So, I've been trying to decide what to do for my thesis, and as of late, i've got some cool ideas, but nothing to hold it all together.
Basically, i want to have the idea/premise based around a central character, or group of characters, who come to realize that their lives in their homeland were much more personally valuable than the new places that they discover.
Metaphorically, i want to discuss the story in terms of how much sweeter printmaking is than say... graphic design (the so-called new-age savior of artists, and the 'only way to make it' in this modern age).
How this storyline goes, however, i am unsure. I've got a few ideas, based on previously recognized plot schemes:
Apocalypto-style:
Here, our characters would be in happyfunprintmakingland, but would be abducted by digital/robotic creatures from the (opposite place our characters are from)... After being enslaved for a short time, they escape, and lead the rest of the slaves (artists) out of digital-dom, and back to the totally sweet landscapes of happyfunprintmakingland, with help from the printmaking gods (in the form of printmaking-transformer-type automatons). (B+)
Taken (a la mode)
In this storyline, our character loses a friend to an evil country across the sea, who becomes enslaved and forced to work long hours and with unfair wages, in a hardly equitable work environment. Our hero creates his tools with which to rescue said friend, and travels to the ends of the world in order to bring them (and everybody else he finds) to the wonderful kingdom of happyfunprintmakingland. (B+)
One that i dont know if its from a movie or not-style
This one, which is the one that i find to be the most original, though not the best, involves our character being tricked by an evil wizard. The wizard tells our hero that amazing things can be found in another land to the east. The only way to get there, however, is to find a series of objects strewn about happyfunprintmakingland, and give them to the wizard so that he could help our hero get to the land. He gets the objects, makes a map, gives it to our buddy, and sends him off into the wilderness. Hopping aimfully through the woods and over the hills, meeting scary 'monsters' along the way, all of whom tell him to go back and stay away from the gate leading to the other world.
Our hero, stubborn as he is, doesn't listen. He just keeps goin, and eventually makes it through to the gate, passes through, and upon entering the other side, gets kidnapped and is forced to work in those unfair conditions that i described in the previous tale. He vows to escape and to destroy the digital king ruling over the slaves.
So, as you can see, i've got some basic themes running throughout all of my ideas so far:
- big, epic landscapes
- happyfunprintmakingland
- printmaking transformers
- graphic design can 'save it'
Not sure where it's all heading so far, but clearly, the parts of each story can be interchanged and compiled to make a good story, but i dont know if i've got enough to support a solid idea. Easily enough to make a solid body of work, but its not conducive yet.
Basic ideas that i want this thesis to entail:
Book:
I really want this to be a self-written, original story, that can be printed in its entirety in a small pamphlet (10-ish pages, no bigger than 5x9), and also one full-scale book, with each page being its own print, with interlocking imagery and text. For the show, i would love to have each pagespread in its own frame, with the pamphlet books placed on the ends so that the viewers could not only read the words in the frames, but also take the books home to remember.
The pamphlets would be relatively simple. No super-fancy cover pages (but then again, im an admitted over achiever, and who knows where that could go.), and small, perhaps size 14 font, justified type to tell the story.
The full-size pagespreads would be upwards of 15 inches tall, by 24-30 inches wide. Large, yes. Do-able? Maybe. Totally sweet if i could pull it off? Hellllllls yea.
Relatively muted scheme of basic colors. Sepia tones, blacks, browns, reds, blues, greens, and perhaps some yellow/oranges.
I've got high hopes... as always, so we'll see how my stories evolve.
