Feb 25 - Mar 1: Defining IP and areas of interest

Project introductions and considering the outcome - Setting up an IP for Concept art

By Christopher Sutton

Feb 25 to Mar 1

Pretext

    Today was the start of the Masters course at Massey, already I have a lot to think about. While I have yet to share my ideas/IP with my peers Mona and Jack yet, our new tutors have already discussed and suggested several issues and ideas with us to get us thinking about our projects so we can sort out our trajectories in a timely fashion. This is to avoid us meandering and wasting time.

The next few days are to prepare for the presentation due on Tuesday 2 March.. This will include additional investigation into useful resources online, revamping the PowerPoint I created over the 21-24 February and creating some test concept pieces using reference photos I have collected. 

Questions/Issues for consideration (General)

During the talk on 25 February, we discussed several issues and questions we would have to answer during the presentation and throughout the paper.

• What is your IP? How will it draw in an audience?
• Is there any other media/stories that can be used as a base or spring board for your own story/script/IP?
• What media do you imagine the final product would use? (Hand drawn 2D, CGI 3D)
• What social relevance does your story have to the modern day?
• How will the work I do in the course of this paper help me achieve my future goals?
• How do I see the final product of the course? How will I present my findings and artwork to an audience?
• Do I hope to address any social, moral or technical issue with the findings of this research? How would I go about addressing these issues?
• What would been some potential areas of focus? We can only concept some much, so what should we focus on?

Where do I want this course to lead?

One of the most important questions that need to be answered before moving forward is "What do I hope to get out of this course?" For me, the answer is pretty straight forward yet the path is covered with hitches and "maybe" bumps. I have always wanted to direct my own movies/series. The focus on animation came with my time at SIT in Invercargill, but the result is still the same. More than anything, I want to be the one telling the story, sharing my slightly mad mind's eye with the world.

I do however realize that expecting to land a directing job right out the gate is silly and that I might need to look at starting lower on the ladder and work my way up to that goal. Personal, what I want at a bear minimum from the course is my foot in the door, with a job in the industry and a good skill set and resume for pitching new ideas and stories. Some awesome art to my name wouldn't hurt too.

In summary, my goal is to one day direct my own animated films/series, but first I need my foot in the door with the industry, building up the skills I'll need and making professional connections.

Story, World, Character

It was suggested by Paul that we think about our IP divided into three terms, Story, World and Character. Story is about the plot, the narrative beats and the general events of the story. World is the setting, landscape, type of civilization and other worldbuilding factors. Character is the people who inhabit your world, with a focus on those who shape and play important roles in the story.

To make sure our IPs are fleshed out enough to get a good grasp of what our individual focuses should be, we have been encouraged to explore our ideas about our IPs in terms these three categories. 

Story

The narrative focuses on the adventures and journeys of "The Wells Street Explorers League", a small misfit group of adventurers, scientists and explorers. While most of humanity survives in isolated cities, hidden away from the colossal creatures than wander the land scape, the colorful characters of the explorers league seek out the unknown regions of their world and document their findings.

As the POV characters, the Explorer's League is the lens or mechanisms through which the audience would view the world. This will allow me to not only use the main characters as a driving force in the story but also as a way of choosing where and what parts of the world to explore. Having a range of protagonists means that I don't have to make a blank slate character (AKA no personality), out of fear that the audience would relate to them. With multiple POV characters, a viewer could unconsciously pick and choose which character they relate to a why.

An important decision I will need to explore/investigate will be how the character's perspective is communicated. An interesting initially idea comes from Bram Stockers, "Dracula" novel, and several other pieces of media that takes inspiration from it. The original story of Dracula is told as if reading the journals of the human characters in the story, as if the reader was compiling the information/narrative from notes and documents. This could work for the project's IP, however, most of the reference I can think of that use this method of story telling are horror stories, which isn't I'm thinking of taking the IP at the present moment.

World

The main feature of the fantasy world the story is set in is the presence of giant monsters that roam the wilderness. Other creatures have evolved to life around these colossal creatures and the very landscape has changed due to the giant monsters roaming the countryside. While few and far between, the colossal are nearly invincible forces of nature, unstoppable and immovable. All who live in the wilderness, outside of city walls, learn to live with these creatures or stay out of their path.

Others strange creatures also inhabit the world, both sentient and feral. Some are opportunities, some are bizarre, others are best avoided at all costs. There is potential for the explorer's league to have a couple of members be from non-human races/species, although at this stage I'm uncertain how I would like to proceed with this idea.

Character

As with any good story, the driving force of the story are the character and character interactions. This is probably the area I need to think about investing more time into as a lot of the ideas I have about this aspect is very fluid at the present moment. The most concrete part is the presence of the Wells Street explorers League as the protagonists. However, I'm even sure how many of them there should be. Generally story telling wisdom saying that 5 or 7 would be the optimal number if I want a semi large main cast. However I think this is a question best explored through actual making concept art of the League, as writing for characters I can't create is somewhat counterproductive.

For background characters, I should look into what sort of technology and civilization age the world has reached to decide where to take inspiration from. At the present moment, I'm thinking about 19th and early 20th century tech and fashion.

Media references and where to find them

Old References

• Atlantis; The lost Empire 
• Attack on Titan
• Arcane (Riot games)
• Hilda
• Klaus

New references

• Avatar: Legend of Korra
• Kipo: Age of the Wonderbeasts
• Dr Grordbort

A trip to Te papa 

During the week, I took a few trips to the Te papa Museum/Gallery/Community center. Most of my time there was spent in the "New Zealand Nature" and "Gallipoli: Scale of our War" exhibitions and I have a few ideas from those exhibitions that I would consider applying to my own project. For example, a fair portion of the stories told in the Gallipoli exhibition are letters or diary entries of the men and women who played a part in the conflict. It is probably worth revisiting Te papa in the near future to examine and determine the ways I can display my final product.

I think in general it would a be a good idea to explorer or investigate other exhibitions and think about how I can mix in theme with the display method. If nothing else it should be something that helps immerse an audience in the world I'm trying to create.