10 Cool Things About Playing in Different Sandboxes
You know the Whiz!Bam!Pow! deal. A single story told in two different worlds: the world of the Sentinel – in comic books and radio - and the stories of the readers and listeners in the real world of the films.
I’m a filmmaker, so conceiving Whiz!Bam!Pow! as a transmedia project and giving myself the chance to play in other media, like my beloved comics, and my new beloved, radio – is awesome. And I encourage any film/screenwriter to try it.
Here are a few cool things about each one.
COMICS
- If you can imagine it, you can do it. I don’t blow 99% of the budget when I want to blow up a city. Or have giant robots attack. Or dinosaurs.
- The gutter (the space between panels) is a beautiful thing. It makes you imagine the connective tissue between each panel and sucks you in.
- The audience participates through action – the physical turning of pages, etc. You can build suspense in completely different ways than in film.
- It’s an intimate collaboration between writer and artist. There’s a chance for experimentation that you don’t have with a film crew. Especially because it doesn’t cost anything to change a shot.
- Unlike film, it’s completely visual. Even your sound effects are visual. The only sense used is vision (and touch – and smell, if you’re into the “new comic smell”). It’s the ultimate visual storyteller’s medium.
RADIO
- Sound is everything. It’s a sound designer’s wet dream.
- Same as with comics: if you can imagine it – and deliver it as an aural experience – you can do it.
- Radio shows are the closest to a novel that you can get in terms of utilizing your imagination. You can hear things, but it requires you to make the full picture in your mind’s eye.
- You don’t have to dress well to do radio. Or at all, really. You save a mint on wardrobe.
- Three words: West. Coast. Broadcast. You’ll see (hear) what I’m talking about later.
I’m going to throw one item of caution out here. Please. Please. PLEASE study the medium you want to write in other than film. Don’t use them just because they’re a cool way to transmedia-fy your film. Does your film need it? Does it make story sense? Does it expand the story?
Each form of media is a diverse animal in and of itself. Respect the medium you’re working in. Comics is not movies. Radio is not movies. There are decades of amazing storytelling in every respective media – study them. Absorb them.
And most importantly – tell a good story. These forms are not means to an end. They’re a journey in and of themselves.
WBP
TYLER WEAVER is a storyteller, moviemaker, and transmedia producer. He lets the world knows what he thinks as the founder and EIC of Multi-Hyphenate. He’s currently funding his new project, WHIZ!BAM!POW! , that pays tribute to his lifelong love of comic books via IndieGoGo and needs your help. He yaks about that and more on Twitter under the creative guise of @tylerweaver.
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[...] 10 Cool Things About Playing In Different Sandboxes – Tyler Weaver [...]
Very cool. I’m wondering if one form is an adaptation of another…. Meaning, which came first?
Anyone know when the first radio play was broadcast?
Hi Matches – Comics started in 1896 with the Yellow Kid (and a few others), and Radio came in in the 1920s (mostly comedies and operas) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_drama. There were characters created in radio (The Green Hornet, most notably) that then made the jump to comics, and of course there were characters from comics (like Superman) that made the jump to radio where their popularity exploded.
I wouldn’t call either one an adaptation of of another, they came along because of the technology of the time and the tastes of the tastemakers =)
Thanks for the comment!
[...] November 17, 2010: “10 Cool Things About Playing in Different Sandboxes“ Tyler talks about the plusses of writing in different genres (comics, radio), and offers a [...]
Great article. And how more open is the comic and/or graphic novel market than film? Are the gatekeepers in those media as tough to crack?
Thank you for the comment! It’s not much more open at all. Fortunately for us, self-publishing and self-distribution (as with film today) is the first and best option for the project – so no gatekeepers here! Just make the product, get it made, get it into the hands of the audience.