Progress:

Progress is slow but steady.

I have completely finished storyboarding the project but actual sketching of panels is proving consistently baffling. The option of stylizing my own sketches in Photoshop has been shown to me - a neat little trick where I can create more depth, add color, or alter my sketches in Photoshop. I look forward to exploring this venue further as more of my sketches are completed.

I have, however, found a sonnet of which I'm fond that I think I will use (properly cited, of course) for the last page of my novel. It's a sonnet by John Keats which explores his fears (and more universally, any artist's fears) of dying before reaching his own artistic potential. While I have always harbored a crush for Keats and his work I never really until I re-stumbled upon his sonnet "When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be" that I realized I had, in part, modeled my protagonist after him.

(Photo Credit: Phil Sellens)

Simon, my protagonist, has a driving need to finish his novel before the end of the world, more personally his own world. Keats lived a life sprinkled by tragedy and by the time this sonnet was written knew that his own short life was coming to its end. Keats died at the age of 25 of the very disease that ravaged his mother and his brother. What has always fascinated me about Keats (and this hinges and is limited to, I understand, of my own interpretation of his poetry) was his hope, his sentimentality, his grounded-ness. I am moved throughout his poetry by the tenderness of his spirit, by the wonder through which he approaches life. Keats loved living, despite his fears and perhaps because of them. Keats cherished, revled in simple everyday beauty. 

Simon, my novel's main character, is not yet able to appreciate the world as it is. By the end of the story we find Simon transformed, still afraid but hopeful. We find a little bit of Keats in him. 

I realize that that is the story I wanted to tell all along. I thought I wanted to write something about the basic goodness in life, but really I just wanted to write about one man's struggle to see that. About my own struggle to see that. 

Writing Center Shoot:

This week we are shooting a commercial for the University Writing Center, a group of students working out of the library's basement who edit papers for their peers and try to instill better writing in our campuses students. 


We plan to shoot the commercial against a black curtain, the subjects facing away from the camera to recite their lines. These shots will be interspersed with shots of a "title card" which will ask a "student" question about the Writing Center.


The biggest hurdle in dealing with a shoot like this is that we won't be dealing with actors, we'll be working with people. Everyday people who aren't practiced in making what is fake (a scripted conversation) look like what is real (an actual conversation). The pros of this type of commercial (the black background with our subjects looking off camera) are that it masks the awkwardness of non-actors, it is also simple and not difficult to edit.


But I'm not quite sure it conveys the tone of our message properly. 

What's great about the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials is that they convey information lightly and simply but clearly. The feel of the commercial is upbeat. This commercial doesn't talk down to it's viewers but it does help viewers understand the key differences between these products. 


And, to top it all off, it's a studio shoot - which means it's doable for our class. Pedagogically it offers us the same reward as the other shoot would; simply, we'll learn the same stuff. I think the darkness of the shoot that we are doing is inappropriate for the subject matter - it almost takes itself too seriously. Though it would be difficult for our non-actor actors to appear as relaxed and natural as the actors in this commercial I think that this type of set up would be the most fitting way to have a discussion about the writing center. The writing center wants to get their basic information out - this would be the perfect way to do that.


Or there is this route:

This commercial is very similar in that it shows two people just talking. This video however uses stylizied cuts to keep the viewer from being bored by sitting and watching two people just standing and talking. It gets the message across - that eHarmony works - but the viewer isn't subjected to the drone of some non-actor (which supposedly these two people are) sitting in a too serious setting,looking too serious.


My biggest reservation about the shoot we are scheduled to shoot is how uncomfortable we will be making the very people we should be putting at ease. Their script recitations should sound natural and sincere and instead of letting them be expressive we are sitting them in a chair, facing them to the wall, and lighting them against a dreary black curtain. 


If it were me I'd freak and I suspect the people who walk into our studio on Thursday will as well. It may be a harsh judgement but I think our proposed shoot goes against everything that the writing center would want to represent. 

The merits of using photography vs. hand drawn comics:

As the deadline for the project review rapidly approaches I am beginning to rethink my game-plan. I've been practicing sketching and not gaining as much headway as I'd like. It is in this instance that my perfectionism is a detriment. I don't want "Clumsy" I want "All Star Superman".

(Photo Credit: PopCultureGeek.com)

(Frank Quitely's work is just so lovely.) 

I've been mulling over the merits of using photography for my "realistic" sections of my graphic novel and then using sketches for my more fantastic sections. On the one hand it would help the reader differentiate between what is "real" and what is "fiction". On the other hand that makes the difference less subtle than I'd like for it to be. 

While I understand that the art should be a reflection of theme at the same time I don't want the art to lift up my sleeves and bare all of my tricks. For now I will continue to sketch and only use photography as a last resort. 

Though, of course, it remains a viable option.

Adapting to the Studio:

After spending some time sampling the available studio positions - ranging from teleprompter assistant, to host, to camera operator, to director - I'm shocked to admit that directing was my favorite responsibility.

I'm an admitted control freak but also a shy one who is not accustomed to voicing her opinons. I suspected that my favorite positions would include those which would allow me invisibility - I assumed I would be most comfortable assisting, or technical directing. I thought I was better at taking direction than giving it.

I was blown away by how exhilarating it was to be the only voice coming through on my headset. "Calling shots" was the ultimate high - it was thrilling to be, for once, in charge.

I donned the headset, initially unsure. After the first moments of hesitance and staring fixedly into the monitors I started to loosen up - which, I can assure, is a minor miracle in itself. I watched the monitor's closely, calling the shots I found most appealing to my camera people, anticipating the flow of conversation and letting my technical director know when to take the shots I had set up.

Communication was a little rocky, not knowing the technical terms for calling and taking shots was a disadvantage. There were moments when I was unintentionally misleading and some shots I took occurred as a camera person was zooming in or out. Now that I am more aware of the proper lingo and more comfortable being "the boss" I think a second try would go more smoothly.

I learned, in summation, more about myself than I did about directing as an artform. While I did learn some helpful jargon I discovered that I am capable, and even enjoy, being in charge of a creative endeavor. What I had imagined to be so scary and unattainable had in fact been as easy as knowing what I wanted and speaking up about it.

The Postmodernist Template

(Photo Credit: theopie)

It's significant to note that I approach this Capstone project under the thrall of David Foster Wallace. Last summer I read Wallace's most notable work "Infinite Jest", a 1,079 page postmodernist masterpiece featured in the Time's 100 Best Novels. It might be trite to say that this book changed my life and unnecessary in an academic blog such as this. But it's true. Wallace changed my entire outlook on living, on what it is to be human, on how I plan to navigate my life in a way that means something. It's with these changes that I approach this Capstone, not to model after Wallace, not to use his body of work as a template for my own, but rather to emulate his tenacious dedication to postmodernists themes.

In order to do that, naturally, it's necessary for me to get a handle on postmodernism as a theory, a disciple.  This blog seeks to begin that process.

Postmodernism (which I apply here strictly to literature), like an concept or movement, encompasses a vast arrary of qualitlies which are neither deifinitive or operate in congruence with one another. The postmodernist period begins sometime after the second world war and has not yet reached it's endpoint. Several traits of the postmodernist work include (but are not limited to):

• Irony, Black Humor
• Pastiche
• Intertextuality
• Meta-Fiction
• Temporal Distortion (definited as fragmentation, or a nonlinear narrative. For example Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" employs this tactic.)
• Technoculture and hyperrealism
• Paranoia
• Maximalism
• Minimalism
• and magical realism

(list gathered from http://postmodernblog.tumblr.com/)

In my graphic novel I will be using paranoia, magical realism, and meta fiction.

In my next post I will delve further into this "postmodernist template" and the techniques that I will use to create my capstone.



The Who, What, When, Where and Why of CMS:

A CMS or "content management system" is, most simply, a system which manages a collaborative enterprise. In an internet based medium the CMS format is often used to create websites which host a community of web developers that assist internet users in creating and customizing websites. Joomla, Drupal and Wordpress are popular examples of these types of sites, each of which are open source and cost little to nothing for users to utilize. Many of these sites, Wordpress especially, have the tendency to clothe themselves as simple blogging tools but more and more as these websites continue to improve larger business are using these CMS sites to launch their own company websites.  Sarah Gooding sums it up best when she says "There’s no need to re-invent the wheel" in her article 6 Reasons Big Companies Need WordPress. She goes further to list six reasons (of which I chose the top three) why Wordpress (or more broadly any CMS site) benefit larger companies:

• Open source means big savings; no licensing fees and oodles of  free stylish templates mean that the company is putting less money into their website development, and saving money is always a good thing.
• Usability; using a CMS to create a website is very different from creating a website from scratch. These websites are made to be user friendly, and Wordpress specifically is so simplistic that it requires absolutely no coding knowledge to be able to use.
• Massive developer community; each CMS website is comprised of a large developer community who are constantly tweaking and improving the coding know-how available to the general user. Troubleshooting with a CMS is incredibly easy, visit a forum or check a blog and answers to any problem will be available.

Kat Liendgens parallels these reasons in her article Why Wordpress Can Be a Great CMS for Business while including that the availability of plug-ins and the reduced design time provided by CMS sites is particularly useful for businesses.

It's important to have an internet presence for businesses, some would argue necessary for survival. But getting up online doesn't have to be the twelve labors. CMS sites are out there to make it easier, to make it better. Businesses can sleep more soundly at night knowing that CMS sites are awake and getting better and better every minute.

multi cam shooting, from the top!

After a series of initial introductory lectures we finally got our feet wet in Studio Production. Of course, after viewing this Hamish Hamilton video I had imagined it would be a little bit more glamorous. 

The truth is that (through my newly acquired and incredibly limited understanding of how multi-cam studio production works) things are not quite so exhilarating when one is shooting a round table discussion show. The key differences that I noted (from this video specifically) and my experience were as follows:

• Genre controls your ability to stylize your program; to put it simply, a concert allows more freedom for the director to stylize his shots, to be innovative and creative, whereas a talk show or round table show follows a format which mandates the virtual invisibility of the director preventing him or her from making flashy cuts and using highly stylized techniques. This doesn't make one better than the other, they are simply different types of genres which have different rules. 
• Noise level; in Hamilton's control room noise is at a high level. In our control room the Director's voice is clear but not loud and the only noise heard. The environments are completely different because the subjects being filmed are at completely separate ends of the spectrum. 

Both situations require a confident leader and the ability of a team to be cohesive and quick to respond to mistakes, malfunctions, or meltdowns. The entire experience, whether a booming U2 show or a college campus round table, is exciting in it's potential for disaster.

I learned, most of all, that this high stress environment is not for me. As much as I enjoyed the simplicity in technical directing I doubt this is a career path I could follow.