Managing The Gnomes of New Hope

A page from Book Four showing how the sketches, awaiting completion, are being placed in lieu of the description panels to represent the finished illustration.

If you have been following the growth of "The Gnomes of New Hope; Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure" you may be wondering why this all is taking so long?

You and me both! But here's the skinny on that. After I finished the Libretto (eons ago), which was taking place in conjunction with writing the music, I realized that publishing a Companion Storybook Edition would be the best way to develop an audience for the show.

Now, I have an extensive background in primarily technical theatre, but also a reasonable amount of performing as well. Performance was never really my goal, not seriously enough to make that a primary activity. Anyway, I have witnessed my share of costly mistakes in theatre. Not-the-least-of-which are shows that have a huge amount of energy in production but not enough of audience development. This leads to, at most, a two week run. The really sad thing about this is that, without a plan to move on, the crew of a limited run show disperses. Once that happens, it's very unlikely that the show will get mounted again, at least not without great difficulty.

It used to be said that recoupment of a show takes 21 weeks. That's five months! That's assuming everyone is properly paid and the show is mounted with professionals, not a bunch of volunteers, a sour subject for me.

So, the investment in mounting a show, especially a musical is substantial, before anyone steps foot on a stage, let alone performs before an audience.

Thus, utilizing every method to garner support for the endeavor is necessary, even critical. But more than that, it requires very careful balancing of the production elements both as a whole (marcocosm) and individually (microcosm).

So, in developing the project, it became clear that a published Companion Storybook would be the best tool for long term development of an audience. 

As that Storybook was beginning to be crafted from the Libretto, it became clear that the Libretto itself needed some illustration to assist in visualizing the settings, which would need to be constructed for the stage. Not only settings, but costumes and characters as well. So the process of Illustration began to take place.

Well, that helped to fill out the Libretto, which only required an occasional illustration as reference. But as the Storybook began to take shape, another dilemma arose. How many illustrations should be in an Illustrated Storybook? After due consideration, I determined that every page of the Storybook needed some kind of artwork. Ha! Little did I know that the combination of making room for the artwork, embellishing in the basic story of the stage show and including the lyrics of the music, would create a Graphic Novel that would encompass seven books totalling 766 pages!

Even less did I realize that; with the complexities and magnitude of the publishing layout and multiple computer hard disc failures, the completion of this endeavor would extend over a twenty-five year period. It's now 2022 and this started in 1997. Of course, over that period, quite a bit more than just a Graphic Novel was developed.

But the publishing layout is virtually completed, only requiring final completion and insertion of missing illustrations, which is underway.

So, the biggest issue right now is a release schedule. Many alternative approaches to releasing the books have been considered. It gets down to holding back on the official release until all the books are done, done, with all the finished art in place and at least 1,000 copies of each book are inventoried on the shelf and ready to ship.

Optimally, it would be best to have production underway on all product versions, which, believe it or not, amounts to around forty product lines. And that's only for the published books. There are, literally, dozens of Ancillary Products, either in development or conceived of.

The work of Image of the Mind Studios is focused on development up to and including prototyping. Manufacturing, Marketing and Distribution are critical arenas that are only now being summarily addressed. Engaging with outside agencies for these aspect may be appropriate, given that the proper agreements, which include investment can be brought into play.

As it stands now, Books One through Three are complete and are being published, as Limited Edition Hand-stitched Books. Books Four, Six and Seven are almost complete, requiring relatively few illustrations. Book five is a bit more of a challenge because it consists of "The Gnomic Tales" a collection of five other stories that are comprised of the backstory to "Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure" .

All of the finished books are being  inventoried in expectation of the release of the full collection. Orders for the Hand-stitched Books will be taken (for now Book One), however release is not yet determined, as numerous registrations need to take place first. Absolutely, Book One can be Released at any time, since it is an Introduction and can stand on it's own. But Books Two thru Seven are interdependent, meaning they need to all be complete and capable of being offered as a boxed set.

I will address more details of this at another time.

I welcome dialogue and I will be moving to establish and secure The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture. For that organization, I will be seeking to establish a Vested Board of Directors and I will be turning all of the Worldwide rights over to that Joint Venture.

AG

image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com

Producing Organizations

In regard to producing "The Gnomes of New Hope; Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure"...

Although I have been building IMS to have the production capabilities to follow through on manifesting The Gnomes, (as well as other projects) the one thing I didn't count on was getting so old so fast. Ha, well I did not anticipate that publishing this collection of books would take so much effort. The process has dragged on for years and now that it's almost finished (on the design and pre-production end of things) I find that I am less enthusiastic then I used to be. 

I still have to tend to many things; studio Facilities, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of the published goods, as well as other production elements, which I have discussed elsewhere. Music, Animation, Puppetry, the Parade Float, Legit Theatre, Cinema... and the list goes on. 

I'm past retirement age and my energy level isn't what it used to be, nor is my focus of attention. I have to recognize the truth of this.

So all that being said, I'm inclined to believe that the more front line degree of production activity (in numerous arenas) might be more effective if they were to be implemented in a different production environment; meaning one, or more, of the Major Producing Organizations. Not that I don't want to do it, but practically speaking, it might be best if I don't try. I would need to build a personnel structure of that a major already has in place as it well as all the other machinery that needs to be employed. My activity has always been in development and my production capabilities are, reletively speaking, minor in comparison. So that really is the path I must follow with this anything else would be foolish.

Of course I will continue on the path, developing and bringing the critical aspects to fruition and moving toward production, within IMS if necessary, but finding another production scenario for the first class union production activity appears to me to be the best course of action.

As you know, this takes a rather specific course of action. I have prepared the materials to take this into account, but to also provide the ability to advance in the other secondary markets, while seeking the "First Class" opportunities. 

I simply do not want this to drag on and I am facing other business demands which needs to be tended to. That being true, I have to recognize that I may be faced with distractions that will delay production within IMS to some degree.

I do think that there will be some combination of what I have mentioned, since I designed this to be able to move forward under numerous scenarios. It will do that, but it is prepared to move rapidly within the Industry and to meet the requirements in terms of the Core Creative Materials. Should it move into production it can do so with a complete collection of tools to move forward at a good pace and produce very desirable results.

For First Class Legitimate Theatre; Broadway Producers, for Live action Cinema and high end Animation; Hollywood, for Interactive Theatre; the Theme Park Organizations and for the Publishing Arena; Major Book Publishing and Distribution.

These areas are setup for either Internal (IMS) or External (Producing Organizations) advancement, and even a combination thereof.

I think I'm at the point where Licensing across the board is quite possibly the best option, but I also know that my knowledge and vision of this is a critical element of the overall project. So that will into come into play as well.

I have a Business Plan that builds on numerous organizations to implement production activity as a whole. Not only The Gnomes of New Hope, but any number of other projects. The design I have would work very well if it is implemented properly. But to do that required, three boards comprised of the right people and the right investments. My thinking in this regard is that this structure could be part of a sale of Image of the Mind Studios. 

There's no point in denying that I am approaching the end of my run in this life. I'm not dead yet, but as we all know, after a certain point, that could happen at any time. So my thinking is to sell the whole kit and caboodle, thereby putting the future of Image of the Mind Studios into the hands of an organizational structure that can make it grow into something far greater than I can ever achieve, being that my time is winding down.

I'm not sure where this will lead to, but those are my most recent thoughts on the subject.

If anyone wants to talk turkey on this, let me know.

AG