Project Two - Panel to Panel
I started this exercise with the idea of making the two panels based on a matchstick. Inspired by a prompt in Peachtober, I sadly hadn't gotten round to completing during October, and have since been unable shake the idea! I wasn't sure how I wanted to execute the idea, all I had was this vision which seemed good, but difficult to translate onto paper. I started sketching the concept and tried a few different point of views that would get the most impact, but struggled (dare I say it felt wooden!).
The idea was for a new match to be lit out the box, very happy and excited, almost beaming with curiosity and wonder as it steps into the world shining bright. The twist would be, that it was in a cave or some kind of dark abandoned place, where once lit, the match would light up the space revealing old burnt matchsticks that had left before it. I was playing with the idea of knights in shining armours going on a quest to slay the dragon.. yes I'm a fan of Shrek! Of course it would be mortified to discover such dismal realities, and immediately realises it was about to join them as its own flame grew smaller.
This still feels like a fun idea, but squeezing into a before and after shot felt too challenging at this early stage. I then thought about trimming off some of the baggage on this idea, simplifying the concept to a simple close view of a lit match, contrasting to the end being match dead. However, once I had drawn this in a sequence, I found it hard to take away the middle, as this felt like the best part!
In the end I scrapped this whole idea. Today wasn't going to be a matchstick day, this concept will have to be stored away for another time. I went back to my notes and decided to focus on the muddy dog walk. I sketched a few different ideas on this, one being inside a car to show arriving to the walk to driving home, the second was finding a big puddle at the beginning, and then walking proud after rolling in the puddle.
I loved the idea of a very muddy dog sitting in the back seats of a car with mud splatted everywhere to suggest it had shaken instantly, but in the end decided to for the walk.
I was wondering whether this simple idea would work better if the first and last frame would be in the same location, i.e the backseat of a car. I thought that this would be a strong way to represent the 'set-up' and the 'punchline', leaving the mystery of what had happened in the middle. I then thought back to Charles Shultz and Peanuts, and how sometimes the punchline felt like it would often ignore what just happened, in this case a dog carrying on with its walk covered in mud, but not being at all bothered by it - in fact is proud. That, I thought, would perhaps carry more humour.
To add to the chaos that obviously went on in between, I added the owner's legs which are also covered in mud to emphasis the mess and excitement. On the legs you can see a paw print, suggesting the owner is filthy because the excited dog had ran to the owner and jumped all over them. I felt this was a relatable addition to the strip for all dog owners to chuckle at! "Typical"
I really enjoyed trying to come up with the simple narrative for this exercise, and I'm really happy with the result. It was a great challenge in brainstorming the right idea that would be most effective. Setting up the story and giving the punchline feels like such an excellent way to tell an impactful story without telling it all. It takes decision making to a new level, choosing what is important information for the viewer to understand and how to reduce it down into two frames. It's like slapstick comedy, doing the extremes to get the laughs. I would love to explore this further!
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