Page 1.
Three panels along the top of the page. Gaining a feel for the story's protagonist, aka 'man'.
Panel 1 Introduction. Man wakes up in bed to wife calling him for breakfast, he replies whilst stretching. Shot of bedroom and man stretching in bed.
Panel 2 Close up of Man's face looking weary eyed.
Panel 3 Side view of stairs from top left angled down to midway through the panel. Man, now dressed, is trundaling halfway down holding onto banister. Bottom right of panel is door into kitchen where wife is calling Man again.
Underlining the top panels is the title 'The Great Road Of China' swishing from small to BIG and overlapping the next row of panels. I like the way the text does this because it disjoints the rigidness of the rectangular block panels.
Second row of three panels. (bottom of panel = halfway down page)
Panel 4 Wife hands briefcase to Man perspective of back of Man's head looking at wife. Background of kitchen.
Panel 5 Man reads newspaper at table whilst listening to the radio having eaten his breakfast.
Panel 6 Side view of front garden as Man walks out of house, wife speach bubble hollers behind him.
Third row of three panels.
Panel 7 Man hops into car that is parked on street. Ariel view down towards left hand side of the car as he opens the door.
Panel 8 Now driving along. Head shot of Man looking to his left whilst holding the steering wheel.
Panel 9 Panic! Subject to subject transition. Activating Agent! Question mark bursting outside of the panel with man gasping and a background around his head like a symbolic japenese sunset.
Fourth and final row of page 1.
No panel just a long illustration of a huge traffic jam travelling from top left (far, far away), to bottom right (close up). Man is at top of hill. This is signified through the same symbolic background around his head exploding out of the horizon bordering around the big question mark.
Page 2.
First row of 2 panels, one normal box and the other a stretched out rectangle reaching the right hand side.
Panel 1 Man is instantly worried. Close up of side of Man's face with sweat dripping down.
Panel 2 Different perspective, using the long panel box to house a very flat image of cars jammed from left to right. they are pooring out fumes which clears into the summer sky.
Second row very thin just long enough to show a car stereo (panel 3) and a translation of a broadcast (panel 4) which reads "China has been hit by a 9 day traffic jam."
Third row same as the first.
Panel 5 Man holds hand on his head while in car still coming to the realisation of how serious it all is.
Panel 6 Subject to subject. Man is now getting antsy. Perspective of back of his head while in the car clutching steering wheel and looking out over the crisis he faces. Cars face into distance.
Fourth row is a splash illustration with drivers out of their cars arguing leaning over their cars. People crying and not knowing what to do. Back ground of traffic jam fades into the distance. Top right corner of illustration is split up by 2 panels.
Panel 7 Man comes up with idea. Close up of surprise on his face as he holds up one finger indicating that he has a plan.
Panel 8 Man flings open door deciding to take matters into his own hands. Shot of the side of car at an angled perspective door opens out to the right.
Bottom row is one big panel.
Panel 9 Bird's eye view of traffic on the road, everyone outside their cars. Focal point is most people looking at a planwritten out ontop of a car. Bird's eye view is high up so the people look non detailed. Each character is talking and pointing either towards the way out of the jam or at the plan sheet they are looking at. The plan sheet is ontop of a car roof facing upwards.
Page 3.
Working together to make the situation they are in more bareable.
Progression of the story.
First row one big panel taking up a 1/4 of the page.
Panel 1 Captioned as 'Day 3' in the top left hand corner. Shot of a side view of loads of motorists together who have sourced noodles and drinking water to stay alive. Man is on the left side standing ontop of a lorry calling out instructions to the helpers feeding other motorists. Noodles are smoking into the air.
Second row consists of one square panel and one long rectangular one, the bottoms of which equal halfway down the page.
Panel 2 Subject to Subject. Man yelling out close up on his face shouting with hands wrapped around his mouth, done to louden the call.
Panel 3 Captioned as 'Day 5'.Although undrawn I have an idea of this one containg more of the same stuff. The group bunching together to get them through this rough time.
Third row consists of the opposite of the 2nd row, one long rectangular box first and then one square one.
Panel 4 Captioned as 'Day 7' I imagined this one to be of a broadcasted reporting a story on the 'freedom' group we are following in the traffic jam and their feel good story. (not drawn)
Panel 5 Close up of Man crying tears of happiness. (not drawn)
Bottom row again one panel stretched across the bottom taking up 1/4 of the page.
Panel 6 Captioned as 'Day 9' All the group is singing together holding hands and embracing one another. Crowds of supporters applauding them. (not drawn)
Page 4.
Resolvement and resolution.
First row is one big illustration panel taking up 1/4 of the page.
Panel 1 Ariel shot overlooking a crowd and a road with cars dricing off. Man is waving out of the window gesturing a goodbye as the crowd applaude. Everyone is smiling. the road fades into the distance from close up (left) to far away (right).
Second row houses three normal panels.
Panel 2 Ariel shot of the car looking over the road with nothing infront of it. clean open road into the hills.
Panel 3 Close up of Man's face again a solitary tear rolls down his face as you can almost see the sunset in his eyes.
Panel 4 Motion to motion. Close up of the same tear rolling further down his face.
Third row, three more normal panels..
Panel 5 Overhead shot of car parking up outside of house on the road. Can see the front garden and the house door.
Panel 6 Subject to subject. Shot from inside the house as Man opens front door. Box perspective shows that our protagonist is about to walk in.
Panel 7 Same shot almost. Man slightly closer however the view is somewhat obstructed by the back of waiting wife, standing with left hand on left hip. We can see Man through the gap her arm leaves.
Bottom Row consists of two panels.
Panel 8 Close up side view of Man's and wifes faces facing each other. Wife speaks and Man replies. Translation...
W:"Staying late at work again?"
M:"Yes."
Panel 9 FIN!
2 comments:
okay! we did discuss this one in some detail when I saw you. I like the idea that you are showing an unusual of real news event that occurred in China. But - I think you could still make it interesting by just reporting on the facts, and leave out the overly fictionalized expressions of the main character - be more subtle in your approach - and also think of different routes/ approaches to telling this story - you could do it from the viewpoints of different characters - from the farmer with his produce rotting, to the people trying to make a quick bit of profit selling food on the streets, to the government official worried about loosing his job after this mess - yes you will need to do a lot of reading/investigating! Find out loads of facts about the incident and related facts
You could also do a story about traffic jams! The historically big ones!!
yeah i think the event is such a rare occasion that it almost doesnt have room to fit in a single character's profile. this will take some thought otherwise i will end up drawing like 20 pages!
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