Arclight Status Update October 1st, 2013 By: Ed Williams and Jason Quinn One question we often get is: How far along are you guys? Perhaps the clearest picture to paint here would be to say if we erased everything we’ve worked on up to this point and started anew, it would take us another 2 years to regain all that we tossed out. We have made quite a bit of progress and we are at the point to where we want to see a script but we’re not QUITE there just yet. We’ve got some more pre-production to take care of before we reach that point, most of the details described below: Story development. We have heroes. We have villains. We have support characters. We have a sprawling mess of a story - and that’s okay. The idea here is to create that sprawling mess so we have something to clean up---throwing dozens of story ideas around and making sure it all comes together at the end. There is a running narrative established for “Book One” no matter how many times we blitzkrieg our timelines. With so many characters we’ve opted to focus upon a basic few as to not overload the front end of the first arc. We’re working with providing a few very different perspectives into this unfolding world from the viewpoints of Artavious Cartwright and others whom you will come to know. There are several organizations that make up this universe, and while we can’t give them to you all at once (it spoils the fun), we want to make sure they’re introduced as they’ll eventually branch off into separate corners of our universe with books of their own. Our inexperience in formulated, technical storywriting shows here. Collectively, we have years of experience in forum-based fiction and roleplaying, but drafting a massive story from start to finish for a project like this is something totally new to each of us; however, we seem to have a handle on it. Google Drive/Docs has been a huge help in organizing and collaborating here. We’re using Google Hangouts at least once every two weeks to dig into the story and cover a lot of material. That material is then put into either two streams in Google Sheets: Universal Timeline and Book One. The Universal Timeline covers the lore and mythology of what we’re creating here. Book One is exclusively for plotting the first book of the first arc. We’re sort of building this master spreadsheet that will hold all of our books and universal backdrop elements so we can plan out for the future---dropping Easter eggs in books we’re currently working on to set up stories for a book that will drop a year or two from now. It has multiple uses at this point and will be a very useful internal resource when continuity is concerned. Character development. We are finally closing out several characters. And by “closing them out” we mean sending finalized, polished characters off to third-party artists to do their character sheets and turnarounds. Some of you may ask: Aren’t the three of you artists? Can’t you do them yourselves? The answer is: Yes, we are artists. And yes, we can do them ourselves. However, time is of the essence here. There are several mini-projects we have to complete before the new year. If we’re able to ship those tasks to a third-party who will not only be able to deliver the end result 10x faster than we can, but also keep the final product cohesive and aesthetically uniform, then we’ll do just that in order to leverage our time and use our collective strengths in these other areas of importance. Recruiting/ Volunteer development. This is quite an undertaking---more so than we had initially imagined. In one area, Jason has been handling the fundamentals of our mythos and universal cosmology. He’s been spearheading this since day one and has done an excellent job in doing so. We feel that this aspect is of crucial importance to have readied when we bring more collaborators in. Why? Because it informs them of the rules regarding how our universe works, providing basic answers as to its origins, how random people develop powers and gives meaning to all that will develop over the course of the first arc and beyond. These are storytelling tools we need to equip newcomers with in order to play in our rather broad sandbox. Without such tools they’re blowing in the wind, directionless. In another area, Ed has been hard at work developing our company culture, another massive undertaking. Researching Pixar, Google, Hubspot and Valve, he has accumulated data and insight from the inner workings of these creative playgrounds and developed something unique to Arclight. From developing a manual that details how (and why) we work, to a Google Slide presentation that details our culture code, this is another crucial project that has to be done before we bring others in. It sets a streamlined standard, puts everyone on the same page and gives our future collaborators a leg-up in regards to how to handle our unconventional and creatively synergistic working environment. Then enter Jeff, who is focused upon the Arclight “brand” - crossing T’s and dotting I’s. He’s an extremely detail-oriented and creative thinker who insures all of this is sitting pretty on paper and in practice - polished, relatable and compelling. From determining the various elements needed in individual character style guides, to developing our official brand guide and iconography, to even proposing “what’s in this for collaborators/volunteers” ideas, he’s responsible for a lot of “knot-tying” in this project. And that’s when we aren’t developing the Arclight Universe’s characters, organizations, general aesthetics, thematic overtures and history. Website development. Yes. We have one coming. About a year ago we spoke with our web designer and had a site mockup. That was when we were lacking a solid understanding of exactly who we were, what we stand for and how imperative our brand is. Now that we have that more solid foundation we are able to detail what exactly we will need out of our site. One of the things he (our web designer) asked us a year ago is if we had character art for character profiles. At that time we didn’t have anything. We didn’t know what we wanted to showcase and how to present it. Now we do. Ed found a way to showcase our characters without giving much away - but don’t be fooled. The style in which they’re to be showcased is pretty cool and we’re sure you all will enjoy the end result of Ed’s labors. Other goodies are brewing even as you read this. Other developments. Jason just had a birthday. This is important because he just kicked cancer’s arse. Life has occasionally gotten the best of us which has slowed or delayed project developments from days to weeks at a time. From Jeff’s full-time work schedule to Ed suffering from major burnouts, we have had our share of adversity as we chart our road to completion. Writing comics and creating superheroes is a wonderful thing, but we would be silly not to shine light on some of the trials and tribulations we’ve come across in doing so. Often times we’re faced with cynicism: “We don’t need more superhero IPs or stories”; “The industry is fine the way that it is”; “It’s pointless, this market is already cornered”….”You guys are wasting your time”. We don’t agree. If there weren’t glaring issues with the industry we wouldn’t be doing this. Our goal is to influence positive change on the mainstream landscape in whatever capacity God will allow and we’re doing it through the use of a genre we’ve come to know and love. Sure. The Big Two have the majority of the market, but who is to say that’s all there can be? And why should we settle for that? Joss Whedon put it best in his recent interview with Geek Tyrant: “There’s probably a dozen [properties I’ve always wanted to do]. It’s very important I don’t do that. It’s very important that we start creating new content again. We can only build on nostalgia so much before we have nothing left to build on. Before we’re rebooting Spider-Man—again. It’s dangerous to the culture, and it’s boring to me. I squeezed in between my Avengers movies a 400-year-old play. So I really need to create some new worlds.” That’s what we’re doing. Building a new, diverse and compelling world the best way we know how. We appreciate the support of all of our friends and supporters and cannot thank you enough for believing in us.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 12:13:42 +0000
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