I had mentioned in the last entry that I was working on two stories for my classes that will be unlike any that I have written in quite a while. These six page breakdowns are for the story that I am working on for Visual Storytelling I called Sooner or Later, and it's name comes from the Grass Roots song that I was listening to while I was writing the script. This is an interesting story for a couple of reasons. For the longest time I have been wanting to do another animated short, but I didn't have any story ideas. After doing Norman and the Love Triangle, I wanted to do a cartoon that had a story, not a cycle like The Vampire Mouse Transformation. There was one idea that I had about a female character sitting alone at a dance, and a guy sees her and asks her for a dance. Not only was there a story, but it also allowed me to animate a dance. Well, when I learned what the final project was in Vis. 1 I was having a hard time coming up with a story that I decided to use the story that was meant to be an animation short as my comic. I still intend to turn this into a cartoon, and it will include scenes that I wound up cutting from the comic.
The second part that made this interesting was that the story really evolved throughout the course. The original idea was that the two characters would dance, and the clearly liked each other, but neither would say it. It ends with them not getting together, but it leaves some hope that they will eventually, hence the title Sooner or Later. However, during the critique for the script the class wanted me to give a more satisfying ending. So I changed the ending to match with the protagonist's nice guy personality while also clearly showing the two main characters getting together. That wound up being changed after the breakdown was critiqued, and so I changed it again into basically a romance comic. It's changed so much that I am not sure if the title even fits anymore.
If I pencil, ink, color, and letter it correctly it will be fantastic though. It should be the best storytelling that I've done in quite a while.
A True Story...Sort Of
These thumbnails are the three-page comic that I am working on for my Environments, Props, and Structures class called The Perfect Gift. It is different from what my typical stories are except it does contain a message within it done in a very subtle way that the reader shouldn't realize that that's what I had done. This story was actually based on a script that I was writing as birthday card to a friend in 2009 with the same premise except told with Disney characters. I realized that I couldn't write, pencil, ink, letter, and perhaps color the story in time for her birthday that I scrapped the idea and never finished the script, and I went in a different direction for the card. While I was thinking about what I wanted to write for the class I came across that script, and I read a little of it, but I wasn't going to resurrect the idea. It wasn't until I was at the Atlantic Station Target one day that the story idea came to me. A friend's birthday was coming up in February (the 2nd to be exact), and I was looking for a gift for her. I was looking at picture frames, but nothing was jumping out at me. The relaxation fountains were sort of interesting, but not interesting enough to get one that I wound up leaving Target with nothing. It was when I was leaving that the idea came to me, and I immediately sat down at a park bench to write the story outline.
The story is about a guy looking for the perfect gift for his friend, and he was looking at picture frames and even relaxation fountains, but left the store empty handed. My friend's birthday is February 2nd, which is also Groundhog's Day, and I wanted to stay true to the true story, but not use her birthday that I chose another date that had something else happening on that day. So in the story the friend's birthday is also St. Patrick's Day. I even paid tribute to the script that this was originally based on by adding another true story. The character encounters a woman at a mall kiosk who was trying to sell him some nail polish and other ointments. This was based off of a true story in 2009 where I had just left the Disney Store at the Mall of Georgia after purchasing a gift for the friend who was supposed to get a comic book style card when a woman at a mall kiosk tried sell me some nail polish and other ointments. She tried to convince me to get an ointment kit for the friend, which I knew would be a bad idea especially since I was already in a weird place with the friend at the time. The true stories end there. There is no one who tells me what the perfect gift really is since I already knew that there is no perfect gift, not that that is going to stop me from looking for it. So I guess you could say that Pages 1 and 2 were true stories and Page 3 is my subconscious.
The Career Fair
Friday, February 24th I went down along with several other SCAD-Atlanta students to Savannah for the 2012 SCAD Career Fair. It was really the first time that I went somewhere to show off my portfolio. I've shown professionals an art piece, but never several art pieces since I was never sure how to approach the subject. At conventions artists are there to sell their work, not see yours unless you ask them, which is where my problem comes in because I don't want to interrupt their business side, which is why when I showed Laura Martin It All Started with a Mouse I did so when she didn't have any customers, and besides, I have found that it is easier to show off one piece than several pieces. However, at a career fair, you're expected to show off your portfolios. I did have difficulty in figuring out what to put in the portfolio, and I wasn't even certain how many pieces should be in there. I had a dilemma to begin with because I actually have four portfolios: an 11x17 portfolio featuring inks and pencils, a 9x12 portfolio featuring inks and pencils, a portfolio for charcoals and pastels, and a 9x12 portfolio for colors. It was really only the 11x17 and the color portfolios that would be considered in showing off. When I spoke with someone from Career Services they suggested I just show off printed copies. Okay, that meant I could condense the 11x17 work and combine them with the colors. That still left how many pieces are reasonable. I got that answer at the end of my Environments class one day when I overheard my professor, Nolan Woodard tell someone, who was getting ready for a portfolio review at the Publisher's Forum that was also on the 24th, that only 10 pieces should be in a portfolio, 12 would be overdoing it. So when I was setting up my portfolio I decided to concentrate on all of my areas such as storytelling in both black and white and color, coloring, storyboarding, character designing, and both digital and hand lettering. Unfortunately I did go over the ten because the one scene that I wanted to show off from the mini comic was a two page scene forcing me to have 11 pieces instead. Aw, well.
I wound up only speaking with two companies, but the first was the biggest. I spoke with someone from Walt Disney's Imagineering, and I've always said that I would give up my goal of working in comics if I was given the chance to work with Disney. That would be a dream come to true. I wish that I could have shown them my portfolio since I had included It All Started with a Mouse, but the woman I spoke with wasn't looking at portfolios, her partner was, just not her. They said that they are trying to create a pipeline of talent that they can turn to for certain projects. Artists in this pipeline gain experience and get to work with some top notch professionals. I have heard the term pipeline before, but I don't know too much about it that I can't say whether it's a good thing or not that I probably will ask one of my professors or my faculty adviser. However, it is STILL Disney. Pipelines may turn out to be bad for artists, but if that's the only way that I can work with Disney I'd jump at it.
The line for Disney was so long that it took me a couple of hours to get seen, and that took a huge bite out of my day at the fair. I had a long list of companies that I wanted to see, but I could only see one or two more after Disney. The final company that I spoke with was Floyd County Productions, who are the creators of television series Archer, and they were really one of the few who were looking for sequential artists because of storyboarding. I got to finally show off my portfolio, and the person who I spoke with used to work with Cartoon Network that my drawings of Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera characters brought back memories for him. My resume jumped out at him too because not only am I from the Atlanta area, but one of the exhibitions that I was featured in was ASIFA-Atlanta's Roll Yer Own. Unfortunately, last year's exhibition was the only Roll Yer Own that he's missed, and so I told him that the animation that I did was on my website. He told me that storyboarding would be a definite fit for me. After Floyd County, I hurried down to Turner, and I was in their line, but I had to get back to the bus by 2 PM that I couldn't see them. That was really the only disappointment on the day.
Final Thoughts
I have recently finished constructing my website, and so if any of you are interested in seeing more of my work you can go to http://www.wix.com/billywright/thewrightside. I still need to make some improvements, but it's good for now.
The SCAD-Atlanta Animation Society had another poster stolen recently, and strangely it was once again a poster that was hung outside the women's bathroom in the computer lab on the 3rd floor of the main building. When last quarter's theft occurred I was depressed, and I felt like that all of my work to advertise for the club was for nothing if the work was going to be treated like dirt. But this time, I am downright mad. This faceless coward should be glad I don't know who they are because I would give them such a verbal thrashing. There's a reason why my mom said that I was like a boiling teapot.
So until next time, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody.
