Graphic Narrative
Nov/2015 Pre-Production:
This is my Mind-Map for the conceptualisation of my graphic narrative. Press to Zoom!
The Written Concept:
Synopsis:
"“Set on a Futuristic planet in which it has been divided by a wall the folk call “The Rainbow”, due to its colours and intensity, once in a while the poor/under-privileged of the city are taken, no one knows where and no one knows why, In honesty no one cares, as-long as they themselves survive another day. Well that all changes for Justin and his wife, when there daughter suddenly disappears.” (Drama, Love, Mystery). The Narrative will be produced by mix media using Photoshop and hand-drawn sketchess.
The Planet is called Earth 2; it is set in the year 2280. Earth 2 has been separated by a wall; this was done by the government agency within the world called “The Collective”. They quote “The wall was built due to inhospitable areas and crude wildlife”.
Emotional Themes:
Love – Justin and Harper are on their journey to finding their daughter in this urban world out of love, because they love her no matter what consequence and will give it all their best to find Elisabeth just out of the purity of their hearts. After all, Love conquers all.
Compassion – The Law family are very passionate people when it comes to family, they want to save the poor people of Earth 2 especially Justin who can sympathize having lived in the rough areas, it’s that compassion that makes the Law family want to do good and save the folk of Earth 2.
Shame- When Elisabeth is found missing, Justin and his wife will be torn apart; blaming each other but intentionally blaming themselves causing shame upon the spouse.
Desperation- Harper and Justin love their child, it’s that love that also creates desperation, and they want nothing more than to find their daughter. They will find themselves in tight situations and it is because of the love created for this daughter.
Target Audience:
The Graphic Novel is aimed at Sci/fi fanatics of all kinds, it's main focus is young adults as the novel deals with issues that I firmly believe they could relate to but other than that, the novel will not have much mature content.
Key Plot Devices:
My main plot device is enigma, the act of a person/thing/object etc. to be not clearly understood or hard to comprehend. You can see that my plot has followed the device quite well, with the mystery of the world, why the world is separated and what is beyond the segregated wall within the world.
Deus Ex Machina will be used as a means for my characters; the device will be used to determine how the characters will get across the wall, explaining how other people would not be able to manage such a feat.
A red herring would be key in my story, whilst the plot thickens and revelations are revealed, a lead is wrong placing our protagonist in danger. This would be used for Justin’s occupation, being a Lawbringer, he could find a lead that is the key to finding his daughter, and only that it was not the person he was chasing down.
The Potential Climax:
The climax of the story is a twist itself, finding Elisabeth within the centre of Rainbow City she is being prepared for processing. When Justin and Harper reunite with their daughter, the sentient machine wakes up from its slumber and sees the family reuniting. The creature uplifts from the ground, crashing down buildings and causing only cause to Rainbow City. Aware of the government’s involvement, Justin grabs Elisabeth and Harper’s hand and sprints back to towards the entrance of the city.
The Synthetic arises on its feet and stands to chase the Law family, Sprinting back home to Kansas, Justin grabs Elisabeth’s hand and Harper holds her other, the two activate their jet packs and jumps over the wall with the shield generator deactivated, they successfully get back to town. Activating the shield, the synthetic cannot enter Kansas. Justin charges to the Agency, bursts the doors down at gunpoint and uncovers the project: Designation Icarus: the plan for the city to fly. Having the agency tell him the plan, we hear the synth attacking the shields. He must activate the jet generators and fuel supply in order for the town to blast off.
The town enters lockdown, in which a metallic dome covers the town, protecting the shields. Justin tells Harper to get Elisabeth to safety and for her to activate her comm-radio, whilst Justin heads towards the power station. Talking to Harper and Elisabeth on his comm, Justin gets to the power station to activate a giant jet engine prototype, the propellers enter flying mode and pull out from the rainbow, whilst one is stuck in the middle of town. With the other propellers starting to spin, Justin charges to the centre of the town as a jet appears from the ground through an electronic machine. The town starts to fly, with the Synth preparing to enter combat mode, the town is now reliant on the jet to work. Justin takes a look at the jet and realises that he needs some cables and tools to fix the wire and circuitry.
Talking to Harper as he realises, Elisabeth appears from nowhere and gives him the toolkit, as he begins fixing the cable. The Syth shoots a harpoon at the floor of the town, creating a massive breech in the town’s road. The town swerves around, out of balance, as Elisabeth falls on the floor and starts rolling towards the massive hole on the ground. At this point, Justin has an option.
Option 1: Justin jumps towards Elisabeth, slides across the path and grabs Elisabeth just as she’s about to fall. Picking her up, Justin commands Elisabeth to activate the fixed jet engine. The Synth shoots at Justin, as he falls into the sentient machines mouth and lets of a Electro-magnetic greande into the heart of the being. Henceforth, the Synth shuts down. With the sacrifice of Justin, the town is saved, eventually Kansas lands back on Earth 2 to rebuild what was lost and fixes up Rainbow City, with the sacrifice of Justin, the city is renamed Lawtown. The paralysed Synth is within the city as a memorial as a reminder of who was at fault.
Option 2: Elisabeth falls from the city, Justin smacks the jet engine repeatively as it starts to activate, he sees Elisabeth falling down and the synth grabs her, as this happens the town accends to the sky within a few seconds. Justin returns home to Harper as the two grieve. Kansas lives on as a space city, everyone remembers the sacrifice Justin made for the city and is granted the positiion of mayor of Elisabeth town. Eventually the Law family accept that lawless day and focus on the cities political agency, Hoping one day that when tough desicions need to be made, they can be there to help decide the fate of the city.
The Law family have a decent life with their 2 daughters, owning a bar and retiring early provides the family with a lot of free time.
Rising Action
Elisabeth has not returned home since last night. Justin and Jasmine look everywhere. The Bar, the house. School. But cannot find her. They return to the bar for rumours. Aware that they cannot contact the corrupt police.
Returning to the bar, they go to Justin’s office and talk to the wife, Harper. She has found a lead, Vartox, a smuggler who sells people. He lives in the lower sector at the “Jar bar’s Hut”. Jasmine heads out to meet him.
Sceptical and evasive, Vartox does not know of Elisabeth’s disappearance. However he has heard of a meet. The Collective, a government agency that Vartox used to trade people to as they would lay him off. The meet was overnight in the Lowly Alleys.
The spouse head for the alleyways, finding Elisabeth's cap sat on the floor with a black smudge marked with a logo. This logo also appears on the "Rainbow". It seems that thier destination lies across more danger.
They head over the Rainbow and enter Rainbow City. (See Climax Above for the final front^)
As they leave the alleyways, the couple realise that they literally know nothing of the "Rainbow". Walking home, they hear a voice, telling them to go back to the alleyway, walking back. The two are greated by a synthetic, who apparently encountered the meet. The synth tells them of the Rainbow and the secret organisation that threatens the world: "You don't find the Collective, the Collective finds you".
Discovering the revelations from the synth, it turns outs that the synth used to be a collector, someone who would collect people for the Collective, though they would never know what reason for. Only that it would drop them at the North East side of the Rainbow. In order for the spouse to get across the Rainbow, they must disable the shield.
Research & Inspiration
The idea for “Somewhere over the Rainbow” has come from a lot of inspirations of mine. The first was the actual song; the song is a part of the Wizard of Oz soundtrack and infers a place celestial and better than our current whereabouts.
I wanted to twist this myth and instead implicated the idea of a reformed government hiding its top secrets within a beautiful place that has now been desecrated.
Something I wanted to do from the start was create a family issue, something we can all relate too. Bioshock Infinite was a great reference for this theme. Mass Effect is Scfi just like the Game; the art style has been inspired by the franchise.I took inspiration from playing the game Bioshock Infinite, the story revolves around a father trying to retrieve his daughter from this awestruck world, and I really enjoy the idea of family and following emotional themes of love.
The actual novel will follow a similar art style to the work of Omar Francia; he has developed the Mass Effect comics that follow a realistic, yet simplistic art style that I really enjoy. I have also been looking at TV shows and I have taken a large inspiration from the concept of the show The Leftovers, within the show 2.5 % of the world’s population suddenly disappear.
This concept relates to the story of my graphic narrative. Tell-tale Games have inspired the mechanics as of the dialogue and such. SOTR is an adventure novel following the disappearance of your daughter.
I have also been looking at TV shows and I have taken a large inspiration from the concept of the show The Leftovers, within the show 2.5 % of the world’s population suddenly disappear. This concept relates to the story of my graphic narrative.
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