User:Singularity/sandbox

drafting 'Til all are one section for Live-Action as there's no live-action section, and the words are said in a theater for the first time in thirty-seven years soooo
also drafting the director's commentary for Transformers (2023) issue 2 even though i have no time to transcribe an hour of director's commentary. although... part of the stream was just Daniel struggling with his internet speed as his wife and daughter used the bandwith to watch Kids Great British Bakeoff lol

Live-action film series

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According to Optimus Prime, there is a belief on Cybertron that the battle against the forces of darkness will continue "'til all are one."

After his distrust of humans led to Scourge taking the two halves of the Transwarp Key to bring Unicron to Earth, Optimus went to apologize to Noah for his mistake. Consoling Noah as he helplessly watched Scourge activate the Key at a distant volcano, Optimus admitted his eons of fighting the Great War led to him losing sight of his belief, as instead of fighting the darkness together with Noah, the two of them have been fighting the darkness independently on their own, creating their distrust. Spurred by his words, Noah resolved to keep fighting, drawing battle plans with Optimus Prime to go against Scourge and the Terrorcons.

When the Transwarp Bridge's control panel was destroyed by Scourge in a last resort attempt to ensure Unicron could go to Earth through the Transwarp portal, Optimus Prime realized the only way to close the portal to sacrifice himself to destroy the Transwarp key. Not wanting his allies to be injured when the Key's destruction causes the rest of the Transwarp Bridge to be destroyed, he had the Autobots and Maximals to a safe distance, imploring Bumblebee to take Noah and Elena to protect them. Although he initially went along with Bumblebee, Noah doubled back as the Transwarp Bridge fell apart to help Optimus, attempting to hold him down as the collapsing Transwarp portal began to pull everything through it, including Optimus. Prime ordered Noah to let go and to save himself, but Noah refused, shouting "'Til all are one!" as he used Mirage in exo-suit mode to try and pull Optimus Prime away from the area. However, as Optimus Prime lost his grip and again was about to be pulled into the portal, Optimus Primal caught his wrist and repeated the "'Til all are one" mantra, pulling him to safety as the three left the volcano.Rise of the Beasts

Storytelling notes from Issue 1

I'm just temporarily leaving this here as a reference/template for my own storytelling notes from Issue 2.

As both writer and artist on this Transformers series, Daniel Warren Johnson has a rare level of creative freedom while composing the issue and using the art to tell the story. Some of these creative choices were covered in a "director's commentary" livestream on his YouTube channel; key insights are reproduced here alongside our own analysis of the issue.

• DWJ keeps a copy of Magic Square's "Light of Peace" figure close at hand, which influences his take on Optimus Prime. He notes that he specifically avoids having Prime's "boots" flare out at all; he tries to draw them perfectly straight.
• His primary Transformers comics influence comes from Marvel Comics and Dreamwave Productions. In the case of the latter, we'll note that their opening miniseries prominently featured the Ark II disaster which drew heavily from the real-world Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
• The first page of the story consists of five vertically-stacked cinematic landscape panels, with Sparkplug's flashbacks interspersed by a panel of the Ark crashing and of Prime's deactivated body. This gives us an idea of what's been going through Sparkplug's mind at the bar. In particular, the panel of Optimus Prime is bookended by Spike's offscreen dialogue getting his dad's attention; Prime is often positioned as something of a father figure in wider pop culture.
  • At Hasbro's request, DWJ avoided being too specific as to the conflict being shown.
  • DWJ wanted to streamline the Ark's design to have just three rear thrusters, but Hasbro insisted on it having five, necessitating the digital addition of two more to the later splash page of the ship's engines.
• The second page aims to bring the story into reality, with much more detailed panels of varying shapes and sizes, and a muted earthen color palette.
  • DWJ took reference from several different VFW bars to arrive at the location seen in the comic.
  • As Spike and Sparkplug exit, the cluttered interior gives way to the orange evening sky, with the generous negative space often physically separating Spike from his distant father.
  • DWJ notes that the final panel of this spread is technically wrong; based on the perspective of the scene, Spike should be sinking into the ground. This was necessary so as not to obscure Carly's van, which is the same model of vehicle that appears in DWJ's previous original comic series Murder Falcon. Mike Spicer has coloured the van using blue-pink tones, strongly contrasting with the orange otherwise dominating the spread. As we turn the page, these nighttime hues take over the story, marking the beginning of a transition towards the unreal.
• The mountain landscape was drawn to resemble that of an alien planet, to highlight the feeling of "otherworldliness".
• As the earthquake begins, we get the first instance of hand-lettered sound effects, drawn into the lineart by DWJ. These appear more prominently and frequently as we transition towards comic-book action.

Diagram illustrating DWJ's intended flow for the back-to-back splash pages.

• The reveal of the Ark is paired across the two-page spread with another splash page of the deactivated Autobots. DWJ hoped to create a seamless transition, with the reader's gaze travelling down towards the inset panels at the bottom left, then following Spike and Carly across to the right, before travelling up into the scene. Mike Spicer's coloring (exaggerated in the diagram on the right) again reinforces this intent, with the blue shade of the rocks at the bottom of the right-hand page carrying over from the left-hand page.
  • Meanwhile, all of the lines of perspective inside the room point outside, where a tiny Jetfire can be seen approaching.
• Jetfire is one of Robert Kirkman's favorite Transformers, and his role in this series came entirely from Robert Kirkman's broad-strokes outline.
• The shock death of Bumblebee was a deliberate choice, as DWJ felt like audiences would be getting a little tired of seeing Bumblebee everywhere. Surprisingly, Hasbro felt the same way, and themselves asked if there was a way to write Bumblebee out of the series! DWJ also apparently doesn't enjoy drawing Bumblebee, which informed the decision, which perhaps doesn't bode too well for Cliffjumper!
• When Starscream turns on Jetfire, DWJ struggled to get the composition exactly right, as he was limited by the need to make it explicitly clear that Jetfire was gravely wounded.
• Prime uses several wrestling moves on Starscream; DWJ had previously created the original comic series Do A Powerbomb!, which had a central theme of loss—a motif which recurs throughout this first Transformers issue.
• As Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker look identical in black-and-white, DWJ labels them in his lineart so colorist Mike Spicer can easily distinguish.
• Prime instinctively knowing about his trailer, and its sudden appearance in the story, is a riff on classic media where Prime's trailer would often appear and disappear out of nowhere per the needs of the story.
• As Prime's face is uniquely inexpressive, DWJ had to get creative to show his emotions to the reader, relying a lot on the character's eyes. Additionally, he tries to channel Prime's feelings through Spike. When Spike sees Prime kneeling over Bumblebee's body, it seems that he recognises the grief this alien robot is experiencing.
• Amongst the many creative sound effects in this sequence, we have highlights like "GRAPPLE" and "ROLL" accompanying the action. Clicks and buzzes fill the air together with the floating components as the Transformers are reassembled.
• DWJ contrived the situation where Spike and Carly need to push Prime's gun into his reach as a way of giving the human characters agency during the action sequence. The "SKRKK" sound effect of the gun scraping along the floor is drawn to follow the lines of action.
• When Prime gives the order to "Transform and roll out!", the entire comic shifts to a landscape orientation, requiring you to physically turn the comic in your hands. This is awesome.
• Ratchet's updated alternate mode came simply from a dissatisfaction with his classic Nissan look.
• DWJ was keen to develop the Decepticons beyond their classic cartoonishly-evil characterisation, with a key example in this issue being Soundwave's clear concern for the injured Ravage.
• For Davey's gruesome death at the hand of Starscream, Hasbro requested it occur off-panel. The beat was intended to clearly set the stakes of the comic without being egregiously gory, and seems to mark a major turning point for Sparkplug.

Storytelling notes from Issue 2

I'm just temporarily leaving this here as a template for my own storytelling notes from Issue 2.

As with the previous issue, with his role as both artist and writer for this new Transformers series Daniel Warren Johnson took time to host a "director's commentary" livestream on his YouTube channel to cover some of the creative choices for this issue; key insights are reproduced here alongside our own analysis of the issue.

• Iron Giant connection confirmed
• At first Hasbro first okayed the deer scene, then they started backtracking it. Hasbro was nervous with the deer since they worried it may be misinterpreted as a dark joke. Editor wanted to try a squirrel to tone down the scene, but Daniel fought for it.
• First page was made to invoke rumination with the nature panels
• Daniel used a dinner plate to draw Cybertron's outline
• Beachcomber is one of his favorites, and he "seemingly dies" on the page. He can't say more about that.
• Carly having an airbrush was a way to give her more personality and to give a reason to why Laserbeak chases a heavy metal van
• Daniel will not confirm if the police cars are actually Prowl or not. "maybe in issue 20 maybe never idk" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ however the un-inked page of Sparkplug driving away from Skywarp and Soundwave as Frosting's F-18D falls out of the sky has the car with a "Prowl" license plate. Hmmmm....
• It was meant to be Skywarp crushing the cop but Mike miscolored him as Starscream by mistake. They kept it because it's in character.
• Frosting is using an F-18D as Daniel is a fan of the movie Independence Day.