old wonky notes from ha's house

research macchu picchu for structural knowledge.

deeyewhy universe - patchwork campground?

mount buildmore - bottom - peublos, cliffhouses, up to treehouses, failling water, igloos

transiency - see in the background wherever we are for a while, then finally stop and ask them, Whaaaat are you doing??? take away: snails

structure - choose either macchu picchu or cathedrals to visit

Notes from 2/6

 In hindsight this is pretty obvious, but it turns out we definitely need to storyboard these episodes and add more detail before Kirsten can start a script. We started doing that a little with the Literature episode, but it need much more work, and some thumbnails wouldn't hurt.

We also need to do more research about these authors/characters/artists before we can teach anyone about them - most of the subjects we're including are things we know enough about for the general outline, but we need to research more on each subject before we can write it out.

Literature: 

Don Quixote – [Background: The novel is a parody of the chivalric code of honor – Cervantes points out that it’s ridiculous in the real world to be so idealistic by applying that code to a 'real' person (based off of himself). At the same time he creates a new code of honor that’s more applicable in the real world. He bases the real world off of his own experiences. Another important separation from other concurrent works is that he wrote it in the common language.]

Walking through the woods to find don quixote – come across several knight who each acts typical, talks about questing, and maybe says something chivalrous to Lucy. They are Suspiciously Identical. Oscar keeps thinking that each new one is the great knight that Lucy’s talking about and leading them to, but then they walk out into the field and see Don Quixote, who says something similar to the other knights, but is obviously very different. We only talk to him for a second before he goes off into the background to do something (fighting windmills etc). We talk to Sancho Panza about him, and he mentions that he likes Don Quixote because he’s more real, down to earth, speaks normally. Oscar is not convinced that Don Quixote’s so great, and Lucy explains – segway to shadow puppet explanation of Cervantes' process. 

 ~~~

Explanation winds down, S.P. and D.Q. take us to the LitCity. 

{we are considering replacing Poe with Mark Twain because he is more pertinent to our problem - storytelling.}

Mark twain – tavern wigwam with other storytellers. OR crazy steamboat with passengers going up the river (sans litcity)

Walk into the room and someone finishes their story. Mark Twain clears his throat and everyone listens. We hear him tell one of his stories, then we talk to him about how he did it.

Story style– flat and simple like Lucy’s history lesson, but more colorful.

Vegetables

Oedipus

Like veggie tales, but sort of disturbing?

This uses characters with minimal movement and no expressions to convey a dramatic story. The vegetable puppets move with a sense of weight that's really nice, especially in the fight scene and the tavern place. The lighting in the tavern is really nice, too!

Puppet Materials?

We need to decide what to make our first puppets out of. Ideally they will be a puppet-building practice exercise for our real main-character puppets, so we should make them out of whatever we plan on making Lucy and Oscar out of. 

consider: http://www.axtell.com/manip.html

Jonathan, Kirsten, and I were thinking about the pros and cons of felt vs. wire frame with paper mache, and hand puppets vs. stick puppets. 

Felt: we don't know a lot about it, but it seems like a cool material, and could end up being really nice looking and sturdy. Where do we get the wool? How hard is it to do? Could we have easily moveable joints?

Wire frame + paper mache: Jonathan made a wire-frame prototype for Don Quixote that has really well-functioning joints and looks good. The paper mache would be the questionable part regarding appearance, and possibly durability/good motion.

Hand Puppets: Easily moveable mouth, but that would use up one whole hand, and would also possibly make the puppets really big. If we used just one finger to move the bottom jaw, the size issue might be remedied. Do we need a moveable mouth?

Stick Puppets: No moveable mouth, but we could probs move two arms instead of one arm and a mouth. 

We would like to start building our self-puppets on Friday at Kirsten's dad's office at 10:00am (there's a Ben Franklin very nearby, so we could tromp over and make our first materials purchase there), so spare a couple thoughts for the material and design questions here before Friday.

Character Bios

Name: LUCY
Nicknames: her mom calls her lulu, oscar calls her lucy goose

Birthday/Zodiac: September 15, Virgo

Sex: Female
Age: 20
Parents: Joan of arc, clown by claude verlinde

Birth order/siblings: passle of brothers, all younger

Hometown:

Current Residence: the tower

Occupation: imaginaut
Salary: paid in ideas/stories – kept in a notebook. Can’t use it too many times, gets old/worn out.

Talents/Skills: knows art history, retains facts well, no nonsense, organized (disorganized when researching – waves)

Greatest personality flaw: isolates herself, too involved in her work, has a hard time relating to decisions based on personal subjectivity or feelings.

Best quality: logical, original, creative thinker.

Personality: Logical, original, creative thinkers. Can become very excited about theories and ideas. Exceptionally capable and driven to turn theories into clear understandings. Highly value knowledge, competence and logic. Quiet and reserved, hard to get to know well. Individualistic, having no interest in leading or following others.

Linear thinker

Truthist

Leah and Ellie mashed together.

Background: middle distance runner, page at a library (LOL), used to do plays – really good extra

Physical Characteristics: a little chubby, jumper with cat, little cat purse, black energetic hair with pigtails? Doesn’t wear the uniform because it’s stupid

Race: image

Nationality: vague
Height: large and in charge
Weight: large and in charge

Dexterity: left handed +10

Favorite Color: dreamsicle orange

Eye Color: black
Hair Color: dark purple/blue/red

Hair Style: energetic hair with pigtails
Glasses or contact lenses? no
Skin color: vague – little dark, olive?
Distinguishing features: catpurse, pigtails, eyelashes
How does he/she dress? Dress with cat, collared button down flannel, mary janes

Speech Patterns: LATER

Health: secret gaptooth, lactose intolerant

Hobbies: collects bugs, reads historical fiction (secretly historical fiction romance novels) – obviously a big reader. Note-taking, always writing.

Spirit Animal: koala

Name: OSCAR
Nicknames: weed

Birthday/Zodiac: March 11

Sex: male
Age: 20
Parents: kiss of the muse, cezanne

Birth order/siblings: little sister

Pets: turtle, sock monkey

Hometown: vaguely european

Current Residence: the tower

Occupation: imaginaut
Salary: paid in ideas/stories – kept in a notebook. Can’t use it too many times, gets old/worn out.

Talents/Skills: energetic, yo-yoing, making, always doing something

Greatest personality flaw: no attention span, does not assess risks very well, bad driver – never allowed to drive.  

Best quality: extremely loyal, great people skills, adaptable.

Personality: Friendly, adaptable, action-oriented. "Doers" who are focused on immediate results. Living in the here-and-now, they're risk-takers who live fast-paced lifestyles. Impatient with long explanations. Extremely loyal to their peers, but not usually respectful of laws and rules if they get in the way of getting things done. Great people skills.

Connects things intuitively

Picky eater – health nut/snob

beautyist

Background: swimmer, grew up on a beach, mow lawns – draw pictures, worked at a grocery store- did the chalkboard things.

Physical Characteristics: always wears the uniform because he thinks its awesome (but it’s stupid)

Race: image

Nationality: vague
Height: variable
Weight: moderate

Dexterity: right handed (secretly ambidextrous, but very much)

Favorite Color: rainbows!

Eye Color: black
Hair Color: orangey yellowy blonde

Hair Style: always under his hood thing, little puff bursting out
Glasses or contact lenses? Yes – square, dark blue/bright red it’s like whatever.
Skin color: vague – on the lighter side, edging towards yellow and pink?
Distinguishing features: jumpsuit/hood/poof, glasses, sock monkey?
How does he/she dress? Body suit with utility belt with imaginauts logo.

Speech Patterns: LATER

Health: cavities, split ends.

Hobbies: jig-saw puzzle

Spirit animal: otter

painted people, puppets, personalities

Alexa Meade paints people on people. Athena in the literature episode? Maybe more?

Also, shadow puppets!

Also also, here is a list of 16 personality types which we might use as a jumping off point for our two main characters.

link!

My suggestion:

Oscar: ESTP

Friendly, adaptable, action-oriented. "Doers" who are focused on immediate results. Living in the here-and-now, they're risk-takers who live fast-paced lifestyles. Impatient with long explanations. Extremely loyal to their peers, but not usually respectful of laws and rules if they get in the way of getting things done. Great people skills.

Lucy: INTP

Logical, original, creative thinkers. Can become very excited about theories and ideas. Exceptionally capable and driven to turn theories into clear understandings. Highly value knowledge, competence and logic. Quiet and reserved, hard to get to know well. Individualistic, having no interest in leading or following others.

Thoughts?

Episode: Photography

Problem: Our PC is a budding young photographer of his art class. His classmates, due to some sort of contagious delusion, think that photography isn't "real art." Our PC is so discouraged, he wants to give it up.

Episode: Figurative Sculpture

Problem: It's snowing, so our PC is having a jolly time on his day off school frolicking in the winter wonder land. He's making snowmen and creatures left and right. Exhausted from his creativity, he retires for the night. In the morning, he wakes up to find that his neighbor has built a magnificent snow sculpture, finely crafted by artisan hands. The PC is distraught. The masterpieces that he created yesterday are nothing compared to his neighbor's work, in his mind.

Episode: Architecture

Problem: The problem character (PC) is a child of a family facing economic hardships. They have recently decided to move into smaller, more affordable housing. Unfortunately, the PC's box of toys has been misplaced during the move, and the PC is forced to deal with this alongside his stressful new circumstances. His parents propose that he makes the best of things with the cardboard boxes left over from their move.

Notes from 1/28: Sculptcha, Litratcha, Architechtcha, and Photography

[My notes are pretttty slim, so plz bolster them with yours! Feel free to edit the post itself.]

Photography: Goal: determine that photography is a worthwhile medium. We'll talk to vermeer about the camera obscura, see the whizz-through of the evolution of photography, go through the Photoghetto (??) to visit the Porchtrait, from which we'll meet and follow Ansel Adams? or that other guy? out onto the Film Strip (boardwalk?)
[obviously I'm a little fuzzy on this one's people and order they go in - amend! edit!]

Architecture: [failed to take any notes here - probably not the best person to write about this one anyway - amend! edit!]

Literature: Most of this is good for now, we just touched on the mythology part - Athena/Pallas will show us around ancient Greece, pointing out all these different gods/myths in process. Also before we get to Poe's house we'll stop by Mrs. Dalloway's house to say hey and see if she knows whether Poe is home / watch her kill a moth.

Sculpture: ? We need to find more artists. The episode will deal with how different artists approach and represent the human form - what aspects they are trying to emphasize. (venus of willendorf et al - fertility, classical grecian statues - perfection of form, african tribal sculpture -???, etc?)

Color and Light: Bumped to be the last/finale episode because the problem is NOT with a kid, but with ImagiNation itself - the Color Fields are at war/arguing/seperating/in a tiff and the Imaginauts have to sort it out. The Printing episode is now the second to last episode.