The aim of this group is to push each other to create the best work we can through constructive criticism and skillsharing. At the end we all should have something amazing for our portfolio, and a film we can potentially submit to festivals.
This is very undeveloped idea, I had a story at some stage but it wouldn't fit in a short 5 minute film. I do still like the idea for the world and the characters however, it just seems hard to try and create a short story around these characters that would fit in a short runtime.
(sound file is incomplete but it can start as follows: )
- in an establishing aerial shot we see a county side road in america, lot of forest and in the middle there is one road. title shows up and we see a jeep driving wrecklessly throwing beer can etc. on the road.
- it stops at one part and cam zooms in on the character and we see the guy walking inside the forest with a beer can in his hand.
- [from sound] we see a horse eating grass and a fly is flying across to the swamp and sits on the head of an alligator which is in the swamp.
- the guy walks in and being an asshole he shouts at the horse I DO THE ASS KICKING AROUND HERE!
and starts to kick the horse. 1, 2 kicks
- on his 3rd kick he misses it cause the horse moves and he falls in the water.
- his head rises from water he is pissed! the horse looks at him and laughs.
- the guy jumps out of the water and his legs and hands are getting into anticipation (like old tom and jerry where the character is running in the same place before he starts to chase)
- before he can chase the alligator jumps from behind and eats him. [Hence Instant Karma]
- and then the alligator laughs.
THE STORY:
- we see a guy flat on the floor, he's weak and struggling to get up.
- we see he grabs a pencil from a broken animation disk or could be part of table. he tries to get up but he crushes down on the floor again. [we can probably skip this part to make it short]
- we see his hand punches the ground in desperation and pencil, rubber or other animation utilities are flying in slow motion [ to show anger and desperation.]
- then we see a world of animators where exteriors are like animation tables, or camera tables etc and our protagonists animator friends are getting impaled by sharp pencils [ symbolic to animators who have struggled and fallen]
- then we see our protagonist finally standing up
the unfinished part is we see an animation table [almost look like a terminator endoskeleton] and our animator will walk toward it and start to animate on the table.
there will be a white flash [to leave the audience in uncertainty]
in the end we will see the animation he did in a flipbook.
THE CONCEPT:
all animation starts slow and tough but the end result is always sweet.
I deleted the original pitch and replaced it with the story of the granny.
This project is really aimed to have a cool action piece at the centre, while the story serves the scene entirely. That also means that the story is entirely disposable, the main idea of the pitch is to have a ludicrous action sequence that would allow character designers , layout and animators to go crazy.
IN SHORT: A granny fights off a gigantic spaceship to save the soul of her husband.
WHY SHOULD THIS BE MADE (selling points)?
+ Character development for Main Character + Zombies, UFOs, Voodo, Spirits, you name it, we got it! + Opportunity to have fun with the designs of characters! + Animation can be pushed because it's not set in reality.
THEME: Sometimes when you lose somebody, you become closer to them. They become a part of you. (That was my own experience anyway).
STORY (using the Pixar storytelling thing):
Once upon a time there was a granny that lived very secluded with her husband in a little house on the hills. She kind of lost the will to live, and every day for her was a grey day.
Every day Granny is woken up by her husband since he always gets up really early to do some work on the field. The dog always ready at 6am at the door to go on an adventure with his master.
Until one day something crashes from the sky, granny doesn't care and continues to mope along. But the curious husband investigates.
That evening when he gets home he's feeling a bit unwell, when granny wakes up he is still in bed but turned into a mindless zombie.
Because of that she is forced to leave the house (with him locked up) and goes to see what that thing was that landed.
The crashed pod is now surrounded by mindless villagers.
Because of that she is forced to visit an old friend, an old woman that studies the occult. She seeks guidance from her.
That crazy voodoo woman senses that all people in the village who came in contact with the pod have lost their souls, they are stored into the pod.
Granny needs to confront the alien from the pod and destroy him to release the souls and return her husband to normal.
She confronts the alien and punches him out instantly…he's super weak.
[ANTICLIMAX] The spirits don't return to their hosts but instead fly up to the sky revealing a gigantic space ship.
The crazy voodoo friend calls on her occult magic to call the spirits back…but a few have gone too far already (the spirit of granny's husband).
Because of this… Granny explodes with energy as she knows she needs to get to the pace ship to get her husbands' soul back. This triggers the spirits to merge with granny..who now becomes SUPER GRANNY
Like superman she bends down her old legs and jumps up to the sky towards the spaceship for the final battle!
until finally….I imagine the spirit of her husband sacrifices himself to save her but he used up so much energy he won't have the energy to return to his body.
He becomes part of her and she realizes that he'll always be with her.
and ever since….Granny now wakes up everyday on the same time her husband used to, and tends the field.
THE END
Visual references:
I really inspired this on my own character designs. Visually I envision a mixture between French comics and animation from studio 4 degrees (Tekkinkonkreet) and Bill Plympton.
EDIT: Those sketches gave me the idea that perhaps the husbands' soul transforms into a katana blade that allows her to defeat the alien and free the souls.
I guess this isn't a new idea but I thought I'd submit this as a possible story concept. Mark said a while back that it would maybe work as an animation but I know its a little different from the stuff we have been posting so far.
The setting/style whatever could be changed. I don't mind. Just wanted to put an idea forward
I originally had another idea for the ending. The girl has fun spending time with her new friend but like all turtles, eventually he misses his family and wants to return to the ocean to find them (just like the girl misses her father). I thought that the girl and the turtle both set off together in a small row-boat to find them...but I wasn't sure how far it would actually go. But its all open to discussion anyway...
