Producer's Commentary: Dicks Season 8
I made a few changes to the series as a whole with this season. The biggest one was the end credits. In addition to shortening them, which provided one more precious second to story time (now up to 48 from 47), I used different music. I thought the original music was too harsh, so I went with a lighter bit drawn from the opening music.
I also took the opportunity to make fun of a trend in television programs these days where they compress all of the credits into just a couple of seconds, with each page of text appearing on screen for just a few frames. It simultaneously satisfies contractual obligations and provides more time for advertising. It's also bloody annoying. Step through mine one frame at a time for a few chuckles.
Other changes mostly involve artwork. I got tired of the torturous process of lip-syncing, so I re-rendered the character's facial art and organized it all to make it nearly painless. In the process, I improved the art so as to articulate mouth shapes better for much-improved visual effects. This in turn became important this season because a number of episodes are quite emotionally-driven, and selling emotional stuff requires better facial articulation. I also created some new background art just to break from the old flat views of the trailers.
I permitted myself two indulgences this season: first, I ascended my soapbox a few times and used Paul to express some deep resentments I have toward humankind. And second, I got down to business with the relationship between Dot and Ping. I figured I'd be long dead before it was dealt with had I stuck to just one or two episodes per season, so I went full-on soap opera and let it run for nearly half of the season.
"The Hand of Man" Parts 1 and 2 were conceived some time ago, and I just waited until it felt like the
right time to go down this road. After having dealt with a killer tornado and monstrous aliens from outer space,
it seemed the perfect opportunity to unleash the Dicks' biggest threat: mankind. It is very much a personal statement,
a takedown of humanity and its unrelenting, arrogant press onward to assault the planet.
I've had to reign in my true feelings, however, lest the series become a vehicle for a manifesto condemning mankind. And so I've tried to keep things somewhat light by making a bunch of dick jokes, hence the revised map of the property. I hope it's enough that viewers aren't turned off by where the series is going. Not that I really care...
"The Hand of Man" Part 2 picks up exactly where Part 1 left off. Here I unleashed my contempt
for mankind through Paul, allowing him to express my feelings quite plainly. As I wrote the script, it
occurred to me to introduce the idea of Dick's merger with Ed's as a way to once again lighten the mood
with some bad dick jokes, this time delivered by Carl as only he can. However, I felt he was being
somewhat disrespectful of the plight of Ed's residents, which is why I had Dot smack him at the very end.
I have weekly dinner guests, who have become fans of the series, and so I use them as my "test
audience" before I post the videos online. They loved this one.
"Trust" came about almost by accident. I'd wanted to explore the relationship between Paul and
Sam some more, so I just started writing, with no idea of where I'd take it until I had some dialog down.
This is a fascinating process, because what emerges from the keyboard can sometimes be quite surprising.
In this case, given that the community had voted to expand and absorb Ed's, I had an opportunity to express
more of my philosophical musings through Paul, in particular his objection to being stuck where he was,
so his brief soliloquy on trees became my sermon for the day.
But how did Paul end up where he was? The notion of him having been conned out of his life savings by "friends" (which follows very vaguely on a situation of my own) created the perfect circumstance to explain one big reason why Paul "hates everybody," as he's said repeatedly from the very beginning of the series, and Sam then unfortunately became a target of his mistrust. But in the end, perhaps realizing that it's become too late in life to cling to that mistrust, Paul relents, and keeps Sam from bailing out on him.
In the end, I wound up with a pretty solid episode, which was a surprise considering that I had no clue what it was going to be about when I sat down to write it.
Having been in marketing for much of my professional life, "Marketing" was a breeze to write,
and much of the lingo used in the profession was ripe for humor, some of it entirely surreptitious:
I'd not invented Ed's Retirement Trailer Park with this episode in mind; it was merely a happy accident.
But once I realized the opportunities it presented, I wasted no time exploiting them. In particular, merging
the two names to make "Dicked" was pure gold, and my "test audience" laughed themselves
silly. I love it when that happens.
Technically the sharp eye should recognize Rohan Getsaround (from the marketing firm Waddiawant) as the TV announcer in "It's Looking Really Bad Out There." Yeah, I got lazy; I didn't feel like going through another round of character design for yet another throwaway character, so I just recycled Rohan. All I needed to do was make a body for him. Thus Glen's line, "Wait, don't I know you from somewhere?" In the end, I felt quite satisfied for having gone down this road, especially as Rohan turned out to be quite fun, especially when he gets into the minutia of marketing.
"Prepare for Reentry" is an extension of "Marketing
because I'd not run out of jokes. This time I really cut loose with the double entendres, and
permitted myself the kick of milking them for all they were worth. Poor Rohan obviously has no
clue what a retirement trailer park is all about, and his presentation devolves into a strip show.
The dance sequence at the end was nearly two days of work. Stepping through the sequence one frame at a time reveals what went into it, which was quite a lot: dancing girls, lasers, disco lights, strobes, and floating 3D lettering... way more detail than most people will catch after just one viewing. For instance, if you pay close attention to Rohan when the show starts, he's in the background dancing (out of time) with the music. The intent was to overwhelm the viewer in the same way our poor residents would have been.
Following right on the heels of the disastrous marketing pitch comes "Concerns," my
admittedly awkward transition to more serious matters. For some time I've been hinting at the
potential romance between Dot and Ping, and I decided it was time to tackle this elephant in the room.
I've been gently tap-dancing around the subject for fear of the series becoming too "soapy,"
but it could have taken too many seasons if I stuck to just one or two episodes at a time. May as well
just dive into it. This episode is all setup: establish that Glen has a vague idea of what's going on
between Dot and Ping.
The sharp-eyed viewer may notice a brand new background: a gently curved street lined with trailers on both sides. I'd honestly grown tired of the flat, side-on view, and thought this might make a refreshing change. This episode also marks the point when I'd fully transitioned into "third generation" character art, all freshly-rendered and organized to make my life easier. In particular, lip-syncing has always been a royal PITA, and now it's much easier. As a consequence, the lip-syncing is more accurate and articulated. I felt this was necessary in order to sell the emotionally deep subject matter to come.
"Honestly" (note: not "Honesty") allowed me to patch a minor plot hole from
the prior couple of seasons, where Ping was entirely absent. I simply ran out of time to try and
explain her disappearance. Ostensibly she was away on vacation; in reality, she was in rehab for
alcohol abuse. I turned this liability into a benefit by rolling it into a heart-to-heart between
Dot and Glen, wherein she confesses her relationship with Ping, but also reiterates her love of
Glen as well. Glen surprises her by being totally okay with this three-way.
I know there will be people out there lining up to accuse me of going "woke," but that's not the case at all. Such polyamorous relationships have been around since dirt, so the anti-wokers really should get a freaking life.
Time for Dot to pay the piper, and come clean with Ping about telling Glen. This episode demanded
a lot of breathing room: there had to be enough space for the emotional beats to sink in. And so
there are probably more long pauses in "Red Sun at Morning" than most any other episode.
I was astounded by the voice acting. I'd not thought it possible to get Ping's voice to crack the way it does, especially since Voicemaker doesn't provide all of the intricate controls for every voice. So I spent a fair bit of time tweaking it as best I could; the results far exceeded expectations. Indeed, the first time I played the sequence with the finished lip-syncing, I cried. And the sequence with Dot silently sobbing outside as Ping unloaded on her dishes was likewise heartbreaking once fully animated.
About the title: "Red Sun at Morning" is an old sailor's proverb: Red sun at morning, sailor's warning. Red sun at night, sailor's delight. There's actually some truth to this, as the color of the sun is affected by atmospheric conditions, and such conditions affect sailing. I had no title for this episode until one evening when, as I set about my usual routine of pulling the blinds at night, I noticed the sun was a great orange ball, and the old proverb came to mind. It was especially appropriate since it provided the title for the episode to follow, where things began to turn around.
"Red Sun At Night" is not exactly the mirror of the prior episode, but it does mark a
turning point when things just start turning positive; it's also a setup for the face-to-face between
Dot and Ping. I wanted to lighten the overall mood, so I allowed the residents to get all snarky
with Ping over yet another meeting about the park. Their speculations were quite a lot of fun to
write; indeed, I drafted many more than there was time for on screen.
Hands-down this episode was a new watermark for challenges. Everything had to be perfect in order for
it to work. The dialog, as well as its timing, was the first of five crucial elements. I must have
rewritten it a half-dozen times before I had what I thought was something close to right, and then
continued revising it as I assembled the episode, right up to and including the final cut.
Next was blocking: how to set up character placement, and get them from points A to points B in a believable manner that worked with the dialog. This was easily the toughest thing to do, since my characters can't walk, and I wasn't going to invest in the ton of art required to make that happen. Not to mention that it would be a visual distraction since it would break the series style. I tried just straight cuts, but they were awkward and jarring, so I went with my usual trick of wriggling the static art around on the screen. This time it had to be done with exceptional care; however, since animating speaking characters is a technical nightmare, I only move them from behind. And after a few days of tedious revisions, I finally had the movements down. Dot starts moving toward Ping, very slowly and hesitantly, until she reaches the corner of the table, which I used as a symbol of the emotional obstacle between them. With Dot having met Ping halfway, Ping then takes over, moving in on Dot relatively quickly, and setting them up for the kiss.
And oh, that kiss... I actually animated it first, because if I couldn't nail it, I wouldn't bother with it, and just have it happen off-screen. I'm really glad I could make it work, because it creates the perfect emotional punctuation mark.
Crucial element number three was the characters' "performances," such as they were. There's only just so much I can do with primitive cartoon faces, so I allowed their expressions to remain neutral, and relied on their eyes to communicate their feelings. Moments of eye contact, glances away, stares down, tiny eye darts, all needed to be just right. I created a number of new eye expressions just for this episode, and "rehearsed" them endlessly.
Fourth in the crucial element list is a combination of photography and editing: when to have wide shots, close-ups, over-the-shoulders, etcetera, as well as when to cut between them. I followed the tradition of using the camera angles and pacing to establish the emotional gulf of space between Dot and Ping, and then gradually bring them closer. I'm pretty sure I spent more time on this for this episode than any before.
But the fifth crucial element was not even planned, and only entered the equation after I'd pretty much wrapped the episode. I was watching it over and over, as I usually do, looking for ways to improve it. I felt that I'd nailed pretty much everything, but the final effect just felt "dry," for lack of a better word. Then an idea flicked into my mind: what about adding music? This was perhaps one of the most emotionally-driven episodes I'd created to date, yet I wasn't being moved by it. I dug into some music I'd created as a faux movie soundtrack, and the first track that popped up was a beautiful piano piece, a simple, gentle little melody ripe with introspection, hope, love and longing. Not only was it emotionally perfect for the episode, it was also the right length, hitting its marks in time with the beats of the visuals. It was as if I'd made the track just for this episode!
Music was something I'd never explored before, mostly because short videos such as these lack the time for such a detail. But this episode was just begging for it, and I knew it was the right thing to do, because the moment I laid the music track in and played the episode, I broke out in tears. In fact, I still get choked up every time I watch it.
Having said all of this, I realize too that music doesn't necessarily work everywhere. For instance, I went back and looked at "Red Sun at Morning," and imagined music in it. And immediately realized it would not have worked. To have music playing when Ping tells Dot to leave would have destroyed the moment: silence can sometimes be far more powerful. So whether or not I ever use music again is a good question; it will depend entirely on the circumstances. This was one of those rare moments when it was exactly the right thing to do.
By the way, did you notice Ping's dreamy "mmm" during the end credits? Also notice her inhale before it? The inhale sound was me. I figured it was something I couldn't easily find as an effect, so I didn't bother searching and just made it myself.
"Episode 81" was its title even after the final rendering; I simply couldn't come up with a good title. But then, once again as I usually do, I sat and watched the episode a couple dozen times more, and finally found the title hidden in the dialog. It's not the first time this has happened, but in this case I think it could perhaps be considered a crucial element, since it speaks directly to the point on which the change in Ping's heart hung.
"You Were Right" was conceived as the first episode of the following season. But once it was finished, I felt that it had to end this season, so I bumped an earlier episode out of Season 8 and into Season 9. It all worked out for the better.