You saw the pilot. Now here’s webisode 1, about the economic journey of a typically downwardly-mobile American family. If you like it, please spread it around. If not, please remain silent. Thank you.
DISPOSABLE 1: “Sarah’s Big Day”
Ted Rall
http://rall.comTed Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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5 Comments.
These are amusing, and I do appreciate continuous narrative. I know I am supposed to remain silent but my one criticism is that this one was a little too short. The whole episode is only a small multiple longer then the previous episode’s rehash at the beginning and has about three punchlines (which is about the right for its length). I thought the pilot had a better length and pacing. If you keep making them (and I hope you do) you might want stitch a few of the shorter episodes together. The amount of content here was great for one or maybe two of your beloved 4 panel strips, but a bit to light for even a quick webisode.
The breakdown:
You have about 19 seconds of rehash and intro, 12 seconds of credits at the end, and only 43 seconds of new content. That is only 58% content diluted with 42% “packing”. No mater how good the content is that is a formula for disaster.
Matt Wilson, a once semi-famous now disappeared independent web animator of no small talent, once left an angry rant on his now defunct blog with advise for web animators. One point focused on quantity of content. He pointed out that a lot of people moved on from doing web comics to webtoons but still were providing the same amount of content. He then proposed that even webcomics (or say political cartoons) that had lots of dialogue and update three times or more a week, do not require as much content as is necessary for the most bare minimum single episode of a webcartoon in less then a couple weeks time. Matt Wilson, of course, did say any such rule has an exception and went on to make a 4 second long episode of a web cartoon with about a minuet worth of intro and credits as an example. But this counterexample worked because it was a meta cartoon where the joke was on the viewer, and it simultaneously made fun of a typical overused tv plot-line that would generally develop into a full episode but that Matt Wilson wanted to demonstrate could be resolved realistically and humorously in a full 4 seconds.
To be concise: if a picture is worth 1000 words, then a cartoon is worth 1000 words x # of key frames. It therefore takes a lot of content to make even a short cartoon that: doesn’t feel too short, too empty, too slow paced, or too packed with rehash and credits.
You just love that David Bowie music, dontcha Ted?
She pulled a Bush and held the phone upside down.
Perhaps the name of Mohamed Boazizi could be an inspiration to people in the United States as well as in Tunisia ? Dan doesn’t seem to have the guts, bu how about a sequel in which Sarah pours petrol over *her* boss and lights a match ? Or would that be considered «inflammatory speech» ?…
Henri