A LOVE STORY                                        Daniel Ibanez - James Smith

Page 1

Two scenes intersect, in a way. One, a scene of two lovers during an intimate session of love making. The other is a very cold and scientific scenario of machinery being put together. A laboratory perhaps, an assembly room.
Both scenes converge in their nature. Think of them as “foggy”. It’s not really clear what’s going on, which is supposed to be resolved as the story goes on. The reader should get this first sequence as they read on.
The love scene must play like a scene of passionate love making does in the real world. Dark and sweaty and foggy. Things are not so much seen as they’re felt. There are only glimpses perhaps.
On the other hand, in the laboratory robots are being built, but this fact should be only hinted at. It’s like watching something too closely, you can’t make out what it is you’re looking at. Certain flashes of the human form these androids are taking should be seen but not too clearly…like perhaps fingers and things that look like heads. Your call.

In fact this page is your call in its entirety, with the exception that there have to be an even number of panels. If you’re drawing 2 love scene panels, you must draw 2 robotic scene panels. I will say that the more the merrier :P The more panels you draw, being reasonable of course, the more it lends a sense of confusion. Love scene panels should be dark, Assembly panels should be light and sort of technological. The way I envision this technological aspect, it looks like that Bjork video with the lesbian robots or that scene in Ghost in the shell where she’s being put together. You probably have your own vision for this robotic look and go with yours if you want, or attempt to marry both visions.

By the last panels of each individual scene it should be ALMOST noticeable what’s going on in both…but not quite.

Page 2

Panel 1: The two lovers lie in bed naked as their intimacy session has wrapped up. Their individual looks are up to you, as well as the angle we’re seeing them and how covered up they are. You wanna keep it PG13 that’s fine, you wanna show us some skin, go with that.

Panel 2: Same scenario, possible change of angle to keep it interesting.

WOMAN: You know…the day we met. That wasn’t you right?
MAN: Nope…hologram
WOMAN: (smiling) No no i mean like…I don’t know, like it wasn’t the REAL you then. And not like a hologram but personality-wise.

Panel 3:

MAN: Like I was putting up one hell of a show? The kind that impresses no one?
WOMAN: (I think it’s very important that she has open mouth laughter on this one to drive across the point that, well…she’s not just chuckling, this is real laughter) HAHAHA YEAH!!! You were totally flirting with me!
MAN: (smirking with a hint of shame) Yeah it’s…like this uncontrollable urge I feel to sort of play the Marlon Brando with the motorcycle and the leather jacket version of me when I’m around a pretty girl.

Panel 4:

WOMAN:  Heh ok so that first time it was lame Brando all the way right? And I mean that could be YOU right there you know? But then we sorta became friends and you were totally different from that. And THEN…you like started becoming this guy that I just kept falling in love with.
MAN: but that first time I was full of shit, yeah

Page 3:

The two of them are slightly sitting up, the conversation’s getting interesting so they’re reacting through body language.

Panel 1:

WOMAN: So is that how it is with all the pretty girls?
MAN: Probably. It’s like my own little way of getting nervous as fuck, so when it’s all over I won’t remember a thing I said or did.

Panel 2:

WOMAN: The funny thing is the more we saw each other the less “nervous” you got, obviously, but you weren’t charming at all.

Man puts his hand in his heart with an exaggerated sort of pain/grin look in his face, he’s joking about being heart broken.

Panel 3: Woman gives him a peck in his cheek.

WOMAN: I just gave you a hell of a ride señor sensitive, so you must’ve gotten pretty damn charming later on. That wasn’t the point.
MAN: There was no chemistry between us that day we first met…and then when I turned the Flirtster off there was like…I would’ve slept with you obviously cause yer beautiful, but there was still no real chemistry, it was friendship chemistry.

Panel 4:

WOMAN: So what changed?
MAN: Well…one day you and I are sitting there talking and laughing our asses off and suddenly I look at you, right? Like really look at you…and you’re glowing. Like seriously your smile is a sight to behold, but this was the first time I noticed that. And I just felt like kissing you.

Panel 5: She smiles at him and looks him in the eye.

Panel 6: She’s staring up at us (the ceiling) with a sort of wondrous look, he’s staring at her

WOMAN: How can that be? How can two people like you and me who’re SO in love with eachother meet and…and not…see it? not know?

Page 4

This page is made up of long “widescreen” type panels to create a sense of setting change, this is the flashback sequence so it should look distinct. If you’ve decided to go with a black and white look for the story, the paneling technique should be enough, if you’re going with color, perhaps a change in hues would showcase the difference.

Man and Woman are talking, perhaps sitting down somewhere public, like a cafe. They’re surrounded by people because they’ve met due to a chance encounter of acquaintances they were individually and separately hanging out with, but none of the others should be drawn in detail…they must look like white noise would look like, just figures, shadows and silhouettes in the back. This is Man and Woman’s story and it should be kept that way, but it has to be understood that they’re among others.

  
Panel 1:

WOMAN: Ok so you just went and quit your job just like that? Like it’s nothing?
MAN: Well um, crudely put, yeah. But I mean it doesn’t make me happy, why should I put up with it?
WOMAN: First of all seems like you got a self-importance issue to resolve there. Second, that’s not what I mean.

Panel 2:

MAN: (smiling flirtatiously) carry on milady
WOMAN: what I mean is…it’s the fact that there’s people out there that would kill for the opportunities you had and a job like that, and it’s not about quitting because it makes you miserable, it’s like…the tone

Panel 3:

MAN: The tone…
WOMAN: Yeah. That “So I just walked up to my boss, out of the blue, and asked him in what stationary he’d like my resignation letter printed in” shit …like it’s nothing! It’s still a job, you know? It still pays your bills!

Panel 4:

WOMAN: And I can just SEE you standing in front of the mirror rehearsing that one thinkin` “this line’s wonna woo me a wench tonite, no doubt”
MAN: HAHAHAHAHA you got seriously worked up there pretty lady, want a hug?
You know I thought I was gonna go home unharmed tonight but you just beat the crap out’ve me!

Panel 5: A thinner panel that those above, we see them farther away, like the camera’s pulling off the scene, they’re both laughing and talking.

Page 5

Back to them lying in bed, she’s got her arm around his chest and they’re ready to turn off the lights and call it a night.

Panel 1:

WOMAN: (grinning) if that day someone had told my I was gonna end up “desiring you devilishly” I would’ve crapped my pants laughing.

MAN: With us I think it was like…like it got to the point when we really got to know each other well and knew a lot about each other and then suddenly we just…HAD to be together, like it was crazy not to.

Panel 2: They kiss…not a passionate kiss, but a sweet one.

WOMAN: I love you
MAN: I love you

Panel 3: Both lying there saying nothing, her eyes are open like she’s thinking…his are closed.

Panel 4: She starts talking, his eyes are open again, like he was falling asleep and she woke him up.

WOMAN: Sometimes I get this crazy feeling. Every time I think of that day…

Page 6

Panel 1: Wee see a set of robotic eyes…female eyes, the color that you chose for our Woman protagonist. They’re mimics of human eyes, they look dead, they’re staring at us.

WOMAN caption: I feel like…

Panel 2: Same description as above except they’re male eyes, the color you chose for our Man protagonist.

WOMAN caption: It’s crazy!

Panel 3: This is a big one, the biggest panel in the story, taking up most of the page. Back in the assembly room our couple is lying next to each other in a sort of doctor’s office bed surrounded by scientist hands and machines. They’re lying there in robot form…They should be recognizable but they should look robotic and dead, with their eyes wide open…the scientists are almost done putting them together, really few details are missing.

WOMAN caption: I feel like that day we met…like that wasn’t the day we met. Like I’d known you all my life.

CAPTION bottom: Fin