What makes people do what they do? What are they thinking? What do they want?
Put another way, what’s their motivation?
That’s a key question any good writer is going to answer before they set pen to paper on a story. When you figure out your characters, you’ve got to decide why they will behave as they do, what they’re goals are, etc. And there are both long term and short term considerations, i.e. what’s their long term goals vs. what they want in the next 5 minutes. And if you can’t answer why a character is behaving in a certain way, then something in the story just isn’t working.
These questions are something we, the writers, all hashed out for over 6 months, post after post, thread after thread, all trying to build the world of our Future War. And we had to figure it out for each character, or group of characters. Derek Reese wants to win the war for obvious reasons. Kyle Reese wants to protect the men under his command, because he sees himself as the paternal figure of a large family.
John Connor wants to restore Cameron. That’s a single sentence describing a mountain of a problem. John’s alone, friendless, in a post-apocalypse world he’s not fully prepared for. His family is gone, he’s looked at with suspicion, the life he wanted is lost. The only thing he has left, besides just fighting and surviving, is finding Cameron. And he’ll do whatever he has to accomplish this quest. Why?
Because he loves Cameron. That’s his motivation. But anyone who saw the series knows that already. John wouldn’t have traveled into the Future otherwise.
For myself, someone could look at what I’m doing and think I’m crazy. I’ve purchased a Screenwriter’s guide to write scripts and an expensive microphone to record voice lines. I’m part of a Non Profit Corporation for an entertainment production and I spent some of my hard earned money filing all the paperwork to create it. I network, blog, send emails, all for the purpose of bringing a fan production to life. And I’m doing it while finishing a Ph.D.
So why put myself through all this? Because I love the TV show. And because this story deserves an ending. Come hell or high water, we’re going to provide one.
But now, on to the News!
First, a couple of media images have now been uploaded. Our John Connor model is practically completed (just needs a little tweaking), as is our Kyle Reese model. We need the models rigged before we can animate, but the modeling and texturing is finished. Also, we’ve included a draft concept art image of The Paingiver. This is a Skynet heavy weapon which is crewed by a team of Skynet T-800′s, and it fires large plasma charges that can bring down tanks, HK’s, even buildings. You’ll get a look at this monstrosity in the very first episode.
Paingiver concept art by Terpcj
Second, we have 4 new members in our group. Ianraa is joining us as another modeler and texture mapper. Terpcj is joining us as a concept artist, in fact it’s his draft of the Paingiver that you’re looking at this month. Aelysian, yes the same Aelysian who helped run the SavetheSCC campaigns, is helping us out as a writer. Aztalanturf, another prominent SavetheSCC name many of you have heard of, is also helping us out with marketing and outreach (and is the reason we now have a Tumblr blog).
Which brings us to the third piece of news. I’ve already mentioned our new Tumblr blog, which will be updated much more frequently than this site. We’re also putting together a couple of audio advertisements. Why? Because we’re starting an outreach effort to advertise our presence around the web. This includes podcast advertisement and interviews like this one.
Finally, as usual we need all the help we can get for CGI. In particular, with 4 finished or nearly finished character models, we desperately need someone to rig these models in Blender. Also, we have all the models finished to actually animate a couple scenes between our John Connor and Allison Young/Cameron models, so any animators can jump right it and get to work. We still need someone for storyboard sequences too, and there are still some roles available for casting.
Stay tuned, gang, we’ll be back for another update next month!
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