Congrats on your new SF digs! You're gonna have such a time in that grandest o cities and I am oh-so-very jealous....
I've been doing a lil bit of concept work, sorry that it's all so rough, I'm learning! So off the top of my head, the concept I had for one of the episodes (i've only got about one so far...) is:
"Electrical Intrigue!"
-our protagonist adrift in the open seas, taking this time for thoughtful reflections on the awesomeness of travel, the significance of this vast expanse of wild blue yonder! When forsooth, the sun is mysteriously blocked as he finds himself in a strange glowy cave...
...more importantly the glow is advancing! and then a tiny something swats 'im--right in the eye! *fwap*!
What the crap? A tentacle? too late! There's a ton more all over the tiny home-engineered ship! They're clogging the motor--she's goin down!
Pulls out his homebrew weapon 'o choice and goes to town on one of them--easy prey! But wait--they are all clumping together....
KERRRRRZAP!! A huge clump of them floors our dude and he's down for the count....water coming in...oh noes can't keep eyes open---hrrrrrrgggggggh *fade*
Wakes up to find himself in what looks like an aquarium with lots of big glowing water-tanks....full of those zapping bastards. Gingerly tries to pick one up--it's a way tinier, cuter version of the guys that beat the crap outta him earlier
What he's found is a domesticated cuttlefish, cephalopod champions of the reefs! Turns out that earlier he'd wandered into a deepwater cave on the deep ocean side of this chunk of islands, where he got attacked by some vicious electric squid (bastards!)
[eposition source, dialogue] nature lecture on the coolness of the cuttlefish: best camouflage in the ocean, one of the smartest ocean creatures, mutated on this small isolated reef to very social behavior due to small food sources...result = electric power source and easy domestication! The limestone of the islands was eaten away by the ocean and formed a network of underground caves filled with electric sealife that form an electric power grid for the city (these shots could just be straight diagrams?). That power is what brought you back! Cut to shot of him touching his chest, and finding a pacemaker/defibrillator cuttlefish stuck to his chest...tentacles embedded into his skin. Creepy.
Well, my young man, Glad you're back in the land of the living...
The two travel down a dark hallway....it's a meticulously hollowed out rock cavern lighted by the soft glow of the moss which absorbs the sound of their footfalls. The camera examines them through a 'fisheye' camera perspective (*ZING!*) of the aquarium. At the end is a big cave with a hole at the top where the tide pushes in water. The floor is covered in shallow tide pools--breeding chambers for different strains of domesticated cuttlefish. Sort of like a chinese fishmarket, with all the colors and tags and shit, but with people meticulously charting out their growth over time instead.
Oof that took way longer to type than to act out in interpretive dance/say to ya. ....comments and such are awesome !
Concept shots:
islander engineer1
islander engineer2
2 comments:
WOAH MEL! i knew there was some thought behind your "science island (hmm...i need to find a cooler name to call it)", but damn, you've been busy! my heart aches i couldn't see the interpretive dance, but i suppose that'll have to wait...:P
the picture inside the cave is mightily spectacular -- you set the mood quite nicely with the enveloping sense of foreboding, which balances well with the light shining in. i was thinking though, if the mariner's heart is replaced with a defibrillating cuttlefish, his first encounter with the wild squids would have to be pretty vicious...maybe his heart gets eaten or something? or something about the island expunges some kind of noxious chemicals (was it a volcanic island?) that the cuttlefish are able to mitigate through symbiosis. although if everyone on the island had an implanted squid, that would make our hero a little less special and unique. hmmm...that could fit nicely with the lost paradise theme though: the mariner gets all these sweet enhancements from the island, but is then somehow separated and must journey back? the cuttlefish has some kind of homing beacon? some topics for a few issues down the line mayhaps...hee hee!
i started a bit on some character designs myself yesterday, but nothing's yet been post worthy. san fran's been in the high 70s for the past few days, and i've been thoroughly enjoying golden gate park. ...trying to use the people on paddle boats as some inspiration.
oh! and i was wondering about the electricity: can all of the island's surrounding fauna generate bio-blasts? or just those inhabiting the limestone caves and underwater channels? anemones would be pretty natural i suppose...but maybe none of that has bearing on the story. damn mel, so much to elucidate!
Ah sweet sweet summertime San-Fran! My heart yearns for thee. Glad you guys are enjoying it, the part is one of my favorite. places. evar.
I'm sending in my cal grant form by the end of the week, and there's a portfolio review event at the local SCAD here on Sept the 29th--so I'm jonesing to get some pieces completed and ready for that.
goodness anemones! brilliant! That would add some really beautiful bg elements as well
The symbiosis would be a great plot element. Perhaps the cuttlefish are actually controlling these electrical engineers--human slaves who think that they have the free will to manipulate the cuttlefish when really our intelligent aquatic friends are releasing dopamine into their water supply and into our engineer friends--initiating their leader's bid for island dominance!
A sinister beginning indeed?
I've always been fascinated by parasitism/symbiosis...I think that this would be a really cool angle to go off of. Perhaps the leader of the electrical engineers is the first to have had this pacemaker technique applied and is thus the only one officially mind controlled. Our protagonist is the only other person who this technique has been attempted on, and we can have him be gradually "infected" with cool physical changes
Maybe he grows chromatophores and gains chameleon like powers? Also cuttlefish have awesome "W" shaped pupils, which would be fun to play with in his mini-metamorphosis
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