The Making Of Dungeon Follies
It has been suggested, by some of the viewers of The Dungeon Follies, that perhaps the creator has a lot of free time. Perhaps not even a day job. This is similar to frequent assertions that The Translator has an excess of unstructured-free-time-without-adult-supervision. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Well, okay, obviously SOME things could be further from the truth. Things completely divorced from reality like Bush's international policy, or Clinton's vocabulary definitions. But perhaps the viewers don't quite understand just how little time or physical effort actually goes into a DF episode.
The ideas come from several sources. The Intro is cribbed from Sun Tzu. The pet shop is adapted from Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch, although The Mercian Hound is a bit livelier than the Dead Parrot was. Influences include history, Shakespeare, Abbot & Costello and watching my kids try to lie their way out of trouble. Or, I might take a well-known phrase or slogan, and plug different letters into it to see if anything sparks an idea:
Got bilk? …a skit about feudal con men?
Got cilk? Got chilk? Got dilk? Got eilk?
Got filk? Scifi/fantasy-convention-folk-music? Convention attendees travel in time and find themselves in King Arthur's Court? Singing new tunes to 'that old old old time religion?'
Got gilk? Got hilk? Got jilk? Got kilk? Got lilk?
Got Milk? Taken.
Got nilk? Got oilk? Got pilk? Got quilk? Got rilk?
Got silk? Reason for the crusades? Advertising campaign for crusaders?
Got shilk? Got tilk? Got vilk? Got wilk? Got xilk? Got yilk? Got zilk?
I get an idea, somehow, and play around with it for a few days. Think it out, ponder it in spare moments, like in line at the bank, waiting for a program to finish archiving a course, or walking back and forth to the printer. Most of the time involved in creating a Dungeon Delve is here, and is transparent to the end-user. If you read a 5-word sentence, you don't realize how long it took me to decide that "But, I like it crunchy." was more true to the character, or funnier, than "Get him off my donkey!"
Eventually, it gels, and gets 'ruff drafted' when I type it out. Then smoothed into a fairly final form after I let it percolate in the brain for a night.
Then, whenever I finally get around to it, I gather the necessary figures, props, and settings and photograph it. The sets consist of cardboard boxes wrapped in shelf-paper. Black marble for the caves of the dungeons, white marble for the rooms in Castle Camelot (or other parts of superterranean civilization). Wood paneling shelf paper adds highlights here and there, and some backdrops have come from craft supplies sold for making photo albums.
To speed the download of a given page, I try to use the same picture as much as possible on a given page. I'm also basically lazy. Once the pic is downloaded, the viewer's computer can show it however many times is necessary. I find that I am not as visually-oriented as I thought I was, with humor. To me, most of the jokes are in the dialogue. So, if I use one picture of Lancelot for both "But, I like it crunchy." and also for "Get him off my donkey!" it doesn't matter to me.
This whole effort could never have worked if I didn't have a digital camera.
The need to take a dozen shots for every 'keeper' would be way out of budget
for a hobby. And I wouldn't be able to spend as much on the dolls…I mean
on the Action Figures. I have a Fujifilm DX-10, with a 16 MB memory card
purchased separately. The range of features includes Close Up and Standard.
I spend, I think, about five minutes on a shot. Maybe 10 for a tricky one.
I throw out the ones out of focus, or with the worst lighting, or that my
hand shook on (because I was in too much of a hurry, or too lazy to get the
camera stand).
Or, I don't throw them out, figuring they're 'good enough' (I did say I wasn't all that graphic oriented, right?) or it'd be too much effort to set up the shot again (Lazy? Did I mention lazy?)(I probably shouldn't mention the laziness, it'll prevent Lucas or Spielberg from hiring me away from all this free-time stupid stuff to make BIG SCREEN stupid stuff with BIG MONEY toys. Just as well, really, Gerry Anderson had a big problem in making the transition from puppets to SPACE 1999 because dolls just don't have attitudes or egos or unions…).
I have a bare-bones html blank page, that I drop the smoothed text into, and the pics. Upload, check links, make sure everything works. Usually a total of a couple of days effort to produce one, as interrupted by writer's block, business trips, a sale at the bookstore, scouting events, or general lack of motivation to scare up Arthur's sword.
