Wednesday 6 November 2013

Secret Lairs - OGR 1

I started my new idea pretty much at the start of this week as I was struggling for interesting ideas originally last week. So please Phil offer your wise insight and guidance! (: As I'm still not sure if I'm allowed pursue this idea further, thanks in advance! d(^.^d)

Secret Lairs - OGR 1 by Ariesyme

3 comments:

  1. OGR 07/11/2013

    Hey Rhianna,

    Okay - just so I'm clear: Mistress Myra, a smart, sexy criminal, establishes a criminal empire by controlling access to 'the sun' - following a solar disaster. She has a solar power source, from which light and heat can be derived, and she makes her money by withholding it from people until they a) do what she wants or b) gives her enough stinking cash to buy a few seconds in the light and in the warmth.

    I like this idea - it's very logical actually, despite the premise - because, if, say, we replace 'the sun' with 'water', or with 'money' - then the principle of a criminal overlord exploiting others over a commodity much in demand is the same - and recognisable. Personally, I think it's a complication of your plot to have it happening off earth. It would make more sense if it was happening on earth, because if the earth had been the victim of somekind of disaster, then we immediately know why Myra is so obviously all-powerful - because the whole world is her market place!

    They do say that is a big asteroid hit the earth, a cloud would be thrown up that would block the sun and create a constant winter - perhaps that's what happened to the planet?

    Right now, your visual concept feels like a bit of a hotchpotch of ideas-not-yet-resolved-or-chosen - violence plus femininity - art nouveau-meets-guns. To be honest, I think you need to be looking now at an over-arching style for your world first, and for me, your world sounds very comic book to me (in a good way), so I think you should look to comic book art, pulp art and pin-up art as your first production design port-of-call - for example:

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--1kVMf_1HPg/UkUJPLaGz7I/AAAAAAAABWg/hH8pMnVme8s/s1600/Dc-Comics-Harley-Quinn-Catwoman-Poison-Ivy-1366x768.jpg

    http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r293/VIEWLINER/0803/080310-1.jpg

    http://www.comicsforge.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/6304468712_67d184dc6b_o1.jpg.scaled1000.jpg

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A6G-sE7JC-k/USC_X0_9JGI/AAAAAAAAULk/-1Xvi6fKlsg/s1600/David_Vicente_6.jpg

    I'm suggesting you think about bold use of colour, crisp graphical shapes and that pulpish, vampish idea of women who are 'mad, bad and dangerous to know'. You might also want to look at the visual language of 'Film Noir' - which is another genre that has a fondness for 'femme fatales' - sexy women, who are 'no damn good' :)

    So - my suggestions are these - tidy up your plot synopsis; essentially, your solar mob boss is running a racket in which she's selling the sun back to the human population - at great expense. If you figure out the reason for the apocalypse that blacked out the sun, then this will give you some nice ideas about her secret lair - for example, she could be living in the crown of the part-derelict statue-of-liberty, for example - a self-appointed ruler. In terms of the science-fiction elements, they're already in the mix; the precise nature of the power source - the solar 'thing' - needs clarifying, but maybe it's a scientific invention (synthetic sun?) created by a scientist, who Myra has imprisoned; this means, the design of the 'synthetic sun' machine could be less 'Lord of the Rings' and more 'Iron Man'. There is just something so comic book and pulpy about the tone of your story, that I suggest you embrace this genre whole-heartedly, and let the visual conventions and rules of comic book art seep into the production design, lighting and staging of your secret lair. This means highly expressive use of colour, strong use of shadow and immersive perspective: for an example of film emulating the conventions of comics, see this trailer for the film version of Dick Tracy:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U62avnoj1c4

    (quality is rubbish - apologies!)

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    Replies
    1. Ooh I like these ideas thank you! Really helped me d(^.^d)

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  2. http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/fao-cgaa-year-1-secret-lairs-ogr-2.html

    (also - come on Rhianna - you need to share more/show more/take up more oxygen - don't make me write loads more blah blah blah feedback in week 12 about professionalism and importance of soliciting feedback... get out there!)

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