Inventory

FROM BOOK FIVE
Young Bezaliel is christened to become A Master Gnome by the Elder Gnomes

Just a note to say we will be building inventory of finished books. I will start with 100 of each book, in order to to get them on the shelf, establish the production line and other business details to manage production and distribution. I expect, as I mentioned before, that Limited Editions will be produced at Image of the Mind Studios, however, if as I expect, the new manufacturing process produces the results I hope for, then even higher production will maintain the Hand-Stitched Covers (both in-house & jobbed out) . This new assembly method brings hand-Stitching into competition with machine binding in terms of efficiency. Depending on demand, I will either set-up assembly in-house or job it out. I say all this because we are moving at a good pace to finish the Illustrations for Book Five, which I was concerned about, because that book has a number of of other stories that comprise The Gnomic Tales. As it turns out, we are adjusting nicely to crafting a different look for those books, due to the strylines taking place in the History of Gnomanity.  So far, so good.  I do want to build "The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture to produce and manage this project. So if you are interested as an investor/Board Member, let me know. AG

Updating our Approach

Garden Gnomes/Figurines

I am redressing the Garden Gnome Project.

The First Sculpture (shown below) is Constable Warren.

The first batch of castings were in concrete, 

a material that I am no longer enthused about.

Shipping concrete Garden Gnomes has it's problems,  concrete is heavy.

But more than that, I find that concrete sculptures are too fragile.

We have sculpted Ferny Reading.  It was created using Sculpty.

We are debating about firing Sculpty and I am trying to determine 

how to proceed with creating a mold.

I bought materials, but still need to think this through more.

I am looking to acquire a Kiln and expand what I already have 

in the Sculpting/Puppetry Studio.  

In the meanwhile, I am looking into what needs to be done to set up for 

casting resin (as opposed to concrete).

I have concluded that a resin product, filled with sand would be best. 

I would ship the hollow  Garden Gnome and the end user would 

fill it with sand to give it weight. 

Doing this will avoid breakage.

So, having made that determination, I am furthering discussions 

and actions to set up the CGI workstation 

to develop 3D characters from our existing artwork 

and thus be able to use 3D Printing to create; figurines, puppet heads, molds 

and limited run items for other projects 

(such as the Cyclorama Show).

I am still open to Partnerships for the Ancillary Markets, 

including the Garden Gnomes.

Along those lines, I may job out the casting, 

since the concentration must remain with Publishing the Books.

Above; early work on puppet heads

Below: Ferny Reading in process 

I am still moving forward with plans to build 

a Green Screen/Sound Stage in the Studio, 

to be used with the developing puppetry and other projects.

I have upgraded the video equipment to a three-camera HDV set-up 

along with improving the A/V Editing Suite 

(which still maintains our linear and multi-format options).

I expect to address the Music Composition/Production capabilities 

with an upgrade of Digital Performer and 

to look at recording some samples of additional music.

We expect to begin setting up a CGI workstation, 

mainly to aid with the 3D printing for the figurines 

and to apply it to developing a walk-thru Cyclorama.

And... I am working to integrate MIDI with DMX 

for stage instruments & practical control

associated with the Music Files

(when recorded music is used)

AG

 

IMS Publishing

Here is a link to posts that were made on another blog;

IMS Publishing

On that blog there are significant thoughts that never made it onto The Gnomes of New Hope blog.

This is a composite sketch 

before it was painted with watercolor

titled 

"Ferny Reading to the Little Ones"

If you look below, you will find some photos of 

the sculpture that is underway of Ferny Reading. 

These Sculptures are part of our Garden Gnome Project,

which is also tied to the smaller figurines, puppets, stop-action film work

and 

Cyclorama Project.

The Cyclorama Project will be directly tied to the model work on

 Set-Design and Animatronics.

But all of these concepts are contingent upon 

finishing, distributing & selling

 the

Illustrated Storybook Series

We are discussing producing some of the individual musical pieces, 

which have catchy themes

starting with;

The Stone of Wisdom

sung to Zach & Zebby by

The Master Gnome

Cover of Volume Three/Book Five

Cycloramas

   Interestingly enough, I realized that I need to be building models for the different set designs, so they will be integrated into the art exhibition and represent rather miniature Cycloramas. Start small and grow from there. (ie: "It's a Small World After All) Gno pun intended.

I like the idea of Animatronics Cycloramas, but if we get to that point, the puppets will be somewhere around two feet tall, making it a much bigger presentation.

Little by little, we'll get there. AG

Cycloramas

A Gnome Home

I've decided that we will build 

"The Gnomes of New Hope; 
Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure"

as a walk-through cyclorama. 

I have been thinking about this type of show for years. 

That being said I will be looking for model makers.

send me an email.

    As you might have seen in other posts, I have been working (sporadically) on the puppetry aspect of the project. I have been him'n and haw'n about how to approach this. There are at least a half a dozen approaches, which amount to as many different shows. Each of these shows can (effectively) be promotional for the full (live) musical. Of course, all based on the Illustrated Storybooks.

   What it gets down to is this; I need to build the show that can be done most effectively in my studio, with the resources available to me. Doing that will also allow us to do a documentary film about the process.

   Yes, I am working toward setting up a sound stage with a green screen. I have the HDV, for a three camera shoot, to go with the sound stage. It has been my intention to build the puppets on a three foot chassis and for them to be both stick puppets or marionettes. I figure the stick puppets would be used for shooting against the green screen, but we could also do that with marionettes. I do have more that one bridge.

   So now I am working out a smaller representation of the show as cycloramas that can travel. I'm thinking of puppets that are 6-8 inches in height. Doing that can also turn into figurines that can be sold.

   That is the direction if things right now. I would be interested in discussing this with anyone who is a model-maker and may like some employment, working out of our shop in Southampton. We have 20 scenes (at least) to create.

An Invitation

 Here is an Invitation I found in my files. 
It was composed years ago 

when I was working on Business Structure

and I didn't realize just how much energy 

the Illustrated Storybooks would involve.

I see that I will be returning to the Business Documentation, 

as the publishing is nearing completion.

So, I updated this some and figured 

I might as well Post it here.

I can send it to you as an attachment,

without the decor.

PRODUCTION BREAKDOWN: Act One - Musical Numbers

 Here is my analysis of the 
Act One: Timing and Musical Numbers

I'll add more later, 

AG

Status Report

   We are making progress in completing the artwork. I am focusing on completing Book Four, while Jency continues to watercolor and refine the sketches into line drawings. Some of the material needs to be done over again, because the drawings do not actually match the requirements of the text. But that's just part of the process. It's rather like the way I needed to create backstory to reach the objective of the current storyline. There's a divergence of conception that naturally occurs, so in order to reach the right balance some material is created in order to get to the right place. It costs more to have to do that, but that's the price that needs to be paid.

   I'm somewhat stunned by just how much work is required to complete this project and I am anxious to be finished with the publishing stage of things, but it cannot be pushed beyond it's natural flow. I supposed that if I had more funds to work with, we could hire more people to work on it, but I'm not really set up yet to be distracted by trying to supervise other operations. As it is, I need to set up the book binding in a more productive fashion. I'm looking at manufacturing from a new perspective and if things work out the way I hope, the Hand-Stitched binding will become viable with the changes in the production line.

 

 I'm working on the Gallery Exhibition of the Artwork for the Storybook Collection.  This panel setup needs to be finished to accommodate a presentation of the material. I've decided to use wall paper to cover the panels. You can see from this one panel (in the front) that staining the panel looks rather mediocre. I wanted to apply cork to the panels, but the cost is prohibitive, more so because for that cost, I can't achieve the effect I want. But, after putting wall paper in my kitchen, I find that the old barn wood design I used works very well on these exhibition panels. So I will be looking into other wallpaper designs.

  On another front; I have been thinking about the sound-stage. I can't set that up so soon. I have a number of vehicles that need to be completed and parked inside Building Four for the winter. I will need to secure another facility in order to remove machinery from the space (which I want to set up as the sound stage). So there will be a delay, until I find a solution, or finish putting those vehicles back together. It's a drag, but working on "The Gnomes of New Hope" has distracted me from other things that have needed tending. Now it's getting out of hand and I need to shift my attention to other things, as soon as it is possible. That being said, I would like to pass off certain Gnome projects, so I can be free to address other matters.

That's all for now. AG

The Libretto/Score

I guess I have to prove that we actual do have a Libretto and a Score,
so here's a shot of those materials.

Both the Libretto and Score are divided into 

Act One & Act Two

Even though Act One Score looks pretty beefy there,

that doesn't include the score for individual Instruments.

It is designed for a 24 piece Pit Orchestra

and what you see there are drafts of the final score

and not all numbers are printed out there.

Below is a long shot of the Production breakdown 

that outlines the timing of the show,

including production numbers and set changes,

assuming the sets are along the lines of the ones I have designed,

which may not be the case, since things have expanded since then.

It doesn't really tell you much, except that 

this degree of Production Breakdown 

is done and hanging on the back of my door.

It's really only a timing document,

 outlining the musical numbers, their timing, length of dialogue, 

scene timing, bridges and set change timing.

Oh, and there is some blocking in there too.

The Libretto has Technical, Operational and Directorial notes included.

In the larger scheme of things, there's way more work to do. 

For now I'm focused on publishing the Illustrated Storybooks.

After that I will publish the Libretto and continue working on the score.

There's still more Arrangements that need to be done,

but there's a lot of numbers that I can do the final score on.

I have to go back and redo the Divisi and the time signatures

(that I lost due to a hard drive failure)

as well as other aspects of the score that need to be addressed.

But I'm not going to touch the music until 

the Illustrated Storybooks are finished and are being published.

Mainly, because I don't want to overburden my computer 

and end up with more hard drive failures.

Truth be told, 

I lost ten years worth of work with numerous hard drive failures, 

work that I had to rebuild or recreate.

That is why it has taken me so long to do this.

Gadzooks!

"Never Been So Near"

 Well, while I'm at it I guess I'll post this song again.
This is the First Song in the show
(other than the Overture)

"Never Been So Near"

I made this as a animation almost ten years ago

using the Artwork we had at the time.

We have not recorded anyone singing it yet,

so I just put the lyrics up as a scroll up the screen.

I think you can get the gist of it.

I don't think I need a bouncing ball.

The email at the end if this film is no longer valid. 

use the gmail one on the sidebar.

AG

A Promotional Powerpoint

 A Sample of the e-Storybook Format

As I was working on posting the "Talking head" video below,

I found this sample powerpoint presentation I made

as a test for how the e-Storybook might look.

I was experimenting with what I could do with PowerPoint.

It's a little stiff, the narration,

 because I was worried about slurring the words

and I tried to narrate it at a reasonable speed 

that one might casually read the material.

I did not want to read it too fast.

You know how it is,

 sometimes you just take things too seriously.

The narration from this is published in

 Volume/Book: One Introduction to 

Oh well, take it for what it is.

I am about to actively seek Agency Representation, 

so this might help.

Also, I hope to locate Theatre & Film Producers 

who may like to be involved as well.

I expect that this gives a good picture of the project.

I think I probably posted this years ago when I made it.

I've been totally engaged in the publishing end of things

and I didn't realize that finishing that would take years.

AG

The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture

"Bezaliel becomes a Master Gnome "

The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture

Advancement into the First Class Theatre & First Run Cinema Productions,

in addition to the numerous other Ancillary Markets, including Television,

is contingent upon establishment of the Joint Venture.

Advancement in the Limited Edition Publishing Arena is the Purview of 

Image of the Mind Studios

while the Unlimited Editions will belong to the Joint Venture.

The Secondary Markets: Festival & Environmental Theatre, 

Independent Animated Film,

Puppetry, Animatronics,  

and Garden Gnomes & Figurines

are the purview of Image of the Mind Studios

All the rights to this project, 

with the exception of those retained by Image of the Mind Studios,

 will be turned over to the Joint Venture 

once the Structure is firmly established 

and the appropriate number of Board Members 

buys into the project.

There is a fixed number of shares in the project

47% of which will be sold to

active members of the JointVenture,

the Balance of which belong to Image of the Mind Studios

ad infinitum.

The ratio of shares will always remain the same in the event of a stock split.

Acquisition of 100% of the project

can only be achieved by purchase of 

Image of the Mind Studios

The Industry Review Package 

makes reference to this Joint Venture

and the Business Plan outlines the basic terms.

The Business Plan

is developing and takes into account a larger operation than just

"The Gnomes of New Hope; Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure"

this Business Plan defines an Operating Structure 

that incorporates multiple divisions

that in current terms, represents separate business entities,

but are linked to effect the production

of this and other projects of a similar nature.

This multi-faceted Business Operation is to be Founded and Supervised by 

The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture

and

Image of the Mind Studios.

Accommodation is also made 

for the outright Sale of 

The Gnomes of New Hope Franchise

along with 

Image of the Mind Studios

and other projects in various stages of development.

AG