The ANA Project: Inspiring ANA
Welcome to The Geek Beat, your central point for all of the geek-related things that are good in your life. Think of this blog as a venn diagram of awesomeness where all of the cool little robots of geekdom converge to transform into one mega robot that could kick anybody's ass. (That's right, The Geek Beat's in a combative mood today!) As a kid, I never understood why Voltron, Superion from Transformers or the giant robot that the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers used even bothered with pissy-small individual robot modes when you could basically stomp around as a giant robo-god, smashing up stuff to your heart's content. I also used to get vexed that the bad guy monster or robot would just stand there, presumably picking their nose whilst they let the insignificant little robots undergo the intricate and often lengthy process of interlocking into a megabot that would invariably smash them to pieces. Bad guys are stupid.
Yeah, I'll just let him finish up assembling so he can punch me with that giant robotic lion fist...
Anyway, I haven't blogged about the ANA project since mid-Feb so I figured an update was due. Thanks to the kindly retweeting of none other than Neil Gaiman himself I know lots and lots of you did the read the original blog, even if I couldn't say too much at the time due to copyrighty things. (Thanks BTW to those of you that are coming back to check the blog weekly, reads are in the thousands which is pretty pleasing considering I haven't been doing this that long.) For those of you that are reading about ANA for the first time, let me fill you in: The ANA project is a hybrid indie graphic novel/film collaboration that I've been part of for the past nine months or so. My main role so far has been as the project's writer - I've now finished all four issues of the graphic novel and completed a screenplay that fits within the overall story. I'm also part of the production team which believe it or not is way more work than you would imagine; I always thought producers basically let the director, cast and crew make the movie whilst they chomped cigars and did casting calls whilst skinny-dipping in pools filled with money. As yet I haven't got to do any of those things but I'm secretly hoping that's because I have yet to prove myself in some dark and primal rite of passage that concludes with me being being afforded the aforementioned. Hope springs eternal, right?
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I'm still not going to say too much about the venture itself at this stage; it's very early in the project's life cycle to start spilling all of the good stuff but I will tell you this: ANA is a story based in a world not too far removed from our own; a world where the planet's population haven't really managed to get a handle on their problems resulting in some pretty dark times. I realise this sounds a little cliched and I accept that this post-civilisation story has been told many times before... but I do believe that our take on this genre is a fresh one: it uses a high concept idea that plays with the notion of memory which I won't get into just yet; also, we've really tried to avoid some of those tired comic book tropes too such as the females being scantily and impractically clad or requiring a male to save them; when you couple that with the fairly unique multimedia approach we're taking with the project I really think it offers something different. Hey, if I didn't, I wouldn't be doing it.
So this blog is going to essentially be two parts: I'm going to give you a quick update on the project itself, then I'm going to wax lyrical for a little while on some of our influences, however leftfield or slight - just to give you an idea of where we're coming from.
Production itself is moving apace - as previously mentioned the bulk of the scripting is done; the core production team met in person for the first time this week and started to discuss PR and funding strategies. We also ate biscuits. Lots of them. There's a lot more going on behind the scenes however. Over in Italy our artist is quietly working away on concept art for the comic book series whilst over here in the UK, down in London the project's lead producer has assembled a production manger, a costume artist and a storyboard artist to begin bringing the screenplay element to life. Up here in the Midlands I'm working on a hush-hush ANA-related project that hopefully can be divulged in next month's ANA blog. Exciting times.
Whilst we're in the very early stages of development at the moment, there are interesting happenings occurring all the time. To be part of it, be sure to follow our newly-launched profile on Twitter. We literally only went live a couple of days ago so you really are becoming part of the project from the very beginning. It's going to be an amazing journey bringing this enterprise to life and it'd be cool if you were with us dear reader. Find us @The_ANA_Project - right now we're Twitter's best kept secret but we'll give that anonymity up in a heartbeart to have you along for the ride.
So that's where things lie with the project as it presently stands - which makes for a pretty short edition of The Geek Beat this week, but don't worry reader - I'm not goin' to do you like that; even though Daredevil is calling me from Netflix (just watched the first episode and it was ace) I'm not going to depart without giving you a little more. Before I leave I'm going to talk a little about influences. I've already mentioned that ANA is in the tradition of other post-civilisation stories and because there's been so many post-apocalyptic films, comics, books and video games there are of course influences that we as creators draw upon. After all, no writer writes in a vacuum. Some writers may use a vacuum cleaner to erm, unblock the sexual energy that's preventing them from getting past their writer's block but I would know nothing about that. These influences also pertain solely to me - the creation of comic books and films is a collaborative business and therefore multiple creators bring their own talents and influences to bear; perhaps I'll look at the texts that have inspired some of my collaborators in a future blog but for the present I'm going to stick with a few that have influenced me:
Firstly, for me, you can't have a discussion about the post-civilisation genre without mentioning Cormac McCarthy's seminal novel, The Road. Whilst the film adaptation didn't really float my boat the book is one of my all-time favourites, despite being about as cheery as a pop-up-book about dead kittens. The tragic story of one man's journey with his son across a post-apocalyptic wasteland is so desperately miserable that if the prose within didn't possess such terrible beauty then I may have never made it to the other side in one piece. As it turns out, I didn't. The book left me emotionally in bits in the way that only truly great writing can. If you've never read it - do so. Unless you have habitual mood swings or suffer from depression or take anti-depressants or just don't like great books. Here's a passage:
The ANA production team: Built for skinny-dipping
I'm still not going to say too much about the venture itself at this stage; it's very early in the project's life cycle to start spilling all of the good stuff but I will tell you this: ANA is a story based in a world not too far removed from our own; a world where the planet's population haven't really managed to get a handle on their problems resulting in some pretty dark times. I realise this sounds a little cliched and I accept that this post-civilisation story has been told many times before... but I do believe that our take on this genre is a fresh one: it uses a high concept idea that plays with the notion of memory which I won't get into just yet; also, we've really tried to avoid some of those tired comic book tropes too such as the females being scantily and impractically clad or requiring a male to save them; when you couple that with the fairly unique multimedia approach we're taking with the project I really think it offers something different. Hey, if I didn't, I wouldn't be doing it.
So this blog is going to essentially be two parts: I'm going to give you a quick update on the project itself, then I'm going to wax lyrical for a little while on some of our influences, however leftfield or slight - just to give you an idea of where we're coming from.
Production itself is moving apace - as previously mentioned the bulk of the scripting is done; the core production team met in person for the first time this week and started to discuss PR and funding strategies. We also ate biscuits. Lots of them. There's a lot more going on behind the scenes however. Over in Italy our artist is quietly working away on concept art for the comic book series whilst over here in the UK, down in London the project's lead producer has assembled a production manger, a costume artist and a storyboard artist to begin bringing the screenplay element to life. Up here in the Midlands I'm working on a hush-hush ANA-related project that hopefully can be divulged in next month's ANA blog. Exciting times.
Our storyboard artist, hard at work. If you draw it, they will come...
Whilst we're in the very early stages of development at the moment, there are interesting happenings occurring all the time. To be part of it, be sure to follow our newly-launched profile on Twitter. We literally only went live a couple of days ago so you really are becoming part of the project from the very beginning. It's going to be an amazing journey bringing this enterprise to life and it'd be cool if you were with us dear reader. Find us @The_ANA_Project - right now we're Twitter's best kept secret but we'll give that anonymity up in a heartbeart to have you along for the ride.
So that's where things lie with the project as it presently stands - which makes for a pretty short edition of The Geek Beat this week, but don't worry reader - I'm not goin' to do you like that; even though Daredevil is calling me from Netflix (just watched the first episode and it was ace) I'm not going to depart without giving you a little more. Before I leave I'm going to talk a little about influences. I've already mentioned that ANA is in the tradition of other post-civilisation stories and because there's been so many post-apocalyptic films, comics, books and video games there are of course influences that we as creators draw upon. After all, no writer writes in a vacuum. Some writers may use a vacuum cleaner to erm, unblock the sexual energy that's preventing them from getting past their writer's block but I would know nothing about that. These influences also pertain solely to me - the creation of comic books and films is a collaborative business and therefore multiple creators bring their own talents and influences to bear; perhaps I'll look at the texts that have inspired some of my collaborators in a future blog but for the present I'm going to stick with a few that have influenced me:
Firstly, for me, you can't have a discussion about the post-civilisation genre without mentioning Cormac McCarthy's seminal novel, The Road. Whilst the film adaptation didn't really float my boat the book is one of my all-time favourites, despite being about as cheery as a pop-up-book about dead kittens. The tragic story of one man's journey with his son across a post-apocalyptic wasteland is so desperately miserable that if the prose within didn't possess such terrible beauty then I may have never made it to the other side in one piece. As it turns out, I didn't. The book left me emotionally in bits in the way that only truly great writing can. If you've never read it - do so. Unless you have habitual mood swings or suffer from depression or take anti-depressants or just don't like great books. Here's a passage:
'He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it'
Unsurprisingly the book won a Pulitzer Prize. The beauty of McCarthy's prose is unyielding as are the torments that he subjects his characters to. The climax in fact is so emotionally affecting that years later I remember exactly where and when I was at the moment I read it. And that means it's good writing.
You should probably dress in black when you read it too.
Video games have done a great job during their relatively short time as a medium to recreate the dark possibilities that a post-civilisation world may hold. The Fallout series of games are especially memorable; my two favourite elements of those games are the scavenging - an in-game system that reflects the nature of the advanced technological world that we inhabit; I also loved the sheer scope of the game. Your equipment degrades over time and weapons, rations and spare parts are in very limited supply. As far as post-apocalyptic aesthetics go, Destiny is a visual influence- whilst I wasn't overly enamoured with the game itself, I was very taken with the design of the Hunter class. Scavenged HazMat suits, random pieces of composite armour, worn cloaks and hoods; a perfect blend of a cool-looking aesthetic that has practical roots when compared to some of the more ostentatious post-apocalyptic costumery such as Gears of War or erm, Pokemon.
Great costume design, shame about the game...
It's important to me that for the sake of audience immersion that the world seems 'lived-in'. One of the biggest mistakes that George Lucas made (besides Jar-Jar) was to turn the grubby world of Star Wars into some gleaming, clean utopia. It screamed so loudly of a lack of authenticity that you could have heard it over a million voices all crying out in terror. Looking back at that line now I wonder if Obi-Wan Kenobi wasn't experiencing the loss of Alderaan through the Force but instead was somehow prophesying the prequel trilogy.
Anyway, there are of course movies too but that's a much longer list for another day and frankly, Daredevil is calling. Be sure to follow @The _ANA_Project on Twitter for regular updates. Next week on The Geek Beat sees the return of Celluloid Saturday where I regale you with whatever filmmaking and videography stuff that I'm noodling with at the moment and give you a glimpse into my noob past. Look forward to seeing you then. Until next time!
Ooh, almost forgot. Concept art changes all the time, but here's a little nugget from our artist. Things will probably change as they always do but here's a sneaky glimpse at one of the designs for a character from the ANA project. Enjoy!
Ooh, almost forgot. Concept art changes all the time, but here's a little nugget from our artist. Things will probably change as they always do but here's a sneaky glimpse at one of the designs for a character from the ANA project. Enjoy!
That's all from The Geek Beat this week folks. Any inaccuracies are a failing of my memory or bad Googling.
Head back this way next week to see what's new with Celluloid Saturday and my latest videography projects.
Until then be sure to follow me @vertigoDC. I'm quite possibly going to explode if you don't. Bye bye!
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