Friday, July 13, 2012

Weak as I am. Behind the scenes DVD extra

Phew! So Weak as I am is finished.
Here's how this sort of thing is done...

It's not a job it's a spare time thing and up until I was made redundant last month the only spare time I actually had was on the bus and the train.
That bit's covered here.

Writing is re-writing and any big long Spleenal story is written then re-written twice more.

Firstly there's an out line I've lost that, but it's a list of the stuff that happens. For Weak as I am it might go like this...

Spleenal's having trouble with his health.
Finds a dying super hero-super powers pass to him. And he brings hero back from dead.
Guy who killed first hero kills some other people with powers
Ex-hero bothers spleenal to fight bad guy...

The whole story is built around a moment. I had the image in my head of a block of flats dropping out of the sky onto the bad guy. but for that not to be the big thing. For a huge thing like that to happen but the real "Big" moment to be a couple of pages later when the bad guy is murdered in quite a small way.

And what if that climax was half way though the story? For everything to build to a moment that turned out not to be the end but really in a way the start.

So then having the plot sorted it's time to write the script in a little book...

So every thing's written on the right page. All the way though to the end.
As you go though you realize where you need to stick extra stuff in earlier.

Which is where the left page comes in.
There's a line an inch and a half down the page where I thought there'd probably be a page break then a long wiggly arrow going from there to the left hand page where I've put an extra page in. 
You should also be able to see number next to peoples names (2 3rd cop) and a grid at the bottom of the page which is the panel layout and where that bit goes on the page.

Now that it's written it's time to re-write it. So then it's thumb nailed. Which is drawing it all out rough and small.
It's re-written as this happens. Scenes are added and others are lost and the stuff people say changes too.
As I go though the original book I rip the corner off so I know how far though I am.

Once it's all thumb nailed. It's time to Draw it properly. And again stuff will change. It's another re-write but not as much as last time.

For the last couple of years I've drawn long stories A4 landscape.
I draw half a page at a time. This is because I need something that will fit in a bag.
This is the worst compromise I have to deal with. Every page (apart from the odd one or two) has to be split down the middle. Which means you can't layout every page however you want.

But you gotta do what you gotta do.
It took four sketch books and about 10 sheets of paper to do weak as I am. Most days half an hour penciling on the bus half an hour inking on the train. because the train is a smoother ride. The boxes round the panels are put on later with the computer.

Deleted scene.
When I was first researching how and why someone might be a hero the best reason I could find was a dissociated state. Which is where some one becomes or feels they are disconnected from reality.
Originally the bus driver of the bus at the start had a brain tumor causing derealization. I thought this was a good way to explain someone being a batman type hero. If the world didn't seem real to you then  it's possible to live without fear because to you the world seems as real as a video game.

I decided I wanted to keep Spleenals fear throughout so in the end so I gave it to the bus driver. It didn't serve any purpose though so I ditched it.
The bus scene was much much longer. A bad guy hijacks a bus. A guy on the bus is actually pleased because he hates his job that much, the bus driver won't drive anywhere because he's not afraid due to his dissociated state. The police turn up and the bad guy drops the gun. The guy who hates his job though is in the middle of a breakdown and doesn't want to go to work so much he picks the gun up and keeps the hijack going himself. Then that superhero turns up...

Most of that didn't serve the story though.

And that's how you do it!


This method may well change now that I don't have a job and I live in Newcastle, which is meant to be the worst place in the country to try and get a job!






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A writer. I write. It's what I do... I also draw.
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