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The Anti-crest
08-13-2006, 04:15 PM
I'm having trouble getting this page to work right, I want to show that the customer is asking a really stupid question like "Where do I buy batteries for this cd player" and have my main charecter Grigoriy answer her, but I dont have enough panels. Heres how I have the story, and as I reread it last night I realized that this page doesnt work because of timeline, it skips to the end of the call right after she asks. Anyway, let me know if you think this page works and how I can adjust it.

Few things to know: Grigoriy is an Ogre who hates his job and his life.

I want to build suspense for the next page which is where he is accused of being a "monster" and a troll. This plays into what the story is about, which is middle eastern people being called terrorists and sometimes even being accused of being from other middle eastern countries. Calling an Armenian an Iraqi, for instance.

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Page 6: Six panels. One is long across the top 1/3 of the page, Three in the middle 1/3 of the page and two at the bottom 1/3 of the page.

Panel One: Here Grigoriy was in a crowded, low class bar surrounded by nobody and nothingness. He looks years older than he did at his wedding and again he looks real sad. His tie from before should be off, but should be visible. I want it to look like this is the same day as the beginning of the story but later that same evening. There is a party in the back, around the bar. Far away from him.

Caption: (bottom right corner of panel)What did happen?

Panel two: Grigoriy is now in an office. He answer phones for a customer service rep so he should have one of those little mic+headphones things the operators wear. The stations around him, if you can tell should be larger than his. If you cant work that detail in yet, its cool. We'll get to it. Hes sitting at the smallest terminal in the company and hes wearing his tie and looks cleaner, and not as disgruntled. He's not having a terrible day yet obviously, though he doesn't seem to really like his job. He's bored and feels useless. His computer also looks like something out of the 80's and the humans around him walk by with out noticing him.

Caption 1(top of panel): Earlier today Grigoriy had been insulted.

Caption 2(bottom of panel):This is nothing new.

Panel three: This panel should focus on his ear piece, very close up sort of abstract looking. You can see his pointed Ogre ear sticking out from behind an ear peice made for human ears.

Customer: Where do I buy batteries for this CD player?

Caption: Once in the department he found himself answering the most obvious questions, and being insulted for it.

Panel Four: This should be the old woman on the other end of the phone. Shes human, and real old. I'm talking 90s or so, and looking it. She's got papers everywhere and junk piled around her. She is half senile and doesn't realize it.

Caption: Now, mind you, these humans weren't in their 70's. Or even their 80's. They got as old as time. They are in their 90's on average, some we're older.

Grigoriy:(from phone)Thank you For Calling SunCrest!

Panel Five: Back to Grigoriy, he is sitting at his desk and his phone is off. He looks fairly relaxed.

No Caption

Panel six: Same angle as panel five, this time the phone is ringing, Grigoriy looks afraid. He's had his half-way decent phone call for the day and knows that anything that follows will be hell.

Caption: This time would be a world of difference from the last call.

JonHParrish
08-13-2006, 11:59 PM
My only gripe is the first caption.

"CAP: What did happen ?"

Is this quote in response to something that happened on a previous page or is the narrator simply asking "what happened" ? I was kind of confused.

Other than that, I think it's cool.

The Anti-crest
08-14-2006, 01:23 AM
Yeah, the last page talks about his life changing considerably and ends with some soldiers talking behind a wall after failing to find the Ogre where he was supposed to be and saying "What happened?"

chrisjohnwagner
08-14-2006, 10:10 AM
I was wondering how this scenario fits in the premise of your story? I like the idea of using this orge to show stereotypes, but I don't see how your protraying this when the old lady can't see the orge on the phone. I think that you use captions too much, when you could be using funny dialouge between the old lady and the orge. The picture should make it obvious the lady is extremely old. The mere fact the lady called customer service to ask for batteries is clearly a stupid question. I don't think we need captions to explain. I think using these panels should be used to show the orge trying to help, but he gets increasingly frustrated. Then you lead it into the old lady laying down the insult on the next page.
I don't know if I am reading this wrong but shouldn't the line, "Thank you For Calling SunCrest", come before, "Where do I buy batteries for this CD player?

Knuckles
08-14-2006, 11:11 AM
I was wondering how this scenario fits in the premise of your story? I like the idea of using this orge to show stereotypes, but I don't see how your protraying this when the old lady can't see the orge on the phone. I think that you use captions too much, when you could be using funny dialouge between the old lady and the orge. The picture should make it obvious the lady is extremely old. The mere fact the lady called customer service to ask for batteries is clearly a stupid question. I don't think we need captions to explain. I think using these panels should be used to show the orge trying to help, but he gets increasingly frustrated. Then you lead it into the old lady laying down the insult on the next page.
I don't know if I am reading this wrong but shouldn't the line, "Thank you For Calling SunCrest", come before, "Where do I buy batteries for this CD player?

I have to agree with everything chris said. Also, you wanted this page to build up to something and i don't see it. What I would do personally is have panel one a large panel, but not the whole 1/3 of the page. Then use a close-up in panel two of the Orge's ear and phone with "thank you for calling" line. Then pull back to see a whole shot of the orge on the phone, this is where you can have the stupid question and he answers it. Then flash to the customer not getting the answer to the stupid question and on the same panel the orge answering her again. Then have the rest of the panels her insulting him. Granted I don't know the story up to this, but for this page that is what i would do. Hope this helps.

The Anti-crest
08-14-2006, 09:03 PM
I was wondering how this scenario fits in the premise of your story? I like the idea of using this orge to show stereotypes, but I don't see how your protraying this when the old lady can't see the orge on the phone. I think that you use captions too much, when you could be using funny dialouge between the old lady and the orge. The picture should make it obvious the lady is extremely old. The mere fact the lady called customer service to ask for batteries is clearly a stupid question. I don't think we need captions to explain. I think using these panels should be used to show the orge trying to help, but he gets increasingly frustrated. Then you lead it into the old lady laying down the insult on the next page.
I don't know if I am reading this wrong but shouldn't the line, "Thank you For Calling SunCrest", come before, "Where do I buy batteries for this CD player?

It's acctually supposed to be two seperate calls, one on each page, the one on this page is an OK call and the second page is the bad one. I'll tweak it how you say though and try to help it come across more.

The reason I'm doing this page sequence acctually comes from my real every day to day life where this girl named Myeshia was insulted by some old lady for having a name that wasnt "american" and then got called Mexican. Myeshia, is very not mexican. haha. I thought the conversation was funny and it shows the bitterness some people have for people who are there to help them. Myeshia didn't even get a word in past her name before this old woman started screaming about how she wanted to talk to an american and how myeshia didn't know english because she didnt have an american name and blahblahblahblahblah.

But thanks for the comments, they'll help greatly. thats exactly what I was looking for.

chrisjohnwagner
08-15-2006, 11:34 AM
Well I like the story and hope to see more. I was curious what your friend thought of you comparing her to an orge. (joking)

The Anti-crest
08-15-2006, 10:13 PM
Well I like the story and hope to see more. I was curious what your friend thought of you comparing her to an orge. (joking)


I havent acctually told her yet, haha. Acctually, that little side story is part of a larger story based on one of my friends parents, who was mistaken in a bar for being an Iraqi and a Terrorist even though hes Armenian.