I was thinking about different filmmakers and how varied their processes can be. Stanley Kubrick was famous for doing multiple takes - sometimes dozens of takes and sometimes much more (!)
Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood will do one or two takes and that's it.
On the show Seinfeld, there were two takes generally, unless something big went wrong. This is probably fairly common on TV shows (I think?) where things are moving quick as possible.
Judd Apatow, among other directors, will have a lot of improv during shooting (it's amazing how well some of those movies turn out - having great improvisers helps obviously). The wonderful Documentary-style comedies of Christopher Guest, and Curb Your Enthusiasm by Larry David - those have no dialogue written. They're all improv.
Meanwhile, The Office by Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant, as well as Kevin Smith's early movies, and the Star Trek shows of the 90's - those were rigidly scripted and needed the boss' approval to change a single word. (this may be an exaggeration - I did no research to confirm this.)
Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen, I believe, have very little as far as deleted scenes or unused footage.
Meanwhile, The Blair Witch Project, What We Do in the Shadows, which both had improv, shot reams and reams of film before assembling their movies from those mountains of footage.
There are so many paths to get to the destination.
I outline stories - well, first I think of scattered scenes, moments, and maybe certain emotions I want to see the characters experience. Or maybe overall storylines I think will make sense and be interesting. The early part of creating is very messy and loose, and I still find old scattered bits of paper and documents with general ideas scribbled or typed. It's fun when those old scraps have become finished stories in the months (or years) since they were first scribbled!
THEN I start outlining.
Eventually those loose ideas and plot outlines start to come together. I often write outlines over and over whenever I have some paper or a computer in front of me. Just slowly pulling it all together. It might change a lot, with ideas disappearing or new ones coming in. Stuff gets moved around a lot. This is always a bit stressful if I worry about it. But it seems like I just have to give it time, keep trying to outline, and kind of let it happen.
When I feel ready (or it's getting urgent to get some comics put up) I start on the individual pages. Then it's messy again, but it's a lot less stressful at this point. Well…a little less stressful anyway. I write bits of outline written down on each page, and then start turning it into plot events and dialogue.
Then I move the dialogue around and scribble in some rough figures to get a rough idea of what's going to appear in each panel. Again, stuff gets moved around, maybe to other pages or maybe deleted altogether. So, things continue to change but this is the part that feels the most creative, being right in the thick of it!
There's never really a script for my own comics (not including collaborations). It's just easier to figure out if I can draw the panels and dialogue balloons as I'm going.
Speakinawhich, this is when panel borders go up, and text and rough pictures get moved around and organized some more.
Then I either start drawing or doing 3D renders. This is work, in a way, but it's nice. I'm feeling happy at this point that I have a roadmap in front of me!
Repeat for the rest of the pages ‘til the story’s done! And voila! Now we can…start the next issue….!
I may have spelled out this process before - sorry if this is repetitive. How do you go about creating your comics?
Bye for now!
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So Many Paths
Banes at 12:00AM, Sept. 12, 2024
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bravo1102 at 10:46PM, Sept. 12, 2024
One thing that becomes clear reading through this is that writing is an organic process. The work grows on its own. It has a life of its own. Like any growing thing you can help it along but best to stay out of its way and let it come together on its own. It will surprise you. Let it. Don't force it, it will find its way in its own time. And the time you don't spend engaged with it is just as valuable as the time you spend on it because it is still growing and evolving even though you are not actively engaged with it. Kubrick used his multiple takes, Corman rehearsals, Apatow improv. All want to see it grow.
jerrie at 9:12PM, Sept. 12, 2024
I work mostly like you do. I make an outline. I dont have a script. as I do the individual panels I work on dialogue
KAM at 1:55PM, Sept. 12, 2024
When I was in school learning about writing the teacher was big into the process which considered outlining a must, but it's not. It works for some, but backfires on others. I usually have an idea for where the story is going with maybe a few good scenes I want to include and my rough draft is technically my outline. But a proper outline just robs me of the thrill of discovery as I go along. I finished one outline and found myself with no desire to write the darn story since I already knew everything that was going to happen, so what was the point of rewriting the story as a rough draft? Writing by the seat of the pants certainly has problems, but for some of us it works and is more enjoyable.
J_Scarbrough at 8:27AM, Sept. 12, 2024
I generally have a very rigid production process myself, because my visions tend to be very, very speific. I understand that when you have people working and collaborating with you, they're going to have their own ideas and suggestions they want to be heard, and you kind of have to hear them out, but at the same time, you also run the risk of them sort of hijacking your project into something they would rather make, and then it gets to a point that your project is no longer yours anymore. This is why, as hard as it can be, you have to put your foot down and make sure everone is on the same page as you - unfortunately, that's not going to prevent any feelings being hurt, but in the end, it's still your project, and you're the one calling the shots.
PaulEberhardt at 4:59AM, Sept. 12, 2024
On some other very rare occasions, I just did a spontaneous drawing of some of my characters, perhaps with one or two props. I'd then let it lie for some time to come back later, think about what they might be saying and/or doing and what the heck could possibly be going on, and then create a comic page from it. This works amazingly well, even if as a technique it's rather slow and not something I feel I should do too often.
PaulEberhardt at 4:50AM, Sept. 12, 2024
On rare occasions, there have been panels I did several pencils of until I was satisfied, as redoing only some erased parts of them is sometimes conductive to my falling back into doing the very same things I precisely want to avoid. Better start completely over again in such cases. It has also happened one or two times that I traced messy pencils of mine as a clean pencil drawing to work with properly. You can erase only so much before some traces will inevitably show in the scan. This is because a lot of the magic happens in the pencilling phase with me, in which I always improvise a lot. I usually do have a quite clear vision of what I want to see on paper when I start drawing, as well as a detailed script, but when I pencil it out I allow it all to come alive. This is also when the dialogue takes its final shape.
marcorossi at 3:18AM, Sept. 12, 2024
I try to avoid re-doing things, because it takes a lot of time! I also need to be very detailed when I sketch, so even re-doing the pencils would take away a lot of time.
bravo1102 at 12:31AM, Sept. 12, 2024
Many of my re-takes are due to me doing everything. If I had a few studio technicians a lot of my re shoots wouldn't be necessary and I could get "one and done". I have to see everything through the lens and am a big believer in rehearsals and planning. Prior planning prevents poor performance. With digital having replaced film there is no limit anymore. You can shoot everything, including the rehearsals and look at it and plan before committing to anything.
bravo1102 at 12:24AM, Sept. 12, 2024
Film makers have a luxury that comic producers do not. They can do numerous takes and change up angles and staging and whole sequences. Then put it in the can and forget about it until editing. The comic creator has to do all that at the storyboard stage so they won't have to redo it all later. More efficient film makers use storyboards so they don't have to reshoot anything like Hitchcock. Then there's Roger Corman who would rehears everything for two days and then do one take to save time and money. That's what a lot of TV does. That's what Kubrick didn't do. He'd just show up and put people in spots and start playing. He could easily be criticized for so exhausting his actors that the performances ended up quite lifeless. I often watch one of his films and there's this "just get it done alreadt!" Despair in the actor's performance. Something that Kubrick actually wanted for many scenes. I've related the many alternative takes I do for lighting and blocking.