Building a Character

Y'know, when I think about LAN'ded nowadays it is MUCH different than how I thought about it a year ago. What began as a cabaret idea is now blown out of preportion into a huge conglomerate of ideas that can't be encapsulated within a single show. Kyle and I have taken this notion and divided up LAN'ded main properties into several different facets of Imaginary Trends and I think it's all for the better.

The most useful thing we've been able to do the last few months were the viral vlogs that "Christian" would upload to YouTube. It's been a "secret" of sorts for a while but we're ready to really move forward with it and increase the cone of vision for this campaign. We've started uploading content twice a week to a YouTube channel dedicated to Imaginary Trends content. (www.youtube.com/ThisIsWhatWeDid) You can see the video blogs Christian does there. GO!

As I and Kyle have stated before, we're big fans of mimes. Why? I'm really not sure but I'll run with it. We've set up a separate channel exclusively for our Mime related shenanigans and you can bet that those shenanigans will intrude on Christian's activities. It's funny what a little make-up can do...

The shape of LAN'ded was once a square, taking place in a very regular space but it has since changed shape and it like an amorphous blob that can be viewed by any fan of any number of subjects. In doing the video blogs, I've gotten a much better sense of who Christian is, who he knows, what he likes, and what he is/isn't capable of. It's funny to think of this because I was always writing LAN'ded with me in mind for Christian, but having to actually go out and perform a him is another beast altogether. Though Christian and I are very similiar, we've many differences which mainly are attributed to social status and awareness. Many friends have suggested things for Christian to do, and most all of these things are fantastic! However, I need to carefully look at these things are determine not if I would do them, but if Christian would. I am not ashamed to say that there's been more than a few great ideas thrown away just because Christian wouldn't be capable of some of the things suggested.

In the coming months we're going to explore Christian's social fears and what exactly makes him want to stay indoors 24/7. Some of those reasons may surprise you, others will make you laugh, but most importantly it'll help you view him as a real person.

Hope you're watching, we're just getting revved up.

~ Aaron J.

We're Not Dead!!!

I swear to you that the development of LANded as a series and living entity is thriving!

For the first time since the reading, Aaron and I are going to sit down and discuss further revisions to the scripted material... via video chat (isn't technology wonderful?!).  As you've read in previous blogs, we have begun approaching the material from different angles to gain new perspective and solidify characters and their relationships.  Even taking into account that the presented script was a drastic abbreviation of the full story, there were glaring holes in our conveyance of the story.  This new view has led us to adopt new strategies in structure and style which may sound drastic (and it is) but we wholeheartedly feel that it is for the better.  

Each new step that we take in the development process has made it easier for us to explore this parallel world.  As much as the characters have developed from our own minds, they are becoming more real and seem to write the stories for themselves... and for a show about imaginary friends existing in the real world, we have begun to question ourselves accordingly.  By the time filming takes place we may be institutionalized!

The current viral campaign has kept me sidelined in a sense, but the creative process hasn't stopped in the least.  I can't wait to dive back into revisions, development, critiques, and this huge game of "Yes, and..." that seems to be our writing process.

Furthermore, I have been promised some sort of musical preview of a new song stemming from one of Aaron's TADs (a writing exercise he's been doing for several months now) and we are awaiting a rough cut of Christian's rapping debut... Yes, you read correctly.

Intrigued?  So are we - and also a bit nervous... For a social delinquent, he sure does have a sense of ambition!

A Hearty Hello from the Hampshire!

Gosh, 3 weeks just sort of flies by doesn't it?

Well LAN'ders, let me just start by saying that this week is a HUGE week for everyone. There's a new Pixar movie, E3 is happening, and the Imaginary Trends team is getting together for read-thrus once more. After all, we're all up here in the beautiful roads of New Hampshire now, so we've got plenty of time to work! Personally, it's a bit of a departure in writing up here. Whereas I was surrounded by media outlets of all sorts in Pittsburgh, up here I have to drive at least 15 minutes to get anywhere. Just puts everything in a different mindset.

Truth be told, many different iterations of the episodes we used in the reading have been written and re-written and time and time again it keeps coming back to the basics: How can we get our point across, and how can be innovate it? The ideas, we think, are innovative enough with our concepts, but how do we have these themes and ideas identifiable? Rather than mining pop culture through and through using any and everything to get a laugh (Like Family Guy), we're relying mainly on things that make you think of childhood, like comics, Muppets, video games, and cartoons. It's expanded from just a dorky coming-of-age tale and has evolved into a celebration of childhood in a way.

Part of the difficulty in writing the content is merging those aspects with the adult themes of the characters. Christian is an adult, living as a scared child. Izzy and Natalie are manifestations of the sandbox best friends he's never met or had before. How do you relate the child and the adult? Well, luckily for us, we never really grew up. That's not to say we're men who behave like boys, but we're mature kids at heart. We still have our action figures, we still love our Looney Tunes, and we still would jump at the chance to play some good old fashioned Mario Kart. Merge that with a big desire to create and you've got something great and new on your hands. Hopefully when LAN'ded becomes fully realized later on in its development cycle, you'll be able to see that as well.

I'm editing the scripts one last time, fixing typos and such before we start doing read-thrus again tomorrow. Can you believe I mixed up Robin Hood and Peter Pan? Yikes...people have been killed for less.

One last thing - Go see UP! You'll love it.

Download "NEW GAME", the first piece of the third draft of LAN'ded!

I figured it's almost Easter...so what would the Last Supper look like in Christian's world?

A few people in the reading cast have requested that they see this "new script" I just drew up over the last week and so I figured why not just post it? After reading through this short 11-12 page script with Kyle, we've decided that this works really well as a "trailer" of sorts. A precursor to the first episode. Something that sets up the characters and universe better than trying to cram it into the first episode.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD "NEW GAME" AS A PDF FILE!

On a side note: I was lucky enough to receive a Sony PSP (I named her Peach, my DSi is named Daisy) over the weekend, and I decided that it would only be fitting that I get the game that inspired the character Lenneth in LAN'ded: "Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth." You may wonder why I decided to name the creepy landlord after a Norse Goddess in a video game, well, to be honest it just felt like it fit. Also, I'm a big fan of VERY cryptic/far-fetched references. Speaking of references, the entire third draft will concentrate on a larger variety of references. Emulating Spaced, I was aiming to insert references to things associated with Christian's world throughout the first season and while I was successful with that, most of the references were video game based. In this third draft a bigger concentration will be placed on referencing every facet of his dork culture. Working at a GameStop, I'm prone to have gaming on the brain, but I have to remember to spread that out. :)

Some ideas that I expect to explore in the third draft of LAN'ded include, but aren't limited to:

1. Christian holds a funeral for his broken Xbox 360, candles, priests, and all.
2. Izzy brings an (imaginary) pet home.
3. Natalie forms a coalition for imaginary friends. Sort of like a union for imaginary friends.
4. Dr. Cortex and Wally take over the kitchen. (Cut from initial reading script, will be more developed.)
5. More songs. We had 5-6 songs for the entire first season. We received some feedback asking us to have a theme song and some fill-in music and tunes elsewhere. Let's see what happens...

There's been talk of storyboarding "NEW GAME" so people can get a better idea of how everything will look. Think you guys would want to see those?

I'll leave you with two things:

1. If Carmen Sandiego and Where's Waldo had a child, would we ever find him?

2. Here's a picture of our Dr. Cortex, Wally, and Natalie taken from the reading staged last week at the Rauh Theatre. There's more to come later...

~ Aaron J.

Success!

It's hard to believe that it is over already. Starting promptly at 5:05 yesterday and running until roughly 6:30, the reading of LAN'ded is now a thing of the past. With an audience of about 60 people, the adventures of Christian, Izzy, Natalie, and a legion of zombies, maniacal landlords, angry protesters and livid mimes were played out.

Though we are still having feedback forms handed back to us throughout the week, the response was overall pretty good. People seem to be more open to the idea of the show than I thought they would be, and most of their comments weren't directed at what they didn't like, but what they wanted more of. Mainly, the audience wanted to see more of Christian's reasons for staying inside, his history, addiction to red bull, etc. Also, the audience really took to the puppets, but we had a lot of comments saying they'd want to see them strung into the plot a bit more. The third comment we received the most was that people wanted much more music in the show.

I'm not disappointed in this second reading at all, but I do regret cutting down the script a little in some places because I know that we cut some important plot points in order to condense it to 80 pages. Dr. Cortex, Wally, and most of the 1st episode got slashed the most, so I know that we have the content that the audience wanted more of. Now we just have to work and develop that as well. The reading was very refreshing for me, it was the first time in the entire process where I could fully sit back and just take everything in. I took nearly 3 full pages of notes and have already starting brainstorming ways to implement them. It was so much fun to see everyone playing parts that we've had just imagined in our heads for so long.

So there's all these feedback forms to sift through, but I thought that you should all know that we came out with a few contacts from the reading. I won't name names but a few people inquired about how they could go about attaching themselves to the project as associate producers or consultants. Exciting :).

Expect some announcements by next week about some of the changes we may try and implement.

Keep LAN'ding!

if it worked for Tolkien...

It's February and all's well! Aaron here! Just thought I'd drop a line for you guys to look at. Here's a few photos from our last rehearsal. We read through the first draft of Episode 6 and eventually tried to get it on its feet to see what it may look like.

Episode 6 turned out to be a bear of an episode. Y'see, a few months ago we mapped out what we had planned for every episode and throughout the development process some things have been changed around. For instance, the show was originally intended to be just Christian and Izzy, but we wanted a female in there so Natalie was born. We originally had Episode 6 being a regular episode. A clear start, end, and finish, but as we tinkered with it (added zombies, vampires, and other various notches of ridiculosity) the story evolved and well...what I ended up with was a 55-page Episode. To put it in perspective, we usually have episodes be about 20 pages at their longest. I tend to write alot of stage directions and some of them are more illustrative than informative so a 20-page episode can (sometimes) be read in as little as 10 minutes. 

So...Episode 6 was this crazy hulk of an episode. After discussing it with Ky, Dave, and James, I proposed that the episode be split up into two parts and now we have a 25-ish page Episode 6 and a soon-to-be-edited Episode 7. I'm going all Peter Jackson on these episodes right now, but it is fun because I can leave room for cliffhangers and such.

I should have some cast spotlights up this week so you guys can see just who is playing who in the reading. Just wait til you meet the cast though, they're all amazing. I'm incredibly proud of everyone. Hopefully when we get this up on its feet, we won't be saying goodbye to the cast for the reading forever...

Hope these pics get you guys a little more excited for the reading in March. I'll have some more to upload next week too.

Opening the Vault-Tec vault and see what's out there...

Geez, there hasn't been an update since the 9th but an awful lot has happened.

We've made some dramatic changes to the story in terms of how this season will end and exactly HOW it will end stylistically. Dare I tell you all how it happens? Or should I just wait and see how it goes over? Hmm, decisions, decisions... I'll say this, it will definitely end on more of a cliffhanger now. Also, Ash and I are toying with the idea that Natalie often wonders what it is like to be real. That maybe she longs to be more than just a manifestation from someone's mind. Pretty deep huh? 

We had our first cast meeting last night at my house, all huddled inside my (now changed) dining room. There were about 13 of us in all. A spot of bad luck though, when I scheduled this meeting about 10 days ago I didn't think that the Steelers AFC Championship game would be scheduled around the same time. Aren't football games supposed to happen at 1:30 and 4:45? *shrug* Regardless, we were able to hit the meeting off right around halftime so I don't think anyone was too distracted by it. Steelers won anyway :).

Telling the cast what the show was about last night was slightly...entertaining, I think may be the right word. I know a few of them knew what the show was about vaguely, but they really didn't know the overarching plot and story. It was interesting to see what they found amusing and what they didn't. To hear some of their suggestions for what we could incorporate and pay homage to in the show made me realize that I definitely made the right choices in casting. 

If all goes well in scheduling, we'll have our first real rehearsal this week with the scripts. After some careful retooling, Episode V was given a much better structure and sub-plot. I'm pretty happy with it, and in letting a few of the cast read it last night it seems like they are too. That'll be one of the big benefits of having multiple eyes on the script I think. We'll be able to get a sense of what works and what doesn't almost immediately. I'd really like to get our Christian, Izzy, and Natalie all in the same room and just improv with them, maybe have them play a few games and watch Star Trek, y'know, just to see how they respond. 

The songs are really making me happy right now, and I can't quite put my finger on it. As far as lyrics go, I know they're going to change throughout rehearsal but for the meantime I am content. The most fun song to write for me is "What It Takes To Be A Zombie" which is sort of like a jazzy-50's number. It's a character song and knowing that we have such freedom in the show makes me believe that a song that ridiculous will fit right in without any constraint. Gotta love the imagination eh? :)

March 29th isn't too far away, and there's a long road ahead, but we're hitting the ground running. Be sure to check back later this week, we'll have some pictures up from rehearsal and maybe an interview up.