THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I received the news this week that my hiatus is coming up.  In two weeks I’m going to be out of a job for two weeks, then I’ll come back to work for two more weeks, and I’ll be off on hiatus again for two more weeks after that. Once those two weeks are up, I’ll start back on the show for the new season.  What this all means is, that I’ll only be working for two weeks for the next two months.  I hope my finances can take the hit. Too weak.

In other Simpsons news, I had a meeting this week with the producer who’s getting to run the episode I’m working on right now.  It’s not Al Jean.  It’s someone else.  The person is supervising two episodes this season.

He came down to the studio in order to have a meeting with the director because he really wants to make sure all the notes and things are clear and are working.  He also wanted to be able to hear any suggestions we have to improve or adjust things in order to make things clearer and better.

That just rocks.

It’s probably the reason why this episode is so well put together in the first place. I think it’s one of the best shows of the season and it work real well.

The meeting was a blast. I hope I get to work with him again. I hope I can weasel myself into the next meeting, the way I did with this one. It was cool.

GHETTOMATION/CATHOLICISM

This “Illustrated Film” is obviously just comic panels put to music.  And it works GREAT! Nothing fancy, just the panels. Very cool. And the subject matter is perfect for Lent. The comic book artist who originally drew the comic is an illustrator by the name of Simon Smith.

Take a look:

WRITING

This turned out longer than I thought.  I didn’t expect that.

So I think I know what the hammer is now.  I think I know whether it can be trusted or not. I’m not sure whether I should say just yet.  I’m considering redesigning it. I’ll draw a few sketches of it and decide whether I like it or if it’s even necessary to have a redesign.  My deciding what the hammer is DID inform the final version of the scene though.

On a different note, at the end of  the last scene, Rob was left in a situation where he was perfectly justified to seek revenge.  The thing is, he’s the “good guy”, and to me, this means  his very actions need to be examples of goodness. Especially since the very case Rob is trying to make against the Sorcerers is that, what he does, is who he is, and while it’s not always perfect, is not bad or evil.  Rob CAN’T take revenge, because that would be taking the “low road”.  The “easy road”, and Rob is suppose to be virtuous enough to take the “road less traveled”. His actions also have to be in contrast to what the Sorcerers would do.  So once Rob is on even footing with the Sorcerers, would he just start kick the tar out them them? No. So how can I get Rob to fight these guys?

Only if he gets attacked first. Then all he’s doing is defending himself.  So if you notice, during the following scenes, Rob will not initiate a fight. He will only respond to it.  That way, his actions have just cause. Even if deep down, he was hoping they would attack him, if only to give him an excuse to fight back. He’s still human after all.

Scene 7 (Desire/Ability)

• • Rob becomes angry and his Raven flies from the bushes with Rob’s little weapon in it’s talons.  He drops it on Rob’s hand were it magically grows large and he begins to fight off the monsters and Sorcerers in an almost out of control berzerker rage.

Outdoor Shopping Area – Day continued

There’s only so much a guy can take before he says enough is enough.  Rob has hit this point.  Weapon or no weapon, he needs to take some action, if only for his sanity’s sake. He decides then and there, that he’s not going down without a fight. Rob sits up and begins to vent out loud.  He points out that it wasn’t like he was asking for anything unreasonable. He wasn’t even being mean or rude, in spite of that fact that they were being rude to HIM.  He even kept his side of the deal they’d made, which THEY broke.

During this time all the Sorcerers stop and listen to Rob. The creatures don’t move, seeing their masters are still. The Lead Sorcerer is annoyed at Rob for  pointing out what he knows all too well.

The White Raven comes to his senses and finds himself in the bushes. He turns and sees Rob’s weapon, right next to him.

Rob continues, his face looking down at the ground. His eyes forward.

He recounts how long it took him to scrounge up enough money to buy the hot dog.  That running from Sorcerers like them had made it difficult to hold down a job long enough sometimes to even collect his paychecks. How he hadn’t eaten for almost a day and a half and he’d specifically made a point to earn enough to eat THAT hot dog from THAT hot dog stand.

The anger inside Rob begins to swell.  He continues with how he had ONLY asked for ten minutes. How the only thing he had asked for was that small moment to finish his lunch. Yet they didn’t give it to him.  And yet, after all that, they have the gall to call HIM evil. To say HE is wrong. He tells the Sorcerers that he’s almost gotten used to being hated by them. That he can take being misrepresented by them. He can even tolerate being constantly attacked by them on occasion. BUT, he draws the line when someone steps on his lunch.

At that point, Rob’s weapon falls from the sky and into his hand.  Rob hadn’t expected this to happen but he hears the sound of his Raven above him and knows where it came from.  The power in the weapon begins to surge through him.

The Sorcerers are surprised to see the weapon fall into Rob’s hand and look up to see the Raven above.

Rob begins to glow white.  He slowly rises to his feet. The tiny little hammer in his hand begins to grow on it’s own.  It grows enormous. The hammer head alone, becoming larger than any warhammer they had ever seen.  It too glows with it’s own power.

Rob grabs hold of the remaining rags of shirt still on his body and tears them off himself, revealing a bloody and bruise torso. He raises his eyes to the Sorcerers for the first time. They are glowing white, and seem as bright as two suns.

The Sorcerers are taken aback. They hadn’t expected this and they all become uneasy.

Once more Rob speaks. And once more, he gives the Sorcerers one last chance to walk away and leave him alone.  Even now, after all this, Rob is STILL willing to let the Sorcerers go as if nothing had happened.

The Lead Sorcerer seeing his companions are shaken,  claps and commends Rob for the show, but he tells him they don’t scare off that easily. The Lead Sorcerer, who is the only one of them who sensed the power in the weapon, knows it’s a weapon not to trifled with. Yet, he also has eyes, and sees Rob’s condition. He doubts he has the power to fight and is therefore bluffing. Otherwise he wouldn’t have given the Sorcerers “a chance to walk away”. He tells Rob they aren’t afraid of him. The other Sorcerers are reassured by their boss’s words. They all look ready to strike.  The Lead Sorcerer turns to them and they all exchange looks.  They nod to each other knowing the next move as if they had been told verbally.

The Lead Sorcerers yells out a command and all the creatures attack Rob at once. He commands the other Sorcerers to not throw ice, or fireballs, to avoid hitting the monsters, but he tells them they need to make sure Rob doesn’t escape from them.

The two Winged Apes reach Rob moments after each other. Rob saw them coming and began swinging his hammer at the one that was going to land first. Before the Ape knows what hit him, the hammer comes crashing into it’s chest. An explosion of white light comes out of said contact  and the Ape shatters into the magick particles it had been constructed out of.  Within the same motion, not missing a beat, Rob removes the bottom half of the hammer’s hilt, revealing a long curved dagger and swings his arms over his head and down to his opposite side from where the hammer is.  The dagger finds the second Winged Ape, just as it land by Rob, seconds after the other.  It get cut from head  to chest, revealing magickal light from it’s wound.  Surprise on it’s face, it explodes into magick particles.

The Sorcerers are a tad shocked.

Rob returned the dagger back to it’s place in the hilt of the hammer and turns to face the approaching  Viper Creature. The two pause as they stare at each other for a beat. Then Rob makes the first move and runs at it. The Viper Creature strikes. Rob jumps out of the way, just as the Viper Creatures fangs are about to strike.  Rob then brings the hammer down hard. It catches the creature right on it’s head.  The force of the hammer takes the creature’s head straight to the ground smashing it between the hammer and the floor.  The floor cracks with force. The Viper Creature’s body recoils, knocking down trees and benches. Then the creature disappears, returning the magick particles it was created from.

Stunned, the Sorcerers can do nothing but stare in disbelief.

END OF SCENE

I thought about making the fight longer. I thought I might have Rob take more time dispatching the creatures, but then I thought we’d seen enough fighting.  I kinda wanted to get to the point.  The story needed to move on.

Whether I will need to make that fight longer later will be up to what the final version looks like.

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