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| Outcast Character Victoria (Completed still from Animation) |
Everything I have written has always come from a place in my head, where I had an idea how it was going to end. That’s not to say I have the ending all planned out, but from the moment I start telling the story, I know the place I’d like to see that story go to. That doesn’t mean I have a pre destined path for my characters, and in fact I have very often changed the outcome of my stories to match how the character develops. But it is a starting and ending point, and as I write I am basically filling in the bits between.
Final Redemption was unique in that I was working with an already established universe (Star Wars), and many of the character driven events were determined through unscripted Role Play. I still new, when I started writing it, where I wanted it to end, but that journey could have gone a completely different direction. There was a time that I thought it would be more fun for Nythaka to go all evil at the end, leaving the door open for a sequel…but then I swore I’d never make “Finaler Redemption” ..so best it ends as it did!
(as a side bar, the proposed sequel “Family” which never got made, was not intended so much as a direct sequel but just another story told with those characters, much as the Indiana Jones films are done)
The other part of my preparation to writing is setting myself some simple rules to work with, not to limit the story, but to help tailor the events and dialogue to work within the rule set I create for myself.
When I set out to write Outcast, I was very particular about 3 things:
1) People were going to die
2) The characters were not going to be defined as Good or Bad, but defined as Human
3) It was going to be an Adult story allowing for Nudity, Sexuality, Language and Violence.
The first turned out to be vital in telling this story, as a sense of risk needed to be presented. This isn’t X-Men even if it does have inspirational roots from there. Not everyone is going to live to see the end. And not just people you’d expect to kill off for the sake of killing off…I mean everyone is game to die, even main characters
See once you eliminate that right from the start, you free things up completely to just tell the story as you see it happening. Events can happen logically rather than using a cheap excuse to escape danger (though I won’t say I am innocent of using the odd cheap excuse for things here and there…it is sci fi after all).
The Second thing came from the very concept I used when this story popped into my head. Not to give too much away, but in most films involving people with special abilities, they are either good or bad. I wanted to create a situation where they were more in shades of grey. While it might seem they are the “heroes” and the governments the “Villains” I very much wanted the audience to question that, just as our characters do through the course of the story.
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| Outcast Character Sarah in the desert, (Pre Effects Still from Animation) |
What would happen if you put the extraordinary power some of these characters have, in the hands of people you know? What would their instinct be? Can you be 100% sure they would only use them for good? Can you be certain you would? If you could be invisible do you think you’d resist the urge to go into the ladies showers and watch? (of course I wouldn’t you cheeky bastards! But I know at least 2 people who would)
I wanted to tell the story from the perspective of people who think they are right and justified in their actions. Jump into the “freedom fighter” who the rest of the world would view as a Terrorist. That was important to me, not to show some kind of sympathy for people who destroy innocent lives with terror, but to show how influential perspective, religion and politics is, all in the name of the “people”
Confused yet? Good good, don’t want you to figure it all out too soon!
The last of my rules, having it be Adult, was not because I wanted to make a naughty superhero movie with lots of sex and nudity, but because I didn’t want to feel confined to a PG universe. We don’t live in one now, how could we ever assume we would in the future? In fact I can see changes happening in society now that will probably eventually lead to a far more open society when it comes to nudity and sexuality. Well…maybe not in the US…but the rest of the world sure!
So as I wrote I always had that in mind, but I never wrote anything in just for the sake of having something adult. It always served to set an environment, a scene, an atmosphere. In fact, for all of the writing I did, never feeling confined to a PG universe..the subject of nudity and sex in the story only came up at the very beginning
Here’s a possible spoiler warning for you, though I am not going to actually get into details. The opening sequence of the scripted version takes place in a Red Light District. The character we visit during this sequence is working as a prostitute in order to get closer to some government officials and get information. In this particular opening scene, she walks from an apartment, through the red-light district, to a club called “The Hole” which has a secret she is there to discover.
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| Outcast Character Alyssia in the Redlight District (completed still from Animation) |
Ok, spoiler bit done, what’s in the room and why you can find out later on.
So anyway, I wrote the environment as being very adult. Go go dancers on the streets, windows that offered a voyeuristic view of people getting naughty, strippers, prostitutes, gay, straight, lesbian…nothing held back. This was the sex district after all, and so I wanted to establish that.
When it came time to animate it, I had a bit of fun creating sequences for it and continued with my concept of an adult story. But it occurred to me as I was animating the opening sequence, that if I made it too adult (nudity mostly) then I’d be pretty limited on getting the final product out there for people to see. Was keeping faithful to one sequence out of the whole project worth alienating potential viewers?
I decided it wasn’t, and this was the first change that I made going from concept to animation. But I learned something in the process. As I went back to re do the red-light scenes, I found I could still get away with the feeling of the environment, without compromising too much. Instead of full views through windows I could use silhouettes through darkened windows. Instead of nude dancers, they could be wearing lingerie. While it may not be exactly as envisioned, it does get the point across, that is a place where people make sexy time.
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| Before and After render from the Adult Club Scene |
It bothers me a bit, when I watch it the new renders, to no longer have the nudity. I have always been a person who thinks the covering of body parts is pretty lame in comparison to the violence on our average tv or movie. The human body is a lovely thing after all and why not show a little nipple here and there! But I suppose I don’t make the censorship rules, and if I want to present this thing on youtube or other web services, best I behave myself.
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| Before and After render from the Adult Club Scene |
As I look through the script, I don’t see much else that I will need to change. Once the opening sequence is done, there are only a few references to nudity, and those, being non sexual, are much easier to animate around without showing any bits. Maybe someday I will go back and remake it with the unedited content, even just for me and those who took part in making it, but I’m fairly content with the outcome (though I still wish I had a motion capture system to make animating a lot faster and better looking).
What do you think? Was it the right decision? Should I have kept it as is and hosted the film on my own rather than go through a popular video provider? If I compromise on that should I compromise on language and violence?
Personally, I’m trying to keep everything as I originally intended. I might cut some scenes here and there to keep pacing, or if they are unnecessary, but I’m not planning on changing any of the language or violence.
Next time we’ll look at creating the future city where most of the action takes place!
Jon
Jon
