movie script

[jakerupert]

Hi all,

 

Just made my epic "comic"moviescript readable online here:

 

http://www.toonsup.com/list/marina_v...n_suedsee_5005

 

Its more for the germans amongst us, but if you find the time to have a look

I would be happy about feedback.

 

Merry christmas and a happy year 2014!

 

Jost

[Rodney]

I can't read the words but I sure can read the pictures.

 

I'm still a huge fan of your artistic style and graphic storytelling.

[jakerupert]

Hi Rodney,

 

Thanks a lot.

I am very happy about your positiv feedback

[Rodney]

I am very happy about your positiv feedback

 

Your comic/script is one that I find I can't really critique in any meaningful way... I enjoy it for what it is.

I simply love that you continually and periodically 'pepper' your story will iconic and interesting imagery. It's this kind of seasoning that pulls me in all the way.

By that I mean to say that while some might consider the artwork as sketchy...even crude... I find it to be perfect in so many ways.

The flow alone (without being able to read the words) holds my attention and when I start to wonder what is happening for lack of reading those words... BAM! You bring me right back into the story with some new and interesting visual imagery.

And your versatility across the spectrum is impressive. People, animals, environments, vehicles, machinery... I'm not sure what your influence are behind the design for these but I am highly impressed.

As someone who would ocassionally think he can draw I find myself in the position of saying, "Now why can't I draw like that!"

 

And here is the crux of the matter... I percieve that you draw out your imagery rather quickly as I see little hesitation in your lines and composition.

 

And unique and yet iconic design... you've got those everywhere.

Things that are familiar and yet nothing I recall seeing before. Fresh and new and yet with a classic approach that creates worlds that are obviously lived in and populated by 'real' people.

 

Oh, and color... you've got that down beautifully as well with impressive switching of color to highlight mood, temperature and story pacing as well.

 

Shall I go on? I can!

All we would have to do is start posting a few prime examples from your script.

 

For what it's worth coming from me, you are a gifted storyteller.

[jakerupert]

Wow,Rodney, your post really made my day.

Its the greatest christmaspresent of all.

I am going to print it out for my reference.

 

You don' t mean, that you really clicked through all that pages, do you?

 

And Please feel free to post any example here, if you think that's apropriate.

 

Hopefully one day, if it possibly generates some interest finally, it will be translated into English as well.

 

The hard "readability" of the words still is the greatest shortcoming of my script, I believe, since when

I started doing it, it was just meant for myself as a workingbase.

 

Have nice and relaxing christmasdays

 

Jost

[Rodney]

You don' t mean, that you really clicked through all that pages, do you?

 

No, I haven't yet clicked through all of them but between those you released before and the latest I'd say I've read through more than a dozen (I'd say twenty four issues but might be an exaggeration).

One thing that kept me interested throughout was your covers which like the Tintin book covers by Herge really pull me in... you've got some really great covers in this collection!

 

One of the things I did wrong when I started reading was I started at the end (the last book) and then went backwards... not recommended... but still a great read through.

Then I skipped backward to read earlier books and... at some point I lost track of which books I'd read and which I still needed to click through.

Thaz okay though... as that allowed me to read several issues more than once.

 

There is one aspect of the length of the books that I wonder about and I'm not sure how to explain my thoughts there.

I"m guessing that your books are considerably longer than an average american comic book and so I perceive there is a potential for the reader's interest to fade momentarily 3/4 of the way through.

From what I'm read in your books however, you've got that covered and always have something interesting going on leading up to the end of the book.

I believe that what my brain may be anticipating is a cliffhanger that sets up the next issue (america comics use to do this regularly) and your books tend to keep going.

 

But... seriously... I really need to learn the German language so I can follow the dialogue!

This begs the question: Are you as gifted a dialogue writer as you are artist???

 

And Please feel free to post any example here, if you think that's appropriate.

 

Thanks. I'll do that!

[Rodney]

The vehicle on this cover is simply sublime as is the over all composition:

 

 

There is something in almost every location of this image to grab or further direct our attention.

And all the little details... masterfully placed with just the right amount of detail. Nice!

When analyzing further I see great stuff such as straights and curves and tapering lines.

Example: the two forks going down to the vehicles front skies. Perfectly placed and delineated with straight and angled (yet tapering) lines.

The exaggerated size of the faces in the window. Sublime.

The perilous situation as defined by action "Kracks!" and the use of space in the image to suggest real space in the environment. Love it.

 

Do you use reference for such things as the vehicle or do you just dream these up?

I'd love to know more about your thought process.

 

And I've already mentioned that I love your line work and coloring.

 

I'm still discovering new things with each look at this drawing.

[jakerupert]

Hi Rodney,

 

Due to your hint I changed the order of the books at toonsup, so that no other reader might run into the trap to start at the end.

Regarding the length take into account, that my premier goal was to generate material to be able to create an animatic for a feature length movie not to make actual comicbooks in the first place.

Since i am a great comicbookfan and I am "thinking"in panels , I thought it was a good idea to work this way, "smashing too flys with one clap".

You can watch an example of an animatic here:

 

http://www.jostkeller.de/marinavonsee.de/demo.html

 

Since i run out of time and money, i havent been able to follow this overambitious goal ever since.

 

I guess from the expiriences of TWO and killerbean it would have taken me another two to three years to finish the whole movie by first finishing all the animatics ideally with german and english voiceovers, then to rigg all the characters and animate them, composite etc. pp

 

But nevertheless it was fun doing it and this way i have gotten at least something to show to maybe attract some curiosity.

 

As for reference: I more or less dream them up from my memory of things i have seen in the past.

That way i get that simplified stylized look i wanted to achieve in order to be able to finish this project, ha, ha...

[Rodney]

I perceive you have enough material for several movies there.

For instance, the backstory with the slaying of the dragon is a movie all of its own... okay, maybe a short film.

That alone would be a major undertaking.

 

One of the sequences that would be supremely fun to animate would be the chase sequence where Momsie takes the train and goes after the others in the motorcar and at several time almost catches them. That's a masterfully crafted setup and it reveals so much of the environment and people that I'd be tempted to concentrate attention there. Of course I know that sequence is such a small part of the story that it doesn't really scratch the surface of the over all narrative but if you completed that sequence you'd have a fair inventory of the entire film. I understand that you've already created many of the assets for the film. An additional benefit of animating this sequence is that much of the work might be used again for the main intro to the film when Marina herself takes the train (Chapter 1 if I can trust my memory). Of course any other scene that takes place along these paths would be basically set up as well.

 

I spent much of my waking moments last evening and this morning wondering how we as a community could assist in your effort and I confess I didn't arrive at any satisfactory conclusion.

I want to make sure anything proposed would yield the best chance for success.

 

One approach might be to leverage what you've got in the current comic script to recreate each panel in 3D and thereby setup all of the scenes for the creation of initial sequence animatics.

From there it'd be a hop, skip and a jump to the final animation. I assume this was already your plan.

 

I do note that there are some scenes and sequences that would be harder to setup and animate than others and one approach would be to tag each of the sequences according to difficulty. You might further tag shots as requiring dialogue/lipsync and those with minimal backgrounds. In the short term you could then work on those shots and sequences requiring minimal effort which would expedite production. I'd guess the medium range shots workload might be lightened through the use of compositing (i.e. treat them as minimal but then layer in the additional detail via compositing.

 

Of course in this process you could be translating the entire thing to English and other languages.

 

There is also the matter of successfully adapting your drawings to 3D... and because you've set the bar high with those drawings... that'll be no little challenge!

 

 

Due to your hint I changed the order of the books at toonsup, so that no other reader might run into the trap to start at the end.

 

I think that was a good move. I like.

[jakerupert]

I estimate with todays technolgy a stunt like my project could be pulled off with a budget of 2 to 3 million Euro

In about 2 years time with a small team lets say of 6 very talented and dedicated people, that get payed just a living base during production time and a participation later.

So I guess the best thing I can do is trying to spread the word and get popular somehow in order to find a sponsor.

[Rodney]

Don't exclude the option of a live action film. While certain aspects of your stor lends itself better to animation it'd still become a classic with the characters portrayed by real people. Obviously a lot of the environment and such would still be CG.

[jakerupert]

Well, i dont know. It would still be much harder to do and even more expensive to produce, i guess.

But maybe 2-d Animation would be another option, like Bill Plympthon doing movies as a oneman show.

[jakerupert]

http://www.toonsup.com/skizzen/ostern/panz...fahrt?sid=79953

 

I experimented with a fast way to make a rough animatic for my movies trailer.

Imported my hash model as obj into Manga Studio and did a quick overpaint together with some

Waves and sky and animated the pieces in Anime Studio

 

What do you guys think?