11/19 Update, HDTV

This post is copied from a Facebook post, for those of you not using Facebook.

So I just finished the HDTV layout for the e-Storybook. Finishing that layout means that the entire collection is also ready for publishing as well.

There is one caveat to that; there are still 348 more illustration panels needed, but all other work is finished. Inserting the illustrations, once they are finished, is easy by comparison. Many of the pages use more than one illustration, so it isn't as bad as it sounds.

There are 634 pages that

comprise the entire collection;

Volume One, Book One, "An Introduction to The Gnomes of New Hope" is 80 pages.

Volume Two, Books Two thru Four = Act One, Scenes One thru Nine of the Libretto "Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure"

Volume Three, Books Four thru Seven = Act Two, Scenes Ten thru Twenty of the Libretto, "Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure"

The files are .PSD, which need to be converted to .PDF, then to .PPT.  After that, the entire collection needs to be narrated. Then the entire collection, along with the Business Plan gets burned to multiple DVDs for presentation to Industry Professionals.

Once all this is finished, the e-Storybook will be made available to people via an online subscription and the collection will be posted there in increments as the artwork for the illustrations is finished. As it stands now, the portions of the e-Storybook where art is missing, contains description panels, which will be replaced with the finished artwork.

The exciting thing about presenting it this way is that I will be able to replace the illustrations with animations, gradually as we finish them. Animation work will not begin until after the Illustration are completed.

It is expected at the hard copy books will be released every six months. Details on the hard books will be posted after I complete the first prototype of the full collection.

 The collection will not be sold as "Gnomes in a Gnutshell" until certain issues are worked out with that and after we determine how to include the animations in that product line.

AG

Corvair Truck and other theatre thoughts

I'm still looking for a donor Corvair truck to use in the construction of the parade float. Constructing the show for parades is the first level of the stage show. I'm also anxious to get the sound stage together. Right now the area in the shop is filled with "stuff", but I'm emptying out one of my storage units and I realized that some of my supplies happens to be a lighting grid that I bought years ago from a little theatre and that grid is perfect for the sound/green screen stage. The plan includes doing puppetry on that stage for integration with the artwork in the e-Storybook, but, that stage is also the approximate size of both the parade and little theatre operations/ So that's the primary direction I am headed with studio operations.

My main objective, in terms of pre-production, is to fund the 100k required for the finishing artwork needed for the e-Storybook and the Hard Copy Books. I think I am going to restructure to book series to be aligned more with Acts One and Two, rather than the original seven book series.But in terms of release of the e-Storybook, the layout will be set-up (as a subscription service} in scenes. That is easier to do electronically than it is to do with printing. With the Hard Copy books the problem lies mostly in 1) the number of pages that can fit into a book and 2) the actual cost of production. The Storybook Series extends to around 638 Pages, now that is has been conformed to the HDTV format. If I release "Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure" in smaller series of seven books, the page numbers are reasonable, but inconsistent, as certain scenes are larger than others. The initial plan was to release three scenes at a time and keep the divisions of Acts One and Two. That's not working out as easily as I thought. So, I need to think that through. Clearly, I can release the e-Storybook online, but there's a fair amount of planning required for that too. It all poses a dilemma. Oh well, we'll get thru it.

If anyone reading this has a source for a reasonably priced truck, let me know. My plan is to use the drive-train, suspension, steering, and possibly the floors. If I do use the floors, I will likely keep the uni-body chassis as well, although my initial thought was to construct the stage platforms to receive only the suspension, so the chassis/body is not important. I do want to use some rear body panels to construct a dump trailer that matches my existing 61 Rampside, so I do want to repurpose the body panels in addition to utilizing the floor panels to create an optional level deck in the Rampside bed. I have gotten a few prices for available trucks, but so far the prices are too high for a truck I'm going to chop up. I'd rather acquire a complete truck that is too far gone for restoration. AG

HDTV Format

As I've said, I'm preparing the Core Creative Materials in HDTV Format. The e-Storybook is now conformed to run under PowerPoint as a subscription. I posted on that subject previously. It looks utterly fantastic. I'm up to Scene 18a out of 20. Some scenes are broken up into sections. Scene 18 has four sections. But anyway you look at it, it's almost done. I say that with the caveat that there is still many illustration panels required, but all the other layout work, for the e-Storybook and the hard copy books will be finished when the entire series has been confirmed to the HDTV aspect ratio. All that will be required is insertion of the finished artwork. That leaves me free to work closely with the artists to finish the illustrations. This time around I expect to hire Jency to craft the scenes as I have described them in the layout panels, but I will be looking to hire a line artist and a colorist, so we can expedite the process. The artwork that has already been inserted in the series took five years to create and we simply cannot afford for it to take even a fraction of that time to complete this.

But I do expect to direct the artwork in such a way as to set us deep into the path of animation. That being said, I will also be looking for people with experience in 3D rendering (which likewise will set us on the path of 3D printing for figurines and merchandizing). But I will also need a manager for the online subscriptions, someone with programming knowledge. It could be a service vendor, I have someone in mind but I'm open to setting that up with an in-house server, in which event, that person would work out of the Southampton studio location. The whole subject is a bit larger than my current understanding, so that needs to be developed in partnership.

So you can see why I have been working to get the entire series finished before we initiate into the marketplace. I fully expect that once we do, it will snowball and we need to be prepared for that.

That being said, I will also be looking for Agency Representation/Management, because I have so much to do already, that the larger potential will need a team that is already in place.

I'll post those terms on IMS Producing Partners, but I believe that you need to send me your email so I can give you access to that site.

"That's All Folks"
(thank you WB)

AG