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 Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:04 pm
I was on YouTube with a friend tonight, clicking "related links" in videos just to see where we'd end up. One movie was a claymation, featuring a headless character who carried a mask on a pole and used that to express himself.
I decided I REALLY liked that concept, and would like to borrow it. But of course I did a little more research first, and found that the claymation was actually based on a story credited to Mark Twain, "The Mysterious Stranger".
Well, I'd still like to use the basic design idea, along with a few other similarities.
I plan to put thought into it, rather than making a carbon copy of course -- but with a story that's apparently so famous, probably no matter how different I get, the roots will be somewhat obvious to those who have seen the concept before.
So I'm curious as to what you guys think of that kind of development -- I've never done it that way before, and I'm not sure how successful I'll be. sweatdrop Any of the rest of you ever snatched a concept and kidnapped it off into a different direction? Is it fair play, as long as there's a noticeable difference?
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:33 am
Well, there are always interpretations of classic stories and ideas - for example, Terry Pratchett's Maskerade, Susan whatsit's Phantom, Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical and my own The Red Matinee are all drawn from Gaston Leroux's classic novel, The Phantom of the Opera.So it's not like it's never been done before... But almost all of my characters were inspired by other ideas and characters (sometimes even my own!), and they just change so much by the end of it... well, anyway. As Scott Adams writes in Dilbert's The Joy Of Work: Scott Adams Theft + Creativity + Time = Originality
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Distinct Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 2:25 pm
You don't wanna know where most of my characters come from. Hell, I don't even remember all of them.
Someone said ( was it e.e. cummings?) "Immature artists copy, mature artists steal."
So steal to your heart's content! Besides, do you know how many people have stolen Jesus, Persephone, and all them? Yeah, it's pretty much the same thing.
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 5:47 pm
I LOVE e e cummings!
I've stolen the voyages of Sindbad but I cut some of the lamer ones out.
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:14 am
Oh please... Everyone in this guild knows that Vitae is a rip-off of a FFVII crackfic version of Vincent Valentine! biggrin *shot*
Okay, I've reminded you of Rae's example, so, I'll give mine. If I can remember... sweatdrop My steals aren't always quite so obvious, because I have a horrible memory and can't remember where a character concept always came from if I've changed the character a lot from the 'original' version. (Even though if you see an anime version of Seishak, he'll look almost identical to Aya from Weiss Kreuz, I swear I'd never seen the anime until two years AFTER I made SeiSei)
I did make a character that has since gone into the trash bin based on a Devil May Cry fanart of one of the bosses. cry It was so beautiful... I'll have to find it again.
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 4:27 pm
Oh, don't stop there, Rimbaum. I might as well point out that the reason my main cast consists of a Hero, a Thief, a Healer, and an Unpleasant Stranger is all thanks to FFVII. That's part of the reason Nathan is my "son"--he's the only one who wasn't somehow based off of something FF-related. (Yes, at one time even Leste was FF-related.) So you could say that Nathan is the most original of all my characters. Just ignore that his secondary development was all based off of Ayame Sohma and Howl Pendragon. And a little tiny bit off crackfic Kuja. >>;
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:07 pm
The only one I remember as a blatent rip-off is Isaac, based off of... Isaac from Golden Sun. *shot* And he was the main hero once, too... *shudder*
He's since been relegated to "secondary character who dies before the main plot is over" and had character flaws added. Be glad I don't inflict my earlier writing on you.
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 11:49 pm
Kita-Ysabell Besides, do you know how many people have stolen Jesus,
Nobody's original anyways, it's impossible to have something that is entirely so. My entire story arc and plot bits involving Kasume having been blanked started when I saw Nunsense -- the character Sister Amnesia had been clonked on the head with a crucifix and was very lightheartedly mentally deficient. I thought that was an interesting character aspect and promptly yoinked it.
And Victor was originally inspired by me! She was my self-insert Mary Sue when I wrote FDD fics. I'd say that would be the last connection you'd ever make now, though.
Zhao was and is a blatant knock off of Ken/The Digimon Emperor from Digimon. I'm a sad little person.
Plus others, like Leon getting inspiration from Czolgosz (although he's strayed a ways from that now), Ania getting inspiration from Sally Bowels, etc.
But, yeah, I agree with Oolie. When you steal stuff and you're a good enough writer to go through with finishing and developing the idea in question, it changes so much by the end of it that even if people do recognize it I think they'd respect your twist on it.
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Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 12:31 am
Exactly. I mean, Shinneri was originally based off Gin, but the only reason you'd know it now was that they have the same hair and face. They're so different identity-wise, it's astounding.
You know Ford Prefect from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? He was based partially off of Dr. Who (Adams used abandoned script ideas from his writing Dr. Who for at least the second two books). Would you think this straight away? Or Jack Sparrow - he was based off "Kieth Richards meets Peppy la Phew" I believe was the quote. But they're both well rounded, amusing characters in their own right.
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Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:18 pm
I have a few character that... well... I like them so much I steal them repeatedly. Each time they are different, but I can tell where they came from and, sometimes, so can other people. Kurama, from YuYu Hakusho has... three (?) characters based off of him. Kenshin has five. Clayton Webb from JAG (played by Steven Culp) has one (Bertram Silverwebb). Ezra Standish from The Magnificent Seven (played by Anthony Starke) has... I think about seven. Two are fairly new.
Keenan... my original character, whom I've had since I was twelve... his appearance was based on Xelloss, but it's changed a bit since then. He has four other character based on him... I've gotten so bad that I'm copying myself.
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Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:41 pm
From recent experience, I think it's scariest when your characters start getting more and more like other people's characters the more you write them and there seems to be absolutely nothing you can do to fix that. And it wouldn't even be so much of a bad thing except for the fact that people will notice.
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 9:59 pm
Since I draw my characters before I write them, they usually aren't stolen. Plot lines are though. Came up with a brandy new one today based off of a deleted scene from the film Mirrormask. Came up with another storyline based off of the music video for Janove Ottesen's Black and White Video.
Many of my characters are based off of actors and musician's though. If only in appearance. Janove looks just like Janove Ottesen, Valentin has a little bit of Trent Reznor in him, Kimber is based off of the Ramones, and Natalie Portman is the model I use for Sam.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:25 am
I've heard of this mythical deleted scene from Mirrormask, but only rumors and hearsay...
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:46 am
I looked for it on youtube and on the DVD. You can only find stills of it in the book
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:18 am
Obtained New Quest Objective: Find Book. *toddles off to library website*
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