Comic Aspirations and an Aqualung

I had a Tuesday full of breakthroughs.

The first of which involved that script I'm working on that I told you about, Smitten. I'd been wrestling with the damn thing for weeks trying to figure my way out of some of the corners I'd painted myself into, but in the end (and after much deliberation) I decided that what I had written previous to this was pretty weak (I think the term soulless crap was bandied about when nobody was in earshot). So I've reworked the concept a bit, fleshed out the situations better in my head, come up with some opportunities for some fun storytelling and added characters to round out the cast. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I've completely reworked the concept, just enhanced the ideas I already had.

As it is now, I have to go back to the very beginning of the process now and remap the whole shebang, work out the action and relationship lines and tie them all together in a tidy 3 act screenplay.

Sounds like fun.

While reworking the aforementioned ideas, I realised that this was going to be an actual film, not a short, not a quickie no budget project. If it was to work the way I wanted it to, I needed good actors, several locations (some at night) and a decent crop of extras. Plus equipment costs would be prohibitive for the extended shooting schedule I'm projecting.

Therein lies the second breakthrough I had yesterday.

In order to get what I wanted out of the story, and to be able to have a finsihed product in a reasonable amount of time (before I'm 40, I'm thinking), I entertained the idea of transferring it to another medium - comics. Looking at the work of Andi Watson, Los Bros. Hernandez and a bunch of the guys over at Oni Press, I see how it could be pulled off as a comic book. Not to say I compare myself to ANY of those creators, but they generally do a lot of stories involving interpersonal relationships in real world situations, and Andi's stuff is deliciously sentimental at times. These are things I'm trying to capture in Smitten.

So, now I have something new to think about - and possibly a collaborator (one who can draw) to find. First thing's first, though. I have to write the script.

The last breakthrough for yesterday was my discovery of Aqualung. The guys a british artist who does beautiful, atmospheric pop music (not entirely unlike Canada's Stars, who I mentioned in a previous post). In explaining why he called himself Aqualung, his website bio does a pretty good job of describing the style of music he creates:

The music made him feel like he was either far out in space or deep under water - somewhere you might need some help with breathing, so he called it Aqualung.

He doesn't have international distribution so his stuff is not available in North America yet, so check him out online. You just might like it. He's even got all his albums in streaming audio on his website, so you can try it all for free first.

Do it.



mike