Mythic Scribes...the show.

[Garren Jacobsen]

Ok Scribanators hear me out on this.

We make a youtube TV show that we write, direct, and just create from the ground up. It would, of course, be fantasy. And it would be awesome. Other than that I got nothing. Who else would want to do something like this.

As an aside I got the idea after hearing about a family that sold their youtube channel for $500,000,000.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

There are loads of great graphic artists and writers that may really enjoy this type of project.

Are you thinking about still-frame art combined with short stories, longer serial pieces, or production more like a movie?

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

I'm not sure about still frame or not. But I envision it being a longer serialized story. I would like to write either an urban or epic fantasy. Other than that I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Penpilot]

I had an idea a while back about doing something in the style of this old PBS show called Story Bird, not the over all show, but in how they presented the story with still pictures.

[video]https://youtu.be/ZHyE8kjmW00?t=269[/video]

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

I think that style will work for a while. But, I wonder if we could eventually make it to full blown animation or at least animation for the actiony sequences. Again, I'm just spitballing at this point and gauging if people even want to do this.

 

[ascanius]

This sounds like a really fun idea. I've been playing around with blender and have a decent understanding on most aspects though I havn't tried animations yet. I may have to through my name out there depending how this idea develops.

I also think Urban fantasy would be the way to go as a start at least, you wouldn't have to explain all the details of a made up world, it would be easier for people to get into right away while the project takes it's first steps.

 

[Devor]

We could maybe pull off a scripted podcast with cover art. But you can't do full-blown animation with just volunteers - that's just way too much to ask anyone. And we're too far apart to get together as actors.

I think stills like the video Penpilot linked to would only work with a slow moving narrative. Once you get into any kind of action, it's done by shaking the camera, which just doesn't work very well.

 

[ascanius]

I don't know, I think full animation is doable though I have no experience so don't really know what I'm talking about. But I think it could be done digitally with something like Blender, 3ds max, Maya. If the episodes are kept short maybe 10min, maybe, but no longer than that and if everything was kept simple, no photorealistic stuff but simple toon type characters. If 3 to 5 people worked on animation for a monthy episode it could be doable, with a lot of hurdles, I don't know anything about audio but that would also be needed.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

Even if full animation is too difficult I've seen quasi animated shows. Where the frames were mostly still until action sequences and they had frames "moving" I'll post a link when I find it.

 

[ThinkerX]

Reminds me of some of the Lovecraft 'movies' on Youtube.

These are narrated stories, no other speakers, with fairly simple, yet well done animation to go along with them.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

So I think we all agree that at least at first we should do still frame animation style, just for easiness sake. Is there anyone that knows how to do remote recordings. I know the likes of Team Four Star does it but voice acting like this, or in general, is completely new to me.

 

[Devor]

So I think we all agree that at least at first we should do still frame animation style, just for easiness sake. Is there anyone that knows how to do remote recordings. I know the likes of Team Four Star does it but voice acting like this, or in general, is completely new to me.

Voice acting isn't too bad. A $30 microphone, the same for a headset, and a super quiet space is all it takes. Lots of professional productions use Audacity for the audio editing, which is free. And if you're scripting it entirely, there shouldn't be too much editing. (Unscripted can mean a lot of gruntwork.) It's just about finding the right voice.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

I think scripted would be better, mostly because I feel it'd be more organized and easier time-wise to handle. Also, my question would be what kind of art style we would use. Although, if we did compilations of various stories you could switch styles as much as you wanted.

 

[ascanius]

I think your getting ahead of yourself, get the logistics down first before you plan the battle.
First who is in charge of the project, the general, and makes the tactical descisons, and how are those descisons, going to be made. How is the channel going to be associated with the website? (I think it would be nice to have them closely linked instead of a small group going of on their own), are there any legal aspects to be aware of?
Second, what is the goal and how are we going to decide upon that goal. Short term, Is it going to be a monthly, weekly, bimonthly, or whenever we get around to it. length? and content? Long term, where do we want this project in 6 months? a year?
Recon. How is such a project done, how do others going about doing something similar, how much time is needed to make a single skit/episode? where are the problems and how can they be avoided.
Third how many people are going to commit time towards this project and in what way are they going to contribute? What skills, and resources are needed, what do we have and what do we need. Who is going to do what?
plan for the worst, is it a problem if nothing is published every so often, do we have a core group that can pick up slack, etc.

I think these questions need to be hammered out and polished before we worry about the little details. style is going probably fall into three groups, comic book, anime, or cartoony, simple colors and linework is probably the best way to start, simple. But lets get a group together and figure this out if we are going to do it.

Me I like the idea and I can probably donate a good couple hours a week.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

I think your getting ahead of yourself, get the logistics down first before you plan the battle.
First who is in charge of the project, the general, and makes the tactical descisons, and how are those descisons, going to be made. How is the channel going to be associated with the website? (I think it would be nice to have them closely linked instead of a small group going of on their own), are there any legal aspects to be aware of?
Second, what is the goal and how are we going to decide upon that goal. Short term, Is it going to be a monthly, weekly, bimonthly, or whenever we get around to it. length? and content? Long term, where do we want this project in 6 months? a year?
Recon. How is such a project done, how do others going about doing something similar, how much time is needed to make a single skit/episode? where are the problems and how can they be avoided.
Third how many people are going to commit time towards this project and in what way are they going to contribute? What skills, and resources are needed, what do we have and what do we need. Who is going to do what?
plan for the worst, is it a problem if nothing is published every so often, do we have a core group that can pick up slack, etc.

I think these questions need to be hammered out and polished before we worry about the little details. style is going probably fall into three groups, comic book, anime, or cartoony, simple colors and linework is probably the best way to start, simple. But lets get a group together and figure this out if we are going to do it.

Me I like the idea and I can probably donate a good couple hours a week.

With that said, who is interested and who can do what.

I can do writing and business work. I'm a horrible artist, as in most people can't tell if my stick figures are people or not, and I have no quiet place to record voice work. So who all is interested?

 

[Devor]

If it were me, I would want to put together a bit more detail and run it by a few people 1 on 1 before trying to sell anyone on it. And then there's another problem: You could get a half dozen people on board right now and still not have an artist.

So, the absolute first thing you need to figure out is how much art you need at a minimum, and then ask some of the artists here, "Hey, what kind of things do you like to draw? Maybe we can write a story around your interests."

By the way, animation is at least 6 unique drawings per second, which is already pretty slow, and you'll be lucky to find an artist willing to draw 6 pieces for your whole video. So keep that in mind while you're planning this out.

If you can find an artist (or some other kind of working visuals) I will be happy to help in any way I can.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I'm just going to jump in and say that yes, animation is time consuming.

Some MS members have already seen the one animation I've made in my entire life. It was a Valentine's Day gift for my wife in 2011. I spent an entire Saturday doing every step: paper-cutting, setting up a camera, taking photos (375 of them), repositioning paper cut-outs (374 times), uploading photos, sequencing and timing images in iMovie (an older version that's way better than the current), using royalty-free music and sound effects, and recording my voice.

So, 10+ hours of work, and how long does it take to watch the video. Two minutes. Almost.

I still love my wife as much as I did four years ago, but this V-Day I got her candy and flowers.

 

[Devor]

I spent an entire Saturday doing every step: paper-cutting, setting up a camera, taking photos (375 of them), repositioning paper cut-outs (374 times), uploading photos, sequencing and timing images in iMovie (an older version that's way better than the current), using royalty-free music and sound effects, and recording my voice.

Actually that's not half bad - you don't have to redraw every frame. Let's say:

- You get some still images and some basic white-words-on-a-black-screen to fill in some time.
- This kind of process of photographing specific moving pieces of a knight and a dragon (or whatever) to handle a 2 minute action scene.
- A silly script.
- A voiceover.

It would be too much work to do every month, but I think you could pull together a good one-off video by combining all of that.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

So I've been brainstorming this and I thought of a way to incorporate different art styles into a single comprehensive story.

You have two gods playing a strategy game, like Chess, and they pick their pieces from a large selection. The gods then place them on the board. Each board represents a person within the world that the story takes place on. Every so often we see the person-piece's perspective on the goings on in the world. The gods move their pieces in turn. These are represented as the pieces feeling an overwhelming urge to act in a certain way and go to a certain place. However, once there the people will have the choice to act as they see fit.

Every time we go to a person-piece we have a different art style. Suppose a god picks an elf piece. Their art style, I imagine, would be something more focused on natural lines and curves and be couched in a more earthy color scheme. Suppose another god chose a sentient from a dark realm (we'll call him the orc for now). The Orc's art style would be more grey and spartan, since he would be more militaristic and less concerned with natural beauty.

The above is merely a suggestion. What I would prefer is that the writing team creates a bunch of characters and the art style is reflected in their upbringing, characteristics, etc.

So what you would have is several somewhat intersecting shorts coming together and forming a larger world/conflict where all of their actions affect the overall plot and each other.

I think this could work especially well with the youtube video format because you could separate the characters out into several channels and follow their story alone or watch them in a single format and watch chronologically.

What do you all think?

 

[Devor]

It's a good step towards getting there. How much art do you expect to need with this kind of format?