TV, Sequential Art, and Scripting

A series of serendipitous events inspired me to post something earlier this week, but I've been so torn as to exactly where to post it that I've kept from doing so. But like any good idea, it has refused to go away and I've thought about it at least once a day since it occurred to me, so I figured I'd go on and lay it out real quick:

I was reading the past two months' Daredevil because last month started a new 5-issue arc and I was going to wait until I got all 5 issues and read them all back-to-back (I'm not a great fan of antici...), but DD is such a great read that when I couldn't sleep, I went on and read the two I already have. And about halfway through, the pacing comes to a complete halt as we hit an exterior wideshot, where a new scene is initiated, changing the tone and signaling the beginning of the story itself - the real start of the first act, basically. (...pation.)

It was so well executed that I wanted to bring it up and discuss the whole thing - pacing, setting, changing locations, initiating new scenes - everything that made it so successful. The TV was on and I don't remember what I was watching, but when I looked up, they used the same technique! And I had been thinking that I was going to mention that the way it is used in comics is the same way it's used in television already. When I saw that, I started wondering if the idea would be better served here or over to Weird Ink.

Then I read a friend's blog, where he was going-off about how he basically thought himself superior to those of us who watch TV because he didn't get into the whole American Idol or Dancing with the Stars routine, etc., etc. And I hear this sort of shit a lot - a lot. While he was being somewhat humorous about the whole thing, you could tell that he truly believed what he was saying, and a lot of self-proclaimed intellectuals feel similarly. I really wanted to respond that, excepting the reality TV shows (for which he reserved the brunt of his loathing), these shows were scripted, too! Someone had to write these shows in order for them to be made, so was he then discounting the relevance of the written script? Or dismissing acting, directing, or any of the other creative posts TV employs in its production? But, again, he was mainly cheesing on the reality TV phenomena and I tend to agree that it's beneath most thinking people.

ANYway, film - both movies and TV - are just as much sequential in nature as comics and animation, and just like those mediums, it depends on how well it's done as to whether or not one calls it "Art." Still, when it comes to scripting, and working from a script (whether as an actor, director, illustrator, or what have you), the methods are the same.

Having gotten that out of the way, then surf on over to Weird Ink, where I explain the Establishing Shot and how it works in sequential art.