Finished Design

I think I finished my design stage today, I only really had two documents to complete but they were very large documents, I was overall surprised at how long it took me to complete these two documents, which is what I started them late last year so its took me a fair few months to complete these two. I'm mostly disappointed in myself for the fact that its took me this long to complete them it should've been done in a month not two more on top of that, I can't say I didn't rush the documents near the end but I did, there also the fact that I have had a lot of other work to work on not just my FMP. So you can say I haven't touched my FMP at all becaus of this reason in thus why the design stage is so late in completion. 

- mood board of what the worlds are going to look like (places in each plane of existence, 

- mood board of what the people are going to look like (inhabitants of each world,

I suppose that another milestone done but its still a late milestone, hopefully I hope to start production tomorrow and eventually find an external source to look at my work, thinking about finding a forum or a least somewhere to put my work on so its out there and open to harsh, blunt and constructive criticism. 
                       

Research into more writing

Been told today I need to research and review others peoples work and need to look into others writers and how they go on about structuring there writing, I'll probably start doing this after some more work has been shifted out of the way and when I get writers block

Been digging through my work..

Been doing some digging prepping for Uni interviews and I found a short story I created for an assessment piece for my english resit last year, just tell me your thoughts and such, I had to keep a word count for the piece and such like it could only be 1000 words and at the most 1,500, the result was I got a B, I think I relates mostly to my FMP because the main character Michael jumps off building for his escape and my main character in D.A enters his journey by doing the same thing. It made me laugh though when my english teacher said to me is Michael an angel? I of course had no idea what he was on about but I realise now after researching Angels and such what he was on about.

City Towers: The Heist

I can remember the escape like yesterday. The mad crazy dash p a few flights of stairs, emerging on the roof, then standing on the edge and just falling… Then being yanked back by the parachute and floating down like a feather. I remember us all going our separate ways and agreeing to never to get into contact with each other.

We all said that we had enough money to set up us up for the rest of our lives. But I had a feeling David wanted more. A few months after the mile-high bank job, I was back in the shit hole of a back water town I call home, Warrington. To be honest I wish I was back doing it. Then I got a phone call one day that said ‘anonymous’. I was curious to who it was, so I answered. “Is that Michael?” said a man who sounded like he sang a screamo rock band. I recognised the voice, it was David’s. “David? Yes, what’s happened?” I said wondering if it was him at all or just a wrong number, “Is this a secure line?” he said concerned like someone was watching me or listening in. “Yes, it should be” I said, “Good because I’ve got another job for us since you were so good last time” he said exaggerating the ‘so’, “good it was all sure dumb luck far as I’m concerned.” “I laughed”, “Dum luck my laddo, no I think not you’ve got a knack for this type of trade, what say you wanna join my crew, it’s a dangerous life I should know and I understand if you say no…” he said northerner in his voice. “Yes!” I said cutting him off half way through his recruitment speech.

“Good” David said enthusiastically, “so then, where is it this time?” I said intrigued by my comrades new crazy scheme, “New York City, my friend” he said trying not to giggle, “Are you for fucking real David, Jesus Christ almighty there isn’t a chance in hell you’re going to pull this off you know, the phrase comes to mind ‘when pigs fly’ we’re going to pull this off” I said angrily and sarcasm in my tone of voice. “Calm down dearest keep your nickers on, Christ” he said jokingly, “not the same building is it?” I said, “god no, it’s the building near the chemist company, you know the FCB the guys who are looking into a cure for cancer” he said, “oh yeah I heard about that said they were really close just the last piece of the puzzle they said and it’s done, ok then”, “you know what I say ZOMBIE APOCLYPSE here we come” David said making zombie noises down the phone. “Where we meeting?” I asked, “You remember the black van we had, just tap on the side as you walk past” he said, “Ok, then” I said concerned but glad for what’s to come, hope I don’t end up like all the other British guys who come back from overseas, dead.

So after my call with David I got a plane ticket over to New York, one way. As the flight was long I thought about who left behind and I forgot that a girl well…not just any girl, a girl I loved, my first love in fact moved here with her job she came here to take her promotion as a cop on the NYPD. Later that night I met up with David and some familiar faces, some not so, the new guy Luke, full name Lucifer but he preferred to be called Luke. The crew and I walked in during the day and decided to hide in closets and out of sight places till after closing. The pc specialist and hacker got rid of the cameras and downed the security system for a couple hours. We moved around like snakes in tall blades of grass it was adrenaline rushing. You could smell the coffee from the staff rooms as you walked past.

We got to the vault it was smaller than the last one and usually that means it stuffed with more dollars and coin for the taking you could smell the freshly made money like fresh bread that’s just come out of the oven. One of the guys said “god, this vault is tight as a little girl…OWWW what the fuck was that for?”, “stop fucking about and unload the vault the more you can carry downstairs the bigger your share.” David said commanding. I said to David concerned “does this seem too easy to you? Or was it the last one we did was hard as nails?” he pondered “this does seem a bit odd that there was no guards built like Russian soldiers with Russian Alsatians in toe”. Suspiciously David and I looked around for anything that could halt our heisting days and probably lock us behind and in a vault like prison that we could never get out. I found the cameras on the walls were bugged and told David and the rest, we covered then unplugged then smashed them all. I went round did all the safety deposit boxes and found a few handguns and rounds enough for all of us. “Here!” I shouted and threw a handgun to David “For protection”, “WOHHH!” “watch where you’re throwing that thing it coul...” BANG! The bullet bounced of the bullet proof that covered the entire room and round the room off the vault door into the vault bouncing round like a rubber ball at 100 mph, then out the door all I heard was “AHHHHHH what the fucking hell do you think your fucking playing at you fucking bastards all of you..” “Who was that?” asking David “Me you fucking retard!” in came Luke limping and holding his arm in agony blood oozing out through his fingers. “Better get that bandaged up or it might fall of and walk out the door” said one of the crew guys “Fucking smart arse” said Luke grumbling and mumbling under his breath. “What was that Luke?” asked David, “Nothing”, “Right, back to work the lot of you we’ve only got a couple more hours left” said David commanding the rest of them “Sorry it went off Luke” said David concerned “It’s fine, only a flesh wound” said Luke arrogantly.

One by one the sports bags to carry the loot out got bulgier and fatter like roast pigs on a dining table waiting to be cleaved of their meat or in our case money, all we needed was the apple to go in all our pigs pie wholes of mouths or the icing to go on our massive cake, the crown jewel of the vault. At the back of the vault sat THE most famous painting in the world, (because of where it had been taken New York it was bound for someone to steal it, so 4 fakes where made with one the real, all then sealed in vaults round the city completely random with only the curator knowing where it really is). The Mona Lisa. “What did you say about pigs flying Michael?”

Words: 1,199

Continued

The Mona Lisa hung on the wall like it had just come out of Leonardo da Vinci’s workshop. All their eyes widened at how real it looked but possibility it’s just another fake. “What are you all doing standing their gawping at it, it’s not going to take itself out of the frame and roll itself up and place itself inside the tube is it, I don’t see legs on it do you?” said David like a drill sergeant. I and the rest emptied the vault and I bee-lined straight for Da Vinci’s master piece. I examined it and just looked at in amazement and awe, I took the painting down of the wall and beforehand placing gloves on. I carefully took the painting out of its frame, checked if it’s the real deal; I beamed grinning like a Cheshire cat, rolled it up and placed it inside a cylinder tube. “Come on Michael, I wanna be in and out of here before the NYPD popo realised we have arrived” said David jokingly and commanding “Do want them to know who stole it, well then, that is why I’m taking my time” said Michael barking back at him.

“Luke can you drive” said David “yeah sure” “get down to the van and man the wheel then, is everything loaded up and everyone accounted for?” I said “yeah should be, I got her clinging to my back saying ‘don’t leave me’”, then from down the stairs I heard hush voices and quite creeping footsteps. “What’s up Michael?” David looked at me to say why the fuck aren’t you paying attention to me, I gestured out the door and down, one of the guys went out to check. PING! The sound of a silenced bullet hitting the railings of the staircase. “God fucking dam it I knew this was too easy” I said cursing even coming back to the city that never sleeps. David gestured like a clown playing Simon says with 5 year olds counting down from 3 to 1 he said whispering “on one we make a mad crazy dash for the roof, ok” “just like last time” I said “just like last time” David said both grinning. The NYPD cops heading up the floors making their way to the vault, quickly fast walking up the stairs. David gestured 3, BOOM! They kicked a door in downstairs in the security room, then 2, BOOM! The door to room before the vault, because we were smart we locked it. Then 1, by the time they were in the centre of the vault the thing itself was empty and we were near the roof.

Running and running fast as I could felt like Flash from DC comics, scrambling up rubbing shoulders, gun shots being fired up the staircase rick a shading of the bannister, BOOM! We burst through the fire escape door, all gasping for air, “always..bring..a..parachute” said David trying to catch his breath. Everyone else jumped off like flying squirrels, and then left standing was David and I, “You ready!” David shouted to me, “You go first!” I said shouting back, “fuck that, you go!”, I pushed David off the building. She came bursting through the door gun in hand with a squad behind her, her face could have painted a picture a better one than Mona at that she was still as beautiful as god created her, she must’ve been first in line when they handed out the bodies. She was perfection in my eyes she always will be.

“So Michael, why are standing on the edge of a skyscraper with a Leonardo da Vince masterpiece on your back?” she said in a questionable tone. My first thought was dumbstruck love, then anger, now rage but mellowed like a volcano ready to burst. “Why is one of my old good friends pointing a magnum at my head?” I said questioning her back. “Don’t play riddles with me Michael” she said in a calming tone. “Best say it now seems from now on we’re going to be on the opposite ends of the spectrum” I said calm but nervous, “say what?” she said moving closer to him, “I like you, like I wanna be your boyfriend like you, you know” I said nervous and reverting back to my old high school self probably THE worst years of my life but Aimee was always there. “That’s cute but I’m engaged now, sorry Michael” she said sadden in her voice but I didn’t care my brain and heart worked as one the volcano had blown and I pulled the gun and shot in the air, BANG!, Aims did the same but aiming just in front of me as warning shot “GIVE..THE…PAINTING…NOW MICHAEL!” Aimee said demanding and asserting her authority over me. “As long as you let me go” I said demanding my terms “never” she barked back, I pulled a lighter and hovered it over the bottom of the Mona Lisa, “now LET.ME.GO”. “fine” she said like she was giving up but looking back ordered her men to shoot my legs when the transfer was made. I rolled the painting in its cylinder container over to her, she picked it up and said “how are going to get out?” she asked me “where there’s a will there’s a way” I stepped back and fell, falling, falling wind passing my hair like water, you could hear her from the top “nooooooo” she screamed. Her men checked the cylinder, it was empty. “Err…mam it’s not their” they said dumbfounded “what do you mean it’s not their?” she looked it was empty as a black whole. As I heard coming down on the TV news “Today scientists have found the cure for cancer thanks to FCB medical company, and in other news there has been rumoured that scientists were experimenting with eagle genes and pigs genes and that they have fully created a pig with wings and that one of their subjects have escaped from the facility. Well I guess pigs really do fly. I’ve been Cathy Weathers for New York news. For the date of 21^st December 2012.

Carpe Diem.

Fin...

Words: 2,225

Still working through Design & found a few films I could watch

At the present moment I am still trying to snowball my way through design and at the moment working on the inhabitants of each dimension 

while searching of films i could watch and take notes in I found four in particular :
- The Prophecy (1995)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114194/
- Dogma (1999)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120655/
- Constantine (2005)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360486/
- Legion (2009)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038686/
- Spawn (1997)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spawn_(film)

Might also look in comic/ anime series called Spawn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spawn_(comics) 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spawn_(TV_series) 

I have seen bits of Constantine and I have seen Dogma many a time but I have never took notes through them for a purpose but now I will, it is very tempting to just go watch Legion and not work on my design but technically I am behind according to my timeline, at the moment according to my timeline I should be in Production working on what.. my 5th maybe 6th chapter

If I do watch any of these films I'll take notes while watching them, these notes would include things about:
- comparing my angels and demons to how they're represented in the film
- What is the basic plot line
- visually how it shows the story 
- how it relates biblically
- censorship - sensitivity 
- portrayal of biblical figures for example God and Jesus 
-  

As usual I'll upload a document eventually to here in relation to this

Second Presentation (20/12/2012)

I have just sat back down from my FMP presentation 2, wasn't half bad, I didn't keep track with my script for my presentation I stuttered and my confidence wasn't great either. My feedback for the presentation wasn't half bad they agreed with me in I need more confidence, I think next time I need a script to follow

- I will add a link for the presentation later on here

By the way, Happy Christmas (if you celebrate it) and Happy Apocalypse, some part of me hopes the Mayans were right

Update (10/01/2013)

I got my feedback from tutors today, they mostly all said roughly the same thing, some were more harsh than others but it is constructive criticism after all is what it is. I'll upload them if I ever get my hands on the feedback sheets again to scan in and upload to here. 

Feedback from Peers

- In depth recap

- Plenty of research

- Detailed examples

 

- Need more self-confidence

- Presentations could do with more pictures and less text

- Generally more information about my title: Deaths Apprentice

I will take this feedback into consideration but some of the feedback like "more pictures and less text" this can't simply be done because this isn't the way my FMP works until I get to the right stage. As well as this my FMP is mostly text based and I will be working on Word for most of it, so their simply can't be any images unless it supports or is what I'm writing about. 

Everything I have done so far in my Research

Today I will link everything I have done so far for my research and in thus it will show how much I have done and need to do and how my on-going research is looking. 


things to talk about when reviewing documents:
- what went well
- what went wrong
- did everything go as planned
- finished or near completion? or On-going? 

Overall anything I need to do extra or I found out I need to do? 

Documents that are being linked are as follows:

-  Writers that have inspired me in my writing

What went well in this was that this document was of my own doing I started and I felt like you the reader of my work should know where I got my inspiration from hence thus why I started the document above, even though this above seems like little it is one of my many on-going documents. I don't know if everything went as planned with this I think the idea was that when I'm writing characters bios and writing the history I remembered that I wanted a dark theme and feel to it like how there is in JK Rowlings Casual Vacancy but I want a developed characters like Valkyrie Cain and Skulduggery Pleasant. (touch wood) nothing has gone wrong of sorts with this document, yet. 

-  Comparing writing styles

With this document I started it late hence with there is more a less no quantity and to me is un-finished, I think the only thing that went well with this document is that I was clear what I wanted to do. 

-  Image reference/ mood board for Characters

What went well was that I had a clear idea of what characters I wanted pictures of, again what in this document seems little is also on-going so the quantity will increase over time. Again I don't know if everything went as planned with this because I didn't really plan this document, if I had an idea of a character that looks like how I picture my characters I would find a picture of them and put them in. Again (touch wood) nothing has gone wrong of sorts with this document, yet. 

-  Research stories in different mediums

What went well with this was not much, I more a less started this and the document below at the same time and I got carried away with the document below and just forgot about this one, all this as well it what went wrong with this. I didn't plan this document out as such I just did it as it came to me, as well this document to me is un-finished.
(Update - 04/06/13 : Finished and sent of, new link added)

-  How each character is represented in different societies

This document above is my largest and the one I spent my most time on so far, what went well about this document is that it has a lot of quantity and a lot of information, what went wrong is that I didn't get it fully finished in time and the sections about God and The Devil are un-finished. I think everything went as planned with this because I knew what I wanted to do but the downside is that I was late starting the last two sections. 

Overall I think I focused too much on one document and on others to less and some documents I started to late. 

My Research deadline

The fact of the matter is that I have mainly worked on one document so far and if you compare that amount of work I've done to what I need to do its not alot and I am ashamed of myself but I will upload everything what I have done for my research so far on Friday, hence Fridays are usually spent in class doing my FMP all day so I should have time to upload everything then go a head with my Design, oh what joys and fun. 

Just an update on what is going on

Sorry it has been a while since my last update been focused on getting my research done, especially the document about how each main character is represented in each society. Also over the week while I was off I managed to write the first paragraph of my first chapter of my first draft, I then had it looked at by my tutor and he checked for spelling, grammar and vocabulary.

Oh and yes I am aiming to get most of everything I wanted for research done by the 15 of November and of course if there is any complications my blog will show these complications and show there solution. 

Link to my research file: How each character is represented in different societies 

Link to the first paragraph of my first chapter of my first draft

Link to the above document marked by my tutor 

Research

The manner of the fact is that the research part of this is not done and as you can see it is the end of October so yes but at least fact is, is that I doubt my Design month (next month) which is going to last the whole of November so I'm continuing the Research stage into November but only the half of November the other half will be my design. 

Next Week

Next week is half term so I get a week of, what I am expected to have done after half term:
- 1st chapter draft
- A detailed plan of some sort 
- and of course keep the blog updated with anything I do 

Of course as you all should know this month be my research month and next is my design month, so the fact that a 1st chapter draft needs to be done over next week is unforeseeable for me but I suppose I do get what I want because over the past month I have been dieing to get writing. 

How each character is represented in different societies - Link to the document

The part where I discuss the information after the quotations I know gets shorter as it goes on, just as I was writing it got boring fast just writing the same over and over again more a less so I cut out the parts where I would be repeating myself and left in the original stuff.   

Oh I forgot to say I have done a first draft of a Project Proposal about 2 weeks ago forgot to upload to here, been bogged down with doing my research recently. 

Link to my project proposal 1st draft

Research month

As I said earlier in one of my posts this month of October is my research month and is where I hope to do all of my research and any other research out of this month will be urgent, 

Things I intend to research:

- Into each character how they're represented in different societies ( P.S notes: (added 16/10/12) this point may go into November and the design period because I see this point being very large and taking me a far bit of time and to the fact a mano that researching this is very boring, so it will take me longer because I just want to get into actually writing the thing and plus I don't see the design period taking me that long to do but I don't know what the design period entails, yet.)

- Into different character types (Protagonist, Antagonist, Guardian, Contagonist, Sidekick, Skeptic, Emotion, Reason, The Player)

- Into how stories are written differently in different mediums  (for example in films, books and games) (P.S 19/10 - and look into how narrative is written for example compared to how horror to comedy is written)

- Writers that have inspired me in my writing (P.S notes: (added 16/10/12) on-going, work on this won't stop at the end of this month, it will carry on more-after)

- Collecting multiple images for image reference for each character (P.S notes: (added 16/10/12) again on-going, so I will add images as I think of them)

- ????

Some of these may be done as I am writing the actually story and as I go along through this month some things may be added, 

Presentation & plans for the near future

Presentation

On the presentation front I think I got it done, but I'l let you know how I do on Thursday, after I presented it

here's a copy

Again it has been converted from Word to Google doc format so some miss happs may be on their. 

The near future

After the presentation is all done, dusted and out of the way, my aim is to start on the main research bulk as I said a couple week back, in which I said October would be all my research to with my FMP and any research conducted after that is either curiosity or urgency, again all the complete research shall be uploaded to here if I can

Little bit extra...

I have more recently discovered Game of Thrones and love it and I also have liked L.O.T.R for quite a while 

so yeah...

Character research

Image references for characters

Last weekend while writing the timeline, I had visions in my mind what they would like and what sounds I would be hearing at certain moments. So I started to build up a bank of images for each character some more than others are easy to find pictures to relate to and say to my art teacher "that is what I want him or her to look like". Bear in mind it is a work in progress so I haven't got a boat load of images but I am sure the the boat will gain more passengers. 

- link to my base character research (unfinished)

(and yes I know the Google doc that the link goes to is buggered, I had to convert the Microsoft Word file to a PDF then upload it to Google docs, all because Blogger doesn't allow attachments) 

Author: Todd Benson