Gnomes of New Hope: Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure - Libretto

Finally !    I know I've said this before but the most recent edition, (Rev. 5c) of The Libretto is completed.  I needed to go over the document with a fine-tooth comb to be certain that there were no errors or inconsistencies, so I can definitely say - Revision 5c is complete.

Now, there is one exception. That is the we need to do the melody lines for the two remaining lyrical songs. Historically, the song lyrics are slightly altered when we develop the melody. Minor things like changing - "we have to we've or we" depending on the way the beat ends up going. So those two songs will not essentially change the Libretto in any significant way. There may end up being some alteration of the timing when the Technical Specifications are finished as well.

I have an order form, which I will post here shortly, for anyone wishing to have a copy of the Libretto.

We will be turning our attention to the score, which consists of 64 songs, bridges between scenes, & background instrumentals. There are still six instrumentals and two lyrical songs to be written and at least a dozen which need to be arranged/orchestrated, so there is still a lot of work to do.

The total time is approximate, however it appears that Act One is musically about 69 minutes long and Act Two is currently showing as 59 without the finale and the lead up to it. The Overture is not yet written, but it is essentially a composite of the other songs. Total dialogue should at most be thirty minutes and probably about half of that has music under it. We're shooting to hold the line at two hours and forty-five minutes.

I have separated off the Narrative Story from the Libretto for the sake of shortening the publication. I expect to begin restructuring the Narrative story to fit two basic formats. One is for use with the stage play and the other is the Illustrated Storybook. There are actually four versions of the Illustrated Storybook - the main Storybook publication, which will be a "coffee table" edition, the second is a "Gnome Sized" Edition in three volumes, the third is the insert for the Music CD, and the forth is a black & white coloring book. I suppose a fifth would be the comic book as well. All of these publication editions are available for licensing to a publisher who can guarantee world-wide distribution.

The Story-boards for the film will likely come out of that process as well.

There is also an additional story which is titled; "The Gnomes of New Hope: The Stone of Wisdom" That story tells the history of Gnomanity, Gnomeville and Zachary the Great's quest for Artimus, the Stone of Wisdom and the beginnings of the resistance against the Dark One and his minions.

I've begun to layout the Technical Specifications for the current stage musical and to plan out the set  movements, fly schedules, cue sheets and lighting designs, on the presumption that this will need to be done and in the absence of the resources to pay someone else to do it, having the capability to do it myself I will begin the layouts.  I do not expect to go too deep into the Tech layout just yet, but I want to establish certain parameters, so that I can direct other technicians to perform these tasks. I have much to do in setting up the scene shop and so my attention will be in that direction.

As always, I am seeking to fund this operation.  The pricing for purchase of the Libretto is as follows:

CD or DVD Rom - @$50

Spiral Bound Hard Copy, full color illustrations - @$250

Signed, Limited Edition Portfolio Boxed Set - @$1,500

(Limited to 150 Editions, numbers 1-21 are reserved for investors

 contributing $10, 000 or more to the production costs)

Purchase of any copy of the Libretto includes membership to IMS Producing Partners and access to that Production Management web site. There will be numerous benefits to membership.

As mentioned elsewhere, I am currently seeking Front Money as well as Agency Representation for this project and invite inquiry in that regard.

Further details will be posted as we progress.

AG

IMS Update

There are numerous projects which are taking shape, particularly now that the Libretto of "The Gnomes of New Hope" is completed.

"The Vairod Project" is starting up again: The Vairod is a kit car based on the Chevrolet  Corvair. I have been involved in hot rodding and work on Corvairs since I bought my first car at the age of 15. The Vairod Project is the construction of an open cockpit two-seater hotrod, in much the same style as those which were based on the Ford Model A boat tail speedster. The Vairod will have a similar configuration, only, as you might understand, consist of the rear mounted, aircooled engine of the Corvair.  Intended as a kit car which will utilize all the stock components of the early model Corvair, we may also devise a configuration that will utilize the late model at some point.  This effort will be documented for television. As I have acquired all the necessary supplies over the years to do this, I will be looking for partners who may like to be involved at various levels. There is a surprisingly large amount of interest in this from the Corvair community and other arenas of hot rodding as well. I will be looking for additional producers to take charge of the television aspect of this, as I expect to be coordinating the overall effort. Of course we will need investors and/or sponsors, so I invite inquiry.

IMS Studio Space: we are currently utilizing a 10k sq ft space in Southampton, which we are looking to secure for the long term. This space costs 50k per year to maintain.  There are two 5k building involved. It is anticipated that one space will ultimately contain metal and woodworking shops, as well as welding fabrication, a paint booth, a vehicle service area, properties construction and storage, a textile area for costuming may also be included and of course, production offices. The other space currently has a showroom for the products we are developing, an exhibition/gallery area, lighting fabrication and repair, puppetry and animatronics, a full stage with Borders & legs and a green screen. This stage will be very well suited for the performance of our material and will allow us to insert the artwork (drawn from the illustration for the storybook) via our MAC based editing suite. There will also be a recycling yard containing materials for theatrical production. Our existing offices will be converted to the Art Department and the Editing Suite will be enhanced.

The Theatrical Development Centre: is a concept that is becoming more clear as we have located a 500 acre property which may be available. The property is an abandoned resort in the Poconos and has numerous building in need of restoration, but this would be a very good starting point to build an artists retreat. More details on this will be presented as it is refined further.  As one time, I had the plans for this TDC completely laid out with designs for not only facilities but also the operational systems, but an unfortunate accident happened and years of work on planning this were destroyed when the pocket sized notebooks accidentally ended up in the wash. So I will need to reconstitute these plans when the time comes.

The Creative Archive is something that we have discussed as applying to the IMS Media Centre and the headquarters for The Alpha & Omega Society. These three aspects of the operation are still very much in the forefront of our goals and there is a facility which we have determined would serve well for these purposes, should the resources become available to us to implement the balanced operation of the facility.

The Gnomes of New Hope: we are focusing on publishing the score, now that the Libretto has been bound as a portfolio.  We are also beginning to move forward to record the lyrical performance, with our first step to create the ghost tracks for each song.  We are also starting to address animation samples of one or two songs.  Our focus in terms of mounting a performance is on the smaller presentations that will require less resources to implement.  In that regard, one of the primary presentation formats will be a parade float.  So the existing script will be adapted to create a presentation suited for use in parades. I expect that presenting in a parade will occur before we attempt to mount a full production. This will have a high value for publicity. In that regard also we are looking into creating balloons of our characters to go along with that presentation, in expectation that we will join in numerous parades around the country. Fortunately we can use the Southampton Days Parade as a testing ground as it takes place a 1/2 a mile away from the studio. The net result of the parade version of the show will be suitable for smaller theatres and street fairs, so we are looking to approach the smaller, more manageable markets first.

Animatronics and Puppetry are two arenas which we have been working toward and this  applies directly to the parade float. If you are experienced in these construction techniques or puppetry in general, we seek to grow this area more so than others at this time. In addition some more recent discussions have taken place about our stop action film-making and with the securing of the shop facilities, we will be able to move forward with that as well. We may simply shoot that on 16mm at the same time as we use digital photography to capture the frames.

Animation: is clearly a market which we will be approaching very directly. We will be working to develop our characters in a number of mediums simultaneously. So our product lines need to be synchronized to the development of the animated characters and the publishing efforts. The designs of the characters are complete and will need to be interpreted into computer generated graphics.  I am very happy to license this out to a company with experience in CG, but if I need to, we will develop that department of IMS, as we have numerous other projects to which animation could be applied, in lieu of live performance. Clearly, this can be a cost effective arena and with the other facilities which are in development, we have the resources to integrate live performance with CG GFX.

As always I invite communication, but I have to apologize if I am not entirely on top of the forum environments, as these tend to absorb too much of my time. I expect I can resolve that when I maximize my internet computing power in the future. For now the bulk of my time must be spent on direct planning activities and tangible construction efforts. If you are an individual who can provide direct support for what we are doing, I will  communicate in that regard.  If you are looking for employment, I will certianly communicate with you in that regard, but I need to focus on gathering resources that can make that happen.  I am looking for persons who can engage in sales on a commission basis and the result of those sales will be additional employment for those individuals who express this need.

NOTE: It goes without saying that an operation such as this requires substantial investment. So we are looking forward toward a stock issue, although that is not in the immediate future, as too many other things need to fall into place for that to happen. We are striving to create the cash flow required from our product lines, but securing the ability to do this will be greatly assisted with direct investment. With that in mind I am currently seeking Front Money. I have capped that investment at 250k, but it is being offered at a 300% rate of return. That is an investment  in The Gnomes of New Hope to advance that project and formulate the necessary contract, budget and financial materials and to aid in securing the facility. It is not an investment in the studio. Investment in the studio will be offered at another time, when the appropriate paperwork can be completed. Reference to this Front Money is not addressed to the general public, rather it is addressed to those who have already provided us with support and are known to us. If you are an individual who may like to consider investment in any of our projects, we will need to develop the appropriate relationship and implement the appropriate contracts in that regard. Hence, this should not be construed to be a public offering.

That's all for now. AG