Cartland: The Blog

Photo

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:24:58 -0400

Introducing: Nicole. Steve’s little sister will be a...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:52:59 -0400

Introducing: Nicole. Steve’s little sister will be a prominent character in the strip and short film. One of my biggest challenges so far was coming up with her introductory comic - I had to figure out how to convey her age, personality, and relationship with Steve in just a few panels.

Here we meet Tim, Steve’s co-worker. He’s a bit of a...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:49:03 -0400

Here we meet Tim, Steve’s co-worker. He’s a bit of a loving bully, if you will. Probably 10 years or so older than Steve.

Photo

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:47:44 -0400

CARTLAND THE COMIC STRIP! Comic strips are something I’ve...

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 17:25:43 -0400

CARTLAND THE COMIC STRIP!

Comic strips are something I’ve attempted several times over the years, usually to no avail. In 5th grade I made a fairly prolific attempt at it, drawing a strip called The Adventures of Kid, featuring a stick figure who violently killed whatever antagonist was in each edition. At least 50 are published in a folder on a shelf somewhere in my parents’ basement. But in more recent history, I’ve tried the multi-panel avenue twice with Go Figure (more stick figures), and The Gratuitous Adventures of Ron and Vladimir (about a cyclops alien named Ron and his Russian assassin friend Vladimir), both of which only lasted a few strips until I got uninterested or stuck.

Which brings me to my latest attempt at a cartoon that extends beyond a single panel. At the suggestion of Brooke Knight, I read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, which ended up giving me a better appreciation of the art form as an artist (I already liked reading them, usually the simple not-too-wordy ones like Peanuts, but like I said I had trouble making them). Then (a couple days ago), also at the suggestion of Brooke, I started a comic strip about Stephen, the star of my thesis project Cartland, with the goal of exploring him as a character.

And so begins Cartland the comic strip. I’ve already surrendered to the confusion that’s sure to stem from the strip and the movie having the same title – we’ll see how that resolves itself later. For now my plan is to not only use the strip as a way into the mind of the film’s main character, but as somewhat of a prelude/companion to the film. I’m going to do a weekly installment of Cartland the strip all the way up until the movie is finally released (during which time I’ll be in production on the film, so they’ll surely feed off each other). I’m hoping it’ll provide a good back story for the movie, and then viewers might already have some investment in the character going in. So rather than a stand-alone movie, it’ll be a movie with a several-month-long comic strip preface. I guess we’ll see how it works when it’s done!

Follow along with the strip here: cartland.tumblr.com

Fancier storyboards! I’ve been doing quite a bit of...

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:47:49 -0400

Fancier storyboards! I’ve been doing quite a bit of storyboarding lately, and after a great meeting with Paul Turano the other day, I’m feeling very good about the whole project.

As I finish up pre-production during the next month or two, I’ll be incessantly drawing storyboards and reworking the script - back and forth, each feeding the other. My chief goal is to be very economical in the storytelling - I’ve only got 5 or 6 minutes to get all this across to whoever’s watching, so every little detail has to have a purpose.

I’m drawing a few different types of storyboards - the type in the previous post is a sketchy, rough sorta thing to help me figure out the shot composition and and sequence of shots. Then the storyboard frame above is more refined, and more for seeing what the shot will look like. These aren’t rendered completely to the degree the final ones will be, but they’ll help me figure out how exactly to draw the elements of a given shot. I’ll likely do several sketchy storyboards for each shot, then 1 to 3 of these more refined ones per shot. At least. And this is all before I even start animating.

This is all stuff that’s helping me to pare down the story into its key elements - the more I draw and write, the better I can visualize the story. Once I’m done with all this, it’s time to start casting voice actors! Stay tuned for that.

Storyboards! I’m gonna need a whole lot of ‘em....

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:24:41 -0400

Storyboards! I’m gonna need a whole lot of ‘em. Here’s one of what is sure to be many - it’s of the first couple shots. Even though it’s animated, I’ve decided to treat the script and storyboard as if they were for live action. So I’m using camera terms and stuff to indicate what I’m going for.

overtheheightlimit: The secret behind Mona Lisa’s awkward...

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 20:51:39 -0400

overtheheightlimit:

The secret behind Mona Lisa’s awkward smile: “I don’t care what anyone– anyone says. Hiccup! I’ve always thought– I’ve always thought you were so beautiful.”

Congratulations to my classmate Alex Peacher on getting his film...

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 09:44:00 -0400

Congratulations to my classmate Alex Peacher on getting his film “The Safe Maker” funded on Kickstarter!! It’s gonna be a really cool film about friendship and betrayal, all framed in a heist! Love me a good heist movie. And better yet, I get to work on the film, so that’s very exciting.

Even though I haven’t started my fund raising campaign for Cartland, this is keeping me confident.

You can keep giving money until the pledge period is over here: The Safe Maker on Kickstarter

overtheheightlimit: “In this scene, I really want your eyes to...

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 09:38:55 -0400

overtheheightlimit:

“In this scene, I really want your eyes to scream California Slims cigarettes are hip and smooth.”

Money. ….is a thing that people need. Yeah, so I’ve...

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 11:41:00 -0400

Money.

….is a thing that people need. Yeah, so I’ve been thinking about how to fund this here film, and seeing as this is a production blog, I thought I’d blog about it.

Given the success of my classmates on Kickstarter, an awesome new(ish) crowd-funding platform (see Nathaniel Hansen, Melissa Rogers, Dave Humphreys, Alex Peacher (so far) and others), it seems like a foregone conclusion that I’ll take the same approach. But the question is: when? And how much do I shoot for? These are things I have to think about as I really get into production of this, because right now I’m just not sure.

The rough Kickstarter budget range of these other comparable projects to mine (i.e. it’s the same program/degree requirement) is $3,000 - $12,000. While my project will certainly take as much time/effort as my awesome classmates are spending on theirs, I’m not sure it’ll take as much money. This is just a matter of live action vs. animation - they have to spend all sorts of money on lighting/grip/electric, transportation, camera, and locations; and while I could spend money on assistant animators (and I’d love to), I still have the option to replace that position with more all-nighters. Sleep isn’t as valuable a currency during live-action production (thought it certainly is during post-production). On the maybe-I’ll-sleep-sometime upside, there’s a nice culture of exchanging help on projects between the people in the program, so I’m sure I’ll get some help in exchange for helping on other projects.

There are a lot of factors that go into coming up with a budget, let alone a Kickstarter campaign (read this great post by kickstarter champ Nathaniel). So even though I’ve already done a good amount of budgeting, there’s still lots of work to do - there are all sorts of dilemmas and decisions involved.

Since this is essentially an independent artistic/professional project, which also fulfills the requirements of the program I’m in, I can’t just treat it like another class project. At the very least, I can’t lose money on it. Well…ok fine, I can’t lose a ton of money on it. But if this is going to be a model for how I work in the future, I certainly can’t just throw a couple thousand bucks out of my pocket into it without any other sources.

I’m optimistic though. The movie will take a small chunk of change, but time is really what I need to budget for. I just have to come to terms with the fact that even if I got $50 million to make this, I’m still going to be in a weary-eyed sleepless haze for the next year.

And it’s going to be awesome.

So here’s the very first animatic I’ve made for the...

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 16:01:00 -0400

So here’s the very first animatic I’ve made for the movie. It’s super rough, and doesn’t have any moving parts really (the actual thing will be fully animated, with talking people, etc.). I made this to kind of establish the general aesthetic I’m going for. Every part of it will be more refined in the real thing, obviously - the characters will be cartoons, the backgrounds will be somewhat representational drawings, in various media like charcoal, graphite, conte, ink, etc.

The music is also part of the aesthetic I’m going for. The soundtrack will have a country music slant to it - some of it will be what I consider good country(ish) music, like this song by Greg Loftus, who is thoroughly awesome. And there will be “bad” (pop-)country music - we’re going to write and record those parts ourselves (think Toby Kieth, Kenny Chesney, and co). It’ll all be coming through the radio at the go cart park.

(the music is still a temp track for now, but this song is a candidate for the opening scene)

Concept drawing: Tim, the 26-year-old maintenance/mechanic guy,...

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:19:32 -0400

Concept drawing: Tim, the 26-year-old maintenance/mechanic guy, and Bill the manager.

Concept drawing: This is Stephen, the main character. He’s...

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:17:04 -0400

Concept drawing: This is Stephen, the main character. He’s a teenager who works a go cart amusement park.