50 Cent's 21 Questions

(Did these for a different director and video, but they are a nice visual opening...)

A few years back I did a number of music video storyboards with director Philip Atwood and his partner Dr. Dre. It was a real education for me. The first song I wound up doing was by Eminem, and I was prepared to be underwhelmed. Instead I was amazed to learn what an astute storyteller he way. Could it be that you can't believe everything you read about people in the media?

Here is a quick demonstration of how I worked on these projects. In the morning (or afternoon before) I'd get a fax of a script that I would read through. Then I would get together with the director, Philip, and we would go through and visualize the script. He would have a very precise idea of what he wanted to show on screen, and he would describe it to me. I would very quickly draw a little scribble of what I thought he wanted, and I would show it him. He would either accept it, or would ask for a quick revision. In the process we would both come up with solutions or ideas and toss them back and forth. It was a very pleasant working arrangement.

Working very quickly, we would run through the script pages with me drawing as quickly as I could  and withing a couple of hours we would have the frames for the video thumbnailed. At this point I'd head home and start working on a cleaned up version of the drawings and would return them to him in a couple of days.

Oddly enough I never went to any of the sets while they were filming. I think for the most part they were out of town. However, one day when I came in, Philip was heading out the door:"C'mon, we have to go to Dre's house." I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the man I met reminded me a lot more of Bill Cosby that a gangsta rap star.

When I got home that afternoon, I told my lovely wife Annie: "You'll never guess what I did today. I went to Dr. Dre's house!" She was working for the LA Zoo at the time. "I had to give Hugh Heffner and his seven girlfriends a personal tour of the zoo today." was her reply. Trumped in my own house.

RETROWOOD WRAPS UP

(When I worked on Tales From the Crypt they invariably covered up my signature...now I find I am doing the same thing)

In the week I've finally finished the last of the work on the new Retrowood graphic novel All Roads Lead to Rome. It will be available on line soon through Asylum Press. The story is sixty four pages long (eight chapters at eight pages each) and will be printed first as a series of three issues. The first issue will contain the first two chapters and some of the material I've run here on the Domino Diaries about my working process. That issue will be offered free as a preview. The story will be also be offered as a graphic novel later in the year. I haven't decided whether I'll do  limited print run of the book as I did with the first one.. And of course, you'll be getting updates on all of this on this blog.

For a lagniappe here are a couple of other color pieces I've done recently. One is a pinup for Ian Nichols print book Hellena. You can learn more about Ian and his work at:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fat-Cat-Funnies/112588142087332
The other was a birthday card commission. Both were loads of fun...and so much easier than the Retrowood covers.

 Next time I demonstration on storyboarding for a 50 Cent video I worked on a few years back.

THE NARNIA DOORWAY

 One of my all time favorite jobs was working on the Chronicles of Narnia movies. The material was first rate, the people I worked with were wonderful, I made a lot of money, and they sent me to New Zealand, Prague and Century City in the process.

(Sometimes if something doesn't work, you just scrap it.)

Here are a few images I pulled out to post today from that series. I always worked on typewriter bond paper and I think by the time I was done with the films I had a stack of drawings almost as high as I am. The black and white images are from a section I was very proud of.

Working in color was something I rarely did when storyboarding, but in this case I had plenty of time on my hands and thought I'd show off a bit. Mostly I was probably just trying to annoy my "aviary" partner,  Rico. (In the Aukland studio we were working at, our space was a loft area with open beams and chicken wire for walls). Rico liked to tell people I did boards the "old-fashioned" way; I had to remind him that I was using photoshop when he was in middle school. The watercolor boards were an example of our friendly competition: Hey! Look at this, kid!

 

 

 

Next time a look at the three covers for the new Retrowood graphic novel: All Roads Lead to Rome.