Hello fellow animators and Greek mythology enthusiasts.
I've talked about my recent writing and editing projects I've been working on. So, I thought it would be a good time to do an animation project post. Two years ago I announced that I was going to be animating Pandora's Box, but I didn't give any other details about it, so I figured it was time to tell you...
The scriptwriting portion This was the first time I wrote a script for something (besides a one woman show that I had worked on more recently in the summer of 2019--more on that later...). I might have to rewrite the script in some ways, and add some scenes into it, but so far I think it is a good first draft. I would like it to make it flow in the same ways that some of my stories do. Perhaps, I could make it a little less comedic, because I want it to be more serious. I find that when I write conversations, they tend to be a little weird, often with comedic elements, even when it is not intended. The reason I might have accidentally written it that way was that I had been writing a serious story before I wrote the script and wanted to write something more light-hearted...which isn't exactly what I want the whole script to be like. (I want it to have light-hearted bits, but as a whole I want it to be serious and have an epic feel to it). I am aiming for the script itself to be a little like the the movie Clash of the Titans (the 1981 version, not the new one).
(Image from Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/clash_of_the_titans)
I like how they took Greek mythology and retold it. Though, there were some minor changes to mythology, they didn't make it a different story or mess up the Greek Gods' family tree (like Disney's Hercules does). I also like the High Fantasy feel they gave the myth, and I would love to apply that to Pandora's Box. I also want to have a subplot with Athena and Artemis in animated movie, because it was not brought up as much as I would have liked in the first draft. And since Pandora was the first human woman on Earth, Artemis and Athena would be obsessed and excited over her. Another issue I still have with my script is the timeline. As far as I am aware, it is never clear in mythology when the various gods or goddesses were born, but I am sure I can create a timeline for it. For example, Artemis and Apollo have to be born before Hermes in order for him to steal the cows, and Hephaestus has to be born before Athena in order for him to crack Zeus's head open and allow her to come out of it. And since in some versions of the myth of Prometheus (which is before Pandora's Box) Athena is there and breaths life into Prometheus's creation, she has to exist around this time... The only period of time when it is clear that Artemis and Athena are not there at all is during the battle when Zeus dethroned his father Cronus. But that was only because at the time Zeus had not exactly been married yet and had no children. (And he married Metis later...) But in terms of timeline I really like how George O'Connor handled it in his comic book series Olympians, because he had certain times that all the gods came in, and he also figured out what myths the different gods should or shouldn't be in. The storyboarding
One of the panels from my storyboard.
Storyboarding is very different from actually animating but it at least helps you get from here to there. At the beginning it feels a little like you are making a comic in some ways without there being any actually speech bubbles. The thing about storyboarding is that it has to be rough drawing and you shouldn't do an overly detailed one. It's almost like plotting out a story, except that it is telling you where the characters will go, and how the character gets from A to B. And then after you're done with that, the actual animating comes in.
I began by putting the storyboard frames into the frames of the animation, though
my animation will not be drawn in the same way, as the storyboard frames are drawn. The storyboard frames are just there so I can figure out where the characters are going.
For anyone who is interested in animating and wants to know what app I am using,
I am using Sketchbook. And I used Sketchbookx (a different app) to the draw the background.
I then began inserting the images from the storyboard into the frames. This took a little while to figure out, since I had never used it for storyboards before.
Hermes will not be floating (at least not floating and unable to see his lower half) in the actual animation
My intention for the story board was to get something like this near the end:
Though I must keep in mind that the storyboard above is probably a final and complete draft story board and not what the story was originally like. There were probably many other storyboards before it. But I was aiming for the feel of it, though mine probably isn't the last storyboard because I might have to rewrite the script (and take away some of the narration).
After that I added in some keyframes, to make it move and not jump from frame to frame.
The next thing I did was to try to make basic frames in between the keyframes that showed how the characters flowed within the scene. Once I finish this one storyboarding for the whole script, I will be able to go in and make animation that feels as if it flows well.
Concept Art...
In order to actually animate the characters, however, and not rely on my quickly drawn sketches for the storyboard, I have to figure out what exactly they look like. Of course this may change and grow as I am developing them...But here is the current view of the characters...
I actually looked at several sculptures of Artemis to draw her. She will probably get a more distinct design over time, but this is what I have currently. The statue references I used were this and this.
But this is my second concept drawing for Artemis, though I might keep the statue-like face while still making her more tough and less delicate looking. Or maybe instead make her look like this (even though I didn't use a statue as a reference):
I am thinking that Aphrodite will have a different facial shape than Artemis (whether it be that I decide to make Artemis have the facial shape above or not).
As for her hair, I was trying to give her two different shades of red that made a cool pattern throughout. However I also seem to be referencing in her hair the fact that she was a cause of a war, the Trojan War to be exact, and that a lot of blood was spilled over that. (Also one of the people she loves is Ares the god of war).
I think when I draw Hermes again, I'm going to make him tanner since he is the messenger of the gods, which would mean he would travel a lot. But this is a basic starting point for his concept art...
The next thing I want to do is what I did in the photo above, drawing the character multiple times. This was very helpful in developing Gletta's current appearance. So I assume this will also work with the concept art for the Greek gods and goddesses, and even for Pandora herself.
Happy Holidays everyone! Since there are so many holidays celebrated during winter, and I didn't want to make someone feel left out by mentioning only three or four, I decided that I should write a story that captures something that all those holidays have in common...which is love. I also decided to set it in the world of my novel, The Silver Key. By doing this, I will show how people (humans and shapeshifters) who would usually be enemies, can be friends around this time of year...at least for the time being. "The Fairies or the Faylena" is talking about winter holidays celebrated in my Fantasy world. I haven't figured out the exact dates since they don't fall at the same time as our world's holidays. But one thing I do know is that these holidays are celebrated during winter. My inspiration for the story was this song: The Fairies they Draw Near
I imagine songs like this played (by local musicians) during the holidays in the world of The Silver Key. Though these two holidays take place in winter in two religions that celebrate fairies or faylena, I believe there are other religions in the world that celebrate the fairies or faylena (just not at the same time of the year.)
So, let's begin the story.:
The Fairies or the Faylena
This is the night, where many sit by candlelight
Hoping to get a sight of a fairy in the pale moonlight
Every child will tiptoe over to the window, hoping to see a
fay down below.
Far above the trees the fairies fly, into the night sky
All their voices are heard, and many rejoice at hearing a fairy’s voice.
Round the bend they fly, and some hope to apprehend,
In the starry sky they float, and many writers wrote about the fairies and how they were beautiful beyond compare with wild wispy hair,
Even the bards let out a tune, about the fairies seen above the moon,
Soon the winter’s frost is gone, and the fairies leave at dawn, to promise to return when the frost returns and laces the winter ferns.
—Phoenix
She sat outside on the steps of her apartment and looked down at the streets.Some houses had candles on the windowsill at this time; on others there were none, or the candles were snuffed out. Out the window of some of the houses, flowers were hanging: they were blue, silver, and sometimes even pink and yellow. While other windows had paper stars and even rainbow fabric flying out of them.
She wasn’t sure when the fay would come, but she was excited about it anyway.Few have been said to see the fay during this time of the year. Some waited out all the night until sixteen o’clock and never caught glimpse of them. But, she had a hope they would show, surely fay would take an interest in humans, wouldn’t they? For they were said to come every year, she reminded herself, and she had heard that some passers by had seen them, once.
She picked up her match box, and walked down the road singing tunes to herself, looking around, and lighting the matches as she went. Her daily wages she had earned had paid for them. She lit another match as soon as the second had gone out, as she ventured into the dimly lit street. Several carriages passed by her: some of the passengers looked out the window, but only for a moment, until they looked back at the driver and told them to keep going.
She passed store windows. Some stores still looked open, while others looked closed and locked for the holidays. She stood to the side of one of them that appeared to be open, and she opened its green door, closing it once she got inside. She exhaled, glad that she could get some warmth that wasn’t being generated from her match. She walked around the store—elaborate dresses were hung there. Some had feathers sticking out of them, which had an unusual feeling to them, as if they weren’t even normal bird feathers. She eyed it for a moment, and then walked over to an another one, it was long and blue and a lot less elaborate than what the one from the feathers had, but yet intricate patterns were woven into it.
“Do you like it?” came a voice, she turned around, she nodded her head in the spur of the moment. “Well, the reason you might, it was because it was modeled off the dress Ashalena wears.” He nodded his head, he then pointed her in the direction of the feathered dress, “and those feathers? You may be wondering where we got them, well you see, someone gave them to me, and told me that they once were owned by a shapeshifter.” She nodded and looked down at her hands, she hadn’t exactly wanted to go in and look as if she wanted to buy any of the clothes, in truth she didn’t.
“And this.” he said pointing to a pink dress, “was previously owned by a rich noblewoman—“
“I’m sure that’s wonderful!” she stuttered, stepping off to the side.
“Oh, well, do you think you would like to have a dress made to look like any of these? I’m not sure if we could get shapeshifter feathers, but we could try—“
“Thank you, but I am in a rush to go somewhere!” she said, feeling as if she had walked into the wrong shop. She did not have nearly enough money to buy any of these dresses, no matter how beautiful they looked. She smiled, rather falsely “I just came in…to, get out of the cold.” She put her hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it, and walked out into the cold once more. She wrapped her shawl more tightly around herself, she wasn’t sure if that would help in the slightest. She decided that she would walk to the woods in hopes of seeing a fay, even if the forest were swarmed with shapeshifters. She didn’t care as long as she had a chance to see the fay. She walked even more until she had left the city and reached the dark forest, her feet were sore, but she saw that the trees around the forest were tightly growing together and moss was around their roots.
She continued to walk. Even though she had been told many times that fairies were more likely to be seen where humans thrived, she had a sense that they would be in the forest tonight, as she had also been told they had a connection with nature. And it didn’t make sense to her for them to be in the city, even though some had seen them there. Besides not everyone in the city had seen fairies, some had said they caught glimpses of them, and she wasn’t sure if she fully believed all of them. There came a sound of something walking near her, she heard the sound of branches cracking underneath their feet, her first thought was that it couldn’t be a fairy, what she had heard of fairies was that they walked on the air and not the ground. But whatever it was she assumed it was a shapeshifter, shapeshifters were known to roam the woods and were very hostile, very, very hostile she had heard. She looked around, no thought to pray to the god of protection and safety came to mind (though that probably would have been of use). Her only thought was of the dress she had been shown and the feathers. The sparkling feathers that had been sewn into it came to mind, it wasn’t a ridiculous thought though, she knew whoever had got the feathers surely had come across a shifter and survived. Though she wondered how exactly they did that…. She didn’t wonder for much longer, for a figure appeared. They were wearing leaves, and there were a few of them in their short, black hair. But something was different about this figure beyond wearing leaves. Which was highly unusual for her to see, since she lived in the city and no one she knew of walked around wearing them or remarked on leaf-made clothes as “high and wonderful fashion." But the fact that they were not carrying a weapon of any sort brought a small burst of comfort. Even though she looked around for any sign of hostility, there was none.
“…you’re…you’re…not armed!” she muttered out loud expecting the shifter to not understand. The shifter stared at her for a moment and then looked down at their arms and gave a quizzical look, “oh.” she muttered, “you understood…sort of.” The shifter walked over to her, or rather scampered across the ground and stood close to her, surveying her every move and staring at her with their dark green eyes.
“What I meant, is that you aren’t carrying a weapon. You do, however, have arms.” The shifter looked at her, and let out a few sounds she didn’t completely understand. But they reminded her of the sounds wild animals made, and strongly reminded her of the chirping of birds. Then they turned and looked up at the sky as if waiting for something, something to come.
“…I wonder if the fairies will come this way.” she thought to herself, perhaps a little too loudly, the shifter looked over at her, a look came across their face one that seemed to understand the word, but not quite agreeing with it, but now the look was far from quizzical.
“You mean the faylena—“ they said, in a voice that still had a remnant of the bird sounds it had made before.
“You can talk!” she nearly shrieked, she had half expected the shapeshifter to remain talking in an incomprehensible language, and she found herself to be a bit surprised that they could even speak her tongue. It was a guilty feeling surprise like she had lacked the knowledge or thoughtfulness to even believe the creature had intelligence beyond the ones of an animal“in my tongue—“
The shifter sighed, “yes I am able.” they replied, their voice still following the pattern of a bird’s song. “Anyway, you mean the faylena.”
“What is the faylena?” she asked, feeling a little upset that she had been corrected on what they were called, of course they were the fairies, what else would they be?
“They come every year from their land, where nature is ever in bloom, where nothing disturbs the peace.” they replied, the shifter looks up again, “the feylena are kind and just, and know no evil—“
“you mean the fairies.” she replied, feeling like she could end up teaching the shapeshifter what it really was, “they come from a land far away, where no human or shifter can go, but they return at this time of the year to bring peace and joy—“
“…Aren’t we talking about the same people?” asked the shifter, she bit her lip,
“no, we aren’t.” she replied in the single moment. “Yours are obviously some shapeshifter deities that…that,are well…related to nature.”
“What?”
“Yours are shifters of sorts.”
“No, they aren’t. I mean they can be seen in different ways by different onlookers…but they aren’t shapeshifters, or gods, for that matter. They are something in between…they are the Feylena, or the fairies depending upon what you desire to call them.”
The shifter looked over at her,looking down at the ground and then back at her, “and, besides you just said yours are from a land, faraway…“
“it’s probably a different land.” she muttered. “A very human-like creature land.”
“…alright, then.” muttered the shifter, looking up at the sky once more, “they are said to arrive around this time.”
First there was nothing the sky remained the way it was with little hints of light in the sky here and there, but a light a light like no other came across it. The light shone for a few minutes in the sky and then separated into several.They seemed to be darting around, but not for no reason, they seemed to have a cause to fulfill. A goal as they darted around the sky.
“By the gods!” she sighed, looking over at the shifter, who smiled back at her, “it’s really them.”
“Indeed it is.” replied the shifter.
“But…wouldn’t a shifters’ Feylena be different than our fairies?” she asked, “with wings and talons and—“
“Oh stop.” replied the shifter, staring up again at the sky,
waiting to see what one of bright lights did. It stood there for a moment, and thenslowly went down to the trees. And then something changed about it, as it went down, and emerged but in a different less loose form…
“oh, it’s a fairy, it’s a real-life fairy!” she squealed, the shapeshifter merely smiled, “the faylena.” they both looked at each other for a moment, a small laugh escaped each others lips, any anger or disagreement that had gone on between them had slowly, ever so slowly faded away. And they both looked over. What the shapeshifter saw was a beautiful creature with wings made out leaves, and flowers blooming in her hair. What the human girl saw was a woman wearing a flowing green dress, but the hair of the fairy or faylena was of a rainbow hue.It hung about her shoulders and her wings were of bright light. She didn’t just stand there in the radiating light which shown from her body, she walked over to them, or rather floated over them and greeted them with a smile. And placed her hand, her warm hand which seemed to have an unearthly feeling to it in their hands, she looked over at the girl and the shifter surveying them both, “I suppose you are the two I was told to meet—“ she said, her voice had a soft feeling to it, but yet felt like nothing from that world, “the human and the shifter who waited to see us, in this beautiful night.”
“…you knew about us?” asked the girl, “did the gods tell you?” The faylena or fairy looked over at her,
“if they did, I am not allowed to exactly tell.” she smiled,
“But I was told to present these to a shifter and a human who met tonight, despite their underlying differences…” She brought out two golden chains. They both had lockets attached to them which had something inside of them, radiating light like the one they had seen before with the fairies or faylena, “..and met to this very night in hopes to meet us.” She floated over to the shifter and placed the golden chain around their neck, and floated over to the girl and hung it around hers as well. The shifter despite the amazement of the experience, felt they had a need to ask what exactly these beautiful fairy-made or faylena made necklaces did. For they knew that whenever a fairy or faylena was to present a gift to a mortal, be they shifter or human or the gods know what, there was usually an underlying meaning to it. And it wasn’t just there for the beauty of it.
“What exactly do they do?” asked the shifter, the fairy or faylena looked over at them. “They have two uses, one to call us for help when you are in need of it, and two, to sustain and help this friendship which you two have formed…or at least are beginning to form. How exactly it does this, this is up for you to find out, in time you will know. But you must know that this friendship must not end this night, like so many friendships between humans and shifters do, but that it must continue…” The faylena or fairy looked down at the ground as if trying to figure out how to form what to say next. “Even if others want to pull you away from it, don’t let them!” The girl nodded, so did the shifter though the entire meaning to them, wasn’t exactly clear, they knew they had to remain friends though, but they had only gotten a little bit of what was to come, at the moment they felt the current love which surrounded them that night, the night that they met the fairies and the faylena at the same time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What winter holidays exist in your Fantasy world(s)? Do they have any religious reasons for happening? (Like did a god or goddess, or prophet (or another supernatural being) cause it?)
Happy holidays to everyone!
-Quinley P.S. An upcoming post (that will probably be posted after the New Year) is one about my progress on my animation project, Pandora's Box. So be sure to keep your eyes open for that.
The interview that I am currently filming and writing with two characters, who are my own, is currently a work in progress (I have only filmed a few scenes, and I have not finished writing the script for it). As for right now, I thought I'd post another monologue. This one I only used for one audition, and the character, Juliet, I was playing I did not like as much as I liked Hamlet or Mercutio or Romeo or Malvolio or Viola for that matter. However Juliet was an interesting character to get into the mind of, even if she isn't my favorite character.
Other things I plan to do in the future besides filming the character interview (and posting another version of To Be or Not To Be along with a few other monologues), will be to post some scenes from contemporary plays, movies, and TV shows. So, be sure to keep your eyes open for that! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who is your favorite character from Romeo and Juliet? Do you think Romeo and Juliet is a romance or a tragedy, or a mix of both?
-Quinley
Hello everyone and happy Thanksgiving. I didn't have a post prepared today for Thanksgiving so instead I am going to be talking about the difference between basing your story on another story, retelling it, and mashing it up with a different story. But I do plan to make a post for Thanksgiving next year, and I do have a post planned for the winter holidays. ;)
Basing on
If I were to base a character on another character as I did with Phoenix, who was inspired by Newt Scamander, I would create a character who is loosely inspired by that character but not make them into the same character.
(Image from wiki, https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Newton_Scamander?file=Newt_Theseus_Leta_and_Bunty_at_Flourish_and_Blotts.jpg)
Generally you do not take information from your inspiration character and use it directly in your character. For example, Phoenix was inspired by Newt, but he does not have the same hopes and dreams as Newt. He is an activist, but not for the same reasons as Newt is. And most importantly, his name is not Newt Scamander, it's Phoenix.
The same thing happens when you are basing a character on someone you know (who is not a character). Washington Irving's inspiration for Ichabod Crane was a close friend of his, named Jesse Merwin.
(image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Merwin#/media/File:Jesse_Merwin_1783-1852.jpg)
However Irving didn't go out of his way to give Ichabod the same name as Jesse and therefore he wasn't "retelling" his friend, but using parts of him for the character of Ichabod Crane. (Though, there was another person with the same name as Ichabod, who Irving may have taken the name from, but it is unclear. I don't believe any personality traits were taken because the real Ichabod was a soldier, and Ichabod in the book would not want to fight.)
Retelling
As for retelling characters, they are somewhat the characters from the book, but you take information given to you by the author or what the fairytale gives you and you add or subtract information to your own liking. But if you are saying your retold character is "based on" the character from the book or fairytale that you are retelling, that would be a false statement. Basing a character on another does not mean they have the same name as that character (usually) or the same hopes and dreams. As for retelling a character along with a story, you tend to keep some of the character's characteristics. Like if you were to make a female version of "Jack and the Beanstalk," you would take some of the information you got from the fairytale of what the character was like, and then develop it further. Though probably in turning Jack into a woman in the retelling you would have to change the name of the character, but, if you were retelling "Jack and the Beanstalk" and placing it in a science fiction world, you would modify Jack for his or her surroundings, but not modify them to the extent that they aren't the same character anymore. The same goes for retelling a fairytale from a different character's point of view: Maleficent is a good example of this.
(image from wiki, https://maleficent.fandom.com/wiki/Maleficent?file=Maleficent_Arrives.jpg)
They keep Maleficent's personality as it was in the original movie. But they give her other characteristics and a backstory, while still retaining the given information that was there in the original movie. This process, however, is much more complex if you are retelling something like The Canterbury Tales or even a classic novel. You have a lot of information that the author gave you on the personality traits and quirks of the character. And you still want the keep that information while giving your character their own quirks and habits. But there is a bad example of this, where the screenwriter keeps none of the character's personality traits and makes them go off the edge in terms of this.
(image from wiki, https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Jim_Hawkins_(Treasure_Planet)?file=Profile_-_Jim_Hawkins.jpeg)
In the movie Treasure Planet, they don't really succeed in sustaining the personality traits that Jim Hawkins has in Robert Louis Stevenson's book and instead turn him into a rebellious teenager (which he was not). He was forced to grow up fast in the book due to all the murders that were happening and the way he was treated by the other men. And don't forget that he had to kill someone at one point. But he didn't want to rebel against his family. If anything, that was the last thing he wanted. As for this "retelling," I would say they didn't succeed in making it a retelling and turned it more into a movie that was based on the story rather than a different version of it told through a different lens. And not only that, but there were so many drastic changes that took place with the crew. For example, they made Doctor Livesey (Doppler in the movie version), who viewed himself as a gentleman in the book, into a very weird person and someone I am sure the doctor from the book would consider to be a fool, or at least someone who isn't very clever or sophisticated. While I did like the captain character (Captain Amelia), I found it frustrating that they had to create a romance between her and the doctor, which really didn't happen in the book. I feel like to create a good retelling you have to sustain the character's original personality traits, though if you do it well, you can make small changes to the story that you want, like what Maleficent did with *spoilers*having Maleficent wake up Aurora with a true love's kiss that was motherly love instead of romantic love.*end spoilers* That is an example of a change done well. But with Treasure Planet's huge changes to the characters and even the destruction of the island, er, planet I can't exactly say that was done particularly well. While a retelling can be set in a different genre, or with a male or female version of the main character from the original, you do still have to take into account the stuff the author set up for you, and not just throw it to the wind.
If Treasure Planet had made Jim Hawkins into a more caring character, who took in what was going around him and then was shocked by what horrors he faced in the flying boat in space, this would have suited the character more than to turn him into a rebelling teenager.
(image from wiki, https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Sarah_Hawkins?file=Cliptreasure17.gif)
So, it feels more like the writers of the story based the character on Jim Hawkins and just happened to name him Jim, even though his persona doesn't match up with the original book.
Another example of when someone bases their story on another story, but doesn't retell it is Disney's Hercules, which messes up the Greek gods' family tree. It is so complex already that to change it tends to make it really confusing. While I do not think it was good of Zeus to cheat on Hera, I think that it does really change the myth in a bad way to have Hercules be the son of Zeus and Hera, instead of Zeus and Alcmene, because it removes Hera's motivations to be the goddess she is. (If Hera hadn't been angry at Zeus, Io wouldn't have been turned into a cow, Leto wouldn't have had to find an island unattached to land to give birth to Artemis and Apollo, and Hercules wouldn't have gone through most of his labours.) To make her into a happy mother really diminishes what Hera was like as a character. Hera did have children, so she is a parent, but not really the kind of parent you would exactly want. After all depending on the version of the myth, she was the one who threw her child Hephaestus off of Mt. Olympus because he was ugly. So for Disney to present her as a smiling and happy mother...really does not work well with the story.
And Disney's Hercules isn't really a retelling. It modifies the myth, and not by expanding on given information from the writer, but instead saying they were wrong in a way. Disney also changed how Pegasus was born. In Greek mythology he was originally born when Perseus cut off Medusa's head, and he sprang from her body (having been the unborn son she had with Poseidon). However, Disney changed it and made it that Zeus created Pegasus out of a cloud, which really changes the feeling of the birth of Pegasus. However, an example of a writer actually retelling a story is if they expand on the information that the author gave them. In Sleeping Beauty "the fairies argued." The writers of Maleficent took this further and turned it into "the fairies argued, and in the midst of arguing became terrible parent figures to Aurora." This is taking it a step further by adding on to given information, instead of taking a step backward and modifying the given information to a ridiculous extent.
Mash up
While I do think that the TV show Sleepy Hollow did an awesome version of Ichabod Crane's character, I would not necessarily say that this is a retelling. I only watched one episode of the show, so my views of it are mostly based on what I saw of the pilot. The reason I don't think it's a retelling is that the character is very different. The book version of Ichabod would probably not desire to fight in a war or work as a spy for General Washington. (Ichabod is a little bit of a coward in some ways).
Even though I did like the portrayal of this character, I think it would be important to say that this character is based on Ichabod in some sense, and took his name. But it wouldn't be exactly a retelling of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow from what I saw of it. Instead it took the characters, changed them a lot, and put them into a different setting (two different settings to be exact: the 21st century and the American Revolutionary War). If anything Sleepy Hollow took an element from another of Irving's stories, Rip Van Winkle, by having Ichabod wake up in the 21st century instead of having him disappear by the way of the Headless Horseman. In the pilot, Ichabod didn't seem in any way superstitious, as he was in the book. However, the screenwriters did capture the feel that Rip Van Winkle had upon waking up and seeing that there "were rows of houses which he had never seen before, and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. Strange names were over the doors—strange faces at the windows—every thing was strange. His mind now misgave him; he began to doubt whether both he and the world around him were not bewitched." ("Rip Van Winkle" p.18)
Ichabod did have a similar experience upon waking and seeing that the world around him had changed over the past hundred years. They also include Ichabod's emotions over his wife, Katrina's "death" (it is unclear whether she actually died or not) similar to Rip Van Winkle. However Ichabod's emotions are very different from Rip's. Instead of having the "henpecked" husband reaction Rip had, Ichabod feels a deep sorrow. Upon speaking to Abbie about it in a very disbelieving way, "I thought I'd actually awoken in the future and that my wife had been dead for 250 years" (from the episode, "Pilot"). While the TV show isn't faithful to the story in the first episode, it still was a retelling in some sense even if the retelling it was wasn't of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and it instead somewhat retold "Rip Van Winkle." It added in elements from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and it included a modified version of Ichabod, Katrina, and Headless Horseman...making it in a way a mash up.
So next time you write, think about whether you are telling a story based on another one, retelling a story, or doing a mash up. Because sometime stories that are based on other stories are being labeled as "retellings," and I think we should be careful as writers not to mislead our readers, by confusing retellings with stories based on others. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Which do you prefer to do: retell a story, base your story on another one or mash up multiple stories?
-Quinley
Greetings Shakespeare enthusiasts and fellow actors, as well as writers, since it is November!
I've never recorded myself doing acting before or even acted in front of a green screen until recently, but it was very fun to do and I am going to do more videos like this in the future. (Hint: the next one will involve two of my own characters.)
As for the soliloquy, I've used it for one live performance and two auditions before I actually went ahead and recorded it. The interesting thing about this soliloquy is how many ways one can perform it. It can be done in an angry way, a sad way, a questioning way or an insane way. I've found that when I have done it, it changes and is improvised, but still the things I put into place are there: whether or not I actually think Hamlet is insane, what the inner meaning of "To be or not to be" is in my mind, and my character development of him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's your favorite Shakespeare or non-Shakespeare play? And what characters would you like to play? (Whether they be male or female)
Usually when I do drawing posts I post digital drawings, but for this one, I thought I would post
some complex Halloween scenes. It is often easier to draw something complex on paper (for me) than it is to draw it on a screen. (Some of these scenes don't appear to be spooky at first, but if you look at them you will see spooky elements.)
Drawing the flowers and the tunnels in this scene was enjoyable.
The trees were fun to draw.
Drawing the fireplace was fun to do. It was also fun to draw the flowers and wood on the wall.
I hope your having a happy October. As a quick reminder I will be needing questions for my next Character Interview, so you can ask questions to Riona and Celtierehere. But meanwhile in recent editing updates for my book, which now has a title Eyes in the Night, it has turned quite gothic while still retaining Fantasy elements... In my previous posts however I forgot to mention, what made me think Eyes in the Night (previously known as Tess Short {Book One}) was a children's book. It was because when I looked back at it the writing seemed like one of my stories that I wrote directed at children. However the real audience of this story is people who like Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and want to read a book like it (but one that isn't a copy of it). I don't have an exact age range for this book yet. (I can't always give a direct age range for all my books). But, however old the people are who like Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit is what it is aimed at. If anything I do not think it is a very young children's book though... I hope that cleared everything up and now on to my editing updates...
Tess somehow revealed to me that she wanted to have black hair or brown hair, both of which she doesn't have. (I double checked, by asking the other characters who said she has red hair not brown or black hair.) She doesn't like her natural red hair, unfortunately for her. At least knowing the information of Tess's dislike for her red hair was useful in rewriting her introduction to the readers. Partly because in the first draft I made it seem as if she liked her hair color, when really she doesn't. Also since Tess is suddenly talking to me, she gave me information regarding actors...
(Image from IMDB, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3629668/mediaviewer/rm3418773760)
Dalia Bella, who has acted in Netflix's Anne with An E, I think could do an amazing job playing Tess. (Though it would be Dalia Bela with red hair instead of brown.) So now since Tess gave me the actor that she looks like, I can draw Tess more easily now since she has a consistent face:
And another character has also sprung slightly into talking into me, that is Robin. I'll say this: he went from a seemingly normal elf to an elf on the edge of insanity. Or at least he appears to be insane. And interestingly he reminds me strongly of the narrator from The Tell-Tale Heart. Though he isn't a murderer, because it would be a little weird for a murderer to be helping Tess.
But because of Robin's newfound "insanity" I do need to figure out how he will get Tess (and Inny) to come with him to figure out what is going on with the elves and fairies. No one would join a slightly insane person on a "quest." And Tess is smart enough not to trust someone who appears to be far from sane. It could be that he fails multiple times to get her to come, and then something happens that causes her to join him. The "something" could be that he rescues her in some way, or scares her enough to get her to join him. Whatever the reason is (I haven't figured it out completely), but I think it would be interesting if it was a little like a scene from Shakespeare's lesser known play, Pericles where Pericles's daughter Marina gets kidnapped by pirates (after she is almost murdered). But, I'm still trying to figure out what causes Tess to trust Robin enough that she willingly joins him on a quest.
As for Inny's character, I feel as if I didn't give her a scene where she uses magic ever in the book, which I found disappointing. She is half hag half human after all, which will be interesting to explore and I am sure there is a dark reason for why she is half human other than the explanation in draft one (as told by Robin):
Of course Inny, knowing that Robin may or may not be sane, could have taken the opportunity to tell him a story (above) where her father fell in love with her mother (because he thought she was a damsel under a curse) and married her (somehow) without a protest from her mother. But somehow knowing that Inny's mother is a hag, she could have easily put him under a love spell and made him marry her. Or perhaps she pretended to be a beautiful maiden and then got him to marry her, and then after the wedding transformed into her real form. Anyway, there are explanations for why her mother could have wanted to marry him,
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga#/media/File:Bilibin._Baba_Yaga.jpg)
It could even be a reason a little like the Russian Fairytale character, Baba Yaga, who at one point threatened to kill the main heroine, Vasilisa, if she didn't complete the chores that she requested. Her mother could have wanted to marry a mere mortal for reasons like Baba Yaga, or perhaps her mother wanted to do something with her father, or she even thought of eating him...
Double Trouble from (The Scottish Play) and Harry Potter
As for Inny's magic, I for some reason imagine something like the witches from the Scottish play (aka, the play whose name you should never shout or say in a theatre) happening. Though it would be good magic and not black magic. But even so the way the spells would be cast with potions would be the same. But there would not be overly disgusting ingredients like the Scottish Play's potion. And instead be ingredients from nature, so perhaps more Druid like magic than witch like. But even so, I think it would be neat if the spell casting had a Double Trouble rhythm to it. Or it could have the Double Trouble rhythm to it be more intense than a ordinary witch's spell:
And I think perhaps one of her spells would be as intense as this. This song to me, is almost like a call and response, in which you sing out a spell, and then you get a response that isn't your own.
Speaking of spells...
I've been also trying to figure out different kinds of ways people cast spells, other than the way Inny does. I know that Inny's magic is definitely going to have a mix of chanting and singing in it (and herbs). And I imagine that not every spell, but some spells that elves and fairies cast require some singing. There must be some separation between spells and songs, since if not then why don't lullabies or entertaining music cause something magical to happen? So that is why not all magic in the world requires song to work, but, a (somewhat) large amount does, and it will require knowing the right words to the spell, that will be done in a slightly different way than Inny does,
Some of the ingredients Inny may use for her spells.
Another difference is that her spells might require certain ingredients where as an elves' or a fairies' do not and can be done without. And then there will be more differences between the two. I know that fairies can at least shape shift into one animal and this doesn't require any chanting of any sort, though I haven't figured out all the non-witch spell's yet.
I am also trying to figure out what Tess's powers are. Since she is half elf, she does have magical abilities but the question is how strong they are compared to the other elves'. This will be more thoroughly discussed in part three. (This post was meant to focus more on Inny and Robin rather than Tess.)
Who is your favorite witch character? (From Shakespeare or some Folktales) And have you read Edgar Allan Poe's Tell-tale heart?
-Quinley
P. S. An upcoming post is an acting post. That is all I will say, but it will be the first time I've ever posted something acting related on this blog, so that will be fun! (It will probably be posted before or after Halloween (All Hallows Eve), depending how long it takes me to edit it and upload it.)
