MONOLITH: In the Studio » 2006

The Shield.

Tuesday, January 31st, 2006

For a look at what is infuencing our creative processes, here’s a look at some of the TV, movies, games, and music we are enjoying.

Brilliant. Just freakin’ brilliant is Michael Chiklis (Detective Vic Mackey ) and Forest Whitaker (IAD Lt. Jon Kavanaugh) in the fifth season of The Shield. Another one of the best shows on TV. Rent it, borrow it, buy it, just start watching it already.

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. Back to the drawing board now, I swear…

The Shield

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Posted in Influence, Ramblings, TV | No Comments »

Working Script Sneak-Peak!

Tuesday, January 31st, 2006

Here is a piece of the script I have been working on. It is a bit raw. But it will give you a look at what Micah and Jason are getting. Enjoy

SIDEKICK

“Come on. Battery here says there is some kind of trouble downtown.”

EXT. AIRBORNE OVER THE CITY.

Battery has his flight rig on his back and is carrying Viper and Sidekick.

He forms speaker cones over their heads so that he can talk to them as he flies. Sidekick is still carrying his sledge hammer.

BATTERY

(as he tells this info, we see it.)

“I heard this on the Police Band radio. Some military shipment got jumped on the highway. The MP guys must have stopped the hijackers, but something went wrong. The cargo busted loose and is rolling towards downtown.”

(back in the moment)

“CRAP! There they are!”

The four Tank Bots are patrolling ??? Square Park. A few remaining people flee the park.

Amp waves from a rooftop below, she is there with Flamethrower.

AMP

“Hey!”

The three guys land.

BATTERY

“I am glad you guys are here. Amp, Flamethrower, this is Viper. I think you guys know Sidekick.”

FLAMETHROWER

“Yeah, we’ve met. So what’s going on down here?”

AMP

“What are those things?”

BATTERY

“Some kind of Army robot. And it looks like they are marking their territory right here in ??? Square.”

The heroes gather on the edge of the building and watch. Maybe one or two people are still running away from them. A dog is tied up outside a store and barks at the robots. Robots pause. Dog barks again and one of the robot blast it to nothing. Heroes gasp in horror. Especially Amp.

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Posted in Josh Dahl, Production Update, Rapid City | No Comments »

Wrong Monkey.

Monday, January 30th, 2006

Well I did this sketch last night and then re-read what Josh wrote (it had been a while) for the character formerly known as “The Monkey” and realized I was way off on this one. So let me introduce the “Wrong Monkey” I figured I’d show him anyways, since he was fun to sketch.

The Wrong Monkey

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Posted in Character Design, Jason Krause | No Comments »

Galactica.

Saturday, January 28th, 2006

For a look at what is infuencing our creative processes, here’s a look at some of the TV, movies, games, and music we are enjoying.

Battlestar Galactica Seal

Battlestar Galactica. If you are not watching it, you are missing out one of the best shows on TV. It is simply a brilliantly written show. It has despair, it has hope and best of all it has freakin’ Cylons. I really think it happens to be one of the best science fiction drama shows ever. If sci-fi is not your “thing”, don’t let that deter you from checking it out. There is more to it than spaceships and cyborgs. There is the story about humanity and learning from it’s wrong doings and trying to survive. And with only a little more than 14,500 humans left, they better start learning fast.

This show is at the top of my TV viewing list along with; The Shield, 24 and Lost.

So it is time to start filling those Netflix queues up or getting out the credit card and picking up the mini-series that kicked this great show off and/or the first season on DVD. The first part of season two is also out on DVD, if you want to get all the way caught up.

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Posted in Influence, Ramblings, TV | No Comments »

Just in time

Friday, January 27th, 2006

This story, Rapid City, has been boiling up to the surface for a long time. In some form or another it’s been down there since, maybe 1999. Parts of it moved around and resorted themselves. Things would show up, take shape, and try to wedge themselves into a story. And in that wedging, they’d scrape some of the garbage off, or become a completely different shape. While some other things arrived fully formed.

But it never really, really, clicked. It felt good, it felt like a story, but it didn’t feel solid.

Until Jason and Micah came on board.

Rapid City is the story of a man who goes back into his past and settles up with himself. He has to re-learn that self reliance isn’t evrything it is cracked up to be, and you should really trust your friends.

And that’s why those pieces weren’t clicking before. Because I was trying to do it on my own. But when my old friends were suddenly working on drawing my ideas, the whole story started to make sense. It clicked because it was becoming true.

Is it too pretentious to say that writing Rapid City is the same thing as living Rapid City? Well, it’s true.

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Posted in General, Rapid City | 2 Comments »