script to page comparison

Happy Friday, everyone! This week, for our next delightful installment of The Switch production blog (Trademark and Copyright Keith Champagne and Tom Nguyen), I thought we'd do a little script-to-page comparison. It's been a while since we've done one and it's always interesting to me how the images I try to describe in the script are interpreted by Tom (or the other artists I'm lucky enough to work with). So up first, here's the script for page 34...

PAGE THIRTY-FOUR

PANEL ONE

Same night.

A worm's eye view looking up the base of a skyscraper. A MAN is standing on the ledge, tiny from our perspective.

NO DIALOGUE

PANEL TWO

A different angle on the man. We see that he's a Wall-street type. Suit and tie but disheveled. Crying. Everything is un-tucked. Hair a mess. Being buffeted by strong winds at this height.

The Switch's SHADOW is stretching along the roof towards the fellow.

ELECTRICIA (off): You're probably thinking the world will be better off if you jump, right? All the pain will just STOP?
ELECTRICIA (off): You MIGHT be onto something for all I know.

PANEL THREE

From behind The Switch, seeing her from about the waist up. About ten feet in front of her, the man on the ledge is turning towards her.

MAN: Stay back! I'll do it!!

ELECTRICIA: I doubt it. People who want to jump just DO it. You're more the “I want a hug” type.

PANEL FOUR

Same angle, still behind The Switch. She's lifting her top, showing the jumper her chest.

ELECTRICIA: I've got your hug right here.
MAN: Huh?

PANEL FIVE

Reverse angle on Electricia, still seeing her from the torso up. Electricity is firing from her chest.

The energy blast is almost completely obscuring our view of The Switch (and is completely obscuring our view of her chest, sorry, Tom).

Point being, she's hidden behind the energy radiating from her, we're still saving her in-costume reveal.

SFX: ZZZAXXXX

ELECTRICIA: I know. I've got a killer rack.

PANEL SIX

Angle on the man, now slumped unconscious on the roof, maybe leaning against the ledge. Tufts of smoke wafting off him. The Switch's shadow is being cast over him.

ELECTRICIA (off): When you wake up, you'll be in the hands of people who can HELP you.

ELECTRICIA (off): For both our sakes, let's hope it's never too late to make the most of a second chance.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, the artistic stylings of Mr. Thomas Edward Nguyen (I actually have no idea what Tom's middle name is so don't take that one to the bank)!

I always feel like six panels is a lot for one page, it doesn't leave a lot of room for anything to breathe but this page doesn't feel that claustrophobic to me. I think Tom probably enjoyed this page because 1) he almost got to draw some nudity and 2) it was a fairly simple page to layout and draw. Minimal backgrounds and he's composed it to draw as little figure work as possible--but still did quite an effective job of telling the story from panel to panel. 

In general, production has continued apace this pace week. Our new Switch team member Robb has been killing it, in particular, turning my flatted pages around and getting the coloring of the project on track.

That's a wrap for this week, people. Join Tom next Friday as the adventures of The Switch continue!

Thanks as always for your support.

Keith