Script almost locked down, Jalea progressing

July 12th, 2010

I thought I’d post a quick update of all that’s been happening with “Melonpool: The Motion Picture” lately. First of all, the script has grown from around 60 pages when we did our reading in May, to a whopping 84 pages! The good news is, at one minute a page, we’re close to feature-length. The bad news is, at one minute a page, we’re close to feature length.

Still, I feel as though this is the best writing that I’ve done — largely through input from our director, Jon Stout, and my wife, Sarah, who have read and helped shape just about every word on the page. Every time I work on it, I try to cut what I can, but always end up adding a little more than I take out. I’m happy to report that the script, as it is today, is  95% locked down and tightly written. And, most importantly, it should appeal to people unfamiliar with Melonpool without offending all of you that have followed Melonpool’s webcomics canon along the way. Pretty much, once you get used to Mayberry’s new organic webshooters and Ralph’s high midichlorian count, everything will be fine.

With the script done, the storyboarding phase begins. As much as I’d like to say that we should be able to film “on the fly” like a regular live-action film, the use of puppets pretty much necessitates the use of storyboards for planning all of the different set ups. I’d hate to get ready to shoot a scene where Mayberry has to walk across the Bridge, only to realize that I never got around to cutting a hole in the floor or building him a set of legs.

Speaking of the Bridge, it’s almost ready to paint. Once painted, it’s just a matter of lighting and making some back-lit displays and it’ll be done! Then, I just have the Engine Room, Airlock, Galley and a half-dozen other sets to build… but that’s not as daunting as it sounds since a lot of the other sets are made up of sections and flats. The Bridge was the most difficult, so the other parts will be a piece of cake… I hope.

Last, but not least, Jalea’s head is almost done. She’s unlike any puppet I’ve ever built, so there’s been a lot of trial and error involved in her construction. I’ll post pictures of her sometime this week. Maybe I’ll even shoot a little test footage to show off some of the mechanisms in her face. Exciting!

Anyway, back to work!

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