Things have been hectic.
Major things have happened. Less with Project A, which will undergo a name change and a pilot script penned by the compatriot at some point but otherwise has cooled down in development progress. I've been trying to get some things tidied and work on the next phase at the same time, but that hasn't been a tremendous amount of work.
Project G is in a weird phase. I've been tweaking it more and more, and even attempted to reorganize my storylines once again. Even with all the stuff coming together, the ideas I have for my opening issues still feel oddly thin and unexciting. It may take much more work to get this thing to work smooth, and then there's more work after that to get it readable.
Project N has spent most of the year being worked on to much satisfaction. More recently, I decided to do something drastic, though: change format. I realized that Project N, in its original ideal medium, was way too ambitious, and in order to make sure it gets made at all (and I would like it to actually see the light of day), I decided I should also make it into a comic like the other main projects. Now, this poses its own sets of problems (some things in my original idea could not be transfered to sequential art), but it also gives me a tad bit more freedom. As well, I can use it as a sort of "pre-made storyboard" to use if I ever get the chance to pitch it in its original form, if that ever happens. I generally dislike that kind of pandering, but dammit, I want to see it released both at all and hopefully in my original conception as well.
I've also found a minor idea I had some time ago being developed into something enjoyable, which is good. It may even get its own code name, some day! Keep reaching for the stars.
Showing posts with label Project A. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Project A. Show all posts
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
ANSWER ME
Apparently, my collaborator wants to write a treatment for Project A very soon. Not a whole lot of work has been done on it lately, with some tidying and little detail work like that. It seems the hardest thing right now is thinking of a new title that is pleasing to us and the imaginary audience. I try and try and try...
I started redoing the story timeline/draft for Project G, as well. It's helped me make a few new angles, and I've come up with a few new exciting plots in order to justify each stuff (especially the introduction of a few supporting characters). It also makes things seem a bit cleaner, as of now.
My current problem with that latter is making sure the central character stays central and is sympathetic, as right now it seems to drifting between Mary-Suedom and borderline psychopath.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
The reason I don't make comics
Looks like it's back to ye olde drawing board for the storylines I was doodling up for Project A. Well, I still have some more concepts a-cookin' up, so maybe some of those will stay.
It seems unfair that after all this week I've been doing working on this one Project for weeks now (practically abandoning the other two!), I need to do it again. It's actually perfectly fair and apart of the creative process, but still fuck the creative process it's a big meanie.
Here's the reason why I don't make comics for real:
It seems unfair that after all this week I've been doing working on this one Project for weeks now (practically abandoning the other two!), I need to do it again. It's actually perfectly fair and apart of the creative process, but still fuck the creative process it's a big meanie.
Here's the reason why I don't make comics for real:
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Oh, You
My collaborator and I were working on a story/issue outline for Project A, and it went pretty well. We know how we want the thing to move, and while some stories are still a tad vague and/or left open for ideas that may come later. We may need to get some clashing ideas between the two of us hammered out at another time.
One thing we improved from before is reason: the events happen in the order they do and at all because of some kind of logic, where before it would just...happen, without much reasoning. It also gives the story a vague 'chase' feel that infuses some much needed excitement and maybe even suspense into the whole affair. My colleague made some changes to some characters, too, and I was more or less in agreement to those changes. Some of them even provide some good visual possibilities! Goody.
Now, refining. As well as trying to get characterization into there somehow. I have some ideas for the protagonists, but the antagonists and side characters are a bit harder. I mean, I want to make them interesting, too, but it's hard to get real personality into the ones who are destined for the morgue in a short time. That's what getting better at writing is all about, I guess: figuring out how to make things that are seemingly difficult work nonetheless.
One thing we improved from before is reason: the events happen in the order they do and at all because of some kind of logic, where before it would just...happen, without much reasoning. It also gives the story a vague 'chase' feel that infuses some much needed excitement and maybe even suspense into the whole affair. My colleague made some changes to some characters, too, and I was more or less in agreement to those changes. Some of them even provide some good visual possibilities! Goody.
Now, refining. As well as trying to get characterization into there somehow. I have some ideas for the protagonists, but the antagonists and side characters are a bit harder. I mean, I want to make them interesting, too, but it's hard to get real personality into the ones who are destined for the morgue in a short time. That's what getting better at writing is all about, I guess: figuring out how to make things that are seemingly difficult work nonetheless.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Bending Expectations
Went through a small idea surge for Project N. But not the normal Project N, the followup.
Here's how it goes: it was around the time Futurama was announced to be returning, and for one reason or another, I thought "You know what would be neat? If they brought back the show, only with a completely new cast of characters. It would totally fuck with the audience!" Of course, no one working in Hollywood is as brilliant as me, so I don't suppose this idea where ever be used in any mainstream product. However, I figured that I definitely could use it for my stuff.
At first, the idea was just there, attached to Project N like a leech. It would retain the same writing style, and setting (location-wise); but, it would take place in that ever-giving chestnut, the FUTURE. That way, I can justify the new cast and a ton of new insanity. However, that's about where the development stopped. I just couldn't get a good idea of how the characters and situation would work. It would basically be a way to continue it after the events of the first part of Project N was completed (and the ending for it is pretty final, at least thematically).
Recently, I figured it out. Project N-2 could be a thematic expansion of the first part, and that led to further development. I also read a lot about 2000 AD (but haven't actually read it. May have to change that), and that inspired me to create a certain kind of crazy future. With these two combined, I was able to start making something that I felt was less ambiguous in its purpose and more satisfying.
If you wish to know (why would you?), the theme I am trying to use is that of intelligence, and how one uses it. The general atmosphere of the first one was that everyone was stupid but the main characters - and when you're a cynical nerd like I was/am, that's what the world seems like. Most of the recurring secondary characters represented different ways intelligence can be handled - bitterness about the world around you, trying desperately to make a difference despite social problems, or manipulating the masses for your own ends. I really like this concept, and I hope I can flesh it out and make it work, and not come off as some pompous preacher or Has-no-Subtlety man.
So, Project N-2 will go a step further; instead of the main characters feeling they're the only thinkers among a crowd of dopes, the main characters of really are the only intelligent ones left. Ah, the future opens so many doors.
Basically: sometime in the future, most of the world has had part of their mental functionality disabled, but not to the level of COMPLETE retardation, just to a cartoony kind a airheadedness that I'll have to hammer out. In the particular setting, there is pretty much one intelligent family left, and that's where the main character comes from.
At the same time, there is a subplot about AI, and a sort of reversal of the usual depictions of intelligent machines in the future. Basically, computers with human-level AI were created to take over the jobs that the now partially incapacitated humans can't do, like occupations in politics and education. However, all the computers are made to never turn against humans, and they are given a bit more reason to do so than Asimov's code (which includes an idea I like quite a bit - a genetically-altered group of thugs who police the computers, mostly by smashing them into bits). So, instead of machines repressing humans, the machines themselves are being repressed. Someone must have done this before, and much better.
The plots generally evolve from there, but also revolve around what happened to the rest of the world in THE FUTURE (which I figure right now will be about 80-100 years from now). Where is the weirdness I included in the Project N-1 seems more random (but I'll still try to develop some kind of internal logic for it all), the weirdness of Project N-2 will develop more around the condition of the world. Of course, that doesn't mean it will still totally make sense (the one idea I have right now is a cult of wet suit-wearing humans, based on Lovecraft's Deep Ones and living in the flooded US south).
Wow, I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever gone into the ideas and stories in-depth. Did I say I wasn't going to do this? I am boring you?
Here's how it goes: it was around the time Futurama was announced to be returning, and for one reason or another, I thought "You know what would be neat? If they brought back the show, only with a completely new cast of characters. It would totally fuck with the audience!" Of course, no one working in Hollywood is as brilliant as me, so I don't suppose this idea where ever be used in any mainstream product. However, I figured that I definitely could use it for my stuff.
At first, the idea was just there, attached to Project N like a leech. It would retain the same writing style, and setting (location-wise); but, it would take place in that ever-giving chestnut, the FUTURE. That way, I can justify the new cast and a ton of new insanity. However, that's about where the development stopped. I just couldn't get a good idea of how the characters and situation would work. It would basically be a way to continue it after the events of the first part of Project N was completed (and the ending for it is pretty final, at least thematically).
Recently, I figured it out. Project N-2 could be a thematic expansion of the first part, and that led to further development. I also read a lot about 2000 AD (but haven't actually read it. May have to change that), and that inspired me to create a certain kind of crazy future. With these two combined, I was able to start making something that I felt was less ambiguous in its purpose and more satisfying.
If you wish to know (why would you?), the theme I am trying to use is that of intelligence, and how one uses it. The general atmosphere of the first one was that everyone was stupid but the main characters - and when you're a cynical nerd like I was/am, that's what the world seems like. Most of the recurring secondary characters represented different ways intelligence can be handled - bitterness about the world around you, trying desperately to make a difference despite social problems, or manipulating the masses for your own ends. I really like this concept, and I hope I can flesh it out and make it work, and not come off as some pompous preacher or Has-no-Subtlety man.
So, Project N-2 will go a step further; instead of the main characters feeling they're the only thinkers among a crowd of dopes, the main characters of really are the only intelligent ones left. Ah, the future opens so many doors.
Basically: sometime in the future, most of the world has had part of their mental functionality disabled, but not to the level of COMPLETE retardation, just to a cartoony kind a airheadedness that I'll have to hammer out. In the particular setting, there is pretty much one intelligent family left, and that's where the main character comes from.
At the same time, there is a subplot about AI, and a sort of reversal of the usual depictions of intelligent machines in the future. Basically, computers with human-level AI were created to take over the jobs that the now partially incapacitated humans can't do, like occupations in politics and education. However, all the computers are made to never turn against humans, and they are given a bit more reason to do so than Asimov's code (which includes an idea I like quite a bit - a genetically-altered group of thugs who police the computers, mostly by smashing them into bits). So, instead of machines repressing humans, the machines themselves are being repressed. Someone must have done this before, and much better.
The plots generally evolve from there, but also revolve around what happened to the rest of the world in THE FUTURE (which I figure right now will be about 80-100 years from now). Where is the weirdness I included in the Project N-1 seems more random (but I'll still try to develop some kind of internal logic for it all), the weirdness of Project N-2 will develop more around the condition of the world. Of course, that doesn't mean it will still totally make sense (the one idea I have right now is a cult of wet suit-wearing humans, based on Lovecraft's Deep Ones and living in the flooded US south).
Wow, I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever gone into the ideas and stories in-depth. Did I say I wasn't going to do this? I am boring you?
Friday, March 28, 2008
Life in the Projects
Yes, not everything I waste time with is stupid and just short-term nonsense. Some things I've been working on for a while, and do actually want to see through to the end. Now is about time I write an introduction to these serious projects of total seriousness.
Project A
This is a collaborative project with a friend of mine (who will know what it is upon reading the project title initial). It is a comic series with a limited (although what that limit is has not been decided yet) run, divided into a number of ‘volumes’ (or, at least that’s the plan right now). We’ve been developing it for about 6 years, although only 1 or 2 of those were of anything good.
I won’t bog anything down with pointless details, but I’ll let you know it’s a somewhat cartoonish sci-fi/action/adventure series. The actual story changes between volumes, and it is mostly made up of single issue stories with some multi parted ones thrown in when necessary. The basic structure reminds of some cartoon action series, but hopefully our book will suck less.
We’ve been kicking around ideas for this thing for years. We’ve been adding and removing concepts and characters in hopes of making something coherent eventually. Recently, we’ve been going about creating series bibles and first draft scripts, which would mean we are somewhat close to satisfaction. It’s a wondrous time.
One thing that seems to be slightly debated right now is tone. I always imagined this being somewhat comedic (the characters really can’t be taken that seriously). But I also agree with my friend that turning it into something more…substantial is a far better goal to shoot for. It’ll definitely require more thought in order to get it right.
Of course, all this story stuff won’t matter if we can’t find an artist. Yup, we both want to make a comic but neither of us can draw. Wacky world we live in, eh? Well, I’m sure we can convince some talented sucker to work for peanuts.
Project G
Project G is also a comic series, although I don’t have the benefit of a friend assisting me with it. Aside from that, this is pretty different from Project A…but also very similar. They actually do have some connections, but I’m going to downplay that because creating fictional universes is for losers.
This one is more of fantasy/sci-fi project, with a family bent. Given a bit more freedom with this concept, I’m going in the direction of ripping off Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman every chance I get. Including generous helpings of psychobabble, until I realize it is pretentious and boring. Even so, I try to create as many fun, weird, and interesting ideas as possible, while actually trying to develop my characters. It’s actually difficult in some instances; some of the concepts I’ve had for a while lend to some juicy, evolving personalities, while others don’t inspire much beyond ‘the x that y!’. This is a concern for all my projects, actually. I’m not exactly always aiming for *insert valued literary giant*, but I want some level of effort in there.
But much like the other comic project, this one requires I find an artist. It becomes more difficult when I want a specific style for this comic, as well as the ability to change style on a whim. I’ve actually been trying to think of an art style that is more creative than I had been imagining in the past, but I’m not too good at that, it seems. Maybe I should’ve learned to draw…
To be continued. Yep.
Project A
This is a collaborative project with a friend of mine (who will know what it is upon reading the project title initial). It is a comic series with a limited (although what that limit is has not been decided yet) run, divided into a number of ‘volumes’ (or, at least that’s the plan right now). We’ve been developing it for about 6 years, although only 1 or 2 of those were of anything good.
I won’t bog anything down with pointless details, but I’ll let you know it’s a somewhat cartoonish sci-fi/action/adventure series. The actual story changes between volumes, and it is mostly made up of single issue stories with some multi parted ones thrown in when necessary. The basic structure reminds of some cartoon action series, but hopefully our book will suck less.
We’ve been kicking around ideas for this thing for years. We’ve been adding and removing concepts and characters in hopes of making something coherent eventually. Recently, we’ve been going about creating series bibles and first draft scripts, which would mean we are somewhat close to satisfaction. It’s a wondrous time.
One thing that seems to be slightly debated right now is tone. I always imagined this being somewhat comedic (the characters really can’t be taken that seriously). But I also agree with my friend that turning it into something more…substantial is a far better goal to shoot for. It’ll definitely require more thought in order to get it right.
Of course, all this story stuff won’t matter if we can’t find an artist. Yup, we both want to make a comic but neither of us can draw. Wacky world we live in, eh? Well, I’m sure we can convince some talented sucker to work for peanuts.
Project G
Project G is also a comic series, although I don’t have the benefit of a friend assisting me with it. Aside from that, this is pretty different from Project A…but also very similar. They actually do have some connections, but I’m going to downplay that because creating fictional universes is for losers.
This one is more of fantasy/sci-fi project, with a family bent. Given a bit more freedom with this concept, I’m going in the direction of ripping off Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman every chance I get. Including generous helpings of psychobabble, until I realize it is pretentious and boring. Even so, I try to create as many fun, weird, and interesting ideas as possible, while actually trying to develop my characters. It’s actually difficult in some instances; some of the concepts I’ve had for a while lend to some juicy, evolving personalities, while others don’t inspire much beyond ‘the x that y!’. This is a concern for all my projects, actually. I’m not exactly always aiming for *insert valued literary giant*, but I want some level of effort in there.
But much like the other comic project, this one requires I find an artist. It becomes more difficult when I want a specific style for this comic, as well as the ability to change style on a whim. I’ve actually been trying to think of an art style that is more creative than I had been imagining in the past, but I’m not too good at that, it seems. Maybe I should’ve learned to draw…
To be continued. Yep.
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