This is a series of slides, made in powerpoint...
Here is a version where each slide is 6 seconds. if that's too fast, there's a 10 sec version below...
Vimeo:
10 sec slides:
Ganga comic with longer slides from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
Questions:
1. What do you enjoy about this "comic"?
2. What do you think of the comic book format?
a. What coud I do to make it more comic book like?
b. Were there too many photos on a page to take in during a movie format?
c. How were the speed of the slides (they're all 6 seconds right now, I'm not sure but I may be able to vary the timing for each slide.)
d. Should I "animate" things within each slide...so for example each photo could add in until you get the complete page, and I can add thought bubbles coming in sequence as well.
e: other ideas?
3. How was the superhero aspect?
a. Did you understand her superpower?
b. Do you have any ideas related to what her superpowers cover? I had a thought that human version of her is a clean freak and is always cleaning....and she looks into the toilet bowl like a crystal ball to show where troubled people are. Is that funny or just gross?
c. What are ways to make Ganga look more interesting...I think I want to give her rubber gloves and a blue eye mask. Anything else you can think of to make her costume more superhero like?
4. If this were a part of the live performance, I am thinking that the beginning could be projected, then the live dance could start with ganga's transformation and plunging...and it could end with the last slide of the yoga guy's reaction. Do you have other ideas about how this could be integrated into live performance?
5. Is there nything you would change?
Any other comments or ideas?
1. I like the more over-the-top, melodramatic moments: Kash with the stressed look on his face with the "**&!" balloon over his head; Shy with her head on the bed saying "ARGH!"
ReplyDelete2. I really like that you're using a comic book format, considering our inspiration. It may be a bit tricky to integrate an actual comic-book into performance - but it might be interesting to have a physical comic-book/artbook (an Amar Chitra Katha "bumper issue" of 4-5 super-heroines) accompanying our show!
a. Modifying the photos so that they look more like stylized illustrations. Using more text (omniscient narrators, dialogues, thought bubbles) throughout. Changing the layout so that it looks less like a power-point and more like a comic-book: there shouldn't be white space between photos, hand-drawn lines would be better if possible.
b/c. The 6 s slide was too fast to take in all the photos.
d. Animation could be interesting!
e. I think that if you're translating the story-board stills of a comic book into a time-based video, it should be more engaging: a soundtrack would really help, as would more movement and visual activity. Perhaps we could also see someone physically turning the pages of the book?
3.
a. You told me beforehand, but I understood that she was the cleanser, and got rid of thought-clutter. There seems to be some overlap between Anj's Bhumi and your Ganga, btw.
b. FUNNY! I like the toilet bowl. :) Does your original Ganga character - the village woman cleaning up the sewage - still relate? That would probably go in a more environmental direction...
c. Hm, you might take a look at goddess images and American comic book characters for inspiration. How is she usually represented? Here's a google image search: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1440&bih=766&q=ganga&gbv=2&oq=ganga&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_nf=1&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1726.2172.0.2293.5.5.0.0.0.0.73.266.5.5.0.RON8v51o8H4
4. It might be possible to translate the whole story into live performance. There could be a rhythmic composition inspired by the sound of clattering dishes and laundry machines, to which you could do fast clothes-folding/dish-washing nritta. Maybe you could go into the audience to plunge people's cluttered brains? Make them do meditation exercises?
5. When I first saw the slide-show, for some reason the end was chopped off, and I never saw "Ganga the cleanser" appear - on that viewing, I thought that the character might read as a servile wife/woman, who kills herself cleaning the house then devotes herself to massaging and relaxing her husband with a smile on her face.
Following up on our earlier conversation, it's not totally clear to me whether this is parody (of the glamorous yogi-Ganga) or serious right now. If parody, you might need to push it a little further. Narratively, I get a little confused re: location - are you supposed to be in a yoga studio after you finish cleaning the house? Maybe because I know what your house looks like, it's not entirely clear to me. Perhaps you could have her driving through LA, zapping people's road rage as she goes? And is there some connection between the yoga guy and Shiva the yogi?
1) I enjoy the live action aspect of the comic and the possibilities of moving from the page to live performance (still to animated). I also enjoy the light feel/tone throughout
ReplyDelete2) I love the comic book format and think there are lots of possibilities in using it as a structure...very exciting and innovative
a) I think adding thought bubbles and maybe drawn/cartoon graphics would make it more comic book like
b) I did sometimes feel that 4 slides on one page were a lot, but then, I realized it did remind me of the Amar Chitra Katha's format and appreciate the sequencing and storyboard aspect to the process/story unfolding
c) I saw the 10 second and it felt a bit too long...maybe 7 or 8 second slides?
d, e) I like the idea of adding slides or them popping up as we are viewing, maybe there is some live video aspect to it where we can click on the character and we see her in true live action
3) Yes, love Ganga as superheroine
b) Here superpowers are cleaning up messes including mental clutter (similar to my Bhumi in the mental realm). I love the idea of using the toilet as a crystal bowl. Maybe she can get through to individuals based upon their own toilet bowls and then she knows how to help them (is there shit residue, pee stains, blood, vomit, or sparkling clean?
c) I love the rubber gloves as part of her costume. Maybe a blue unitard or leotard with the scarf draped around her as you had it. I like the mask, but maybe the mask are goggles so she doesn't get kick up from the toilet bowl when she looks into it. She might wear a surgical mask (blue) over her mouth and scrubs on her feet (all blue of course)
d) Yes, it definitely has many live performance possibilities. You can start with stills from the book and then become one of the stills ...stills come to life. You also have options for flashback possibilities using the book as a format and then live performance as another "time". Or you can be the superheroine in the live performance and regular person in the comic....many possibilities--very rich
5) Maybe the pace of the slides a little faster and adding some elements of live video if you click on a slide. I also want to see what she does with that plunger in detail
1.
ReplyDeleteCleanser of the universe....
that really caught me!
My favorite images were the ones with photos and drawings combined.
And exclamations, sounds (in writing)
2.
I think its really suitable for the topic we are working on.... definitely has potential to be developed further--- either included in performance somehow (depending on how we work with media) or, as Cyn suggests as accompanying the performance. Eitehr way, its a lot of work !
a.
Drawings instead of photos, manipulate photos so they look more like comics
thought bubbles as the others mentioned, and formatting
b.
Yes, -- but mostly in combination with the slight blurriness of the pictures
c.
too fast-- cp. b)
d.
Yes, could be interesting
e:
The combination between drawings and photos worked (plunger, screwdriver, etc).-- could be interesting to work with more.
3.
a.
I think so..... to cleanse the mind of unnecessary thoughts?
b.
I somehow am reminded of the Bombay (but not Bollywood) movie “ EVERYBODY SAYS I AM FINE” Where the main character is a hairdresser, who, when touching people's hair, can read their mind....
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Everbody-Say-s-I-m-Fine-Movie-review-urtrqslsp
the toilet bowl made sense to me in the environmental and caste context. I somehow can't connect it to the mind easily.
c.
Rubber gloves are great! Some other sort of mask maybe? Anj'S goggles idea is great. Makes her less domestic. A cape?
4.
I do go into the meditation realm in my thoughts. So I like Cyn's idea of going into the audience to connect to the audience-- or guide a meditation--- in that case i could see the whole introduction/transformation on video or otherwise projected.
5.
I particularly like the interactive potential—even in the comic book version you had someone to interact with!
I was a bit confused about the domesticity in the first part in particular. Is she a house-wife when she is not cleansing minds? What other kind of multidimensionality mind there be to her femininity?
I was unclear about the relationship between the heroine and the guy. Does she lens his mind while he is meditating-- does he notice? Is she his wife or an unknown superheroine?
I remember stories of a woman disturbing a meditation.... in a classical dance i dance... . Seems to be connections there, in terms of opposites.
I love this. Thought it was hilarious. It didn't necessarily give me the origin story of Ganga the Cleanser of the Universe, but I did get a very good sense of her superpower. I also loved the way you combined photos with comic book aesthetics and the "goddess" with the mundane. I would say this is definitely worth pursuing further. Maybe each one of us should have a character story like this that lives on the project's page? Sorry, cannot stop thinking about the transmedia possibilities of this.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I agree with Babli that the pacing was a little fast.