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.

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.