Yo! This is Kimilyn--sorry I missed yesterday's class in case you guys discussed anything for our project. Anyways, since we need to do story beats for this week's assignment, I was thinking we should establish character roles and figure out some scene ideas here or in the google doc maybe?
I'm not too clear on the roles of each character, so I don't really know where to start. ^^;; And it would be nice for everyone's work to fit together story-wise as a whole~
Don't worry, we didn't really discuss the project much yesterday.
ReplyDeleteFor developing the plot, maybe we should start by thinking of some of the pivotal parts in the story and try to see where we can fit in all the characters.
The big event we have so far is when the protagonist witnesses the murder and Paladin escapes out the window (was Paladin the murderer? I forget.). From there maybe the protagonist (let's give him a name!) goes on the run form the police. Maybe the Cincinnati jacket guy or the Conductor is an old friend of his who helps him hide out.
If Paladin knows he was spotted then he will inform his boss Knickerbocker, who would then put a hit out on the protagonist.
The Dame seems like an important character so maybe she should be connected to a lot of the characters.
I was also thinking the fireman could become blinded or the conductor could have his leg injured during the story.
Sweet! I like your ideas for the characters, so I added on to them below (under Suggestions/Ideas). Anyone feel free to edit/add/refute ideas!
ReplyDeleteAlright then, so far we have...
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Protagonist - A murder witness who comes back to clear his name.
Mr. Knickerbocker - Paladin's boss, out to kill the Protagonist.
Paladin - Murderer working for Knickerbocker who escapes and frames the Protagonist for the crime.
Cincinnati Jacket/Conductor - Protagonist's friend who helps him hide.
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Suggestions/Ideas so far...
The Dame - In love with the Protagonist. Since she works at the Diner, she could be an informant via casual gossip with customers. (Or did she work at the bar? I can't remember.)
Blind Fireman - Brother of the Dame. Instead of the literal definition, it might be interesting if he's blind with rage at the Protagonist for being romantically involved with his sister. Once he figures out that the Protagonist is in town, he could unintentionally be helping Knickerbocker kill him--not knowing that the Protagonist is actually innocent.
Conductor - Leg injury from...
Son of a Bitch - Our google doc says that the Dame is forced to marry another, so maybe she's forced to marry a guy who the Protagonist refers to as a "Son of a Bitch" throughout the game. He could secretly be involved with Knickerbocker, working against the Protagonist so he can keep the Dame's hand in marriage.
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Story Beat Ideas
1. Protagonist witnesses Paladin in the act of murder and is unable to stop him from fleeing out the window of the hotel.
2. Paladin reports to Knickerbocker after the murder. Knickerbocker becomes enraged at Paladin's failure and puts out a hit for the Protagonist.
3. Cincinnati Jacket guy meets the Protagonist (in disguise) at the Bar to help him clear his name. Almost gets spotted by the Son of a Bitch, who is celebrating his engagement to the Dame.
These sound good. I want to point out that as Knickerbocker's character designer, I wanted him to be more of a quiet and haughty type of a villain. Think Scar from Lion King and Dr. Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes (not the recent BBC one specifically).
ReplyDeleteAhh, alright. :) Then we could throw out story beat #2 or revise it if we wanted to.
DeleteI just realized that the assignment is for each of us to do ONE image in a sequence for a scene. (When I posted earlier, I mistakenly thought we were each doing a story beat sequence, instead of one image.)
Is there a particular story beat idea that anyone is interested in fleshing out for this week's assignment? (Either from what is already posted, or from your own set of ideas.) We'll need to work it out so we know what part of the sequence each person is going to illustrate.
I think if can't decide on a specific moment in the story, it makes sense to go chronologically. I'm cool with any of the propose ones though.
DeleteI think Anthony and Bobby wanted us to focus on a specific scene for the assignment, though? At least, that's what I got from reading his homework post on the blog...
ReplyDeleteI've asked Anthony and we were supposed to illustrate different scenes during the story, but he was also cool with us illustrating a sequence of events in one particular scene. So it's up to us what we want to do, but I think' it'd be easier to illustrate different scenes per person. What would you guys like to do?
DeleteOh! Cool--then I guess I'd prefer to do a sequence of events rather than a specific scene.
ReplyDeleteI would be willing to collaborate on one sequence if that's what we wanted to do, though it might be difficult to get everyone involved in that.
ReplyDeleteIf not, I could do the bar scene with the Cincinnati jacket guy.
I'll try to think up some more scene ideas too.
Same with me. I would like to do a sequence, but that'd require everyone being in on it which might be difficult as Terrance said. I guess maybe us three can do a sequence if you guys want to.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it might be the most efficient if we broke down our entire plot into 8 images (since our team is 8 people) and assign one image to each person. That way, we'll have material to meet the minimal homework requirement and if anyone wants to do extra, they can just expand on the scene that has been assigned to them.
ReplyDeleteIt's already getting close to the end of the week, so we need to get our ideas together. If we're doing a sequence of the entire story, we can break it down into beginning, middle and end. I'm not too clear on everything, but from what I understand we could maybe do images of...
Story Beat Ideas
(-) for established events
(*) for my own ideas
-Protagonist witnesses Paladin murdering someone in the hotel room
-Protagonist is framed for Paladin's murder
*Police informs the Dame and her brother, the Fireman, of the Protagonist's crime
-Paladin reports to his boss, Mr.Knickerbocker, who puts out a hit for the Protagonist
-Cincinnati Jacket meets with the Protagonist to help him clear his name
*Fireman discovers that the Protagonist came back to town (in Shelby's character design, he looks a lot older so it could be that he just wants to protect his sister and becomes "blind" because he believes that the Protagonist is guilty without a doubt, despite the circumstances).
*Knickerbocker, Paladin, and their men find the Protagonist (not sure if a chase or action scene would be more appropriate here)
*Conclusive scene (happy ending, bad ending--some sort of ending, not sure what would be preferred).
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I don't know how the Conductor or the Son of a Bitch fits into the story, so I can't say much on that end of the spectrum;; Just trying to roll out ideas so we can get moving. Especially so, because I'm new to digital and can't work all that quickly. ;__;
Ooh, thanks for working on that! I'll do the fifth one unless someone else wants to do it. I'm thinking of showing a dramatic shot of the protagonist standing in the rain on his friend's doorstep. Either that or a tense scene with them talking at the bar.
DeleteAn idea I have for the conductor is that he used to be a cop (or one of Knickerbocker's gangsters), but after narrowly surviving a gunshot to the leg he decided he wanted to get away from that life and start over as a musician. But then he gets dragged into all this conflict.
And I was thinking maybe we could call the main character Tom, after Tom Waits?
That's a cool idea.
DeleteI think I would like to do an end scene. And it makes sense that it's a tragic ending due to the nature of a noir narrative.
I'm thinking that Tom does clear his name, but at the cost of the dame leaves him at the end because of the dramatic change that his personality and his morality goes through the story. Maybe he could be brutally dealing with Knickerbocker and his henchmens (while being pretty messed up himself) and he looks to be enjoying it. The dame witnesses this scene and tells him that she doesn't have feelings for him anymore. He then kills her and himself.
So I would do a scene where everyone is dead in a room or appropriate place.
DeleteYeah! I like your idea for the ending, it really does suit the noir style of storytelling. I guess I'll post the list of image assignments to the google doc so the rest of the team can sign up for what they want to do on a first-come, first-served basis.
DeleteI'll list you and Terrance down for your respective scenes, so that it doesn't cause any confusion. Do you think you could send out an email to everyone in the group to let them know what's happening? I don't think we're all checking the blog, and 2 are actually not listed as blog contributors here;;
--Terrance
DeleteI figured I would reply to your post specifically, but I guess blogger doesn't work that way? ^^;;
The name idea is great, I think it works doubly well because the simplicity fits with film noir and the time period. In the gogogle doc, I combined 2 of the smaller story beats and added a scene for the Conductor. It's mostly a copy/paste of your earlier post, but I rephrased and added a little bit to it. Hopefully it follows what you had in mind, but if not you can go ahead and make changes! :)