How Atlantis Came to Be

So, who sucks at updating this thing regularly? Oh, that's right, me. But I have an excuse: I've been busy planning season six. 

But this post isn't about the beginning of season six, this is about the end of season five. 

I first thought up about the concept of 5010 BCE before The Artifact was even finished. The final script for The Artifact was actually finished at 1:00 am the day before we shot it. Before that it had been a completely different story. It went something like:

Manda wakes up in a strange room, Julian serves her food as Mr. Sassafrass's brain-washed man-servant. Sassafrass has a meeting with Brain-washed Jules and Rudy, and he sends Rudy to go door-to-door to preach about the church. Rudy door-preaches at Donkey Boy's lair, and Donkey Boy takes him inside and brainwashes him to be a super killing machine. Meanwhile Manda is revealed to be a secret agent who's working for The Questioner, and she un-brainwashes Julian by kissing him. The Questioner sends Manda to Donkey Boy's headquarters to try and stop Donkey Boy from creating a killing-machine out of Rudy. Donkey Boy sends Rudy back to Atlantis via portal, and Manda and Julian -who has followed her, now smitten- follow after Rudy through the portal, and that's the end of season four. 

I know, you're probably thinking "what the fuck, that made no sense ...and it was boring. " Well I hated it as well, so I rewrote it completely (with the exception that Manda was still kidnapped and Jules was still brain-washed) to make it more exciting. If the original script would have stayed, the season five premiere would have been about Manda and Julian running through the city trying to track down Rudy as he searches for the artifact. Actually, now that I think about it, I knew I had to make a skit where characters would go to Atlantis right after I made the Story Time episode of Life Lessons with Jonah, where British Jonah first explained about Atlantis.

Anyway, in April 2010 I began the pre-production process for 5010 BCE. I didn't even start with an outline of the story. The first thing I did was recreate the city that was seen in Story Time. 

The first version of Atlantis had more mist and was a bit darker. The remake was a brighter, more gritty version. (Note the absence of awesome flying cars in version one.)

Next were the flying cars. I don't really remember how they came into existence. I just remember figuring one day "This is a futuristic city, it needs flying cars."

And BAM! Flying cars came into existence.

Soon afterwords I began making animations, with only a some-what formed idea of what the story would be like in my head.

"I have no idea how this is gonna work into the story ...but doesn't it look cool?"

Finally, I began to make out a basic plotline and work from there. What happened though was me constantly revising the story. I'd write out the entire script, and then realize that I had made errors in the story-telling. Characters would be motivated by unclear goals, logic would only some what make sense. It was all really difficult to figure out. 5010 BCE is essentially a rare hybrid when it comes to story-telling: half of the current story, and half a prequel to that story. Decisions characters were making now affected what already had happened in the past. I think that's why I enjoy stories with time-travel so much. There's so much opportunity. Anyway, by late October, I had finally constructed the final script, and I had a crapton of notes.

Yes, notes can include pictures.

 Finally, in early November the scenes that took place in Atlantis were filmed. Scenes that with Manda and Julian and scenes that required greenscreen were filmed in late November. And scenes with Donkey Boy were filmed early December. 

So will we see more of the city of Atlantis? I dunno. All I know for sure is that we'll see it for a few minutes at the beginning of season six, but beyond that it's foggy. Unlike season five however, I have season six already completely planned out. The Artifact took Lazy Eyes into a new direction, and 5010 BCE took Lazy Eyes deeper into that same direction by showing how The Artifact came to be. Season Six will be different, taking Lazy Eyes into a completely new direction. We're done going back in time and seeing what-caused-what. If anything, we'll be heading forward...