Writing, Illustrations, Design & Animation

I surprised myself by posting this here instead of on The Gnomes of New Hope blog.

Update: the e-Storybook is settling in at 852 pages. The remaining artwork will continue when I have $50K in escrow for the artist's work. So if you're an investor, that's what I'm looking for.

Well, even though I have moved onto other affairs,  I continue to put a few hours a day into the layout work in the e-Storybook. I have moved past S.10, which has sub-scenes up to S.10j (covering essential back-story elements). I have moved up to the middle of S.12 and the page numbers are approaching 600. From this point forward I have at least 50% of the illustrations needed, but I am inserting illustration panels on each page. Some of the inserts can be drawn from existing artwork, but I am not addressing that unless it is very clear to me that I have what I need, or can assemble a panel without dwelling on it for too long.

Oh, and by the way, I am assembling my packaging materials so that they will all be contained on a flash drive and viewed on an e-pad. It all looks so great I can't believe it! I installed the Libretto onto my micro-SD to examine how that looks and I am stunned. Most certainly this is the right way to go. The Libretto is finished and has been for a few years, but since I needed to get enough of the e-book done I switched off onto that. Well, now that the e-Storybook is nearing completion of the layout (less the required illustrations), I think it is time to let Industry professional have a look at the Libretto. I've discussed this in other postings below, but I wanted to comment here about how well this e-pad thing works, for the Libretto too. I hadn't though about that until this week when I transferred it over.

The Libretto contains the text to the play (ie: dialogue) and the lyrics to the songs (which are the essence of how the story is told) but it also contains all the technical notes, designs, and stage plots for mounting the piece as a stage musical. I have included discussions about design elements which I did not implement so that the designers and choreographers have some guidance in that regard. It has always been my intention to Direct this piece, so there is no point in any Directors approaching me in this regard. I will be looking for a Maestro/Music Director, as Shawn does not want to do that. I spent many years as a Technical Director doing set & lighting design as well as set construction, so in the absence of activity in that direction, with employed individuals, I will also proceed to craft those elements. However, I do not really want to get bogged down by that. In terms of those designs, they need to take their cues  from the illustrations, but being very experienced in those areas, I expect to work closely with the other designers to craft the look of things.

Another note about the Libretto. Once the e-Storybook is locked in (as to the complete layout) and possibly offered for distribution to the public (if I need to fund things that way) then I will be moving to assemble the Technical Specification Manual. I already have this started and much of the essential materials are in the Libretto, but a concentration on this manual will yield more detailed specifications which will go out with the show when it becomes a rental. This will have all the necessary designs, stage plots (for assorted arenas, such as set movements and blocking sheets), batten & fly schedules for the drops, lighting instrument schedules & cue sheets (including MIDI files and programming for MIDI implementation of the puppetry aspects which will be integrated into the sets), and other items not on the top of my head right now. This manual will also contain operating notes for both the first and second class production as well as the layout for little theatre and concert productions. I will probably start with a version for the little theatre, since that will be the simplest production, even though it is designed for a first class house. So that will require adaptation. That means I will need to alter the designs to use only flats and drops, something which needs to happen if this goes up in the Bucks County Playhouse anyway. But then I will also be redressing the production as a puppet show for mounting at Phillips Mill and filming for television. Someone said to me, a few days back, that maybe I should use kids in the show. This was a result of my comment about the size of Gnomes. I do think that would be great, since I used to work with children's theatre and this started out that way, but I would have to take another look at how much stamina a kid has, to be able to deliver the material that exists in the three hour version of the show. I rather moved away from children's theatre when it grew into a full blast musical. I do have numerous versions, so I expect that maybe the one hour version should be adapted for kids. That would probably work. I'll consider that after I finish with the e-Storybook.

When we do move back into illustrating, the material will be oriented toward using it for animation. I do expect that once we start on that, I will be trying to produce a legitimate animation of the song "Completely". Even then, the material will be hand drawn and not computer generated. Although I have programs to use for CG, I still have to learn how to use them and simply do not have the time (or much of a desire) to do that.

I had the interesting imagination of being in a position to just stay in my studio and work at this without the constant grief of worrying about my overhead. That would be heaven! I try to move forward with that attitude. It may be fortunate that I have so much to do everywhere I turn, that if I run out of resources to advance in the direction I'd like to focus on, there's always something else to do. In some ways, that is unfortunate, because doing that interferes with the momentum of a particular arena. Someday I won't have to worry about that... yeh, when I'm dead!

That's all for now on that subject.  AG

Design Work

Choir Seats - One of the projects I have been working on is the modification of stackable seating  for improving Choir seating which we are using. I am adapting the seats with a flip up base, so the extremely confined used by the choir will no longer be taken up by an unused 1 foot of space, giving the choir members more room to stand. This is a very good thing. For those of you who sing in choir, you know what I mean.  I am also creating sheet music and liturgy stowage as part of that set-up. I'm really very happy with the way my conceptual design turned out in the prototype. As it appears now the modification will run $60 per chair. I'll post photos here when it is finished and if things go well, I will get a contract to modify a number of chairs. This type of stacking chair is very common, so once I finalize the design and the methodology, making this modification to your chairs is a service I can offer. You need to let me know if this is something you might want.

Choir Risers - I am also engaged in designing choir risers which will incorporate seating and just the right amount of space for arranging the sections. This design will be able to be moved and assembled by one person and the sections will be small enough to make them extremely versatile in regard to assorted arrangements. I will be using the Bryn Athyn Cathedral as the space to prototype these designs, since this is something we need there. The risers will be available for purchase or rental. If you have a need for such an item let me know.

Update: As it stands now the risers currently being designed may be location specific, due to spacial constraints and storage options. However, the designs will be applicable in other scenarios, should anyone desire to have such risers built, just let me know. I do expect at some point to have a generic set available for rental, but I have no idea when that might be.

Other design work is always under way but these are the two main projects right now.

I am working on the technical drawings and I may post photographs of the work in progress or the finished materials as this proceeds.

Studio Facilities

As spring approaches, I expect that I will be working outside more. I am in charge of building maintenance for the building that we own, so I divide my time between caring for the building and building my studio, which uses half of the building. The front half of the building is used for a 10K sq ft CNC Machine shop, while I am working toward setting up a wood-working shop in 5k of my space and a sound stage in the other 5k of space.  That is only a sketch of what is really part of the goals, because my facilities and equipment span quite a bit farther than that.

But in terms of the most recent activities which pertain to IMS Equipment and Facilities, a big part of my focus is on rebuilding some of my machinery. Right now that means engines for a few vehicles. I have used a 1961 Corvair Rampside for many years as my work truck, but this truck has been in mothballs for eight years. I am feeling the urge to get this going again, as I had put the kabosh on grease monkey work, in deference to finishing up The Gnomes project. Well, stopping everything for the Gnomes has started to catch up to me. I have a great deal of other work that NEEDS to be done and so I am beginning to address that work.

One thing in particular, that this means is that I am now into engine building. For those of you who are Corvair enthusiasts, that means I will take on engine jobs. I used to have a business called Just Vairs where I was building engines, including race engines, but I dropped that to work on music and writing for the Gnomes, but also for my other theatre work.  Well right now theatre is not paying me what I need, so I'm shifting for awhile back to the mechanical work. I only plan on doing that long enough to get a few of my machines back together (which includes a 1931 Model A Roadster) so if anybody wants me to do any of that for them speak up now, because once I'm done with this splurge of mechanical work, I'll probably quit doing it.

Here's a shot of my truck before if got ratty;

Some day it will be Seafoam Green with dark stripes

 (basically the opposite to the way it is painted here)

The other aspect of what I expect to be doing is to establish the recycling yard again. This will involve membership and access to materials for theatre production work. I am currently rebuilding the stage which was used at The Meadow Amphitheatre and I am building a rental Choir Stage and a few other items. If you are interested in these projects, let me know.

That's all for now. AG