Thanks to the miracle that is the internet, I just saw a trailer for Pixar’s upcoming film, Ratatouille, which is due to be released in 2007.

As I watched it I had an uneasy feeling of deja vu. Thematically the trailer is identical to a rough promo board I had done for my Roche character. Fortunately, I cut the sequence from the version of the cartoon that I’m now working on, but it’s really frightening to know that there are people out there thinking the same thoughts you are.

My buddy, Terence Taylor, has a couple of theories about that. One is, that when you formulate a creative idea and express it in some way, whether in words, or pictures, even if it’s not presented publicly, you’re releasing it into the ether to be picked up by someone else. Ergo, after you do that, it’s a race against time to realize your concept in its intended medium before someone else does it first. The other theory, and one that I believe, is that there is a collective unconscious from which ideas spring, by people of the same generation who are influenced by similar cultural, social, and political experiences. So it stands to reason their ideas will be similar.

I can’t post screen caps of the Ratatouille trailer, but I can post my initial rough sketches that were done somewhere close to two years ago when I had first conceived of Roche. As you’ll see, the concept is that of a vermin of refined taste in a high class French restaurant, that is discovered by the waiter and patrons, panic ensues, and then outside the restaurant he comes across another of his breed with less refined tastes.

Weird…

This weekend The Stepping Stone Players, a community theatre group in Glendale, California, gave two performances of a play called “On The Air.” The show was written by me and my good friend, and Nickelodeon co-worker, Ernie Gilbert. Ernie also directed the show and accompanied himself on ukulele as he sang some great hot jazz numbers. The musical director was Dan “Soybean” Sawyer, an amazing musician and composer with a list of credits as long as your arm.

“On The Air” is a comedy in the tradition of old time radio shows like the Jack Benny Show. The show was actually originally concieved and written as a radio program, but since the story contains the “show within a show” device it lent itself really well to being staged as a play.

After we thought we were finished writing the show, Ernie and co-producers, Tom Camp and Belinda Howell, began casting. Based on the performers who showed up with their various talents and personalities, we decided to re-write some scenes, or create completely new ones. Ernie and I both went into this with the attitude that the show on the stage is the final product, not the script, and so we remained flexible throughout the process, and Ernie made subtle changes to refine the dialogue, all the way up to opening night.

Early on, Ernie invited me to be a part of the production, but I felt it would be better for Ernie to be free to realize his own vision of the show without the inevitable interference of another writer on the set. This distance also gave me an objective viewpoint when Ernie wanted advice. Another reason I didn’t want to see the rehearsals was that I wanted to sit in the theater and experience the final performance like any other member of the audience. And I’m glad I did.

Words can’t truly express what an experience it is to watch actors, musicians and technicians come together and devote so much of their time, effort and talent, to produce a piece of entertainment that a short time before was nothing more than vague humourous notions floating around in your skull. Most of what ended up in the show started out with Ernie and me cracking each other up during our lunch hours, saying, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could do this?”

Between Ernie’s love of vintage jazz, his irrepressible sense of humor, and our desire to write a show that was as entertaining to today’s audience as the the classic radios shows were to theirs, we thought we had a pretty good thing. But then as it got closer to becoming a reality we began to wonder if we were just amusing ourselves, and whether or not anyone but us would find this stuff funny. On the drive over to the show, with my family and friends, I was a nervous wreck. And I actually had sweaty palms all the way through the first act.

But, I’m happy to report that the show was a success. We had an audience that ranged in age from single digits to eight decades, and they loved it. What a feeling to hear people laughing at something that you had thought up during a lunch hour two months ago. And after the show folks came up to us and were telling us how much they enjoyed it and how they liked the way such and such bit of dialogue referred back to an earlier scene, etc. I realize that this might sound like boasting, but I do temper my elation just a bit by telling myself that the audience was comprised mostly of friends and family of everyone involved, so you couldn’t ask for a more friendly crowd. But, fortunately everyone in the theater those nights came away with a smile on their face and a spring in their step.

[cliche] And, that’s what really makes it all worthwhile; knowing that you had a part in making someone’s day just a little bit brighter. [/cliche]

Now, which freeway do we take to get to Broadway?

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I thought I’d upload a post that illustrates part of my working process. The image above is the first page of the script for the Roche cartoon that I wrote with the help of my good friend, Terence Taylor.

Once a draft is complete, I re-read it with the intent to storyboard it. Inevitably, I’ll have a stack of very intimidating storyboard sheets in front of me, waiting to be filled with gorgeous drawings worthy of the monumental tale I’m to tell. But instead, they fill me with angst. I know it’s only paper with rectangles on it. I know the drawings don’t have to be perfect, they just need to get the ideas down so that I can go back later and rework them. But it’s like cracking open a new sketchbook and staring at that first page… I know for a fact that I’m not the only one who will turn the first page and start drawing on the next page out of fear of cursing the book by baptising the first page with a hideous drawing that will stare you in the face every time you open it.

And regarding storyboarding, I also know that I’m not the only one intimidated by printed rectangles on a page. I’ve seen postage stamp sized Post-It notes plastered all over xerox paper, only to be enlarged and pasted into the usual formats. I’ve done that myself. Whatever it takes to get the ideas out of your head and onto the page is OK.

For me the trick is to get the ideas down as I’m reading the script, and am involuntarily transported to the world I’m reading about. It always starts with some little expression that comes to mind, and I’ll scribble it in the margin of the script so I don’t forget it. Before I know it, I’ve got drawings all over the page, and I can’t even read the words anymore. The drawings aren’t meant to be pretty, and I’m usually not too concerned about camera angles or composition. I’m just putting down visual notes to myself that give me the courage to tackle the stack of blank pages before me.

For whatever reason the printed draft of the script doesn’t intimidate me a fraction as much as a blank sheet of paper.

 This is another proposed promo spot for the short shorts campaign that never happened:

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I've just added a Gallery page to make it easier to organize my images. You can get to the gallery by either clicking on the image above, or by the menu at the top of this page.

Among the additions is a gallery of my Roche sketchbook that shows the process I go through when developing a project.  There are many variations of style of the character designs and some location and situational sketches.

I also posted a storyboard for a promo animatic that I did. The universe of that promo is slightly different than the direction it's been going lately.  At this point I think newscopters and gasoline trucks would be out of place in Roche's world. But, it's a cartoon, so I won't rule out anything that works until I've locked all the laws of Grogan's Alley in stone.

Click Image for Gallery Page

This is a rough of another children's book that I wrote.  Originally the little girl was named Daisy, but since then I've rewritten the manuscript and renamed it Molly, By Golly! The original story is in rhyme, but the rewrite is in prose as I've been told that generally editors don't like rhyming books. The rewrite also changes some of the events to make them less intentionally bad, and more a series of well-meaning mistakes that drive the father nuts.

The redo makes for a "better" story, but I still like the looseness and wackyness of the original. And that's why I'm presenting it here in its raw, original form.

On Mark Kennedy's blog, "Temple of the Seven Golden Camels," he's posted Handouts by Rowland Wilson concerning color, light and shadow, and composition.  While I was looking over the notes on composition, it struck me that many of the visual concepts can be readily applied to the art of storytelling as well.

What follows in this post is a reminder to myself of things that I should be thinking about as I go through the creative process. In my own work I haven't always been successful at applying concepts such as these, but by thinking them through, and writing them down, I hope to improve.  If it happens to be of any help to anyone else, all the better.

Rowland Wilson's Notes on Composition as Applied to Story

The phrases in quotes are taken directly from the handouts. The indented passages are my own thoughts.

Focus

"Directing the Eye"

• Make sure that you keep your eyes on the prize when storytelling.  The elements of your story, characters, dialog, locations, events, should support the themes, emotions and ideas that you are trying to get across. Lead the viewer where you want them to go. Don't meander aimlessly, screen time is precious use it wisely.

Tie Ins

"Places where the tonal value of the character anchor him to the tonal value of the background"

• Your character should be grounded within the "reality" of the universe you are creating.  Even in a "fish out of water" story the character needs to be a part of the world, however reluctantly.

• Pinocchio on Pleasure Island being bad and starting to turn into a donkey connects him to the scene and the location more intensely than if he'd been a good boy above the goings on. The lure of the locale, and his succumbing to the temptations of that world, bring home the real danger that he's in.

Breathing Space

"Have some air or breathing space for the eye to rest in"

• In classic horror movies there is always that moment of calm, just before all heck breaks loose.  You have to give the audience room to breathe, and collect their thoughts before you take them on another wild ride. This concept is also part of both the Harmony/Contrast and the Grouping concepts.

Harmony & Contrast and Dominance

"The importance of harmony cannot be overstressed."

"Harmony is achieved by Dominance"

"Every aspect of picture-making is made up of linked complements"

"When one side of the complementary pair dominates, Harmony is created.  Only then is Contrast Possible."

"Make the objects have a definite hierarchy"

"Dominant objects are usually not the center of interest"
"Contrast gets the attention, so it assumes a major role in the viewer's mind…But it absolutely depends on Harmony to exist"

• These concepts work verbatim when related to story.

• The scenes with Stromboli and Pinocchio are most graphic examples of this. Corrupt/innocent, Big/small, Loud/quiet, Heavy dialect/no dialect, Dominant/submissive

Internal Rhythm

"After the structure is solved try for internal rhythm"

• Once you've got the overall structure of your story figured out, you need to then approach each individual scene as a mini play. Each scene or sequence has emotional builds and releases that affect the story as a whole, but the scene needs to have an internal rhythm to make it work on its own terms as well.

Grouping

"Go for a 'rubato' rhythm, uneven spaces, no two alike, visual jazz"
"Avoid mechanical "metronome" spacing.  All the same, a march beat"

• When applied to story, I think of this concept as "pacing." The pacing ot the story should be fluid and organic, not mechanical and predictable. This is where the concept of breathing room really comes into play. The quiet before the storm, tension and release, surprise turns and twists keep the audience engaged.

Style

"Avoid the diagrammatic"
"Avoid the arranged man-made look"
"Not decorative, not photographic, but an artist's interpretation"

• This concept is much more subjective, because the artist's interpretation may be "arranged" and "diagrammatic", or "decorative".  I think it's all about the intentions of the filmmaker as an artist with something to say, and getting that vision/point of view across to the audience by any means necessary.

"Use reference"
"Make your pictures 'what the witness saw.' Be a witness."

• These points speak to the believability of your story.  Use reference to add touches of reality. Research can put you in a place that your imagination alone might not.

This is Roché, (pronounced, "ro-shay").  An overly enthusiastic roach, Roché is my alter ego.  I'm in the process of putting together a 7 minute short starring Roché.  I've done a full animatic, and now I'm in the process of tweaking the story and punching up the gags.

Click Image for Sketch Gallery

The image below is one of the hundreds of story sketches I've done for this film.  If you click on the image, it will take you to a gallery with a few more of these sketches.  Eventually I'd like to post a short animatic, but I need to clear the scratch track music first.

Awhile back, Nickelodeon asked its employees if we were interested in submitting ideas for a series of 5 to 30 second spots. I put together a bunch of concepts and submitted them, but unfortunately this particular program didn’t go forward so I’ll present some of them here.

This first one is a character that I named RoboKat for obvious reasons. It’s really not more than a station I.D., but I like the vector look of the character. And the anime feel of the action.

Click on Images to Enlarge:

Here’s a page from my sketchbook of another one of my development projects. JACKLYN HYDE is going through changes and I wanted this piece to illustrate the insecurities and unexplainable moods that a teenage girl feels.

The character was inspired by my own teenage daughters and their dramas. One day the older of my two girls was being especially crabby and snappy. After she’d calmed down she said, “Sorry, dad. Must be hormones…”

Another day moods were swinging wildly about the house and I said, (in my New York accent that becomes more pronounced when provoked), “My God! It’s like Jeckl’n'hyde around here!” Seeing before me the girls that inspired that epithet, something in my mind just clicked… Jacklyn Hyde, a teenage girl whose mental and physical changes are only mildly more exagerrated than reality.

Anyone who has had daughters going through this awkward stage knows what I’m talkin’ ’bout. Can I get a witness?

Taking a tip from my buddy, Ben Balistreri’s Blog, here are the various stages of a comic I did for Nickelodeon Magazine. It’s a two page spread of the Fairly OddParents. I worked on the show as a designer, and would often get to do special projects, like comics, magazine covers, press art, etc. I love doing that stuff because I usually get to pencil, “ink” and color.

To start off, I rough the layout either on copy paper or in a sketchbook. The challenge of this paricular spread was cramming what felt like a six page script into a two page spread, while keeping the visual flow and clarity of story and gags. Creating montage panels helped alot. If I’d have done a seperate panel for each action as described in the script, it never would have fit. As it is some of the panels are little larger than postage stamp size.

This is the rough layout, the part in the middle left that is in black pencil are revision notes by Butch Hartman, the show’s creator:

After the rough is approved by Butch and the magazine editors, I then scan the drawings and drop them into Adobe Illustrator. I don’t usually tighten up the pencils, because I can do that in Illustrator and save a step.

This is the line art:

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When the Line art is approved I export the Illustrator file as a PSD file and then do the color in Photoshop. When doing covers and press art, etc., I usually do airbrushing, and other rendering techniques to plus the art, but in this case I felt that I’d like to go with a more clean and traditional look for the comic. Since there are so many visuals packed into such a small area I opted for clarity of gags and story over showing off rendering technique.

Here’s the final color that was delivered to the magazine, the dialogue was added afterwards at the editorial offices:

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Later!