Greetings Dieselfunkateers! LIGHTS, CAMERA, REFERENCE! Lighting in film and videogames is essential to storytelling. Meaning it’s a requirement for entry. But in comics, lighting is often a victim of technical limitations and time. Of course, masters like Eisner, Steranko, Gulacy, and Miller, have used cinematic techniques that derive from film. Lighting, what you can see and what you cannot, is all about communication.
Can you imagine Citizen Kane without the cinematography of Greg Toland?
Or more recently, Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Arrival’ would not have worked without Bradford Young’s lensing (Hey, cat’s on Ron Howard’s ‘Solo: A Starwars Story so don’t sleep on em).
This even extends to videogames. Take for instance the cut scenes from the Starwars: OLD REPUBLIC games. The level of detail, and to be frank complexity of story, largely dwarf the actual movies.
But for the monthly comics schedule deep lighting is a difficult task to do. Which is why I have a preference for the more methodical intricacy of Graphic novels. Take the beautiful example of Canales and Guarnido’s ‘Blacksad’.
Comics and graphic novels are all sequential art of course and, oddly enough, it’s where all of the mediums of animation, storyboarding and film meet. In fact, I’ve had film students that have limited drawing skills, who refuse to believe a rough stick figure or crude image can reveal all sorts of dramatic information. In the climax of those lessons, I take their “crude” drawings and add simple coloring overlays to demonstrate that any image is capable of evoking emotion through light. Photoshop MAGIC Baby!
ARTISTS!, Don’t let ANYONE tell you your work has no value or style, regardless of polish or crudeness. The fact is, light can illuminate even the most mundane of drawing.
Furthermore, I cannot state the importance that reference has played in my work as of late. This can be in the form of a photo shoot, images from the internet, or even stills from advertisements and film stills. You see a cool lighting scheme in a photo, steal…err, USE it. Also, consider using newer online tools that are utilized by photographers to bring dramatic narratives to form. I’ll speak on those tools in the future.
I try my best to take advantage of light. YOU should too.
Greetings Dieselfunkateers! We are now entering the third week of creating content for The DIESELFUNK SHOW (Please SUBSCRIBE & HIT the Bell Button for NOTIFICATIONS) Make no mistake about it, PRE- blog, vlog, GLOGG, and COMATIC is a very different conversation than POST blog, vlog, GLOGG, and COMATIC. Why? Well to discuss content creation is a different action than actually creating it. Now I won’t beat around the bush, this is very hard work. Long hours, intense focus, and ultimately in some cases, sleep deprivation. This…All while producing COMICS. Add to this I’m working with my Twin Brother JIM FIELDER; which makes it without question THE MOST FULFILLING WORK OF MY LIFE.
As I stated in my earlier post, this would be a process of learning and adjusting. We are constantly working on generating content. We have finished our first professional photo session, conducted by the awesome Amy Frushour Kellyhttp://www.frushour.org/ that will be used to promote our operation.. First thing we’ve noticed with respects to Youtube is that SEO optimization and thumbnails are KEY. This will grow even more complex as Facebook ramps up its video monetization scheme…hint: IT WILL BE WAR:-) Further, when you are starting out it makes more sense to consolidate your channels into ONE channel. Now if you’re already down the road a bit thats okay as you can share playlists on the other channels. Honestly, it’s a bit of a bear maintaining both The Dieselfunk Show and High John Conqueror, although I love them both. However, upon listening to Youtube creator/ consultant Derral Eves http://derraleves.com/ and Youtube Maestro/creator/consultant/graphic designer, Roberto Blake http://robertoblake.com/ we have devised a plan. First step is High John Conqueror will likely be folded into The Dieselfunkshow. This extends to more than just Youtube. We will CONSOLIDATE ALL CONTENT.
Every INTEREST will utilize CONTROL of manufacturing and distribution which becomes a SEGMENT of the larger PROGRAM. This reduces the amount of maintenance from each separate channel. So you’ve got the Dieselfunk GLOGG, OLD BLACKMAN TALES and HIGH JOHN CONQUEROR all consolidated into THE DIESELFUNK SHOW. With more to come.
DIESELFUNK GLOG DNC Greetings Dieselfunkateers! As reported, the Dieselfunk Crew is now in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention. We will be posting to our soon to be active DIESELFUNK SHOW as well asComixcast DNC.
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