Multiple viewpoints = one big headache

bubba_funk

I've kind of got a writing style where I have the general points I want to have in each section of my comic and then I just draw a rough sketch of each page; layout, text, characters etc. that follow them (pondering on wheter to put these up in my gallery, they are VERY bad but give the main ideas of it, any ideas on that?).

My main problem is that I am focussing on 4 main characters (originally six) and am finding it very difficult to convey their parts of the story effectively. I am thinking to either try and put them all into one comic, and if that's the case I wouldd like some help on how to do this, or that I would produce 4 smaller comics that show the same event but from their own personal acounts, viewpoints and thoughts (as they'll mostly be spiltting up throughout) and a few add-on ones later to add other perspectives to the whole event so a fuller pictture can be painted

I hope you can offer advice on this as I don't want to go any further in writing/drawing it if I'm going in the qrong creative direction

Ariah81 · Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 6:04 am Post subject:

Sandmarine had once this 'path system' which was very interesting idea - but he eventually dropped this, as many people found it quite confusing.
Yet, you may like to contact him in that matter, just to ask for details (the comic is not available in its full form, but some pages can be seen here in the gallery)

But a little experiment is good, i think. And You idea seems inovative, which is rare in comic industry;)
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battle not with monsters
lest ye become a monster
and if you gaze into the abyss
the abyss gazes into you

Friedrich Nietzche

sandmarine · Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 11:22 am Post subject:

alright, here I am, ladies and gentlemen (thanks for the introduction!).

Ariah is right... I had the same vision of seeing the same event throught different eyes... you wouldn't know the full scope of the situation until you read all the stories... you would see a guy in one story just saying "I'm fine, everything's ok", but by reading one of the other stories, you would know that guys killed someone before showing up in that other story.

So I deviced this Path system, whose only supporter was my dear friend Ariah... a bunch of people started complaining they didn't get it, that it made the story dull and whatnot, so I decided to stop using it.

I deleted all my comic pages from everywhere because I'm starting again from square 1. I got to develop 5 different paths, but, man, that's like making 5 different comcis at the same time, which is really taxing.

So, what I'm doing now, is taking all those pages and just making one single story with all of them... so, instead of making you read different stories so you know the guy killed someone, you'll just see the guy showing up all relaxed in page 5 (say), but then, reading page 15 (when I go backwards) you'll realize what he really did.

In other words, the path system is still there, but it's all compiled now. Two movies I love are Memento and Pulp Fiction, which play with these elements greatly. If you haven't seen them, check them out, they really helped me a lot in my story writing.
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Vadlor · Forum Member Joined: May 09, 2003 Posts: 296

Michael Moorcock did something like this in his "Multiverse" books.

There is an event that repeat itself in four books, as four incanations of the same character converge, each time narrated from the point of view of each incarnation.

These are the books in which this event appears:
"The Chronicles of Castle Brass", "The Chronicles of the Eternal Champion", "Sailor of the seas of fate" and the last one, I don't remember the title.

Aremis · Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 6:46 am Post subject:

the idea was also used in the fantastic yet short lived television program "Boomtown". Its not easy, I even filmed a short 45 minute movie using the style, but you have to make sure continuity in every event, to make sure it flows well.

The show use to show first a crime happen, from the police point of view, then they would swith to maybe an innocent bystander, and start from the begnning, then maybe to the criminal's point of view, and how it lead to the crime, and then to the victims point of view, same thing.
Its wonderful to watch, time consuming though for a comic I am sure, but truly a new way to read a story or watch one.
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Ratteler · Forum Member Joined: Jun 10, 2002 Posts: 550 Location: NYC

Fo this type of story I would write all the points of view as compleatly as possible, and then... once I had the event straight, start destilling the most important parts into what the viewer will see. (Editing in Film land.)

In film terms... this would be called Parralel action, but this kind of story telling is VERY dependant on the meduim it's presented in.

For instance, right now I'm writing a story that involves clones. Both the Clones are unique and seperate characters... but I want to fool my audience into thinking they are the same person until I reaval they actually are clones.

As a comic book or film, this is very easy... But I'm writing the story as a novelization first simple because it will be easier to destill that format into a more visual one once the story is complete.

The problem is, how do I tell the audience that the two character look alike without telling them there ARE two characters, in a novelization?

I may have to give up the OMG effect I want from the audience in the book, and settle for restoring it the other mediums.

It's the same with the 4 POV.

There are several ways I could think of doing this in Comic Format depending on the story pacing.

4 Panels from top to bottom of the page running "filmstrip" style.

Let's say it's for arguments sake the story take place on 9-11-01 in New York.
Each characters story would play out "real time" so the key events would all appear on the same page in all 4 stories. So they would be 4 seperate stories until the page when the first plane hit the WTC. All 4 characters would see that from their point of view, and the page where it happened would have 4 shots of the WTC form different angles.

Alretnatively, you could dedicate a page to each character. This would let you play more with time between your unifying event, but you would loose a level of cohesion to the story. In this case I would make the unifying evnt's double sized splash pages to emphasize their importance. One big page of the WTC getting hit.

The 4 seperate book method obviouly tell a more complete story, but you might loose "veiwer/readers" if actually reveal what the event is. People will ussually stick to the first POV they get. After your audience realize the gimick in charater 2's book they'll just want to move on to the rest of the story.

There are other things to consider. Familure image. You could start the story with all 4 characters in roughly the same place in their respective lines. Like all 4 waking up in bed. Maybe showing that there was a symetry to their lives all along.

Or show a radical contrast between them. The first one wakes up staring into the happy eyes of his lover, while the forth one is getting his ass beaten by a pack of ninja's. Things like that are more theamatic than temporal, and go more toward what you're trying to say with the whole story.

bubba_funk

Thanks everyone for you're viewpoints and help. I think I'm going to write it in a way that starts off with a converging point for the characters then they all split up, do stuff and come back again and so on (with each joining and splitting up being a new section/chapter).

I'm hoping that the different "paths" the characters go on will keep the readers interested with the different settings and objectives and also allow for the multiple perspective thing I'm after, so when they meet up and someone refers to something it will mak a lot more sense to everyone. It would also allow me to create a graphical representation of the stories "flow" that would let me know where I am whilst writing the story and for the reader to reference of it so they do not get confused and can easily follow where each chapter is and when it happens.

I'm hoping that doing it this way will allow for boundaries to be set on the different viewpoints whilst still conveying each characters unique viewpoint and insight (and not confuse me or the readers)

Thanks again, you've all helped me a lot with the writing side, but this isn't to say you have to stop. If you see any glaring mistakes in this new way that I'm going about things then just say. I'd rather know know than when I've done half of the story

Cheers

sandmarine · Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 8:19 am Post subject:

we'll be looking forward to yuor series!
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finister · Forum Member Joined: Oct 21, 2002 Posts: 97

I think there should be one major charactor of the four or a major theme that all four share.

To me it seems the most important thing is to get the reader to associate/care about one of your characters. If you have four main characters, it will be very difficult to capture and maintain reader/viewer interest unless the subject matter is more compelling than the characters.

In the Stephen King's 'Stand' he introduces lots of characters but has half a million words to tell his tale. In a comic, I think the viewer has to be sucked in by a very magnetic character or interesting event.

Perhaps see how commercial comics handles group heroes, like the Justic League or the Fantastic Four.
I'd say all four main characters usually share a common goal which links them together and allows the reader to cheer each character on.

Fin

Ariah81 · Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2004 1:58 am Post subject:

Interesting point there, finister!

I agree with You that comic cannot do what a literature can do: that is no matter how hard we try and how many 'off-side' comments we put into the little hovering boxes;) we cannot suply for lengthy background description of a character.
Like Stephen King (my own private God of writing... Though his middle works are better than his recent, 'The Stand' being my favourite;)).

But comic has this major advantage that one can SHOW what one cannot write. Give suptle hints with light and shadow (for instance: blue shades can be associated with one character and than he or she can be viewed as ditant, somewhat reserved, not to mention a cold person...)

God, I'm doing the long post again. I'll stop now.
_________________
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battle not with monsters
lest ye become a monster
and if you gaze into the abyss
the abyss gazes into you

Friedrich Nietzche

sandmarine · Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2004 2:15 pm Post subject:

you shouldn't stop, ariah! and if Stephen King is your God of Writing, you're becoming more and more my Goddess of 3D comics!! keep on going!!

and finister, cool to see you posting at animotions too!
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bubba_funk

Hiya,

Again, good points you've all made. I started to create that timeline/flowchart thing I mentioned and it confused the Bejesus out of me. All these comments are great and I find them really helpful, thanks everyone. I will defineitley take all of them on board.

Heh, and here was me thinking that writing, drawing, colouring and directing a comic would be easy

. I suppose that's half the fun though

Thanks again everyone, and if there's anything more to say then I welcome it.

Cheers