For some time, I’ve promised a post on the progress of the “Untitled Project”. Without revealing too much, the project will most likely have one of the following names:
- Ameviathan
- Magine
- The Suspension Invention
Currently, I’m leaning heavily towards the last name; though all three names will be featured in the project in one form or another.
I’m developing the project so that it has the potential to be an episodic show. At this stage however, for practical reasons, my goal is too shoot one show, a pilot, which will be 20 to 30 minutes in length. If I even manage to get the pilot done, it will be a small miracle.
For a change, the project will not feature myself or any of my friends in starring roles. The goal here is to use actual actors. After I shoot the pilot, I’ll re-evaluate the entire project and decide whether or not to press my luck and shoot a second show.
However, as I’m still only in the writing stages, all the above debate is premature. My writing goal is a little less premature to discuss. The writing goal is complete the scripts for an entire three episodes of the show before shooting the pilot. While this might sound slightly illogical, especially considering only one of these shows will probably ever be shot – let me explain my rationale.
Firstly, I don’t have a lot of practice at script writing and I need it. The indecipherable mess that is Spontaneous Combustion represents my first real attempt at writing a script. Although Spontaneous Combustion is a film that I love and is close to my heart, it simply makes no sense whatsoever. Its logic is something akin to staying up for 4 days straight and then reading Dianetics. Secondly, I hope to flesh out the Ameviathan-universe more fully with the three scripts. Finally, my three script goal will provide a couple shooting options for the pilot. Undoubtedly, one of the scripts will stand out as the strongest, and I’m sure there will be other concerns like money, which will make one of the scripts more realizable than the others.
So where am currently in the writing portion of the project?
To date I’m happy to announce that after a lot of sweat and tears, I’ve written one of the screenplays, and the first draft has met approval of my toughest critic, Tim Gray. Tim’s comments were, “it’s simplistic, but it works”. Both comments were what I wanted to hear. What’s more, there isn’t a whole lot of red pen on it.
This week I’ve started on the second of these two scripts, and I’m quite happy with the way it is shaping up. I’m sure at some point I’ll be unhappy with it – but for now I’m content, and that is all one can ask for.
You’re working your way toward coherent movie making though. Spontaneous Combustion is at least a step up from Magwith.
About the names:
I really like the first two. I assume that Ameviathan is a combination of America and Leviathan (An allusion to Hobbes work?). What is Magine though?
I believe the word “Magine” comes from the word enigma, spelled backwards. Except the “m” and “a” are reversed too. Clever name.
Well, I have a special place in my heart for Magwith too. I don’t ever recall what it was about other than Voltaire. Then again, I don’t really recall what Weapon Lors (w/o the “d” for some strange reason) of Film II was about either, other than it starred Voltaire again. I think the point of those films was the world of unhinged creative exploration that Gary introduced us to. Like watching all those bird films and the one reel of The Vikings for our Interim Project. I think one of the more coherent films you and I made was the post college, Crazy Robo (I think that was its name). I’ve looked for Crazy Robo a number of times, but I can’t find it. 🙁
Magine stands for magic and engine. The much reworked premise of the show that I’ve finally settled on is that Jonathan and Cecily are employees of William Wright’s Suspension Invention Depot, an invention business responsible for the Magine, an engine that harnesses magic. In the world of Ameviathan, Magines are used for a number of ridiculous things, such as the fabled Green Machine (a machine which turns everything Green in the town of Green) and to power the soul of a gnarled old robot created to hunt down a mythical 7 armed bear. Jonathan and Cecily’s job is go out and to see how customers of William Wright’s Suspension Invention Depot are getting on, investigate problems and/or complaints pertaining to various uses of Magines that once started, are frequently known to have problems and sometimes even go mad…
However, Magine could be enimga too. Or if you and an “i”, it could be imagine.
And yes – Ameviathan is an allusion to Hobbes.
Normally any time I start too many alliterations or rhymes in a creative work (excepting maybe silly poetry or some farse(sp?)) it starts to turn me off. But even so, the idea of investigators for the Suspension Invention Depot sounds really cool.
Have you seen Trigun? One of the things that I thought was neat about that was how two of the main characters weren’t law-enforcement officials or desperados or other normal wild west types, but actually just investigators from an insurance company.
For some reason the position of your characters strike me as having a little of the same vibe.
Huh. I’ve never seen Trigun. It sounds interesting though… I know it was relatively popular. I’ll have to check it out if I get the chance.
Nostalgia often clouds my memory of such shows, but if my memory is accurate on this one I’d recommend moving it up on your queue. I think Trigun’s really something you might enjoy.
It’s one of those series that starts out pretty light-hearted and crazy but slowly gets grimmer while dropping hints about an underlying mystery.
Even She Dragon liked most of it (up to the rather grim parts), and She rarely has much taste for non-Miyazaki anime.
I concur. I feel Trigun would be a strong addition to your creative arsenol. And I have great love for Magwith myself. I show it at parties to people who don’t really know ya’all in it. I’m proud of the early work.