Hm, it's been a while since I posted in here, eh? Now that the prologue is over and we're on this mini-hiatus, I guess now is a good a time as any for an update!

I was seriously concerned about the fate of Hilarity Ensues for a while there (well, about a month, but it seemed longer). I'd gotten a new job, and the hours were extremely wonky -- late nights, with my "weekend" taking place on Wednesday and Thursday. Scheduling shoots had been hard enough previously, but I was worried that this would make them impossible.

Luckily, an opportunity for a more reasonable shift came up at work, and I snagged it, so I am once again a member of the Monday - Friday world, which means I can still pester my actors into doing shoots on the weekends.

When the comic comes back from it's break, you're going to notice a rather dramatic change to the look. It's still going to be photos run through Photoshop, but I'm going for a slightly more realistic look, for a couple reasons. One, I was never that happy with how the old look for the strip tended to eliminate all but the most exaggerated expressions on people's faces, unless the shot was a close-up. Two, the old look took fucking forever to do. Yeah, it's just a Photoshop filter, but there's a LOT of clean-up involved with using that particular filter, and I was starting to hate doing the strip because of it.

The new look still looks vaguely cartooney, but it's a lot more detailed, and so my actors' expressions (not to mention their pupils) will be visible. Plus, doing the strip will take about a tenth as long as it used to, which leaves me more time for writing and shooting. Boozing and whoring, too.

On the writing front, I've just finished the script for number 102, which, believe it or not, isn't even making a dent in what I've got planned for Chapter One, let alone the rest of the comic's run. I have a pretty detailed outline for Chapter One scribbled on various sheets of paper, and a rougher outline of Chapters Two and Three. I have ideas on where the strip could go after Chapter Three, but if I need a stopping point, the end of Chapter Three is as good a one as any.

Now all I need to do is actually write the scripts. And since I'm sitting here updating my LiveJournal, rather than crafting witty dialogue, I'll give you two guesses as to how well that's going.

Ah well. Back to the grind!

(I'll be updating this thing more often from now on, I suspect)