How to Propose an Episode Project for Approval

Once you have enough staff members to work on your episode project and have a very good idea of your storyline, you may propose your episode project to the forum administrators for approval. To do so, simply write a thread to this part of the forum using the template given below.

Contents

• Template
  
• Explanation of Template
  
• What to Expect After Proposing Your Episode Project
  

Fill out the following template when proposing a new episode project:

Title of Episode Project:
Number of Chapters:
Number of People Working on Project:
Approximate Number of Pages:
Estimated Time to Complete Project (in weeks):

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Group Leader:
Brainstormer:
Script Writer:
Thumbnail Artist:
Penciller:
Inker:
Colourist:
Background Artist:
Clean-up Artist:
Editors (minimum of 2):
Advertiser:

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Basic Information

• Title of Episode Project. Give your episode project a working title to identify it by while it is still a work in progress. This working title does not necessarily have to be the same as your final storyline title.
  
• Number of Chapters. List how many "chapters" (episodes) your storyline will be split over. A standard episode storyline (i.e. storylines appropriate for an 11 minute animated episode) would be one episode long, while larger storylines (i.e. "epics") would be split over more than one episode. For example, if the episode "Arnold vists Arnie" was made in comic form, the storyline would be split over one episode (chapter). If the episode "The Journal" was made in comic form, the storyline would most likely be split over four episodes (chapters).
  
• Number of People Working on Project. List how many different HA6S staff members will be working on this episode project. The minimum number of staff members that should be working on any episode project is 3.
  
• Approximate Number of Pages. You should know your storyline well enough that you can give an estimation of how many comic pages your storyline will be split over.
  
• Estimated Time to Complete Project (in weeks). How long (in weeks) do you think it will take to complete your episode project? If you are not sure how to determine this, multiply your estimated number of pages by two weeks (i.e. Estimated time in weeks = [number of pages] x [2 weeks] ). This value will help the forum administrators to set deadlines for your episode project.
  

Roles
The position of "Group Leader" is the person who will be supervising the entire progress of the episode project. This will most likely be the person who came up with the idea for the episode project (i.e. the Writer). The maximum number of group leaders in an episode project is two. They will be the person(s) responsible for submiting monthly progress reports to the forum adminstrators in the appropriate sticky thread (titled "Monthly Progress Reports"). Descriptions of all other roles are available on the page "Be a Part of the Project!" of the HA6S Wordpress site. Roles may be changed in the middle of the episode project.

Detailed Outline of Storyline
You should know your storyline well enough that you can give a detailed description of the episode's plotline. A draft script is also acceptable (and highly recommended as Writers will be expected complete their final script and thumbnails within 2 weeks of approval). Your outline/script can be posted directly in the forums or on another site (provide a link). If you wish, you may post your outline/script on the HA6S WordPress site. The tutorial "Uploading Your Script Using WordPress" on the HA6S WordPress site tells you how to do so. Your storyline can be altered (but not completely changed) in the middle of the episode project.

A forum administrator (director) will get to you as soon as possible once you have proposed an episode project. You may be asked some questions of clarification or be given some constructive criticism before you are approved by a director. Forum adminstrators will take into consideration the feedback of other HA6S staff members, thus you may wish to make public announcements in places such as the main HA! Livejournal community to gather an audience/support for your proposed episode project. All HA6S staff members are welcomed and encouraged to post their feedback for each proposed episode.

If, for whatever reason, your episode project does get rejected, you may wish to repropose your episode project in the future. You may have to change an aspect of your episode project before you do so, such as making a change in your storyline.

However, if your project does get approved by a forum adminstrator, you will be given your own sub-forum (only accessible by HA6S staff members) to work in. This sub-forum will be located under the "Episode Project" category of the HA6S forums. There you may freely discuss your episode project, exchange files (e.g. scripts, artwork, ect.), hand in your final comic pages, and submit monthly progress reports. There will be Sticky threads for the following things:

• Deadline Schedule. Based on your estimated time to complete your episode project, a forum administrator will give you a schedule as to when you should be done certain parts of your episode project. Use this as a time-management guideline.
  
• Monthly Progress Reports. There will be a Sticky thread where group leader(s) can post their progress reports.
  
• Optional Working Areas. There will be several Sticky threads where involved HA6S staff members can post up their finished part of the workload (e.g. finished scripts or inked comic pages), so that these files may be exchanged between HA6S staff members. This form of file exchange is optional; HA6S staff members may wish to use other forms of file exchange such as email.
  
• Submit Final Comic Pages. A Sticky thread will be provided where you can submit your final comic pages to the forum administrators. They will be collected as they come in.
  
• Detailed Staff Credits. A detailed list of the staff credits for your episode project will be given. Post in that specific Sticky thread if any staff credit changes need to be made.
  

A sample forum of what you will be given if your project is approved is provided in the sub-forum titled "Sample Forum: Episode [#] Project (Title of Project)".

The comic-making process is very much like an assembly line process, meaning that the comic will be going through the following people (stages) in this order: Brainstormer --> Script Writer --> Thumbnail Artist --> Penciler --> Inker --> Colorist --> Background Artist --> Clean-up Artist --> Done. HA6S staff members who are beside each other in the "assembly line" should talk to each other about how they are going to exchange files (i.e. artfiles) between one another. This should also include how to communicate with the episode project's Editors and Advertiser. Read the "To Do List" on the HA6S project to get an overall idea of the comic-making process.