Scrapped Concept: Explorative Journal

Week 1: Brainstorming

My initial plan for my FMP was to create a journal following the adventures of ‘Harpocrates the Elder’, a side character from a larger IP. This journal would explore a narrative by showing how the author broke through the brainwashing of his fascist, colonising government and opened his mind to new perspectives through exposure to the outside world.

Artistically, however, it would allow me to show off my ability to concept and design outfits in a diverse array of styles, using research from real-world ancient cultures to inspire me, as the protagonist travels through different planets all with vastly different societies and climates. The journal was only going to be a snippet of the larger story, with much of the main plot left up to the audience’s interpretation; the protagonist of my IP wouldn’t even be born for another 2 generations and would be left this journal as an in-game prop that can be read by the player to learn lore or to progress a quest.

The first thing that came to mind even before I began my research was the journal from ‘Fran Bow’ (2015), which the player receives and can read to learn about a character who explored a foreign and alien world. I loved reading this book when I first played Fran Bow and wanted to create and illustrate a journal of my own, with a similar concept in mind. After establishing my base idea I started researching similar journals, from games, TV shows and movies, while also asking my peers for feedback every session. During my research I came across:

The Voynich Manuscript: an undeciphered mediaeval text with annotated illustrations of strange plants, people and star patterns, which currently resides in the archives at Yale University.

The Journal from Gravity Falls: a prop used by the protagonists of animated children’s show ‘Gravity Falls’ that documents strange monsters and places.

H. R. Giger’s Alien Diaries: the Sketchbook of H. R. Giger from when he worked on the movie ‘Alien’ (1970) which shows his concepting, notes and development of the titular monster.

The Doctor’s Journal: the in-universe journal of the Doctor from ‘Doctor Who’ (1964-present), exists only as a prop but documents the Doctor’s travels between planets, featuring notes, illustrations and cyphers.