’s not so bad.
ART
FINALLY! I’m done with page 7 of my script:
That was by far the toughest part to get through. The worst is over. It should be down hill from this point on. Yes, I have to thumbnail the climax of the story, but compared to having to rewrite an whole new fight scene as I went, it will be much easier to do. Especially since the final conflict is much more internal the external.
I’m so glad I was able to get through this. I was really ready to quit. It was just so much work and I was suppose to be doing this for fun. Now that it’s over, I can get back to having fun with the rest of the thumbnailing. It’s still work, but it’s much easier to handle.
This is a great tool veterans and newbies to get acquainted or reacquainted with some basic shot fundamentals. For those who are new at composing shots, it should open your eyes to things to watch out for as you watch movies. It helps you get an eye toward figuring out why some shots are used at certain times. I highly recommend watching it.
It’s also helpful to watch as a comics creator because much of the thinking behind what shots to use can be easily translated into comic book form. It will help clarify you visual storytelling. I’m tired of reading comics with that are very well drawn whose panels are confusing to read.
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So this epic storyboard I’m working on has turned out to be…well…epic. It’s a little over 40 scenes (shots) long but there’s a lot going on in it. I was thinking I’d be done by Friday but I had three meetings with the director and the head director over it and there’s always something that can be done to improve it. I don’t mind, this is the process. How it all works. I especially don’t mind since the changes are all done on the first “rough scribble pass” which makes things easier for me as an artist to change or throw out.
The project has no dialogue and we didn’t know exactly how long it would be, so I also had to time my roughs in order to get an idea for it’s length. It’s a fun project, I must admit. I only wish I didn’t feel so pressured to finish. That said, I WANT to be done by Friday. Hopefully, somehow, I might be able to clean up the whole thing in two days. Whether or not I will succeed is another story.
I might be going on hiatus later than I thought, because of this. Which isn’t horrible, but it will take away time from my commission work.
ART
Speaking of special projects, I’ve finally finished getting passed thumbnailing page 7 of my script. I just forced myself to sit down and really concentrate on getting through it. So far, I’ve thumbnailed out 327 scenes/shots. Far more than I anticipated:
I thought about it for hours before I got to the drawing it and by the time I sat down, I knew what I was going to do. It went by much faster this way. It also helped that I watched a movie with a fight scene that game ideas. I really should have been doing that much more before I sat down to draw the fights. I just didn’t have time to do that since I worked on this stuff during lunch. It would have taken all my time looking at fight in order to get inspired or get ideas. By the time I would be ready to draw, my lunchtime would have been over.
Perhaps, during hiatus or during the weekends I can be home and look at fight scenes I like to see if I can plug in some of what I see into the roughs I’ve already go. It would be much easier to do something like that, now that I have something down, than it was when I was starting from scratch.
In any case, I think the worst is behind me now. There’s still one more battle to thumbnail, but it’s not as physical as the ones I’ve just done. It will hopefully be less of a handful.
COMIC BOOKS/BLOGS
Digital/Web comics are becoming more and more exciting to me. I’ve been getting more and more into them lately. For a long time I hadn’t been very interested in these comics because the quality of the art and storytelling hadn’t really been up to snuff. I really wanted a similar experience reading them as I did reading printed comics. Well, it seems like that’s changed quite a bit the last couple of years. Comics online and “digital only” comics, are just as good now, and sometimes, better than the printed stuff. Part of the reason is that many professional comic creators have started doing Digital work.
The latest of the these is Mark Waid, who wrote KINGDOM COME and SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT among many other things. He decided he was going to start putting out Webcomics. He’s also turned his blog into a “process blog”. Kinda similar to what I do here in my ART sections.
His Digital comics site will go up on May 1st and it’s called THRILLBENT. I’ll let you know what I think about it when it goes live. But right now, I want to call attention to his blogMarkwaid.com. Mostly because I like how he’s approaching doing the comics. Though his a professional comic writer, he’s quite frank about how little he knows about writing for digital comics.
Digital comics and comics on the web are a very different monsters than printed comics. What works in print doesn’t necessarily work in the digital medium. So he’s writing about what he learns as he goes. He also writes about the approaches he takes and the experiments he makes. I like to read this stuff because it puts us all in the same boat. Also, he likes some of the approaches to digital comics that I also like. This makes it seem to me, as I read his blog, that we’re on the same page.
Since I’m also going to put a web comic up, when I’m done with my current project, building on what Mark Waid discovers that works or doesn’t work seems like a good idea to me. I’ve been reading his blog with great interest and I’m very curious to see how things pan out for him.
Check it out, if you’re interested in this digital medium. For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
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On Monday I was told that I would be going on hiatus at the end of the week. Not good news since we haven’t gotten our tax refund yet and I had to pay property tax earlier this month. We’re not doing well financially. Lucky for me, something came up on the episode I’m currently revising that postponed my hiatus.
The episode I’m revising is short, so the writers have added an extra sequence at the end of the show that’s a bit epic. This sequence may or may not be made BUT in order to find out if it will, I have to storyboard it. This has bought me, at least one more week of work.
In the meantime, I get to think up what I will do during my hiatus to perhaps make a little bit more money. I might open myself up for commissions. I’m not too sure if anyone would be interested though. Especially since I will not except any commissions asking me to draw them SIMPSONS drawings. I would get in trouble if I did that.
If I made myself open to accept commissions, would you be interested in getting a drawing from me?
FAMILY
Ambrose’s birthday was Sunday. He became a 2 year old We were planning on doing something small and intimate. Mostly because it would be too much work to do more and because he’s so young, ANYTHING we did for him at this point would seem very exciting for him.
We had made plans to go to our favorite park and have a picnic, just the six of us. Then we’d come back home and invite the cousins over for cake.
Things didn’t quite turn out the way we thought. So many people asked about Ambrose’s birthday and what we were going to do that it turned out a bit bigger than we thought. We had to cancel going to the park because we didn’t want anyone to come and meet us there. We weren’t prepared for a PARTY at the park. We didn’t want to bring all the food and drinks everything that would be involved to throw a party at a park. So instead we got the house ready for the people to simply come over at the last minute.
Well, Ambrose had a blast. He had so much fun with his cousins. He got a few airplane toys and a cool Batmobile toy. He was happy. Like I said, ANYTHING that was new and out of the ordinary that we did for him would be a big deal in his eyes. It was great, and in the end, Alesha and I were very happy how it all turned out.
ROLE PLAYING GAMES/FAMILY
Last week a wrote about playing a role playing game with my kids using RISUS, making it out to be more of a LARP than simply a tabletop game experience. Well, I tested out the game with them this Saturday with great successes. The kids LOVED it. I had Elizabeth and Dante go on an adventure to get back some childrens’ stolen candy from a wicked witch who lived in a scary cave. They had a blast running around and play acting out their adventure. So much fun in fact they wanted to play again immediately after it was done.
The next day we tried it out again. This time, we took it outside to the playground so we had a wider environment to play in. Unfortunately, Dante didn’t want to play once we got to the playground. He just wanted to play at the playground. Elizabeth was very disappointed. I ended up running an adventure for her alone, but without her brother to play off of, she didn’t find it as enjoyable. I’ll try again some other time in a different place and see if we can get the “magic” back from the first game.
ART
I must admit, it’s getting more and more difficult to finish working on my project. I’m so burned out on it right now. I really want to move on to my next project, which is a webcomic. But I’m committed to seeing this through, because I think the finished product will look good. I just don’t know how to finish this any faster than I’m currently doing. It’s a LOT of work coming up with shots. I mean, that’s why it’s a paying job.
This is what I’ve done in the last two weeks:
It doesn’t help that I’m writing this section as I draw it.
I gotta get this darn thing done. I’m so close to getting to the final stages. For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
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Show 22 is the last show of this season and it has a MAJOR rewrite. This is both good and bad. It’s bad because it leaves me with a lot of work to do. It’s good because I’ve been given as much time as I need to do it. Since I might go on hiatus once I’m done, I’m not really too much in a rush. I’m also the only revisionist on the show because my partner went on hiatus. So it’s up to me to rework the show myself.
Fortunately, some of the work has already been done by the Director and the Assistant Director, for Acts 1 and 2. I just need to complete what they didn’t get to.
I’m still doing my job and trying to be as efficient as possible, I just don’t have the crazy deadline I usually have. I hope, once I’m done, I might get to help out doing layout on a show. Otherwise, it will be hiatus time for me.
ROLE PLAYING GAMES/FAMILY
I hope you had a happy Easter. I did and my kids most definitely did. One of the reasons they had so much fun was because they got to play with their cousins at the family Easter party.
Among the many things they did and played was a game that, I think they invented there at the party. It was a story game. It went something like this: the eldest was the “Director” or “Storyteller”, and she told the story. In this case, it was many stories, mostly classic fairytales, like Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Jack and the Beanstalk, etc, or Fables like, The Three Little Pigs. So the “Director/Storyteller” would tell the story and the little kids, would “perform” the story and everyone would have a role to play. Or in the case of Jack and the Beanstalk, all the little kids where Jack.
Well, I was only half paying attention to what they were doing because I was having a conversation at the time, but I thought it was very creative of them all. The problem is that they went through so many stories, they soon ran out of them and the game stopped.
It wasn’t until the next day, when I started thinking about what they had done, that I suddenly realized my kids where practically Live Action Role-Playing (commonly known as LARP). Then I thought, why can’t I do exactly the same thing they were doing at the party, BUT instead of them playing out a fairytale, they played out a role playing game adventure. That way, they had choices to make and we could roll dice to see what happened during certain parts of the story.
So then I started thinking about what system to use. At first I thought I’d use SAVAGE WORLDS because I really enjoy the system and it’s fairly simple. I even thought I’d make a Character sheet with icons instead of just the name of all the stats, so the sheets would be more kid friendly. I went so far as to start roughing out these icons until I realized that there was a much easier and more kid friendly system I could use: RISUS: The Anything Rpg. It’s free, simple and kid friendly. I wrote about it on this blog a few years back.
Having decided that I was going to run a game for the kids, I had to come up with what type of game to run. Fantasy seemed like the obvious choice, since I could make their adventure very much like a fairytale.
Then it was just a matter of making characters for them. RISUS is a very simple system and it didn’t really take me too long. What took the longest was that I wanted to make their character sheets visual. For each of their stats, I wanted to have a little picture representing it. Also, it would help the kids visualize what they were suppose to be pretending to be. So this is what I came up with:
The first stat was just for the basic character cliche they were suppose to be playing as. The other stats I came up with, where meant to represent some attribute that my kids actually possess that might come in handy in the game. For example, the “Fast” Stat for my son Dante is there because I didn’t want to put “Afraid”. I thought “Fast” would be better, since I think he’ll be doing a lot of running away. I don’t think my youngest son, Ambrose (he’ll be 2 years old this Sunday) is actually going to understand what’s going on or is even going to play. BUT if he does, he’ll just copy what his big sister and brother are doing, so I’ll involve him, if he joins in with his “Copier” stat. He’s also a cute kid so his cuteness might save the day. Who knows…
I’m not exactly sure if they’ll want to do it, or if they’ll like it, but I’ll give this a try and see how it goes.
I’m thinking, perhaps, their first adventure might involve a wicked witch, and candy.
BOARDGAMES
And now here’s something just as nerdy, if not nerdier:
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I’ve been working on the “special project” most of the week. It was killing me. I was handed some of THE most complicated scenes in the project. They were technical nightmares. To make matters worse, I had to make Quicktime movies of the scenes to show to the director, but the scenes where so complicated that I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have the program to put all the pieces of the scene together to be able to make movies out of them. On top of that, BECAUSE I couldn’t put all the elements together to test out my scenes, I didn’t even know if the pieces of the scenes where working together as intended. So even after I turned the scenes in, I wasn’t sure how good a job I did. It was nerve racking.
I was stressed and worried most of the week, including the weekend. I haven’t worked so hard on the show since I boarded show 500. I’m a bit wiped out, and a bit brain dead.
BOARD GAMES/FAMILY
My kids like playing board games. I don’t know why…OKAY maybe I do. Anyway, they often ask to play a board game. Sometimes they ask me to play, and I do, but most of the time I don’t. If I don’t, it’s because I’ve got some other thing I need to do at the time they ask.
I enjoy spending time with my kids playing a board game, but I’ve found that I don’t have FUN playing board games with my kids. I enjoy being with them but the playing is often unsatisfying. The reason for this, is because I usually can’t be very competitive playing board games with my kids. I can’t “do my best” in the games we play. I can’t “play to win”. I can only, “play for the sake of playing”. I always have to hold back and help the kids learn and generally, try to help them have fun. This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s really not the reason I like playing board games. I like the challenge, the thinking, the back and forth between everyone at the table. None of which I get when playing with my kids. I mean, they’re little kids, what do you expect?
Well, this weekend Elizabeth (5 years old) and Dante (4 years old) asked me to play a board game with them. Since I had the time, I did. We played Sorry! Sliders.
Here’s the official description of the game:
Slide, COLLIDE and SCORE TO WIN!
Grab your roller pawn and take aim – then skillfully slide it down your track onto the target board! A good slide could score big points, but watch out! An opponent’s pawn may slam your pawn onto a Sorry! space – and out of the game!
This is a new twist on the Sorry! franchise with 4 different ways to play:
Race For Home
Instant Home
Instant Sorry!
Danger Dots
I’ve played this game with them before. The first two times I played the game with them, I read the rules and tried to get the kids to play the game by them. It didn’t work out. The kids where too young. Almost two years younger than they are now. Ever since then, when I play this game with them, we just ignore the rules and slide the pawns around the board for no good reason other than to do it. It’s simply an activity.
Well, THIS time, if the kids wanted to play the game, I wanted to actually play the game by the rules. SO I told them I would read the rules and we would follow them. I read them, and explained the rules to the kids. They understood what I was telling them and we began to play. WE HAD A BLAST. The kids followed the rules and it was great. Not only that but I didn’t hold back (much). I was truly trying to win the game. The game is of such a chaotic nature though, that it could be anyone’s game.
The final tally after playing three games was:
Elizabeth won 2 games
Dante won 1 game
I won, no games.
I lost every game. That was awesome. I lost and I was trying to win. I had so much fun. The kids had so much fun. It was great. We cheered and laughed and just had a good time. And the kids understood the rules and played by them. That was great. I hope this is a taste of things to come. I hope we can find another game in the collection that we can do the same with.
VIDEOS
Wanna watch 100 episodes of THE SIMPSONS all at once?
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Well, it seems that the “special project” I worked on a few weeks back has gotten the green light, so it’s moving forward. I’m currently doing Character Layout work on it. I’m not sure how this is going to effect my revision work next week. I haven’t done Layout in a while and it’s a LOT of work in a very different way than doing boards. I hope I can get my work done by the end of the week, just in case.
In the meantime, at least it seems this thing I’m working on will get seen at some point.
Go to the article to download the pdf of the tips as well as a more organized written version of the info in the video. Also, leave a comment for them if you found his information useful.
MOVIES
My wife Alesha and I got to do something we don’t often get to do now a days, namely, go to the movies. Alesha REALLY wanted to go see THE HUNGER GAMES, which we both enjoyed quite a bit. I wasn’t as gung ho as she was but I went along because she was really excited about it. Neither one of us had read the books but we both thought the premise was interesting. This isn’t to say that the premise was original, especially since there was a Japanese movies, years ago, called BATTLE ROYALE, with a similar premise. But THE HUNGER GAMES was a lot less twisted.
In my mind, what really set THE HUNGER GAMES apart from BATTLE ROYALE was that it wasn’t ABOUT the actual games. It almost felt as if the games themselves where secondary to the set up. This isn’t to say that the games weren’t interesting. It’s just that without taking all the time the movie did in setting up the characters and the universe before showing the games, I don’t think it would have been as good of a movie. In fact, it’s the lack of set up that makes BATTLE ROYALE much less interesting. Also, BATTLE ROYALE was much more gruesome, while HUNGER GAMES, which also dealt with a similar subject matter, didn’t relish in any gore.
I found myself thinking of stories like 1984 and BRAVE NEW WORLD while watching THE HUNGER GAMES. When watching BATTLE ROYALE, I wondered why I was watching it at all. Because of this, I concluded THE HUNGER GAMES was BATTLE ROYALE done right.
I will note one observation that came to me as I watched HUNGER GAMES. Much has been said about the commentary this story makes on society when it comes to materialism, media, and the devaluing of human life. I mean, part of the story is about how a desensitized culture gets together to watch young people kill each other for entertainment. This works very well in book form, since it’s written words on a page, without the reader partaking in the entertainment in the same way the people in the story are. The thing is, I couldn’t help but notice the irony of sitting in a movie theater and paying to see exactly the same entertainment that the these “bad people” where tuning in to watch. As movie goers, we participate in and condone the entertainment put forth by the story as wrong and bad, when we’re entertained by the games ourselves. Because of this, I think the movie adds a extra element of reflection, that the story in book format didn’t.
What do you think? Am I off on this point?
ART
Don’t know what to say here except that I’m slowly narrowing the gap and getting closer to finishing page 7 on my script. I think next week I’ll be “off script”. What I’ll have to board will be something new that I have no script or treatment to work off of. It will be completely off the cuff.
I’m actually excited about it. For now though, here are my latest thumbnails.
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Week two of three revising episode 21’s Act 1 board. I’m so glad I have another week left to finish this board up. The revisions are pretty heavy. I’ve got everything roughed out, it’s just a matter of cleaning everything up for the layout crew to follow.
Meanwhile, in other news, that special project I was working on last week and the week before has gotten approval by some people high up. It’s one step closer to actually being produced. There’s one more step left to get through so it could get green lit. It would be nice if it happens.
ART/WRITING
After a two week break, I finally got back to working on my film. Here’s what I did:
It was good to get back to it again, but I’m SO tired of working on it. I just want this part of the process to be DONE. I took a look at what I still had to thumbnail, and it was a TON. I had two really big fight scenes to do. Too much, far too much. I’ve been questioning myself from the start if all the fighting is really getting me anything. I’m still not sure but I’m sure as heck cutting some it as of right now.
I took a look at what I had written in my Treatment and simply cut two of the fight scenes right out of the film. They will be replaced by one much smaller fight which will, hopefully, have the same key information in it in much less time.
The info I need to convey will be that the demons that give the Sorcerers their power manifests visually when they tax their power, and that Rob’s hammer, knocks the demon out of Sorcerers. That’s what I need to say. As long as that info is there, the rest of the fight can be intense but short.
IF after I’m done with a rough cut of the film, I discover that it needs a longer fight, I’ll see about incorporating some of the original ideas. Otherwise, I will be happy with doing far less work.
Below is the part of my treatment that is now getting cut, in case you were wondering what it would have been like:
Rob is on his knee exhausted. The Female Sorcerer, though exhausted and bruised, sees this as an opportunity. She takes out her last blade. Sprinkles blood on it and throws it. Rob looks up just as she does it. He moves his hammer in the way to block it. The Sorceress splits her hands apart away from each other and the blade splits into two blades. They go around the hammer and stab Rob sinking into his shoulders. As if they were syringes, the blades suck Rob’s blood glowing red. The Sorceress feels the blades grow powerful with the blood and receives new strength from them. The demon that gives her power, manifest around her visibly.
Rob goes to take out the blades but they pull themselves out. The blades attack again and split into four blades when they do. Rob manages to block some but some get through and stab him taking blood. Those that do, multiply as well. Rob runs toward the Sorceress while hitting blades away. He knows, once she’s knocked out, the blades will stop. As he approaches, she throws Blinding Dust from a small cylinder. The dust hits home and blinds Rob. The blades (which are many now) fly up in the air with a gesture from the sorceress and then, with another gestured, rain down on Rob.
Rob reacts as best he could and spins his hammer as fast as he can. The blades bounce of like an umbrella.
As He does this, the Sorceress uses his temporary distraction to try and stab him in the back.
The Raven sees this and squawks out a warning. Rob quickly turns and strikes at the Sorceress. The hammer hits her square on the chest. The manifestation of the demon inside her gets knocked out of her as if IT, not the Sorceress was hit by the blow. It leaves the Sorceress’ body as the Sorceress cries in pain and passes out. The demon seems to evaporate in a silent scream.
A cry from the Other Male Sorcerer, makes Rob turn.The Other Male Sorcerer had just managed to recover, only to see the Sorceress go down.As far as he’s concerned, Rob has gone too far. He knows what Rob has just done to the woman he loves and he will pay and suffer for it. Exhausted as he is, he takes out a vile, opens it, puts some blood in it with an incantation and throws it on the ground. He then pours power out and a mist begins to raise around Rob and himself. The demon that gives him his power physically manifest around him. His fingers grow into talons.
Rob readies himself. He can’t see where his enemy is going to attack from. Suddenly claws flash out of the mist. Rob dodges and blocks the attack. The claws hit a bush behind Rob. It instantly dries up and rots away. The attacks stop. Rob realizes that if the claws hit him, he’s going to die.Seconds later, the attack begins anew, only this time, it seems like the claws are coming from more directions. It’s all Rob can do to stop the attack. Just as suddenly as it began, the attack stops. Rob doesn’t feel so good.The Sorcerer’s voice comes from the mist and needles Rob if he’s feeling okay. Then he informs Rob the mist is rotting his senses and his mind.Looking into the mist, Rob sees the enormous silhouette of the Sorcerer. As if the mist is giving him power. It slips into the mist and he gets attacked by a barrage of claws. It’s all Rob can do not to get touched by them. He manages to just barely survive the attack when it suddenly stops. He can barely stand. He staggers back, hoping to hit a wall. He does. At least with a wall behind him, he knows there won’t be any attacks from behind.The Sorcerer laughs at him and tells him mocking that it won’t help him. He imparts to Rob that not even his Raven can help him out of this.
Rob’s vision is blurring and he’s having trouble thinking. Still, he begins to spin the hammer before him, faster and faster until the mist begins to rustle and move away.
Realizing what’s going on, the Sorcerer decides he needs to finish things off. The Claws come out in all directions at Rob. Rob won’t last without help. He hopes he managed to clear enough mist for his Raven to be able to see him. The Raven flying overhead had been scanning desperately for Rob. He sees the gap he caused and sees the Sorcerer attacking. He swoops down into the mist and attacks The Sorcerer.
Distracted by the bird, the claws stop for a moment. Rob recovers just long enough to hear his bird squawking. He runs in the direction of the sound. The sorcerer realizes he’s coming and attacks but it’s too late. Rob swing the hammer and hits the Sorcerer in the face. The manifestation of the demon that gave the Sorcerer his power reacts as if IT was hit in the face. The demon flies out of the Sorcerer. The Sorcerer screams in pain. The demon evaporates in a silent scream as the Sorcerer falls to the ground. The mist dissipates and goes away. His body suddenly seems to deflate like a balloon and becomes scrawny and weak. The hair covering his face had been knocked out of the way revealing a shriveled ugly face. The other Male Sorcerer sits up, looks at himself, looks at his hands and cries out that he has lost his powers and then begins to sob.
Do you see what I mean about this being a lot of fighting?
VIDEOS/WRITING
Speaking of story and writing, here’s a TED Talks with Pixar writer/director Andrew Staton who also directed the new movie JOHN CARTER, talking about writing by telling us the story of his career in reverse:
For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
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