Tag: CARGO 3120 marches on

Cargo 3120: The Making of a Sci-Fi Franchise #11

CARGO3120Entry 11 – Taking on the World Wide Web
by Aaron Walker Sr.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Story So Far starts HERE)

As I said last week, web design was never my thing. I felt I never had an eye for it, nor the patience to learn the process for that matter. But I knew I had to change by attitude toward this task or this was never going to work. That meant doing a ton of research.

We wanted a blog style site with the ability to show the latest webcomic page when a person first accesses the site. We planned to release one page per week, so we needed to be able to queue up content to release on a set schedule. read article

Cargo 3120: The Making of a Sci-Fi Franchise #10

CARGO3120Entry 10 – From Cargo to Cargo 3120: The Rise of the Webcomic
by Aaron Walker Sr.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Story So Far starts HERE)

After three years of writing classes, universe building and rewrites both minor and major, we were making good progress. We worked on everything from character profiles, to an ongoing series bible. We were going all in on this one, because we felt that Cargo was a story worth telling.

We knew going in that getting a pilot picked up by a major network was a longshot, so we had to find another way to build an audience. So the decision was made to tell our TV series as a webcomic called Cargo 3120 (the number representing the year in which the story takes place).  We planned to continue writing our episodes in the TV Script format, then convert those scripts in to comics. Simple, right? There was just one problem: none of us could draw! read article

Cargo 3120: The Making of a Sci-Fi Franchise #9

CARGO3120Entry 9 The Pains of Cutting…

by Aaron Walker Sr.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Story So Far starts HERE)

During the advanced class we ran into a serious problem that would take a considerable amount of time to fix. During the class I was told by my instructor words that no writer wants said of their hard work. So he tells me that all the while we had been working on this there was a nagging problem that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Then he tells me that he figured it out, but I wouldn’t like what comes next.

Without going into the gritty details, he said that he didn’t care about the main character or his story. The worst part? Correcting the problem would involve a major rewrite. We had to rebuild the main character from what I had on paper, to the powerful lead that I had in my mind, because what you have in your head must resonate on paper. read article

Cargo 3120: The Making of a Sci-Fi Franchise #8

CARGO3120Entry 8 The Pains of Cutting…

by Aaron Walker Sr.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Story So Far starts HERE)

Though we were able to reduce a grotesquely overwritten script from 117 pages to 90 in the first advanced class, there was still work to be done in the realm of overall story structure. I believe one of the most difficult creative writing skills to master is the ability to know what to put in, and what to leave out of the story. We tend to want to cram all of the ideas floating in our head onto the paper, but in doing so the story as a whole has the potential to suffer.

In the second advanced writing class we continued cutting and refining. But cutting was the hardest part.  As writers, I think we all tend to grow attached to the scenes we write. When inevitably tasked with revising or removing one or more of those beloved scenes, we feel like we’re removing a part of ourselves. That’s what happened when I had to remove an entire scene that I was absolutely certain needed to remain. But it pays to listen to those who have more experience than ourselves. read article

Cargo 3120: The Making of a Sci-Fi Franchise #7

CARGO3120Entry 7 On to the Advanced Class

by Aaron Walker Sr.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Story So Far starts HERE)

One thing the writing class experience taught me was the importance of planning before you write. A little preparation in the beginning helps to prevent writer’s block later. But as I mentioned last week, my failure to plan made the revision process difficult.

The first task Daymond, Lloyd Walker Jr. (our artist! and an outstanding one!), and I embarked upon was to go through the script and get rid of any extraneous scenes. You know, those scenes that are kind of just there, but don’t really propel the story forward. And believe me, there were a lot of unnecessary scenes to remove. read article