Characters and Marketing

I finally have some sketch work for my characters!

This is Alex. I designed his look to be a little grungy looking, but sort of "cutesy" in a way, hence the incredibly oversized clothing and his rather fragile looking frame. This is kind of an unusual look for a male character, although in fairness Alex is an unusual character. I want him to look vulnerable. But I wanted him to fit in with the world, so I've gone for something a bit modern. The world of the series is essentially a slum, so I wanted his clothes to look a bit worn and torn, as if he found what he could. 

This is Alice (it's not the first design for her). Now she doesn't look much like a doctor here, and that's intentional. This would be the outfit she wears whilst pursuing Alex through the city. It's intentionally warn and has a grungy look to fit in with the urban slum style of the city. Basically, if she looked like a doctor, she'd stand out, and thus she could become a target for criminals. It's a pretty dangerous city.  I added the bow on her sleeve for that "Alice In Wonderland" look. One thing that comes to my mind when I think Alice In Wonderland is a pretty girl in a nice dress with a nice bow tied around the middle. The bow on her sleeve is a bit of a nod towards that. I thought the long stripy socks would be cool for adding to the Alice look. She's definitely an eccentric looking character, but there's potential (in my eyes) for her to still be recognized as the iconic Alice character when place in the right story.

Plus, I've written some character profiles!

Alex:Age: 16

Alex is a young patient at an asylum in an industrial slum. He was institutionalised after the death of his father and the disappearance of his mother. These events led to his current mental state. In the asylum Alex is quiet and reserved. He refuses to talk to almost everyone. When he does talk he usually speaks in single word sentences. However, Alex has made a particular exception for Alice, and exception that even Alice doesn’t understand. When Alex is in his “Wonderland” his personality is almost completely different. He has quite a sharp tongue and is considerably more eloquent than he is in the real world. Alice is quite impressed by these displays of intelligence, seeing them as potential for Alex to get better. 

Alice:Age: 20

Alice is a brilliant young doctor. Her level of skill for her age is beyond impressive; she even surpasses most of her supervisors. Her reputation has made her quite famous, and so her current patient, Alex, is speculation of much media attention. Alice is one of few doctors capable of using the mind reading device that allows her to see what her patients see, helping her to better understand her patients. While Alice can seem quite cold and unfriendly this is due to her time at university where she was looked down on for her background as a slum girl. However, she is particularly cold towards Alex as he has been a great source of trouble for her and he runs a great risk of tarnishing her reputation. 

So there you have it. I think there's some potential for character development there. Alex's goal is essentially to regain his sanity, but you can see that his personality isn't necessarily that great. He's a young guy with a "sharp tongue" and clearly a lot of angst! He need to develop quite a bit. Alice has room for development too. She's quite cold and resentful towards others, but particularly towards Alex. There's plenty of room to work on the two character's relationship, so that Alice could come to care for Alex as more than just a patient. Not to say I'm planning a romantic relationship between the two characters. Just more friendly and caring. 

I've also given distribution some thought. The length of the episodes in this series will be quite short; approximately 10 minutes each. I thought it would be interesting if this series could be distributed through gaming platform, such as Playstation Network, Xbox Live and Steam. That way, episodes could be released in packs available for users to download over a period of time. This could also lead on to a potential video game tie in, so users could watch the series and develop interest in the video game, or vice versa. 

So that's one source of merchandising. I've also given merchandising a bit of thought too. I've look particularly in to the film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children for this. In the film, the leading character uses a phone quite a lot. This is actually a real phone and was a tie in with the film.

The main character of the film seen in an advertisement for Panasonic's p900iV. The phone was released in Japan a week before the film's release. The phone comes in various colours, but the most popular is black (as it is seen in the film). This could potentially seem a bit of a waste if you ask me. After all, black goes with almost anything (for the more fashion conscious) and it's likely that anyone investing in the phone will want the same one from the film, thus black. 

I was thinking this could actually work quite well with my series; Alice's mind reading device comes with a set of glasses that she uses to see what Alex sees. Said set of glasses could be sold as sunglasses for big fans of the series. The device could also double up as a phone, which could also be sold as merchandising. Pretty much ripping off Advent Children here. Those are just some ideas that sounded a bit more interesting than basic mugs and t-shirts to me. It's all a bit sketchy at the moment. 

But more will follow!

Also, keep an eye out for character designs in the future. The plan is to designs several outfits for Alex and Alice depending on where they are, be it the asylum, the city slums or different parts of Wonderland. Or course, the latter is all in Alex's mind, but Alice will see it using her device. 

Anyways, enough writing. I'm ill. I'm gonna go watch Sucker Punch tonight for research purposes so expect another research page.