John Holdun

A Script for Bobby

A sketch of a scene from the show: Percy accepting a huge, three-layer cake from a baker standing behind a counter at a bakery. In the background, a sloth and bear watch, stunned.

Here’s the first draft of the script for Bobby’s Birthday! It’s rough, as first drafts tend to be; there’s one whole stanza in there that doesn’t even rhyme. I just wanted to get something down, in full, because I find editing easier than writing, and now I can edit for a good long while.

Also, I’m holding back: this is really only the first 80% of the script. I’m keeping the last scene a secret until the world gets it feet into the finished product, just to give you a little extra something to anticipate.

The accompanying sketches are also rough right now, but those will get cleaned up right quick. Each one represents my initial idea for a particular scene rather faithfully, in terms of scale and perspective; over the next few weeks, I’ll clean these up and split out the parts into individual images, which serves a few purposes: I’ll have something to measure the real stuff against, and I’ll have more than enough assets to build a full digital mockup!

I think I’ve written down just about everything that needs to happen by this point. December’s deliverable is the interactive animatic; January’s includes the stands for every figure and set piece in the show, along with a complete set of wire armatures; by the end of February all the animation and sculpture will be finished (in that order); March’s conclusion marks a full paint job, marketing materials in the wild, and the whole show in boxes; in April we premiere.

Of course there’s a bit more detail to all of it, and that’s what the weekly updates are for. Email me your first thoughts on the script and I’ll see you next week!