ashowkati

So the SSW books are well on their way. I've ordered the proof of Volume 1 and anxiously await it's arrival (Three times fast?). The prologue (pages 1-2) has been extended to 4 pages remastered. And Pages 3-6 have been enhanced. It's been really fun designing these books. I can't wait for them to go on sale. I hope Ka-Blam delivers on their promise of quality. Also the current side story "The Meeting" will be included in the Volume 2 book.

This weekend has been interesting. I saw the long anticipated Watchmen, which I will not comment on; respecting a friend's wishes. I bring this up because SSW's borrows some it's story's formatting from Watchmen, and it was interesting to see how that format can translate to accommodate for the demands of the film world. I'm pretty excited to get into Chapter III: The Weeping Angel. I just spent a few hours last night, doing some editing and rewriting, getting it primed and ready for COMIC-IZATION!!

In an ongoing effort to make SSW as immersive of an experience as possible, I want to start playing around with an idea I've had for a while now. The idea is to have a track of music available to play along with each page of SSW. The music would help define the mood of the scene, as an orchestral score would to a film. Also, Music has always been the biggest and most influential source of inspiration for my stories, so it would display to the reader the track (or one of the tracks) that inspired the respective page or scene.

I call it "Song of the Page." I'm still playing around with the logistics of it. For instance, I'm still trying to figure out how to even pull it off. I don't know if I want it to just start right when the page loads, or for you to start it with a little mini-flash-player. Let alone if it's even legal to have it at all. I might have to just settle with displaying the name of the Artist/track and have people seek it out on their own.

Regardless of what it ends up being, it's a feature I want to implement in the near future in some fashion. Le me know of your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below.

As you might have noticed, were having a bit of difficulty setting up the vote incentive. Just bare with us and we'll have it up as soon as possible.

Writing the notes to page 25 made me wonder about film. In the notes i wrote:

"I have a very film-like visual sense. As this story is intended to be a film, I can’t help but see it play out in my head as such... I know that the advantage comics have to film is the fact that at any moment, comics can choose to break out of that format."

This got me thinking about the reverse. What if film could break out of it's predefined parameters of a 1.85:1 (a.k.a. 16x9) aspect ratio. Comics and photography are able to defeat this problem due to their ability to option a vertical (a.k.a. portrait format) presentation. Of course I'm not talking about differently shaped TVs, although places like Target use TVs set up on their sides to display content vertically. It would be presented in the same 1.85:1 frame, but the content within that frame would go against what is expected. Currently, film is presented in a 1.85:1 wide-screen format. Most of the time, for cinematic reasons we end up with 2.25:1, 2.05:1, 2.35:1, etc. which further limit the vertical and effectively enhance the horizontal (a.k.a. landscape format).

One example would be shooting a scene sideways (90 degrees on it's side), to display more of the vertical of the scene. There is currently no efficient method to concentrate on the vertical of a scene instead of the horizontal. You can pan up or you can also zoom out enough to encapsulate the amount of the vertical you want to display. Both are still inefficient in conveying the "vertical's" significance. Shooting a scene sideways may seem like a very bad idea, due to the fact that the audience would potentially need to tilt their head to receive the information correctly. This concern can be nulled if the information presented is important enough and of a certain nature to where the orientation isn't a factor. Of course this rules out text and things of this nature. Perhaps a man standing in front a building could work. The shot would be filled with the entirety of the building and in front of it, a man. You could avoid a pan, or a low-angle shot. If the objective is to display the building in its entirety as compared to a man, the orientation is insignificant, because both the man, and the building would still be identifiable. Especially so if the components of the shot are established in two sandwiching "upright" shots.

A more convincing setting would be in outer space. That way it is instantly justified due to the absence of gravity, or absence of ground, in space. It boggles the mind to think of the possibilities.

So we ended up staying til Saturday, and didn't get back to San Jose until Sunday A.M. Spent all of Sunday and half of Monday working on Page 16. It was nice having Joenis here to show me a couple to techniques. Hopefully it's noticeable.

Seattle was pretty amazing though. I'm definitely gonna work towards moving there within the next year or so. It all depends on whats going on in the education and finance realm.

I'm in Seattle this week helping my friends find a place. I've never been here and I'm already in love. It seems like the perfect place to live. I'm getting to know the city alot more that I thought. I really like the downtown here. There's nothing more beautiful to me than skyscrapers by waterfront. Maybe that's naive, but it's what I like.

Driving around the different districts, crossing the different bodies of water, going to the neighboring cities... It all gives you a more genuine an educated decision about whether or not you like the city, and would ever decide to move there. I think i officially know this place better that San Jose AND San Francisco combined. You gain so much more appreciation for a city when you have a sense of purpose, and not just there for more than "vacation".

As far as Seattle, I'm definitely on the fast-track to move up here as fast as I can. It really us an amazing city. I did not expect this much.

I've been on this trip since Monday, and I should be back by Friday, so next weeks comic might be hand-drawn on my sketch pad.

Rock On!

iPhone Launch pics!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28488146@N07/2658949609/

i was in line for 4.5 hours. Not horrible. If at&t didn't go down, it would have been faster.

Joenis and I are now a part of twitter! Twitter is this new microblogging network. Its like blog-as-u-go, and it's hella addictive, especially after you set it up to work with your mobile device's SMS. We're adding what twitter calls "badges" to our sites, (next to our cbox) which provides a live feed of our twitters! So Join twitter and follow us in our adventures. fun!

Page 11 is now up for your reading pleasures.

I have also posted "Enhanced" versions of pages 6-11. For all of those pages, the color pallet was retooled to help with the mood and atmosphere of the scene. Also, for some pages, new dialogue and monologues were added, as I shifted a few things in the plot.

I hope you like the new Enhanced pages. As always please visit our forums for discussions on sswestern.

The new profiles page is up! Just click on "Profiles" at the top and let me know what you think. Ill be updating and adding new entries as the occur in the story.

Anyways I'm almost completely settled here in San Jose. Tomorrow the moving company is arriving with 98% of my stuff and they're coming early. So i'm going to bed.

Peace.