Zombie Cliche Lookout: Eureka Moment
Problem solving is an essential part of the human condition, and surviving the zombie apocalypse will only put a finer point on things. That said, a person’s ability to solve a problem can be influenced by a number of factors, including stress, restfulness, safety, and the availability of food and other necessities. Needless to say, every one of those items are going to be negatively influenced during a zombie outbreak. That will compromise the average person’s ability to make good decisions quickly, which will lead to more people falling victim to the zombie outbreak. It’s a sort of self-perpetuating mechanism. The longer a person survives, the more adept they are at it, but also the more stressors pile on.
About this Episode:
Episodes like this are hard to write for because there’s not a hell of a lot happening on screen. That’s not to say the episode isn’t important, it’s just that it’s not terribly visually engaging. I try to vary up the shot framing a bit, but there’s really only so much to be done.
That said, I shot this episode a couple of weeks ago, and, looking at it today, I wish I would have set it up a little differently, perhaps as three panels, or even two double panels instead of four. That wouldn’t have conveyed the passage of time as well, perhaps, but it would have made the episode look a little more distinct.
Discussion Question: Snap Decision Making
Personal experience time. Have you ever found your ability to make quick decisions compromised for any reason? What was the trigger, and did you have any way to compensate?
My big one was when my son was born and I went from getting seven to eight hours of sleep every night to only a couple, very interrupted hours. I got sluggish and started making mistakes a lot more often. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any sort of coping strategy. I just had to make do until I started getting more sleep.
Typo alert: “also the more stressers pile on” stressers–>stressors 😀
And yes, it is spelled that way on a dictionary site I use often. 😉
Dammit. I had it with the “o”, second guessed myself and changed it to “e”.
Fixed.
Next time, third guess yourself, and actually check a dictionary! 😉
If there’s not to much happening on screen, you can play with the camera a bit. Like she’s thinking and the camera is the idea slowly moving in….
A suggestion would’ve been to start a little wide, her NOT directly facing the camera (her face at a small sidewards angle), second panel; same pose, little more zoomed in, third panel; even more zoomed in, fourth panel: same zoom level and her directly facing the camera “Of course!”
I like it. It’s like the camera is following her thought process, getting tighter the closer she gets to figuring it out.
Actually I didn’t realize Barb was thinking as she was moving around her arms and stuff until the last panel. I would have used the same image for the first 3 panels and then she moves her arms, as she finds the obvious answer.
Anywho, Barb seem very focused on her mission, maybe her former job helps her staying cool under fire.
About todays question, the lack of sleep, as I don’t drink, might be the only reason I lose the ability of making fast decisions.