Dragon Garage genesis part un

The pitch doc cover, in a 'clear line' (if wibbly wobbly) style. People thought it was dated.

Dragon Garage evolved over more than a decade; it started out as one of a cluster of ideas I came up with after doing my first graphic novel, Nil: A Land Beyond Belief. Rex Libris, Warlord of Io and Rebel Angels (in very different proto-form) were also part of this batch. I picked Rex as an antidote to Nil, and the serialized comic book ran for 13 bonkers issues.

It took me years to work out an acceptable vector style for Warlord of Io. For Dragon Garage, I didn't think a digital look would work at all: it would have to be hand drawn.

I tried a couple goes at it, using a linear look, but the style was deemed 'old and dated', so I abandoned the effort. 

Instead, I pitched it as a TV show. 

By this time, I'd had a couple Hollywood options and made some contacts. I collaborated with them on some projects, and they were asking for more ideas, so I pulled out the pile in my ideas drawer. I later collaborated with an actress/writer in Berlin on a number of television concepts, which we put to studios like Sony and Disney.

Nothing substantial came of that, naturally. It's incredibly difficult for outsiders to break into the business. Writers mostly do spec scripts to get picked up by existing shows, and get a seat at a preexisting writer's room table. Comics are optioned often from highly successful series, but any film or show coming out of that will be written by seasoned professionals, not the person who originally came up with the idea. 

You have to be exceptionally talented, successful and skilled to bridge that gap.And / or a self starter. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are all four of the above: they did an animated short holiday card for George Clooney (it's hilarious, look it up), and out of that was born South Park. They've not looked back since. They proved themselves in the medium by doing. No one wants to make a leap-of-faith on talent if there's a solid, proven bridge right beside it. 

I am nowhere near that level, but it's something to aspire to. 

Wreathed in a comforting blanket of (relative) ignorance, I made a pitch doc for Dragon Garage, and a pilot script. I workshopped it in a screenwriting class. Incorporating feedback proved a major stumbling block: good scripts are incredibly tight, and everything is connected. Pull one string, and the whole story can unravel into an unsightly pile of knots. That's a hazard you face when trying to shove new or revised material in.

I also ran it by working industry professionals. Their feedback was the same: the set up took too long, and there wasn't enough action (among other things). You have ten minutes tops to hook the viewer, likely less, and if you don't, they'll just flip to another of hundreds of streaming options. 

This is one reason why I think Game of Thrones started out with a massacre by the White Walkers. That was the hook. The mystery of the albino ice goons intrigued me far more than the Stark kids practicing archery in the mud.

Yet as a novice, I found it hard to incorporate the changes. It went from (what I saw) as a lean and clean script to bumpy and messy. Changes cascaded through scenes, and every time I looked, I realized there was more that needed to be adjusted.

As far as interest in the idea, there was a nibble, and then... nothing. Which is the default, expected result when you aim for the sky.

But there are other mediums out there...