A Gnome-sized Edition of the story (in three volumes) is in the works and with the music nearing completion, more attention will be given to preparing the mechanicals for that publication. I will be posting the preliminary point of purchase material here for review as that becomes possible.
I reiterate that interested parties should contact me and understand that communications are effected by the volume of work that needs to be done overall. So a delay in communication on my part does not indicate any lack of interest.
As it stands now, the story-line is available to our partners in production: our investors, creative personnel, and people who visit the studio. The Exhibition of the artwork is advancing slowly, as I am finding more difficult than I thought to select what portions of the show to include in the exhibition, but also I am quite busy concentrating on Piano Reductions and preparing to record the lyrical music. Our first release of a love song duet titled "Completely" is avaialble on the IMS Music Studio for you to listen to.
In terms of the exhibition, I am very much interested in beginning to construct the cycloramas, which effectively would be models of the scenes in the stage show. Initially I constructed a 1/4" scale model, but now I find that this is too small. My current thinking is that the cycloramas need to be of sufficient size that the figurines will become toy items. I expect to begin by using our artwork, cut out to size and then advance into 3D sculpting. This of course may very well lead us into the claymation film which I so much want to implement. As I say this I remember that the scenes from the show where to be to core of the exhibition and that the Illustrations in the form of lithographs where to be the first stage in that process of making the exhibition. Well, since I have begun to print-out the characters as free standing cut-outs , I expect I should consider this a good first step in implementing the cycloramas.
With so many things going on, it's not easy keeping it all straight in your head!
I am currently sculpting the head for the marionettes/animatronic puppets. The size of these heads is about equal to that of a small child, which leads to the expectation that the masks used for the puppets will also become halloween masks when the time comes. In terms of the puppetry, I have about a dozen skeletal structures which I plan on using for the marionettes and two dozen skulls which are being modified to support the chassis for the animatronic components of the heads. I am looking for a silicone gel to use as a sub-dermal element in constructing the facial movements associated with the mouth movements.
The staging area is coming together. I am looking at a more permanent green screen cyc on the upstage wall and the stage right wing wall and painting the floors to match that would give us the effect of an endless cyc at an angle. I'm considering then using a dance floor and teasers & tormenters as a means of rapid conversion to stage blacks. I have to deal with a roof leak before that can continue though. I may have mentioned elsewhere that the green screen will give us the ability to integrate our puppets into the artwork from the Illustrated Story-book. Here's one illustration to exemplify that;
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| This image has already been posted elsewhere. As an example, we are planning on producing these lithographs in a collection, one for each song in the show as well as one for each scene. |
The Illustrated Libretto is available for review to potential licensees of our product lines and film, television and theatre professionals. I am currently preparing a DVD with all the production materials which will be made available to those persons who sign a Restrictive Covenant Agreement. That agreement will be posted here in the near future. Signers to that agreement will also be given access to the IMS Producing Partners site.
As I mentioned elsewhere, I will be gradually building this blog to serve as the primary location for Gnome Stuff, but as you may have seen, I still post on the IMS Virtual Studio site.
My recent thoughts are that I will focus more on refining the showroom for our products and manufacturing capabilities at the studio and less on pitching this project aggressively externally. That means that I will need to count on other participants to take this out into the world. My focus needs to be on securing the facility and production capabilities in-house. I continue to desire a solid publishing deal for the Story-book and distribution for the television programing. Of course this is contingent upon us producing good sample materials, which we are striving to do, but I need to plant the seeds for growth in these areas.
I did meet with the people at The Bucks County Playhouse to discuss this and I find that I will need to design a new approach to the sets to accommodate the limitations (in terms of wing and upstage space). It also seems that we will be needing to use the MIDI files to present the music in this scenario as well, for our orchestrations call for a 24 piece orchestra and at most they can accommodate 1/3 of the musicians needed for that.
So even though we want to premiere this show at the Bucks County Playhouse, I need to rethink the design. My current thoughts are to trim the proscenium to give us the wing space we need for 3D sets, but I also realize the value in having a collection of drops available for other rentals (as in the second class run). So these are issues that need to be dealt with. The one advantage is that our stage in the studio is essentially equivalent to the space at BCP, as well as MPAC. I do need to establish what theatres this needs to fit into for a run to Broadway via the out-of-town venues. I am leaning very strongly toward Boston and Hartford, and possibly including Albany in that scenario. But of course we will have to see how that works out. I expect that when the time comes I will travel to these cities to check things out.
That's all for today. AG
