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
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