Category Archives: comic book storytelling

WHAT BOTHERS WHAT BOTHERS ARROW’S STEPHEN AMELL ABOUT DC COMICS

WHAT BOTHERS WHAT BOTHERS ARROW’S STEPHEN AMELL ABOUT DC COMICS

AUTHOR: ADAM HOLMES
What Bothers Arrow’s Stephen Amell About DC Comics image
Unlike Marvel and their shared media universe, DC has opted to keep the company’s movie and TV universes separate, primarily so that each project isn’t hindered creatively. The downside to this approach is that there isn’t as much synergetic collaboration between the two departments, which was primarily demonstrated when DC announced their cinematic universe plans last month. Arrow star Stephen Amell has a particular issue with the movie side of things.

While he relishes being a part of the DC TV universe, Amell expressed his frustration on this week’s Arrow After Talk about how last month’s announcement of DC’s movie slate was handled, specifically that it was the day after the second Flash aired. Here were his thoughts:
“I thought that the way that Warner Bros. announced the slate of DC movies could have been handled better. And I think someone like Grant Gustin, who has just launched an iconic character like the Flash to record-breaking numbers, numbers that far-surpassed Arrow’s numbers, he should have been given a wider berth than two episodes before another actor was announced to play his character.”

He also pointed out that the reaction to the second episode of a series is more important than the pilot because it indicates how many people enjoyed the debut and will be sticking around. By scheduling their movie news the day after Flash aired, it drew attention away from those crucial ratings. He says Gustin deserves better.
“All that being said, that’s because I’m protective of Grant, and that’s because I think that producing 23 episodes of superhero television is more difficult than producing a feature film, and it’s 23 episodes again, and again, and again.”

Among the big DC news that day was the casting of Ezra Miller as Flash in the titular character’s 2018 film. Gustin barely got two weeks under his belt as the Flash before he was overshadowed by the actor who would be playing the Scarlet Speedster on the big screen. By the time the movies comes out (and assuming the show is still on), The Flash will be in its fourth or fifth season, so many people will be well-acquainted with Gustin as the character by the time Miller debuts. While Gustin on the big screen is not to be, it wouldn’t have hurt Warner Bros. and DC to hold the announcement for another date, especially if they took the time to make an event out of it like Marvel did with their Phase 3 lineup.

Despite his irritation with the timing, Amell did state that he was excited with how DC will be introducing the Justice League on the big screen over five to six years, and said he’s spoke to DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns about the upcoming plans. At the end of the day, DC is a comic book company that enjoys crossing over characters from multiple universes, especially though their Crisis events, so there’s always the possibility that one day, we may see two different Flashes running side-by-side and two different Green Arrows drawing their bows.
STEPHEN AMELL ABOUT DC COMICS

Philly Resident Kickstarting His Real Batman Armor

Philly Resident Kickstarting His Real Batman Armo

By Dennis Upkins
11/15/2014

In comic books, James Gordon is one of Batman’s most loyal allies who aids the Caped Crusader in protecting Gotham from any arising threat. However in real life it is Jackson Gordon who is working to make Batman’s costume a reality through a Kickstarter campaign.

“[The goal is] to create a real world equivalent of a batsuit that would provide significant protection and be accurate to the character,”Gordon explained on his Kickstarter page.”My idea is to design my own version of what a real world equivalent of a batsuit should be, and then actually construct it.”

The Philadelphia based design student also emphasized that while the armor may be inspired by 1/3 of DC Comics’ Trinity, this project is not cosplay.

“It’s important to stress that this is not a costume, but rather an actual fully functioning replication of what a person would want in a modern type combat suit,” Gordon explained. “This suit is not being designed to take on gunfire, as that would cost exponentially more and is above my skill set, but rather towards hand to hand combat and weapon defense against bats, knifes, and other club like objects. I don’t plan on replicating his additional gear, such as the grapnel gun and smoke grenades, just the protective suit itself. While creating a protective suit is not all that difficult in and of itself, applying a theme to said suit, in this case batman, leads to a lot of interesting design possibilities, as there is a plethora of base material to consider for inspiration and styling guidelines to stick to to make the character recognizable.”

Only a few days in, the Kickstarter campaign has already reached its $1000 goal.

“Any additional funding will allow me to further my use of different materials and start adding gear to the suit like speakers and cameras in the cowl,” Gordon said.

The campaign concludes on Dec. 10.

Does Your Band Need A Movement Coach?

Does Your Band Need A Movement Coach?

Kevin-andrews

Kevin Andrews is a Nashville-based choreographer and movement coach who works with country musicians on their stage presence in addition to such activities as choreographing music videos. He’s focusing in on a specific niche but what he’s doing is a good example of what a lot of solo acts and bands need. Some artists have difficulty adjusting to the stage imagining that somehow just “being themselves” will make them look “natural.” But the stage is anything but a natural place and a movement coach might be just the thing you need.

I found out about Kevin Andrews via an interesting piece he wrote about the top 4 ways country music can compete with pop music performances.

Being a choreographer for hire, he does focus on that element of what country artists can do to up their stage show but also discusses rehearsing the performance on stage and not letting your lighting become a light show. The latter works in other genres but not so well in country music.

In the following video he gets down to some very basic concepts for stage performance:

Play YouTube video

3 Quick Artist Movement Tips

Andrews says he’s worked with such stars as LeAnn Rimes, Big & Rich and Alan Jackson. It would be really interesting to see those interactions but from the article and the video we can see two basic keys:

Maintain an awareness of how you’re presenting yourself to your audience so that you’re not cutting yourself off with the mic or inadvertently closing off from your audience.

Have some choreographed moves in place that you can draw on at appropriate moments without making your act seem totally choreographed.

Of course the details will differ based on the size of stage and your musical genre but a movement coach or choreographer might be just what you need even if you don’t want any dance steps or choreographed material.

Much Of Movement Coaching Isn’t About Choreography

Note Andrews’ advice in the video about holding the mic on stage with the hand furthest away from the audience so that your arm isn’t blocking your upper body from view.

That’s not something you choreograph. It’s more a habit you develop that you can carry through everything you do onstage. Because the underlying principle is to never turn your back on your audience and when you turn to the side to keep your body open to the audience.

Someone who’s trained to view detailed movement can help you with that and point out the moments you’re most likely to lose track of the underlying principle. But they’ll probably start like Andrews with a very specific and important technique from which you’ll learn concepts that you can apply throughout your performance.

Analyzing videos of your performance focusing only on the movement and presentations can also be of help. A trained eye can teach you how to see the details that matter without getting distracted by all the other stuff happening onstage.

Here’s A Different Example

Here’s a quick example of what an outside eye can do:

I saw a young rapper in Raleigh years ago who had a strong presence on stage and well-developed songs for someone at that level of the game which basically meant he had the potential to go further.

But he had this habit of bending one of his knees in time to the music and following through with his thigh kind of bouncing up into the air. It was a fairly large consistent movement far beyond tapping your foot to the beat. The problem was he was initiating the movement on the beat but visually speaking the movement suggested that the beat occurred when his thigh reached the top of its arc.

That meant his leg always looked like it was behind the beat which he was rapping to in perfect rhythm. It also meant that his stage show was characterized by that one movement.

It’s the kind of thing his friends would say doesn’t matter and he might reject as an issue because it felt natural.

But when was the last time you saw a pro with a real career distinctly moving in the same offbeat manner through every song?

I can’t think of anybody.