Musings

A sneak-Peek

2012-06-16T17:30:00.000-07:00

I've decided, dear readers, that since you've been so tolerant of my delays between posts, I would share a sneak peek of the work I've been doing on the book I mentioned. The text and picture are both rough drafts from the book, in a section about forts. This particular fort is called the Pallet Palace. I'd love to hear any feedback you have, since this is a rough draft. Follow the break to read the page. Thanks for sticking with me, Readers!

Pallet Palace

The pallet Palace is a simple fort designed to be built on flat ground. The best part of the pallet palace is that the materials are pretty simple to get ahold of. Most big stores get their supplies delivered on pallets, big flat wooden structures made of inexpensive wood. A lot of stores can recycle them now, but some places will still give them away if you ask.Some places (like the hardware store where I live) may ask you to pay for them, however, it is usually not a lot. Another great thing about the palet palace is that it can be very widely reconfigured. You can make a palace with as many rooms, grand halls and corridors as you need, or you can fit.

To make a pallet Palace, you will need to gather as many pallets as you can. Try to find pallets of the same size, as this will make the walls easier to build. Then, once you have your pallets, gather a lot of scraps of wood, or even a few dismantled pallets, as well as a bucket of nails and a hammer. Then, figure out the shape of your palace. Use the width of a pallet to figure out the size and shape of every portion of your pallet. To create a corridor, try to make sure that your walls will be close enough that you can rest a pallet on top of them, to create a ceiling. In most places, however, you will not be able to close off the ceiling of your pallet palace.

Now that your pallet palace is planned, (say that five times fast) you can begin to construct he bottom layer of your palace walls. Start in a corner, by standing two pallets up against each other. Use a piece of scrap wood. Once it can hold itself up, add another brace, and make sure that each pallet has at least four nails in it. Then move on to the next portion of wall, bracing it up in the same way, with two scrap boards. Keep going on like this until your bottom layer is lain out. Make sure to leave gaps for any doors you want. When you have your bottom layer in place, you can begin to lay out a second layer to make your walls higher. Start in the same corner as before, but stack on top. Be sure to attach the pallets of the top layer to each other, as well as to the bottom layer. That way, your walls will be completely solid. Over the tops of doors, lay a 2x4 across the gap, and nail it down to secure your walls. Then, in corners on the top, lay 2x4's from one wall to the other, and nail them in. If you have the lumber for it, make angle braces to the ground to help keep the fort stable. See the picture below for The basic shapes. Then, if you are feeling like it, you can use a saw to remove parts of pallets to create windows, or just remove one board on each side to create a narrow “Archer slit” like castles have.

My Latest Project (or, excuses excuses...)

2012-05-17T18:03:00.001-07:00

Hello readers, I know that you had probably given up on seeing any updates from this blog, but it's not true! I've been very distracted lately, and haven't felt that I had much to say to you, so rather than pester you with filler, I decided to let it go for awhile. I admit, after this post, I may go silent for another while. However, let me fill you in on what is currently taking up my time!

So, you may not have heard of lulu.com, but it is a self-publishing website. I had an idea for a book a few months ago, and have finally decided to get my butt into gear and start writing. The title of the book is The Expert's Guide To Getting Into (And Sometimes Out Of) TROUBLE I know, it's a long winded title, but I like it. Anyway, it's a book about projects for kids, from building treehouses to fun pranks to pull, to stories to tell younger siblings to torment them for years. It's basically a guide to all of the things that kids used to do when it was okay to climb trees and skin knees.

For now, that's all I can really tell you, but I have already wrapped out about twenty pages (sans illustrations) and wanted to let you know that I am not dead, but rather, happily busy. Look for more updates on the book as I get closer to publishing, and thank you for being supportive!

An exploded view of the doghouse project from the book!

Hangout Games Pt. 2

2012-02-03T14:11:00.000-08:00

Okay, where were we? That's right, my next step was explaining the builder portion of this game.
Basically, the builder is a simple tile-based system. The creator chooses a size level at the beginning, and from there they are asked to choose an element/theme. This determines the tileset and sprites the creator will be able to use, such as volcanic mine, or dreary forest. There would be a large array of tilesets, and the library would be constantly expanding. The tiles aren't different physically, that is, a wall is still a wall, a rock is a rock, floors are floors, etc. Mostly, the difference is aesthetic. However, there would likely be elements from each them that would be unique, such as cart rails in the aforementioned mines, or foliage overhead in a forest. Every element would be able to be painted onto the map, and the edges would automatically align. So, when a player draws a pool of water, lava or acid (as examples) the edges of that pool would create their own shores. So, the player draws all the elements of their map, including multiple floors, stairs, walls, decorations, raised walkways, and bodies of water. Then the player moves to the puzzle layer of the editor.
This layer takes care of the elements that adventurers interact with using the action button. The creator is given a palette of objects such as doors, switches and pushable blocks. Each of these behave in specific ways, and are aesthetically adapted to the them of the map.
First of all, doors. Doors are pretty obvious, so I'll pair them with locks for simplicity. Whenever a player paints a door, lock, or locked treasure chest, they are immediately prompted to place a key for that object. The creators will be given the option to ignore the notice, if they need to, but will not be able to test or publish their dungeon without placing keys for every lock. They may place a key in a chest, in the open, as the solution to a puzzle, or even into the pocket of a monster (I'm getting there, I promise.) There may also be theme-specific components that they may place keys, like a minecart, for example, or the belly of some sort of machine.
The second element of the Puzzle layer is the puzzles themselves. These are more complicated, if only because there are so many different types of them. In the editor, when the creator decides to place a puzzle, they must first select the obstacle that the puzzle removes. This could override a lock on a door, for example, or even walls. If the creator decides that their puzzle opens a secret passage through a wall, for example, they would draw a brightly colored indicator over which wall pieces would disappear when the puzzle is completed. If, on the other hand, the puzzle say, lifted a bridge from a pool of acid, they would first draw the bridge and then place the indicators over it. Then, after placing the indicators, they would be asked which state is natural, is the bridge there before the puzzle, or does is appear?
Then they may begin building the puzzle itself, using switches and blocks, lasers, and who knows what all else. one of the tricks is that every switch has a series of options. It's a bit complicated to explain, but in a right-click window (as it would appear in-designer) the options would be simple. the creator would choose which puzzle the switch operates, they would choose which direction it works, (for example, pressing one switch might undo others) and they can decide if the switch must be held down for it's effect to remain. The switches can also be linked to specific indicator colors, so that when say, a player presses one switch, maybe a door opens, but the floor leading to it becomes covered in spikes, so that only a certain combination of switches will create the access the players need. Switches can also be triggered in such a way that multiple switches must be triggered at once to activate them. That would cause players to have to cooperate to solve puzzles. eventually, when the creator has satisfied their puzzle building needs, they can test-play it to make sure all puzzles are solvable. In the test-play mode, they are given "dolls" which they can leave on a switch as a person, so as to test multi-person puzzles.
This layer also includes story-related events, including events triggered by being in a location, or conversations with npc's. these are created in almost exactly the same way as puzzles, using triggers and actions.
Then, the creator moves on to the final layer of the editor; monsters.Every style of dungeon has it's own types of monsters that are location-specific. For example swamp-plants in a marsh, or goblin machinists in a factory. However, there are classic monsters that can be called on as well, spiders, lizard-men, slimes, etc. These can be placed one at a time onto the map, using a brush tool. they can be grouped into teams, so that they wear color-coded clothes/accents and work cooperatively (obviously not all enemies can work together, since swamp plants are likely to operate on instinct). some enemies would come with objects rthat can be placed with them, for example, a Kobold machine-gunner would likely come with sandbags, and the Kobold might even be placed away from his den, to create a race-against the clock element. Another example (and a much more obvious one I should have thought of first) is spider webbing.
Finally, the player creates a boss fight for the dungeon. The boss fight is created in a separate sort of editor, still part of the main one, but brought up in a new window. In this window, there is a viewing screen, where they can view their boss as it acts through its animations and attacks. Underneath that frame is the editor for it. First, the creator chooses from many sprites of enemy, and even types (Small fighter, classic serpent dodging around the room, giant stationary monster, giant walking monster, etc.) Then after selecting an enemy, and coloring it appropriately, they are given a timeline for it's actions. The timeline is based on hitpoints. For example, if the villain starts with 100 hp, the first portion of timeline could be from 100-75 hp. During that time in the boss' life, they would perform a certain type and number of attacks in a certain order, and move in a specific way. Then, after the hero has done 25 hp of damage, the monster would move into say, it's 75-50 range, where it would perform different attacks and movements. The boss' hp could be divided many times, creating a complex creature. Then the player could introduce Dialogue for the villain, and choose a loot category for it, determining the type of treasure that the villain can drop. In certain sized dungeons, specifically large ones, the creator would be allowed to insert a mini-boss partway through, using the same editor.
The creator is also able to use pre-built rooms and enemies, which they could drop into place like tiles.

The last and most important element of this designer (I know, I know, too long, didn't read) is the grading scale. After the creator has finished editing, the click "Publish" They will be prompted for a name, and a description, and given the option to include the dungeon into a quest. Then, the computer takes over. The computer would review the map, looking at things like the number of switches used to trigger puzzles, the total HP of enemies, the level of enemies, and the size of the map, and create a star rating for the difficulty of the map. This is crucial because if the maps aren't ranked appropriately, new players may find themselves trapped in a dungeon that is too powerful, and end up having no fun at all, which is the most important part of any game. However, the difficulty grading does more than that. It allows the designer to create escalation in a campaign, and also determines the quality of items inside of the dungeon. More difficult dungeons obviously earn players more powerful armor, weapons and treasures. Players can also upvote maps after having completed them, and provide reviews, which can also effect the overall rating of the map. The entire game is about creating a social experience that causes players to work together, either in a dungeon, or on a dungeon.
Hopefully you managed to get through all that, I didn't realize I had spent so much time thinking about it between my last post and this one, but apparently, there was a lot going on in the back of my head. Anyway, I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on this or any of the designs I've posted, so feel free to comment! Thanks for reading!

P.s. If you decided to create this game, PLEASE let me know, and please give me credit for the original concept. If someone does make it, I'll do my very best to help you publicize, and I'd even be willing to collaborate, if needed. Thanks!

Hangout games pt. 1

2012-01-11T12:45:00.000-08:00

So, It's been awhile, but I did promise you at least three game ideas, so here, dearest readers, is number three.

A lot of people have heard of Google Plus, and may be familiar with one of its big components, hangouts. However, for those of you who are unfamiliar, let me sum it up. Hangouts is a chatroom with video for up to ten people to video chat on, with adaptive screen scaling, and a developer component called Hangouts with add-ons. That's the part that matters here, because it allows web developers to make apps for hangouts. The idea behind my game is to create an add-on that serves as a full blown game, using hangouts to play. My idea is a dungeon crawler, in the fashion of diablo, where the players co-operate to battle through the dungeon, and must solve puzzles in collaboration. The game uses simple action mechanics, walk, fight, and push, like an oldschool adventure game. Think Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, as far as mechanics, but with ten players running around at the same time. Obviously, It's a lot for developers to work on, because to develop puzzles for that size group, there's a lot of thought involved.
That's why the second half of the game is based around building. On a website separate from the played game, players will be invited to create dungeons. The computer will assess the difficulty of the puzzles, as well as the enemies, and pay the player for their maps in in-game gold.
I'll focus more on the dungeon builder in my next post, but I wanted to give you a taste of it.
As far as plot goes, I actually imagine this game as fairly classic. It's an adventure game set in a somewhat steam-powered fantasy world. Swords and sorcery and steam, if you will. There are five types of class: Fighter, Healer, Mage, Thief, and for lack of a better term, a red mage. The fighter, obviously is geared toward combat, healer toward healing, and mage toward magic. The thief has abilities more geared toward status effects, stealing and light damage, while the red mage is a fair balance between magic and fighting. Each character has two assignable attack slots, one for left click, and one for spacebar. The left click would be especially suited for things like arrows, throwing knives, or spells, which would be aim-able via the mouse. While the spacebar would be good for short-range attacks. However, when the player is standing next to a chest, door, person or switch, the spacebar would become the "Action button" allowing them to acivate those things, or to speak to a person. Movement would be controlled by WASD.
I think that most of the plot would be devoted to being roving adventurers, saving princesses, defeating monsters and saving villages. However, through the building system, some dungeons could be linked together into campaigns, with full-blown story archs. It would allow people who are drawn to the dungeons and dragons to create a full story for their friends to play, without having to worry about managing dice rolls and mechanics, since the game will handle all of that already. Players could even divide the task of dungeon building in an arch, so that no player knows all of the dungeons, and everyone could play together.
As I said earlier, I'll get into dungeon building in my next post. Hopefully you enjoy the concept so far, I have a lot of Ideas for this game, and would love to work with a team to create it.

P.s. If you decided to create this game, please let me know, and please give me credit for the original concept. If someone does make it, I'll do my very best to help you publicize, and I'd even be willing to collaborate, if needed. Thanks!

Invasion

2011-12-28T02:27:00.000-08:00

So, as promised, here's another idea for a game.
This one takes advantage of the wii platform, but could also work on the xbox Kinect, or the ps3's new motion control system. It's a formula that has been used on the wii already, but not to good effect.
Basically, the game is a rail shooter, in the style of Time Crisis, but with several improvements on the formula, and particularly improvements on what (I believe) the wii has seen so far in the genre.
First of all, let me roll into atmosphere, the flavor of it. Not because it's the most important aspect, certainly, but because the flavor makes the other elements seem more tangible. The game is set in a science-fiction universe. It's a mildly playful style, bright and colorful. The story starts in a liquor store, where the hero is working as a clerk. Large booming sounds reverberate outside, a low rumble fills the sky, and shadows creep across the street. The hero steps out from behind the counter, and dashes into the street, in time to see an alien spacecraft filling the skies. In a rush, pods smash into the ground, and burst open, with alien marines dashing out and instantly vaporizing several nearby humans. The hero runs backward into the liquor store, and crawls under the counter, where a pistol is laying next to the alarm button. The hero grabs the pistol, just as one of the aliens enters the liquor store. In six shots, the alien is dead, and the hero is out of bullets. The alien has dropped a gun, however, and the hero runs to pick it up. The hero goes into the streets and battles through aliens and machines and the chaos of humans in terror to make it home to their family.
So, hopefully, that flavor enticed you enough to listen to some mechanical talk. Anyway, here's the deal: the problem with rail shooters is that they are essentially the same thing as shooting gallery games. Normally, it is a short sequence of running, during which you have no control, followed by a short section of shooting, then your character runs again. Here's a key difference for the shooter I am proposing bears several differences, primarily in that structure there. The player is given much more control over their character, using the nunchuck. Firstly, the hero is in control of hiding behind cover. Holding the Z button raises the hero up from behind cover. Moving behind cover automatically reloads the hero's gun. There are two other buttons on the nunchuck that come into play: firstly, the c-button, which is used to change weapons. The key to that is that to press the c button more or less requires you to release Z, moving you into cover, which is the only place you can change weapons. The other button on the nunchuck that matters is the analogue stick. Rail shooters always lock the player into one single line of sight: forward. The analogue stick is used to turn the hero's field of view, a total of ninety degrees in all directions, and when the stick is released, it moves to a neutral center. What it means is that the player feels more in control of their play, and the gameplay becomes more immersive.The player can also move their camera and shoot during all of the moving portions. They are playing at all times, which is important. It helps blur the line between rail shooter and first-person-shooter. A lot of players hesitate to play rail-shooters because they feel that the experience is lacking compared to a first-person-shooter because of the difference between movement, and the length of time waiting for action to resume.
At the beginning of each chapter, the player is given the option of choosing their load-out for the trip. They will always have the pistol they stole from the first alien, which does not run out of ammo. They will also have two slots for other guns. The hero can gather more guns as they fight through their adventure, sometimes by shooting certain enemies, sometimes by finding them behind cover, and other things like that.
One last thing that is missing from rail shooters is the feeling of choice. Fortunately, the mechanics I'm suggesting make it possible to split the track that the player is on. When the hero is in a running portion, occasionally two arrows will flash on screen, suggesting two paths. The player will use the analogue stick to choose a path, and the story will go in that direction. There may also be instances where the arrows will not flash on screen, but holding the stick during a run will change paths anyway, allowing for secrets.
I think I could write more on this game, actually, but for now, it is 2:24 at night, and I am incredibly sleepy. If you are interested in hearing more, let me know in the comments!

The ghost's castle

2011-12-21T13:01:00.000-08:00

So, I spend a lot of time thinking about games, and about game design. Maybe you've noticed. Anyway I've decided that since I never seem to have the time to actually execute any games, and haven't really had time to create anything playable (after all, I barely take the time to update this blog) I've decided to share some ideas for games and see if the ideas get picked up by anyone with the time and knack. So, here we go!

The first concept is an exploration-based adventure game. The protagonist has been kidnapped by otherworldlies, say fairies, or spirits, and dropped into an old castle, drifting in and endless space, to teach the hero a lesson about his/her life. The castle is vast, with gardens, towers, grand halls, and a multitude of varied rooms. Many, maybe most of these rooms, are empty when the hero first enters them. But, after solving a few puzzles in some of the fuller rooms, the hero finds the first of several masks. The masks resemble people from his life, possibly through one characteristic, definitely not through facial emulation, because that's creepy. Anyway, The hero finds the mask, and puts it on, and in doing so, the castle changes before them. Suddenly, rooms that were empty are furnished, there are more puzzles to solve, and from time to time, people pass through the halls.
The hero tries to address the people in the halls, but the figures just carry out their actions. They act out scenes from the hero's life, moments of regret, choices made, etc. They are all dressed in fancy clothing, ball gowns, suits, and masks, as if they are all attending a masquerade, which they are. All of the figures are fairies, or spirits, playing their part in the heroes' past. As the hero progresses through the flashbacks and puzzles, he or she eventually finds another mask, which reveals a different set of full rooms, events and the like. The hero eventually finds a total of say, seven masks. Each one reveals a different set of rooms and puzzles, and helps the hero understand their mistakes, and eventually, to come to understand what they must do to set things right.
The important thing about the masks is that they don't change the castle, they just reveal what is there. From the very start, just about all rooms are accessible, only one or two doors are ever locked, and they are unlockable by things hidden by the masks.

Now, I just realized that I had planned on spouting out about three games in this one post, but since I ended up writing a whole big chunk about that one idea, I've decided to break this up into a few different posts. So, expect the second in a week or so.

P.s. If you decided to create this game, please let me know, and please give me credit for the original concept. If someone does make it, I'll do my very best to help you publicize, and I'd even be willing to collaborate, if needed. Thanks!

The Haunt: Finale!

2011-10-31T15:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, dear readers, the Haunted Library is finally over! So, as promised, I'm doing one more post about it, looking back on what I would (and likely will) do differently next year. Now, you may have heard the phrase "pics, or it didn't happen," as it turns out, none of us remembered this, so we have no proof that we ever performed this haunt. I have a few phone pictures of a few props being built, which I will put on a page HERE with the maze, but without pictures of everything installed in the library, I'll excuse your skepticism. As for the video I mentioned, It exists, but is really just five minutes of black with occasional flickers of faces and light. it's pretty lousy, so I've decided not to put it up.
Now for the good news. On Friday, we put the haunted house up starting at about ten am, and finishing at about 5:10 pm. With a total of four actors in the haunt, we managed to scare the daylights out of a total of 378 guests, and earned as many dollars for the library to buy books with! Or, in other words, the Haunt was a huge success! While we didn't manage to get everything working that we wanted to, we put together enough of a haunt that people were going through more than once, and had a fantastic time.

Now to talk about what worked, and what didn't. I'll go through room by room, and break it down for you. First of all, outside, we had guests wait in line, as "Lurch" greeted them, and took their tickets. Casey did a fantastic job as lurch, making great jokes about the unlikelihood of their return to the land of the living.
Then guests are greeted by the gypsy, who stopped them a moment, and foretold grave danger in their future. Here was were the haunt taught us our first two lessons. One, guests will head toward whatever path seems most obvious. That is, behind the gypsy, they could see a well-lit pumpkin patch, and would instinctively head towards it. Rian had to make a lot of warnings about previous groups who had gone that way and not made it back, in order to guide the guests down the right path. The other thing we got from Rian as the gypsy was called the "Gypsy Blessing". Wherein, when a child started the haunt out too scared, she would wrap them in a scarf and grant them, protection from the monsters ahead of them. She'd shout the phrase Gypsy Blessing, and the monsters would know to go easy on the next group. It was a great idea, especially considering how many littler kids we had go through the haunt.
After that was the entirely disappointing pepper's ghost. The problem with the pepper's ghost came from two things, the fact that we didn't have enough darkness around it, and the fact that it was freestanding. The ghost stood on it's own stand, and we could see the edges of the glass, which ruined the effect, and with too much light, the reflection was very faint. Oops.
Next was the vortex, another disappointment, but one that ended up working in another way. The vortex managed to have all of the fabric hung, and it became a creepy, narrow hallway of draped fabric. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get the projector working on the vortex, so it was really just a long, dim hallway. What happened instead, was that shadows from the forest managed to splash colors and branches on one side of the hallway, creating a creepy effect. Another interesting thing that happened was that I was able to spook people from the outside of the tunnel using my shadow, and a good old fashioned shout.

Then, at the end of the hall came the first real scare. My friend Brad came to the haunt, and brought a nice scary mask. Classic. when guests reached the end of the hall, he was hiding behind a small metal bookcase. he'd smash his hand on a shelf and leap out, scaring the pants off of just about everyone. It was a simple scare, but so effective that he literally knocked two kids flat on their backs, just with fear.
Then guests moved into the cave, my favorite area of the haunt. We slung plastic low enough that children were okay, but their parents all had to duck to pass through, and hung string from the ceiling. The strings had an amazing amount of creep-out factor, tickling faces, and feeling down-right weird. The bubble wrap worked very well too, drawing attention downward, and helping people get spooked by the strings. The biggest downside of this room was that it didn't get dark enough to keep eyes from adjusting, and people could identify the bubble wrap.

Next was the cave of mirrors, which was a fair bit of fun, because Rian painted some very cute eyes on the three tall mirrors, which ended up floating right on the faces of our guests. Then, while they are having fun staring at the mirrors, Brad would pop out behind them, and keep them moving again.
The spider taught us another lesson. We needed to pay attention to where our guests' attention would be. Because they had passed through a room where the floor had tricked them, they were watching the floor, and many of them didn't notice that they were walking underneath a giant spider. We could also have avoided them missing it by getting the motion working, which unfortunately, I wasn't able to do. But, as they left that room, I would jump down from behind a wall and startle them, which kinda made up for the let-down that was the spider.

Then guests moved into the forest, which was too brightly lit, but proved to be a lot of fun anyway. Across the middle of the hallway, we set a pair of tables, which, if we had had more time, we'd have put trees on top of. But since we ran out of time (more on that in a bit) we just left the bare tables. what was cool was that I managed to work that to my advantage, scaring people in there. I would follow guests, wearing zombie Makeup, and acting as intimidating as possible, and let them worry about me behind them. Then they would pass around the tables, thinking that they were safe from me. Then, i would leap onto the table and scream at them. It worked Fantastically.
Then they would round the low stone wall, and enter the pumpkin patch, where my dad, Weasel, would hand them a dum-dum lollipop, before they headed to the seance again.

The biggest problem we had with the haunt was that we were under the impression that the library would have students in it until ten thirty am. So, we had to load everything in at ten thirty, and install everything as fast as possible. We ended up opening about ten minutes late, and we really rushed the lighting, and didn't get a lot of props installed. The classes all decided not to come in, but we didn't know until ten thirty, so we continued on with the original rushed plan.
Next year, the plan is to start by loading in the day before, and hopefully have the walls up before we come in on Friday, giving us an entire day to do props and decorations, and setting aside about an hour for lighting, to make sure that everything is appropriately dark and spooky.

Anyway, to sum up an entirely long post, I overestimated the amount of time we'd have in the haunt, expecting to be able to cram more in than we actually did. But, everyone had a good time, and we've learned more about how to make the process more efficient and spookier next year, so i'm calling it a win!
Happy Halloween Everyone!

Room #5: The Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

As the Guests exit the forest, they make a hard left turn into the pumpkin patch, but not before a Giant's Shadow pounces across a wall to their right, standing ten feet tall, and chasing them into the pumpkin patch.
First, the guests pass through a gate, fashioned to look like a large jack-o-lantern, and as they walk through it's mouth, they find themselves in a graveyard, overgrown with pumpkins. There's a stone wall running along one side, with small pumpkins resting on top. And a scarecrow waits at the end of the path with a bowl of candy for the guests.

This room, obviously, is where the giant pumpkin from my earlier post will be living, with a giant candle inside of it. all made out of cardboard. This room is much brighter and more playful than the others, mostly orange and green throughout the room.
The scarecrow will be an actor, who can decide to scare children if he wants to. The biggest isssue of this room is building pumpkins. See, with our budget of approximately $1, buying a bunch of pumpkins and carving them into jack-o-lanterns is out of the question. So, we've made a few pumpkins in three dimensions out of cardboard,and we're in the process of creating a few groups of pumpkins in two-dimensions. The tombstones are made out of foam I already had, and have cut into stones.
It's a simple room, with a lot of building to create a well-dressed scene. A lot of this has to be built in the space, which makes this room a bit of a challenge, since we have about four hours (Hopefully we'll get more time) in the space to set up.
Now that I've filled you in on how everything should look, I'll be filling you in on how some of it is being built, and hopefully, I'll end with a video walk-through on Saturday.

Room #4: The Forest.

2011-10-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, readers, let me level with you, this post took so long to get to you because two days ago, I almost changed this room. Let me tell you why. This room is a big u-turn shape designed to look like a haunted forest. A large group of trees encircle the guests, and arch their branches high overhead, where an owl looms, and several crows grumble, caw, and crack-wise. Meanwhile, guests are hit with a mysterious gust of wind, and something lurks just beyond the trees.
As you can see on the MAP the forest is one of the larger areas in the haunt. The downside of that is, that room will require a lot of scenery, and I honestly (still) have concerns about us getting enough trees in there to make it spooky. Originally, we were going to make the trees out of butcher paper, and create faces on them, like the trees from the "Wizard of Oz". Here's the issue with that: Each of those trees would need some sort of solid structure running from toe to tip, and to be honest, I'm on too tight of a budget to purchase lumber to brace the insides. So, I decided to cut the entire scene from the haunt, and asked my family for other suggestions. Then my old man decided that he had found the plan to build the forest, and help himself out as well, the old coot. So, we tore down old branches from our mulberry tree in the back yard, and he's taken it on himself to turn those branches into trees. Hopefully, he knows what he's doing.
Meanwhile, I've got to make sure that the rest of this forest is spooky!
There will be at least one person in the forest to do some old-fashioned scaring, and to try some other tricks as well. Firstly, I've modified an Airzooka to sit on a solid base, and be fired remotely with a cord. Which means I can hide the airzooka in a bush somewhere, and not let guests know where the gust of wind has come from.
Meanwhile, overhead, a pair of crows are sitting in some branches, cawing and making a few jokes. It's a simple matter of a couple of cardboard silhouettes and some decent sound design, which is being handled by y brother.
Then, they turn the corner, under a spooky moon and and actor either lurks in the forest, or leaps out at the guests, depending on the age and bravado of the guests. In all likelihood, this is probably me in a simple costume. Then, they turn one last corner into the last room of the haunt.

Room # 3: The Cave

2011-10-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

Not a photograph of MY cave, but how cool would that be, right?

So, after our intrepid adventurers are spewed out of a magical vortex, they find themselves inside a dark and intimidating cavern. The first chamber of the cavern plays with their imagination, as something tickles across their faces, and something else pops beneath their feet. Is this cave filled with bugs?
Actually, both of these are pretty classic haunted house tricks. The first portion of the cave uses darkness to convince the guests that something more is happening, when really, they're walking on a bit of bubble wrap, and string is tickling their face. Classic.

The Second Chamber of the cavern is a mysterious room filled with mirrors. the room will have four mirrors arranged in an array, lit only with blacklight. On each mirror will be a different ghost, which glows under the blacklight. Everything in the room will be covered in heavy cobwebs, hinting at what's to come.
The inside of the cave itself will mostly be black plastic, forming an uncomfortably low ceiling. Kids will be fine, but parents my have to duck, creating discomfort. I know that sounds like a bad thing, but creating unpleasant atmosphere is half of what a haunted house is about. A building full of people jumping out is startling, but it isn't scary. To create fear, there needs to be buildup, and claustrophobia is a simple fear to play off of.

The third chamber of the cavern is through a black curtain. the ceiling opens up here, but only to make room for a giant black widow, standing across the top of the pathway! The spider stands above the guests, rocking back and forth above their heads, as it's children hang from the walls.
The spider itself is going to be made primarily from chicken wire on a frame,, and wrapped with paper mache. (my goodness, I am using so much paper mache!) The real trick of the spider is that the guests are walking at that time between two bookshelves that are already in the library. Each bookcase is about four feet high, and will serve as a resting place for four of the spider's legs, so that the spider stands directly above the path. The lurching motion of the spider is created by a modification of the "Flying Crank Ghost". This link doesn't go to a how-to, unfortunately, they're harder to find than I remember. Leave A comment If you'd like a more in-depth explanation, and I'll write a post about it
I'm using the same mechanism, but modifying it to use only two points, and rocking the body back and forth. I may also attach the spider's front two legs to the crank, to add more motion to the scene.
One concern I have with this spider is that it may be actually too scary. for example, I am horrified by giant spiders The movie "Eight Legged Freaks" is technically a comedy, but if i watch that movie, I don't sleep. Maybe I'm just a wiener, but I am pretty nervous about scarring children. We'll see.

Room #2: The Vortex!

2011-10-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

After guests are greeted by our friend the gypsy, and threatened by the ghostly statue, they are transported through a magical vortex, and catapulted into a spooky adventure!

The vortex is the simplest and most complicated portion of the haunt. It's simple because based on the original concept, we already have all the materials we need. Unfortunately, the more we think on it, the more we realize that it's not as simple as I had hoped.
Here's the deal, The librarian, (okay, who am I kidding, it's my mum.) Asked my to make a vortex tunnel like this, But without spending any money. Oh good, I love a good challenge. Basically, the idea was to create that same sort of disorienting effects, without all of the big equipment. So, the Idea I came up with was using a projector to shoot a swirling pattern on the inside of a tube, to create the illusion of swirling movement. I own a cyc, (Aka, big damn piece of fabric) that I could use for the walls, by folding it in half and shining the projector on it, everything should work out okay. However, as you can see on the MAP in yellow, the vortex portion is very narrow, and very long, which is not ideal for projection.
If a patron puts their hand in the wrong spot, they could potentially block out a large portion of the vortex effect, and leave themselves in a long boring room. That, of course is simply no fun. So, our current plan is to try to find a second projector, and divide the vortex into two portions, one end per projector, and project coordinated pictures across both sheets from above.
As for what we'll be projecting, I used Gamemaker to create a randomly generated spiraling monstrosity. It swirls a bunch of green particles outward around a central point. Hopefully, this will create the unbalance we're looking for. If not, at the very least, it should look pretty cool, and dazzle those little turds anyway ;)

The Seance

2011-10-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, I mentioned that I would be doing more in-depth walkthroughs of each room, and talk about some of the effects and techniques I am planning on using in each. Here, dear readers, is the first.

---------------------------------------------->Spoiler Alert<----------------------------------------------

(I realize very few people reading will actually be visiting the haunted house, but spoilers matter!)

First of all, there is the line. We're doing a rope leading to a large, stone entryway made out of Styrofoam and fabric. The reason for that is to lock out any light, and to allow "Lurch" to gather tickets from guests. One of the problems with our space is that we only have access through one door. Because of this, people will have to criss-cross through the seance room, and out the door. The entryway allows us to hold groups back while other groups exit. The seance allowed us a nice excuse for them, plot-wise to be returning through a room, something you normally don't do in a haunted house. In the seance room, guests will encounter a gypsy woman (played by my sister, Rian) who is swirling around a crystal ball. Overhead, a chandelier swings ominously, and there are pillar candles all around. The room (hopefully) is hung with rich tapestries, and feels heavy with magic.

The candles, obviously, can't be holding a real flame, and I sure as heck don't have the budget to purchase led candles for the amount I am looking for. So, sacrificing a candle-like flicker, I designed a little trick to make lots of pillar candle clusters for pretty cheap. The idea is to use cardboard tubes to fake the body of the candles, glue them into bundles, and hollow out the bottom of the bundle, and place a single low-voltage lightbulb in there. the light glows up through the now-disguised tube, and nobody's the wiser!

Since the seance doesn't have much spooking going along with it, I thought I'd pair it with the next area, the Ghost's Warning! This room comes from another awkwardness about the room. the third area, the vortex, is set up to be a straight shot down to the back of the room, so that guests work their way forward after that. But to get to the starting point of the vortex, they first had to travel behind the librarian's desk, a short hallway, without much room to manuver. It left us without much space to do any tricks, except on top of the desk, which had to be isolated, to keep them from messing with things. What My brother came up with was spooky warning from a ghost, behind a wall of white plastic. There's a plastic available that's semi-transparent, almost milky, that should work well for this. We're planning on doing a Pepper's Ghost Using the library computer and a pane of glass to project an effect in front of a life cast of my brother's face to create the illusion that the face is on fire, and murmuring warnings to turn back.

Overhead, we're putting a our-foot fluorescent light with a shade on it. The shade will be punctured a billion or so times to scatter small dots of light across the area, without really brightening it much.

Those are the first two areas of the haunted house, visible on the MAP in red and orange. Tune in soon for a glimpse at room number three, The VORTEX! Dun Dun DUNNN!

Pumpkin Rising!

2011-10-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

So! Haunted House Update! The design for the haunted house has been through about a hundred re-drafts, but we've settled on a design, and I've gotten started on a few Props. Included In those props, in case you hadn't noticed, is a giant pumpkin, which I managed to make for the cost of glue. It's hard to get scale out of that picture, but it's about five feet tall, and made entirely out of cardboard from a dumpster next door. Anyway, I've gotten sidetracked, I decided that now that all the design is done, I'd talk with you lot about the challenges specific to this haunt, and how I'm working to handle them.

First of all, a lot of haunted houses depend on gore to scare people. It's hit or miss, usually, since some people are completely grossed out by the blood, but a lot of people are desensitized to gore. Either way, it's not applicable here, because my haunted house is taking place on an elementary school campus. I'd never do blood with elementary kids, that's just wrong, and the principal of the school asked for us to avoid it anyway. I took that, and added a few more rules for myself:
1: No blood
2: Don't show any scenes of violence, that is, nothing in the haunt should involve humans hurting humans.
3: Spooky, not Scary

Those are the rules. As it turns out, those nix a LOT of classic haunted house gags. the problem I face is that I have an audience ranging in ages from five to ten. Anything I could do that would be genuinely scary to the fifth graders could permanently scar the kindergartners. Trust me, I had that happen to me at a fair. I still don't like using chainsaws... TANGENT! sorry. Because I'm aimed at a young group I had to go for spooky, in the style of Disney's Haunted Mansion ride. There will still be scares, but i'm making sure that none of the scares are outside of human judgement. Any time a big scare will happen, it'll be a classic jump out and yell "BOO!" That way, we can make sure not to scare any first-graders so bad that they wet themselves.

So, with those rules In mind, I'm going to drop a room list on you all, and I'll go into greater depth on them over the next few days.

First, a seance, where a gypsy will greet our guests, and forsee a dangerous adventure in their future!

Secondly, a Warning from a mysterious ghost, the classic "Turn Back!"

Third, a swirling vortex, as visitors are thrown into a dangerous otherworld

fourth, a mysterious cave, where they will face haunted mirrors, and a Giant Black Widow

Fifth, a Haunted forest, with skeletal trees, talking crows, and something lurking in the distance...

sixth, a spooky pumpkin patch, complete with gravestones, and a scarecrow handing out candy.

then they are cast back into the seance room, where the gypsy congratulates them on their survival, and gives them the boot.

That's the narrative for the haunted house, nothing too scary, but there's more depth to it than there seems, and I'll be getting into that in a few upcoming posts.

A poem.... er... paragraph?

2011-10-04T01:36:00.000-07:00

So, readers I am working hard on the haunted house, and have a meeting coming up for the Christmas play I am putting up. But for now, no interesting developments on those yet.

Instead, I'm going to share a pinch of fiction I just whipped up.

I read a prompt on Google+ from Lee Shelly Allen, suggesting that I write a poem based on five elements of a T.S. Elliot Play. Those Elements were:

The Burial of the Dead
A Game of Chess
The Fire Sermon
Death by Water
What the Thunder Said

I completely forgot that a poem was the goal, and accidentally wrote a pair of paragraphs instead. So, here they are!

The young man clenched the cold rail of the balcony, sliding side to side, and watching the patterns left in the drops of water there. The rain pressed down on him, heavy as the decisions ahead of him. The clouds flashed above him, casting his shadow straight down. the roar of the thunder started him out of his thoughts. He took a moment to view his surroundings. He was a quarter of a mile above the street, looking over the city he now ruled. Another burst of thunder, this time from over the bridge, reminded him of how it had all happened. The bridge was still smoking, dripping rubble and steel from the terrorist bomb that had killed hundreds, including the old mayor. Like so many others, she had died trapped in her car, after the bridge had collapsed, sunken in the river. The young man swirled the water on the rail again, and it made him feel ill.

He was pulled from his thoughts by a shout from an advisor, calling him inside from the glass door of the balcony. The young man put on a strong face, and walked inside, his suit clinging to his skeleton. He was shuffled into a tall chair by a fireplace, and several advisors began to talk to him, planning the memorial. He tried to listen, tried to show his best side, but he was lost in his head. The flames held his eyes, whispering, “you’re not ready, boy.” They were right, of course, he knew he was too young for what was coming to him. Then the thunder roared again, as if to cry out “nonsense! You are greatness!” He didn’t know what to believe. This job was supposed to be an opportunity, but suddenly, he felt like he was trapped, with crushing pressure around him. The pressure pushed through the windshield, and his lungs filled with water. The fire popped, and he was back in the meeting.

Hopefully you enjoyed that. Also, feel free to follow me on Google Plus!

Something Wicked This Way Comes

2011-09-22T16:45:00.001-07:00

So, dear readers, here we are again, at an apologetic post about accidental hiatus. Actually, instead of that, I'll fill you in on a project I am working on as a commission.
I've been asked to assemble a haunted house for the fall festival at Little Lake Elementary school. Those of you who have been reading for awhile will remember that Little Lake is the school where my mum works as a librarian. So, okay, a commission is a bit of an exaggeration. Anyway, the haunted house will be a lot of fun, and I plan on filling you lot in on how things are going, and how to make some of the projects I'll be assembling.
Also going on at about this time, I have been hired to build the set for a musical called "Scrooge's Christmas". In this case, hired is not an exaggeration. I'm hoping that both of these projects will give me lots to share with you, and I imagine they will! Thanks for your patience, dear readers!

Attention to detail

2011-08-26T00:13:00.000-07:00

Today, Jen decided that she wanted to try watching dr who, which, understandably rocks my socks. She mentioned her concerns to me about changing lead actor partway through, and I spent a good little bit trying to convey why it worked. That of course, got me thinking about what makes Dr. Who such a great show. So, I will try to explain what it is, and it's something that happens in another of my favorite shows, How I Met Your Mother: Continuity and attention to detail. How I Met Your Mother isn't quite as good at it, but it works out really well in both, so here I go, trying to explain it.

Dr Who spans millions of years and millions of planets, and when the timelines line up, they never let you forget. The Writers are so good at remembering everything they've written already that they can drop tiny little notes all throughout the story to let you know they're paying attention. In my mind, they have a small room somewhere, with sixteen filing cabinets sitting in the middle, two bookcases full of history books, and walls covered in sheets of paper, post-it notes and string, and in the middle is a small table with a lamp, where they write. At any moment during their writing, they can look up, grab a string, follow it through three story archs, and find the joke they were looking for. Usually, The things they give are a subtle little joke, or a tiny nod at something that's going to happen next season. That, I guess is what I'm getting at, is that they are paying so much attention to what they are doing that they know what will happen two seasons ahead, while a lot of shows seem confounded looking two episodes ahead. Dr, Who has a plan, whether or not they tell us, and if you're paying attention, there are hints, everything is so well mapped out that nothing ever really feels out of place, and That is what makes Dr. Who so great.

Oh, and the time travel, quirkiness, and incredible character-driven story lines, but that's a given, I think. ;)

Thoughts on 3d

2011-08-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

So, today, after much delay, Jen and I found ourselves with an open day. The first time we've really felt like we had a completely free day, so we went ahead and decided to see Harry potter again, this time in Imax 3d!

Unfortunately, I have trouble shutting off the ole' brain, so I spent some time making observations on 3d movies. First of all, those things are stupidly expensive, too expensive, in my mind, to justify the advantages. Then there's the big issue I have with 3d, which is going to take a bit more explanation.
The way I look at it, there are two types of 3d elements. First of all, there's the most identifiable type of 3d moment, the "In your face" aspect of 3d. This is of course, the most prominent element, and the most enjoyable sort. Okay, I should clarify that last statement. I personally like a blend of both elements, but when something reaches out and snaps at your face, that's the moment when you feel that it's 3d.
The other type of 3d element is the subtle one. The subtle one is what gives everything the true depth, the layers of background, characters and foreground. this element is what really gives 3d the feeling of wholeness.
My issue with 3d is this: I don't think anybody is doing it right. There are a few points to be made about this. One, when the in-your face elements are overused, you feel like the 3d is a gimmick. If, on the other hand, the entire movie is done only with the depth element, you will eventually tune it out, and not really get your money's worth.
Another problem with 3d (yeah, I thought it was two, but now the ball is rolling, so strap in!) is that people are not making movies with 3d in mind. Most of the movies being released in 3d are not created in native 3d, they're being modified into 3d in post-production. What ends up happening (and did happen in harry potter) is that sometimes the movie, the 3d ends up looking like a bad green-screen element. At one point in the movie, Neville sits up right into the camera, filling most of the frame. Meanwhile, because of the 3d editing, neville has been pulled into a foreground level, with oddly sharp edges between himself and the background, like he has been superimposed onto it.
Finally, on the point of people not making movies specifically with 3d in mind, is focus. In traditional movies, when the director wants you to change depth of field, he shifts the focus of the camera. Often, this is used in a situation where, for example, two characters are having a conversation in the background, while something rests, blurry, in the foreground. Suddenly, the conversation shifts, and with it, the focus, revealing that the blurry mass is actually a gun. Dun Dun DUN! However, in 3d movies, the whole point is to create the illusion that the viewer is in a truly 3d location, which means that their eyes, and not a camera, are in charge of focus. Trying to create the illusion of three-dimensions, without the element of focal control, ruins the illusion entirely. In real life, we can focus our eyes to look at the pistol, and not wait for the camera, but 3d movies don't allow us that.
Now that I have rambled for a day, I'd like to say that really, the problem with 3d isn't that it is inherently bad, rather, that 3d is like a gun, it's dangerous in the wrong hands.

Hard wine!

2011-08-13T01:26:00.000-07:00

I promise, this is not a post about collecting urine.

Wednesday, after several months of neglect, I remembered about my wine! I took about twenty minutes siphoning the wine through a strainer, and gathered it up in one pot, and two bowls. In total, we ended up with seven and a half quarts of tangy, pungent wine!
It tastes a lot like grapefruit still, but it's very dry, with a heavy dose of vapor behind it. My mother had about a half of a glass, and three hours later, she mentioned losing her buzz. Apparently, this stuff will knock you on your ass! I've personally only sipped at a few shotglasses full, but afterwards, I definitely breathed some hefty flames! Keep your ears open for my next wine-making project, the plan is to make about twice this amount out of oranges and fresh cranberries!

Random acts of generosity ( I hope)

2011-08-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, readers, here we go, getting back into the groove of sharing thoughts.
I had an idea earlier this year that I did not get the chance to act on, but I figured since the tap has been dry here for so long, I'd share the idea with you, and ask for your opinions on it.

I have a chainlink fence, five feet high on all sides of my yard, and for the most part, it does its job well, keeping dogs in and unwanted guests out. However, the chainlink fails in one critical field: Privacy. So, we've been pondering for awhile here about what plant we could grow to cover our fence, and prettify the yard. Local ordinances won't let us replace it with a board fence (there goes the white-picket american dream). Anyway, my idea is this: Plant my front fence with hops and tomatoes. The I could use the hops to try my hand at microbrewing (which is on my to-do list). and as for the tomatoes, that's where the title of this post comes in. I'd like to post a sign that says "Free if you pick them" by the tomatoes, and smaller signs identifying the types of tomato. Tomatoes grow pretty fast, and while they don't fruit all year long, they would cover the fence for a good half of the year, longer if i tend to them well. I think it'd be interesting to see if the neighborhood (and any pedestrians walking by) would stop and pick tomatoes. Maybe I'd leave a pouch full of plastic grocery bags (recycled of course) hanging on the signpost.

So, readers, what do you think? Is this idea something people would take an interest in? Would the neighbors enjoy the tomatoes, or are people too distrusting? Are there any other concerns I am overlooking? Let me know in the comments section!

Are you still there?

2011-08-06T13:58:00.000-07:00

Oh, dear readers, how I have neglected you! I've been working on this play day and night, and have forgotten, consistently to update this blog for you. I've also forgotten meals, showers and sleep, but now, finally, the show is up and out of my hands! Soon, I will have a great deal of new projects and insights to share with you, I pinky swear! In the meantime, for those of you who live in southern california, come to CARTOON!
It's a really great show (not to brag) and the cast is doing a fantastic job!

2011-07-08T20:07:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about playwrighting a lot lately, thanks to the 24-hour play project, as well as all of the analyzing I have been doing of the play I am directing. It's gotten me thinking about what's important in a play, and I've been batting around the idea of a small-cast musical in my head. So, in a shocking first, I have decided to do a poll of my readers, and find out what YOU think is important in a musical!
The Poll is over on the sidebar, probably about..... ----------------------------------------------->
There!
If you decide to select "Other" please post your answer in the comments section of this post. And even if you choose one of the other answers, I'd love to hear your thoughts on musicals!
Thanks, readers!

Susy Homemaker Update!

2011-07-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

So, I'm apparently a few days behind myself when it comes to updating you lot on recent events, so here comes a (slightly late) Homebrew update!
Thursday, I decided I was tired of looking at our disgusting jug of juice. I won't show you a picture (too nasty) but I will describe it to you. The wine had separated into three distinct layers: on the bottom, a silt made up of zest and pulp and other fine particles (i don't even know), in the middle, the wine, which was clear and beautiful, and on the top, frothy foam, thick like sea foam, with bloated raisins floating in it. Nothing glamorous here, folks. Anyway, we decided that the thing to do was to try to siphon out the good layer, and tried to filter the silt from the other layers.
The siphoning went well. We pulled probably a gallon and a half of wine from the jug, and had another gallon of silty goodness leftover. The silt, we tried to filter through paper towels, coffee filters, a sieve, anything. Nothing would filter it. Everything clogged up in half a second, so we abandoned the silt and focused on the wine.
Now, let's talk about this wine. It tastes almost exactly like grapefruit juice still, except for the vapors in the back of your throat from the alcohol. Oh, and the fact that it is six hundred times more sour than anything i have ever sipped before. It's literally one of the most sour liquids I've ever consumed, it makes me take on a literal sour-face, and I eat lemons for fun. We rinsed the jug, and poured the wine back in there, but we decided to add a bit more sugar, about one cup (packed) of brown sugar. Then, we shoved it back into our canning cupboard, and ran away.

Meanwhile, on the gardening front, I am sad to report that approximately all of our delicious hot peppers have fallen victim to... THE GOPHER! -Dun Dun DUNNNN! This is the most sinister gopher I have ever encountered, using guerrilla warfare to taunt me. He's taken out my hot peppers,five out of six of my bell peppers, and pretty much everything related to squash. Seriously, this is one evil little bugger.

The war rages on.

That said, he seems to have an aversion to tomatoes, so those things are going NUTS! We have a couple dozen tomato plants all popping out little greenies! YAY! before long, I'll be canning tomatoes like crazy, in about a hundred different ways, which I will tell you more about as I get there.

Okay, that's the Suzie Homemaker Update! Does anyone have any suggestions for my homesteading projects? I'd really appreciate any advice on Baron VonGopher, and how to get him out of my garden! Thanks, dear readers!

24 hour play project, Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the stress!

2011-06-30T23:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend, my theater company posed a challenge to it's members: Starting at seven PM on Friday night, and finishing at seven PM Saturday night, members were asked to write, cast rehearse, memorize, and finally perform three different plays. I'm proud to say, everyone rose to the challenge, and had an amazing mount of fun doing so!
Here's how it went: at Six Pm Friday night, everyone met, then signed up for, and were assigned jobs. three people were given the job of writer, three directors, about 18 actors and about half a dozen technitions. At seven o'clock, the writers were given three parameters that each script had to include, that way, writiers couldn't bring in anything they had been working on. Our three parameters were:

1. The line "that's what she said"
2. A small wooden box (which was pulled from the props area)
3. The sounds of an alarm going off (which was also provided to them.

From that moment until 4 am (9 hours), the writers were in a flurry, locked in a room with a 48-cup pot of coffee (which lasted us the 24-hours). Meanwhile, on the stage, the techies had begun their work. They faced two challenges, one of which are inherent to the 24-hour play project, and one that comes from our regular season. The challenge from the play-project was that they needed to prepare sets and hang lights for all of the shows, but they didn't know what the shows would be! So, they had to do lighting and scenery designed to be as open and versatile as possible, with only a few mumbled hints from the writers (who you just didn't talk to, don't you know how busy they are?!?!)
What that really meant was developing brilliant repertory plots (that is, designs equipped to be adapted to multiple shows). We had a guy named Topher from way out of town, from about an hour away to do lights with us. It was really interesting for everyone to see how Topher handled lighting in a new space, and I'm sure other people learned a fair bit about design from him. (I had honestly never considered footlights in this space, but they were Fantastic!)
Meanwhile the set team was trying to mask everything off, to keep the audience from seeing all of the backstage business. The set crew had to deal with all sorts of hassles like that, but they had another challenge, presented to them by our regular season. See, we're also putting up two shows this year, and both of those shows have their own sets. So, not only did they have some flats screwed to the stage, bolted in place and immobile, but they also had almost all of the other stock materials attached to each other and in storage as the other set. Basically, they had about four flats and a big bunch of curtains to make the theater into a useful space. They did. In fact, they (okay, I started it while nobody was looking) took a door frame off of one of the sets and clamped it into the set. (Don't worry, I put it back when we were done!)
Eventually, at four AM, the directors arrived at the theatre. The writers handed over three brand-new scripts to the directors, who had about an hour and a half to read the scripts and cast them from the collection of actors we had. There were a lot of debates between the directors, bickering over who got who, and so forth. They decided their casts and sent emails to every cast member, with a copy of their script attached. The actors then printed out their scripts, and arrived at 6:45 Am to start rehearsals.
Then for the next twelve hours, the shows were on a rotating rehearsal schedule, sharing the stage, cramming lines, studying, studying, studying, and rehearsing for hours on end. Oh my goodness, I didn't mention the countdown! Over our heads, all day, starting at seven PM, a gigantic countdown loomed over our heads, ticking down the time until the curtain opened.
At seven Pm, the audience had all arrived, the countdown reached zero, and the curtain opened. Three shows performed, and did an amazing job. (okay, again, I totally flopped, after 24 hours without sleep, I completely forgot EVERY line I had. EMBARRASSING!) Anyway, Everyone (but me) did an amazing job, and the audiences loved it. Then, we struck the shows in a half an hour, and everyone ran home as fast as possible to immediately crash into bed and fall asleep.
The next day, a few people met up, and there was not a single person who had anything else to talk about. There was even a movement to start another 24 hour play project that night. All in all, it was a huge success, everyone learned something, the world received three new plays, and everyone went home happy and tired. It was a huge success, and everyone really enjoyed it. Topher also brought in a very nice camera with a timer, and recorded a timelapse of the entire process. Hopefully, sometime in the next couple weeks, I'll be able to get my hands on the timelapse video, and I will post it here for you all to see!
So, dear readers, what do you think of this project? Excited? Curious? Tell me in the comments section!

Practical Vs. Visual

2011-06-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

SO. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but I for one, am very fond of the genre "Steampunk". I like the anachronism, I like the brass, I like the grit, grime, and grease. Seriously, I'm nuts for Steampunk. Unfortunately, if what I have seen from everyone on the internet (okay, maybe not everyone, but the more influential players) I have completely different interests in what Steampunk is. See, When I think of Steampunk, I think of the industrial revolution, when practicality reigned, and aesthetics came after the function. Giant, powerful machines, designed with elegance in their mechanisms, form following function.
However, it seems to me that the prevalent interest in the broader Steampunk audience is more in style. As far as my eyes can tell, most Steampunk enthusiasts focus on sticking bits of gears onto just about anything, regardless of whether or not the gears serve any function. To me, that's sortof the opposite of what the Steampunk movement is about, I understand that gears, brass and leather all look great together, I love that look, but I think that it's an insult to steam machines to tack mechanical elements onto things for looks. Old steam machines are about the most efficient use of energy and material. I mean, look at THIS! Smooth fluid movement, not a part wasted, nothing aesthetic, just efficiency! That is what Steampunk is, a celebration of design, of human ingenuity, and top hats!

EDIT: At the request of a reader, I slapped together some picture of my preferences on steampunk! Check that out HERE.

OOPS.

2011-06-16T21:57:00.000-07:00

Dear blog readers, It seems i have been tragically neglecting you. I'd like to offer, not an apology, but rather an excuse, because i am childish.
This week was the first week of my theatre company's summer season, and it has been a very exciting week. This summer is the first time we have been financially in a position to do TWO plays! We're doing Steve Yockey's Cartoon!, and David Auburn's Proof. But more excitingly for me, I am directing Cartoon!, and it is my first time directing! It's very exciting, and I am learning a lot, so with any luck, it will give me some hilarious insights to pass on to you, dear readers. This week, however, it is just giving me ulcers. ;)
Thanks for your patience, I will try to have something exciting for you in the next week or so!