Intermission: Behind the scenes
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Season 1 vs season 2
When I started season 1, I knew how the season would end, but had no more than a couple of scenes planned out, basically just diving into it. Season 2 was exactly the opposite, with lots of scenes planned, and no idea where (or how) I’d end it. Season 1 was very much a learning experience, and could have been much better, in many respects. In season 1, I had the luxury of being able to shoot out of sequence, since the seasons wouldn’t change much, and Daniel would remain a teen. I could also throw out loose ends without worrying too much about following them up. Not so in season 2, where Daniel would grow up, lose his wings, there’d be summer, autumn and winter, a new house, new town buildings, and loose ends to tie up. Season 2 was much harder, but also more rewarding.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Stop flapping that wing in my face
When I started the story, I thought I would be able to play the game and take acceptable screenshots while playing. I was soon shorn of that illusion. The shots I was getting were like the pictures I take while on holiday: Rubbish. Playing and “shooting” often had to be completely separated, and doing that, I soon made another discovery: Those fairy wings are no problem when you’re playing, heck I’ve played fairies for 8 generations, and gotten so used to the wings that I barely even see them when playing. When I was shooting, however… Trying to minimize the impact of those wings when I was doing close-ups (with Daniel at least partly in the frame, what, 90% of the time?) was turning into a massive chore. The idea of Bai Jiejing and Lo Pan was conceived during season 1, and their sole mission at the time was to somehow clip Daniel’s wings. They won’t come back, ever (the wings, I mean).
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Can’t you just grow up, you little…
My original intention was for Daniel’s teenage phase to last a little longer. After all, that’s why he chose Moonlight Falls as their destination: It had lots of teenage girls, and he could finally get a social life going. The plan was for him to recoup that social life once House Celeste had opened its doors, which would also have given me time to give a couple of the girls some screentime: Larger roles were planned for Maria Younan and Alice Blanestreet. But, as season 2 rolled along, I found myself quickly getting more and more tired of teenage Daniel and his face. Sacrificing his “second” teenage phase allowed me to keep my sanity, and to return to the main story line quicker.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Another casualty of speeding up Daniel’s life, was their stay at the lawn. Being stuck on the lawn until it got cold would have made the loss of Memory Lane feel greater, and would have provided Daniel with a stronger motivation to go after the person who caused them to be there, but you can’t have it all. Screenshots from a lawn gets old pretty fast, and it was a relief to get them under a roof, with a lot more varied backgrounds.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
All your friends are dead
When I was to make the chapters from “A Different Drum”, I knew I would have to re-shoot quite a lot of shots, as I was lacking enough good shots to make two 25-picture chapters. I was sure it wouldn’t be a problem, as I had a savegame featuring the 2nd and 3rd generations stowed away. Using that savegame, I also planned to highlight how Memory Lane had changed throughout the years. However, when I tried to find that savegame, it no longer existed… Oops. Enter Debug Enabler, and a lot of work: Resurrecting all those dead sims, dressing them up right, styling them, etc… In the end, it became a mix of old shots and recreated ones, and not as good as I had planned.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
...and their pictures are gone too
When I played the first two generations, I had no intention of making a story out of it, and took no screenshots. Stupid and naïve, I actually relied on the memory system to keep track of their lives, editing out irrelevant and minor memories, so they each had their own cute little scrapbook. I would like to have included Kate Carson’s long and illustrious life in the story, as well as the life of the sisters, but there are no screenshots, and this isn’t their story. Their old lives will remain a backdrop, and only if strictly necessary will something be recreated.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
The CASt
I knew Tristan wouldn’t have enough screen-time to be fleshed out as a character, so I felt a sidekick was needed to spice his early scenes up a bit. The choice of Faith MacDuff was more or less random, and she was originally intended to be just comic relief. As I experimented with various silly clothing and looks in CAS, she actually started looking kind of cool, in an off-beat way. With that, her path changed, to a fashion-designer wannabe that was worthy of redemption and a prom date. She will return, at some point (the years pass quickly for the sims…).
I follow strict rules regarding possible CAS changes to all family members: No features but hair (and facial hair) and makeup can be changed, unless dictated by the story. Trent Lane, who was a lamp genie, took plastic surgery to stop being blue, while Alexandria changed her eye color, but apart from that, all family members keep the face and eyes with which they came into the world, whether they were born or summoned by the sim finder app (like Danielle).
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Story sims are sometimes generated through rolling some dice in CAS, and quickly throwing some clothes on them, but a select few get a more detailed design, such as Lynx, Flash, Bai and Lo Pan. Bai took a lot of tweaking to get what I wanted, and she is also the lucky recipient of a selected few CC items, which I generally try to avoid. I don’t get CC for just anyone, there were more scenes planned for Bai in Moonlight Falls, and although that didn’t work out, I have a distinct feeling that we will see Rosebud again.
I’ll miss Alecia. I’ve spent a lot of time with her, she’s gone through a lot, and I felt she was quite well-defined as a character (at least in my mind). Unlike many others, her lines were usually easy to write. Unfortunately, her time was up (and she knew it), age-wise, so she had to go. Daniel will honor her with some flashbacks.
Season 2: Troubled scenes
The shoot introducing Flash and the easterners, done at the stairs of the library, was a nightmare. Despite the relatively small cast, the portrait panel went haywire, generating over 1000 error messages. Due to the stairs, managing the camera was torture, and in addition, I was fighting with time issues (the sun was setting), caused by the camera issues and not being able to pause the game while choosing poses in the pose player. Bill Misfit not seeing much because of his hat was peanuts compared to that…
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
During Bai and Lo Pan’s magic show, there were other issues. Once they were at location, in clothing planned specifically for the occasion, they kept switching to their outdoor outfits, which I hadn’t bothered to set up at all. The fact that it was winter, and outdoors, hadn’t featured in my calculations… I also thought Bai would be able to perform her pillar-top contortions on command, being a level 10 acrobat (by virtue of MC), but found that she had to train first. The magic box trick was meant to be different, but Lo Pan also lacked training, and couldn’t pull it off, being washed out of the box every time. Then he died, and I just went with that… The shots I got of Bai falling off the high pillar turned out to be rubbish. Aiming to re-shoot just that, without any audience, I had to wait 4 sim-days for the sun to shine again. It then disappeared again before I could get the shot, and more waiting was in store…
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
I had planned for a lot more to happen at the Moonlight Ballroom, and for Daniel not to lose his wings until the next morning. The Ballroom was a downloaded venue, but I put some work into modifying it, and it was supposed to be the very reason Flash had invited the easterners, the really grand opening. When all the sims were in place and I started shooting, the portrait panels started acting up again, big time. I think it was caused by someone leaving the scene, going to work, and me evicting them from the household. Putting my thinking cap on, I sped things up and clipped Daniel’s wings there, changing the focus to Bai and Lo Pan leaving town (which wasn’t supposed to be a scene at all, they were supposed to leave unseen during the night), and introducing James Hoppcraft a bit earlier.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
When I returned to Villa Carsonia, for the first time in 6 generations, I found that the place was no less bug-ridden than it used to be. Nowhere in my game have more sims sunk into the ground or paintings disappeared into thin air than at that lot. It’s probably because it was built prior to me using Nraas mods, and never resetting the place. When returning, I found I could no longer control the lights, having to sell and rebuy the lights I wanted to control, and the place was also infested with spirits, and their accompanying fog. I had to summon Vance and turn him into a ghost-buster to clean the place up, and buydebug-remove all the fog emitters. Only then could I start moving some stuff around and start properly preparing for doing scenes there…
Deleted scenes
There was supposed to have been another world introduced by this stage, and I did a quite a bit of construction and shooting there, but I had to scrap that entire storyline. That was a bit of a blow, but we will get to that world, and I guess I can use some of what I built there.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
I had another plan for putting Daniel on the track of a possible child being born by Esther, and to inform him of Chloe’s academic prowess. The university mascot, which turned out to be a rather attractive girl, would turn up at House Celeste, right after Celeste had been born. Daniel thought she had come for him, but she was there for Celeste, the reason being the legendary status the Carson’s have at Sims Univ. When asked about the status of the Lanes, the mascot listed all Lane attendees, and no Esther Lane… I did some shots with the girl, and even had some romantic plans for her, after making her a resident, but it turned out to be too much of a sidetrack.
The funeral that Jackson predicted was actually supposed to be his brother’s. Daniel would get his car through inheritance, and his return to Sunset Valley would be to investigate the murder, which the police (with one of Corrie’s daughters being the investigator) had written off as an accident: He fell from the roof. I downloaded a chalk outline to place outside Vance’s house, started preparing a news article, and soon got stuck, finding that the whole thing did nothing to advance the main story line.
There’s a new club in Moonlight Falls, where a major scene was supposed to happen, involving both Flash, Bai and Lynx, but that story fell apart. The club is ready, and will possibly appear in some modified version of those scenes in season 3. There’s also a new gym, where Flash was supposed to appear and do some stuff, and it may feature at some later time.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Keeping in sync
I have no idea how other people manage their “storygames”, and found it to be a challenge after the move to Moonlight Falls. After a while, I had 3 savegames that all contained information I wanted to keep: The main save, with the most up-to-date version of House Celeste and the family. The “teen” save (for the teenager scenes), that featured Lynx, Daniel, Faith and Tristan, all living with Lynx’ foster father, and the only save where Lynx’ room and Faith’s looks were done right, and finally, a save which was up to date with the changes I had made to all community lots. The “teen” save came about with me thinking that I wouldn’t need Lynx’ room when that scene was done, but later, I got an idea that made me want to keep it. What a mess, but it did teach me a couple of lessons (I hope).
Building a house
I’m not an advanced builder, and I’m very slow, especially at decorating (which I do rather sparingly). Watching speedbuild-videos makes me utterly depressed at how bad I am. The houses in the story are built to live in, not as sets, and are usually based on some concept central to the family that will live there. For House Celeste, the central concepts were Jackson’s studio in the tower, and for the house to feel somewhat Victorian, while having some colorful, mood-upping (to me, mostly) rooms. I don’t present floorplans as a part of the story, that would feel artificial, but feel free to ask about ‘em if you’re interested.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Who stopped the snow?
Isn’t that beautiful? When we left Moonlight Falls, we were 2 days into a forecast of 7 days with heavy snow. Meanwhile, there’s not much weather to be seen in Sunset Valley, either in season 1 or season 2. Yeah, it’s boring, and I miss the weather, but there’s a reason for it: Error 12. The Sunset Valley save is so on the edge that weather will never return to that town.
If fact, Error 12 is the reason this story exists. I’m not much of a writer, but I like it, and it enables me to say goodbye to that savegame in a really protracted way.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
A grumpy director
Yeah, let them hear it, Vanessa: Stop smiling so much! When I do dialogue, I usually try to let the sims engage in, you know, dialogue. Sometimes, I can get something useful out of it, but most of the time, they’re smiling too much, acting too much, and the animations connected with dialogue get repeated pretty fast. Run 3-4 “chat” and you’ll see quite a lot of identical expressions and hand movements. After a while, one does get pretty tired of seeing the sim being talked to placing his/her hand over his heart and smiling a dorky smile. More often than not, it’s not a smile I want, and most sims don’t exactly look their best when they’re smiling.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Sometimes, he found himself thinking about all the hard work and all the hours his mother had put in to train Zaijian. How many times had she been taking him through the paces, early in the morning, no matter how wet or cold, while he was on the school bus, warm and…
Cut! No, no… Daniel, why are looking at the driver?! Is the driver that interesting? Look to the right, please! You’re not thinking about your mother at all, are you? *Sigh* Hm. Maybe I should have run some facial animation and “look here”, that might have worked…
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Chloe? Why are you standing over there?
Chloe: The lighting here makes me look good.
I can see that, but you’re at the wrong end of the room. You can’t be on the coach, and then suddenly over there.
Chloe: They don’t know where I am.
Maybe not, but I know, and that’s enough. It doesn’t feel right.
Chloe: It’s a good shot. If you don’t use it, you seriously need an IQ boost. Stop complaining and do your stuff. Look, I’m almost smiling.
Don’t. You’re supposed to be serious when doing these lines. Get closer to the coach, please.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Tristan: …and then, then I’m gonna… I’m gonna…
CUT! Tristan, why are you holding an umbrella?
Tristan: I’m a vampire. It’s daytime.
So? You’re supposed to be the most bad-assed dude at the school, and you’re trying to intimidate someone while holding an umbrella?!
Tristan: Yeah. I need it. I really do! It's in my contract, look: If doing scenes outdoors and during daytime, the actor is entitled to...
Shut up, you wuss...
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Look at the girl, Daniel, and don’t look so miffed! This is supposed to be a little romantic. Come on! Give me something to work with!
That scene at the Scrumptious Nibble, positioned at the edge of the falls, was actually take three of that encounter. The others happened at other places, and were different, in various ways, but they didn’t feel right. One of the others were shot at Little Lennon Café (not introduced in the story), and ended with Bai looking around the table, bemused and confused by the three French tourists that insisted on joining their romantic dinner for two.
At Scrumptious Nibbles, I made several attempts to make Daniel eat his meal at the same table as Bai, but he refused to cooperate of course, sitting down at a different table each time. Each time I ordered him up to get up, his plate disappeared, and he had to go inside to get a new one. Before I gave up, I was tempted to add one of the French tourists to the household and let him have a go at it.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Lynx, can you look a little less stiff, please?
Lynx: Nope.
Can you look a little to the left or right?
Lynx: Nope.
Why not?
Lynx: ‘cause you put me in a friggin’ pose. If you’re gonna use ‘em, better get ‘em right, huh?
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Chloe: *Sigh* I get so tired of this role… I’m a beautiful woman, why do I have to be so super-smart and tough, why can’t I be allowed to be a bit more feminine… Next time, I want to work with another dir…
Chloe! Get off that couch, and back to the other one. And stay in character!
I try some poses now and then, but they rarely work out. I’ve looked at experience’s work and marveled at how good she is with poses, For this story, they usually turn out too dramatic or too “cute”. Since Kate Carson, the women in Daniel’s family have been accustomed to ride rough-shod over their men, and any opposition (with the exception of Esther, and to some extent, Danielle). Usually, I rely on Nraas animator or normal conversations to capture certain expressions, but at some point, someone who displays a bit of femininity and caters more to romance might appear…
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
The truth behind the story
Sometimes, the truth is a story, and sometimes, it’s the other way around. With the family history being provided by a 8-generation deep savegame, the vast majority of what is being presented as history did actually happen in-game. Kate did start out in Monte Vista, that house in Crystal Falls was Frank’s idea (not mine!), and Chloe’s ice sculptures did get destroyed. They weren’t destroyed by her sister, but by the game and my carelessness: I came up against the infamous “since you’ve turned on weather, you can no longer build 2nd story walls in this savegame”-bug. Remember that, back in the day? Starting a new game with the lot and family saved to the bin (which took a long, long time), I was well into the new game before I made a shocking discovery: All her ice statues, which was her specialty, having sculpted a host of family and friends, were gone. Just the round, black base of the statues had survived. Doh! I just had to play on, roleplaying that they had been destroyed by her sister…
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
The ups and downs of writing
I’ve found that scenes usually turn out better if I start with the screenshots, and use them to build the dialogue, rather than the other way around. I was very happy with the scene where Faith is asking Daniel to prom, where the shots were done first. Every picture matches very well with what is happening dialogue-wise. Bucket’s little scene was fun to write, and evolved out of the pictures, as did the scene with Maggie Donovan. Most turn out just OK, while some turn out rather disappointing, usually the ones constrained by dialogue. The last chapter, with the long talk between Daniel and Chloe, was dialogue-driven, and didn’t turn out as well as I had wished for, but, it is what it is.
At its heart, this is a tragic story rather than a happy one. Historically, the sims in Daniel’s family have been self-obsessed and deeply ambitious, which has its costs. Because of this, dialogue was a natural refuge. If I was stuck in Daniel’s head all the time, it would become too inward-looking, and too depressing. It would also be harder to write. Even though dialogue often feels like an easy way out, I struggle with giving the characters a personality. What they say, how they say it, and the accompanying screenshots becomes all-important to how they come across, and with English not being my first language, it’s hard! I can’t write “regional” English, I even have trouble distinguishing between English and American words (I had a clue once, now they're mostly just... words). With Danielle, to make her sound a bit English, I try to minimize contractions, and to be somewhat aware of the words I use. Flash is such a caricature that his quasi-gangsta talk becomes a like safe haven, compared to the subtleties of language that would have been required with a more restrained, realistic character.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
I do get a bit sick of dialogue sometimes, or simply look at the material and go: “Geez, that is a lot of dialogue, some sort of internal reflection is required here, as a break”. Writing the two chapters that make up “A Different Drum” felt almost meditative after so doing so much dialogue. I’m fond of long sentences and probably make lots of linguistic mistakes, but that isn’t likely to change, I’m afraid.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Can they follow the family story at all? Yeah, sometimes I ask myself that… The cast is pretty big, and I rarely slow down to dive into family trees. The trouble with family trees, and talking about them, is that I have serious doubts how entertaining it is. At the beginning of the story, Daniel himself doesn’t care much about it, so why should the reader care? I do hope that sufficient snippets of information are available for interested readers to grasp it, but I’m not really sure. Being able to rattle off the family tree while asleep does warp one’s perspective… Anyhow, there are often some weird issues with the family trees as well: In the picture above (taken before Chloe was resurrected), both of Frank Carson’s sons are shown as being alive, but that’s just because I have removed their tombstones. Why the woman in the bottom right is shown as a baby, I have no idea. She is dead, and was the grandmother of Vance’s current wife, Vanessa…
Season 3
What to expect? Hmm, let’s see. We’ll get some more insight into the lives of generation IV and V of the Lanes, provided by grandpa Jack. We’ll visit 2-3 new worlds (not totally new, but new to the story). The stuff that Lynx is struggling with will be revealed. There'll be more Flash. I’ll try to not introduce too many new characters (and hopefully none whose name starts with the letter A), since there’s already quite a few people involved, but we will get to meet Alyssina’s half-sister, if she exists, and one of the Crumplebottom-sisters (from Moonlight Falls, not Agnes. But Agnes will be mentioned. Perhaps even shown. Why is people so hung up on her…?) will play a central role for a chapter or two. There’ll be many recurring characters, some of whom haven’t been seen in season 2 (which means we’ll visit Sunset Valley again), and I suspect that Daniel will be slightly more romantically involved. Before any of this happens, I’ve got some thinking and some building to do…
