Tyler Gibb – Writer, Director, Editor, Filmmaker

It’s up.

And, in case you hadn’t noticed, things are a little brighter around this little weblog nook of the site as well.

I wanted a bit more of a resumé type of landing page for the ol’ homestead. There’s still life in those old moving drawings, I reckon, and I’m hoping one day something can be made of them.

Also, I’m sure you’ll notice, there’s a bit more Mankind action up there as this project has sort of moved to the forefront around here. Lots more on that soon, including an answer to the question: Did you actually make a trailer for a comic book?

If you spot any glitches in the new design, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

With my weight poised behind Mankind I’ve decided it might be good to spiff up these digs. So I’ve been working on a new TylerGibb.com website. And by website I mean splash page which is essentially all this site amounts to. Well, and this blog thing. I suppose I’ll have to spiff this area up a bit too. It’s kind of dark in here.

Normally whenever I apply my web coding to a new webpage on my Mac then I can expect a certain amount of discrepansies when viewing the design on a PC. However, this new design prompted no cross-platform errors!

It’s the little victories.

The new web environs will be up in August.

You’re busy, right? You’ve got a lot on your plate. So if you had to choose, would you rather read a 90 page script or check out a full colour comic book?

Exactly.

I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire these days. That’s writer-speak for having a lot of scripts lying in a lot of inboxes waiting on a lot of producers (assistants) to do the unspeakable and actually read an original story.

And that’s all well and good. But I’m not a wait by the phone type of guy. I like to actually do things. Create things. New things. But after a while – a dozen screenplays in three years or so, as it turns out – you kind of get tired of pushing the same boulder up the same hill. And after pushing the most recent boulder up the most recent hill I sort of got to thinking; maybe I’ll try something different. Maybe I’ll experiment a little.

Now a screenplay is a screenplay. You can’t really mess with the format. It’s the blueprint to make a film. But what good is that little blueprint if it’s sitting in some inbox somewhere being avoided by a neophobic executive? Short of it being an adaptation that brings with it a built-in track record, there’s nothing that sets one screenplay apart from the next, except the pitch.

I’ve already relayed the power of the visual presentation in a previous post and that was really where I started when thinking about what to do about a project called Mankind.

Mankind is a genre script. Post-apocalyptic / zombie-but-not-really sort of thing with a unique spin. It’s the kind of visceral material that begs to be more than just words on a page.

After considering illustrations I started thinking about storyboarding some key scenes. Anything that could exploit the visual cortex of film executives rather than trying to get them to read. Then I figured, if I’m going to do storyboards, I may as well make them nice. Add colour… Dialogue… By the end of the thought process I’d turned Mankind the screenplay into Mankind the six part graphic novel.

I get carried away, gimme a break; it’s why I’m good at what I do.

So what is Mankind? It’s all of the above. And I want to share it with you. What’s the point in making a bunch of cool stuff if I’m not going to put it out there. Like the good old days.

And I’m going to do more with these social media tooly things too. To the best of my abilities anyway. That’s the long and the short of it. So unless you have an aversion to horror, disease, the apocalypse, rampant killing, rape, cannibalism, arson, guns, knives, explosions, diesel engines, inter-racial lesbian pregnancy, sex-toys, gallows humour, full frontal male nudity or chicks in bikinis then by all means: Friend, fan, follow; do whatever it is you do to get strapped in…

The journey of Mankind begins now.

Ah, memories…

Apropos of nothing tonight I was browsing some old cartoons and games – or etoys, as I used to call them – of mine. I don’t really do a lot of web browsing, least of all on my own sites or pages of mine on other sites but sometimes, when the mood strikes me, I do a little recon. If for nothing else than to see what kind of praise and abuse the huddled masses of the internet have had to shell out while my back’s been turned.

I was surprised to find that one particular good ol’ “interactive” cartoon had well surpassed two million views on Newgrounds.com, a stunning repository for the planets flash-based animation and then some. There were over 140 pages of comments. I, myself, never had the savvy to install comments forms on my own site, Boneland.com, so this was quite a discovery. I just spent half an hour busting a gut laughing at people’s reactions to the piece which I authored ten years ago now.

It’s masked as a parody for the old kids game Operation but it’s really a Halloween prank I cooked up for fans of Boneland back in the day. These types of pranks are old news now but back then, it was a good – if not novel – gag. If you want to check it out, click here, but please don’t “play” the game if you’ve got a weak heart and/or bladder.

Ten years ago.

What got me laughing about the hundreds of comments I was reading was the simple knowledge that for a very short moment, I’d reached these people. Sure, it’s a one-off cheap shot that either makes the viewer hate “the author” instantly or makes them fall out of their chair laughing (usually at themselves, which is great) but it’s the essential truth behind what I – and everyone afflicted with the same condition as myself – try to do with every word I write; every pixel I maneuver. It’s a reaction. It’s a connection. And it’s been out there doing it’s thing, on its own, for ten years. Chances are it will go on doing it for years to come. It may never die.

Unless Milton Bradley find out or the game gives someone a massive coronary – then I suppose I’ll get sued – but the point is: Connection.

I’m fortunate to have had and to continue to have that kind of “success”. It’s easy to forget that sometimes when you’re busy striving for the next reaction; the next connection. It’s good. It’s fuel. It’s life.

… My next post will feature a new project I’ve been working on. I promise.