FMP Production Log

FMPBRAINSTORM

Graphic Novel/Comic Book,Set in medieval times focus on a hunting story or a scouting mission

Set of comic strips over a series of newspapers or magazines

Electronic comic strip released online over a period of weeks o months

Graphic Novel set in the early 1900’s focusing on a jazz singer of importance before their fame or rising to their fame

3D model of a 1900’s jazz club environment

Adobe Illustration of a series of old fashioned 1900’s posters displaying jazz music and blues instruments to be shown in music stores to either attract jazz fans or increase peoples interest in jazz and blues.

3D model of an idea for a new style of jazz club set in town

For my Final Major Project I settled on the idea of creating a graphic novel based the iconic jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald.

The main reason I chose this as my final idea is because I enjoy listening to soul and jazz music and already knew a lot about the subject beforehand, so I knew I would understand the characters and the time and age.

I focused on Ella Fitzgerald because she is my favourite jazz singer, and the most relatable for me. I decided to include other jazz singers who would make guest appearances or be more involved in the actual plot like Nina Simone, Ethel Waters and Nat King Cole.

Settling on an Idea

Gathering Research

For my research I went into Manchester Town and entered a few different stores that sold comics and graphic novels and merchandise like that.

I took previously written up questionnaires and asked as many people as I could about their preferences to Graphic Novels genre, make and style, and their purpose of being in the store on that day. I got more than ten responses, including one from the store owner.

Ideas Generation, using research collected

From handing out my questionnaires I have discovered that the majority of comic and graphic novel fans prefer hardback books to any other kind, and would be interested in my idea.

Therefore I have decided to continue working with my black hardback sketchbook for the Graphic novel and with the general idea of Ella Fitzgerald’s rise to fame.

Qualitative and Quantitative ResearchForums and Polls,

On carrying out my different types of research (qualitative and quantitative) I went online to look at statistics of the best sold kind of graphic novels over the past few years and the best sold genre and type. This was to get a general overlook of the preferences of the community as a whole rather than a close inquiry of specific people’s preferences.I also looked at numerous comics and graphic novel forums and polls to witness the overall outlook of the specific audience of people.

Carrying out visual research

Visiting Manchester Art Gallery and Dawson’s Music Store

To carry out extra research I visited Manchester Art Museum and the Dawson’s music store to look at 1900’s work more closely. I found quite a few pieces from the early 1900’s time frame and photographed them including furniture and place settings.

When I visited Dawson’s music store to look for brass instruments such as saxophones and trumpets that would have been played back in the 1920’s time. Unfortunately they didn’t have anything that matched what I was looking for in stock and only had lyrics and note books on jazz music so I went online instead when I returned home and collected images from their website of old fashioned types of saxophones and trumpets and uploaded them onto my blog.

Storyline and Character List

The main focus of the project is the storyline as it is essentially a novel. I would create the project by first creating the rough outline of what would happen, usually by using bullet points to convey the story in small parts from the beginning to the end, and then read over it and check it to make sure that it flowed well. The bullet points therefore provide structure to the project, the basic shell of the idea if you will.

I would specifically focus on Ella Fitzgerald's’ life and biography. This would give me a clear idea of what happened in her early life so I could use the general scenarios in my novel so it appears if only a little realistic and follows most truths of her life. I would be respectful above all else and show her in a good light so as not to offend anyone, but also because she has been a idol to both me and my grandmother.

I would hopefully create unique and interesting characters with a story of their own and their own personality, without veering from the original concept of following Ella.

The title ‘Hollow Queen’ came to me because Ella Fitzgerald was originally the Queen of Jazz. I decided on the title because I already had an idea of how I could put a fantastical twist into the storyline to add intrigue. I was thinking that I could add the fictional idea of a temptation which offered her fame and wealth such as a underhand, back street voodoo character, or demons of some sort beckoning her to accept a deal for glory. This was mainly because when she was younger she went through a very difficult time which made her vulnerable and unpredictable, including the death of her mother Tempie and her boyfriend Joe, being sent to a rehabilitation school , being beaten and living rough.