For this story I feel a more watercoloured feel would be best and the colour pallette should be of pastel tones. Most of the artwork by Studio Ghilbi has the same feel and it brings a nuance to the feel of the film. Below are some examples of the works.
One could also go for a more children’s book type feel.
On the other hand, films by wes anderson can be taken into account, where the colour pallatte were of pastel tones and gave modern yet contemporary touch to the scenery.
References
Pink Panther. 1963. [Film] Directed by Tom O’Loughlin. George DeLado. USA: United Artists.
Saint-Exupéry, A. d., 1943. The Little Prince. s.l.:s.n.
The Little Prince. 2015. [Film] Directed by Mark Osborne. France: Netflix.
Taking a bite from the sci-fi categories, a wild idea came into mind. Still have to figure out the kinks but here it goes.
The story is about an elderly man (depressed) who is cleaning out his attic and he comes across a box that contains memories of his childhood. Way below is a VHS tape labelled “My Life – A retrospective” . He dusts of an old tv and vcr and inserts the tape. He starts to rewind the tape and we show it is also deaging the protagonist as well. The forward and rewind options help him relive the big moments of his life. Towards the end the tapes reel gets coiled and destroyed. Regardless of this he has a smile on his face and sleeps peacefully.
An inspiratio was Everything, everywhere, all at once;
Some of these visuals are just the right ingrdients to get the tone and essence of the story.
References
Everything Everywhere All at Once. 2022. [Film] Directed by Daniel Scheinert Daniel Kwan. s.l.: IAC films.
Ratatoullie. 2007. [Film] Directed by Brad Bird. s.l.: Pixar.
For this concept I took a more personal and somewhat generic approach. I have spent countless hours on trying to come up with various ideas and concpetions. Got myself into a creative block and in my low moment I remebered what my grandfather used to say. He said “in order for to be remembered for 100 years, you do not to live that long. Do one special thing by which people will remeber you for many years.” This is what my story is.
The Story
I have created a caricature of my self and show how bad the creative block is. In my low moment (an animated) hand appears out of knowwhere and takes my hand and helps me draw. It reminded me of how my Grandfather used to do that. He is the reason that I started my journey into the field of arts when I was about 3 and it was his mentorship that has brought me to this point.
This is the type of concept that could work well for 30 seconds and is something that I think will resonate with some people as well. The name for this concept is Suis Moi – Follow me.
References
A dreamy artist uses her imagination to augment her mundane life.. 2018. [Film] Directed by Carlos Lascanno. s.l.: Omeleto.
An elderly man is given the opportunity to relive one day of his life. 2019. [Film] Directed by Michael Lawyers. s.l.: Omeleto.
Ghajini. 2008. [Film] Directed by A. R. Murugadoss. s.l.: Geeta Arts.
Ratatoullie. 2007. [Film] Directed by Brad Bird. s.l.: Pixar.
Spider-Man 2. 2004. [Film] Directed by Sam Raimi. USA: Sonny Pictures.
I just had to put this out there. A couple of months ago I worked on a project with some colleagues of mine. The Project was called “Notes of Chagla”, and it was a TVC (televison commercial) to commemoradte 75 years of Pakistan. Instead of going the more generic route of giving tribute to our nations creators, we took a more artisitc turn and gave tribute to the person who composed Pakistans national anthem. Tributes have been given to Hafeez Jalandari (who wrote the natioanl anthem) but not to Ahmed G chagla (who made the original composition).
The story is about an university student who studies in the department of musicology. His thesis gets rejected just weeks before public display and the reason cited is for the compositions being to cliche and generic. His supervisor gives him the ultimatum to either come up with soemthing new or give up and try again net year. Devastated he locks himself up in his room. He is in a creative block and sees a picture of his father with a harmonium. (Just to give a backstory here, his father used to be a musician and one the first people who sang the national anthem). His son goes through his old stuff and comes across an old VHS tape that says “Interview”. His plugs in his old vcr and plays it. Up comes an old interview of his father. The host asks him what kind of music he prefers?. To give it a more patrotioc touch he replies that the national anthem is the only musical piece that resonates with him. His son gets an epiphany and goes on a search to find his fathers band together. These people are the only ones who know the original compostion of the national anthem. He brings them together for his thesis. Cut to the day of the thesis show and sadly his thesis is rejected again. He calls up his mother and tells her that he is giving up as his work got rejected again. His mother composes herself and tell her what his father used to say. “A musicians job is to spread music” and this is exactly what he does. He starts a live feed on his social media and shows a live perfoamce of his thesis.
Now cutting it down to 30 seconds would be unjust and even then I would not have ample time to animate. Will leave an animted version of my project for another day.
References
Notes of Chagla. 2022. [Film] Directed by Sarmad Cheema. Pakistan: Filmbaily.
This weeks assignment was much trickier than the last one. Trickier in the sense that it needed a more personal approach. I have spent days researching the types of works that have been done on this topic. I think this is the first time I went to google page 2. Anyway, the stories seem to be a bit generic, and this is a consistent problem. For example we have stories that usually include an old person reminiscing his whole life. Either he is about to die, on his death bed or alone and without a family. A similar approach can be seen using animals. Although they may be dramatic and touchy interpretations but are been there done that type of things.
For me the most effective ones are;
The Little Prince (2015 film)
“Growing up is not the problem, but forgetting is.” One of the most uplifiting quotes in the film that makes you realise that we have a limited time and need to live the most of it. Directed by Mark Osborne (Creator of KungFu Pand) The Little Prince is not a direct adaptaion of the novel, but still uses the novel as its plot device. In the film the novel is basically a novel but it is narrated by an old man (the aviator). At the heart of it all is The Little Girl, who’s being prepared by her mother for the very grown-up world in which they live – only to be interrupted by her eccentric, kind-hearted neighbor, The Aviator. The Aviator introduces his new friend to an extraordinary world where anything is possible. A world that he himself was initiated into long ago by The Little Prince. It’s here that The Little Girl’s magical and emotional journey into her own imagination – and into the universe of The Little Prince – begins. And it’s where The Little Girl rediscovers her childhood and learns that ultimately, it’s human connections that matter most, and that what’s truly essential can only be seen with the heart.
The Little Prince (1943 Novel)
Although a children’s book, the story has a deep message about loneliness, friendship, sadness, and love. The prince is a small boy from a tiny planet (an asteroid to be precise), who travels the universe, planet-to-planet, seeking wisdom. On his journey, he discovers the unpredictable nature of adults.
If we delved into the sci-fi category then we have a never ending library. Total recall would be an ideal example where the protagonist envisons to visit colonized Mars and one day gets tired of his mundane life goes to a comapny called “Rekall”. They plant false memories into people’s brains, in order to experience the thrill of Mars without having to travel there. But something goes wrong during the procedure; Quaid discovers that his entire life is actually a false memory and that the people who implanted it in his head now want him dead.
Total Recall trailer
Best Friend (2018)
short film – Best Friend
The film tackles the norms of having a perfect life and how life would be depressing without friends. It takes a sci-fi turn 10 seconds into the film, where we are introducted to the long rumored concept of implanting chips in our heads where we could implant all sorts of memories into our brain. The film highlights depression and how addictive it can get when not treated properly.
Nostalgia – Short Film
Nostalgia – short film
The film borrows a page from Toy story 3 where andy is going of to college and we see him making the hard choice of giving up his childhood friends – His Toys. The short film borrows heavily from it and shows that we don’t have to let go of everything, we can also carry its memories.
Another interesting approach for the topic came in the shape of a film called “Motorcycle girl”.
Motorcycle girl trailer
The Pakistani film is directed by Adnan Sarwar and tells the story of girl who travels to the north of Pakistan on a motorbike to bury the ashes of his father, as it was his father’s dream to travel to the Khunjarab Pass (China Border). On her journey she befriends and old man. They develop a father-daughter sort of bond. In the end when she is reaches the border it is revealed that the old man was spirit of his father.
All of these examples are what standout for me in terms of drama, writing and execution. I think The Little Prince has struck a cord and will try to do something on those lines.
References
Best Friend. 2018. [Film] Directed by Shen Yi, Juliana De Lucca, Varun Nair, David Feliu Nicholas Olivieri. France: Gobelins.
Through my animation, I wanted to show how creative and imaginative children are. Their creativity integrated with how naïve they are, portraying only children’s innocence; as we grow older and get more involved in worldly matters and lose that innocence. I was quite satisfied with how my ideas and concepts were shaping out. It portrayed and delivered the message that I wanted to convey. However, I faced some issues with time management. I spent more time thinking about my concept which left less time for working on the visuals. Everyone seemed to like the idea and the story and suggested that I should choose places of the mind and develop it to its full potential. After the feedback, I realised that I need to further develop the visuals such as the scenes showing the astronaut in space exploring the galaxy and adding a climax to show why the aircraft falls which will do justice to the concept.
Altought I have created a very rough animatic, the problem still remains that the pacing is off. Also the story needs a bit more detailing for it to be better registered.
This is a more relatable story and I am sure to pick this for further development as I see it having a short film scope.
The story starts of with an upbeat montage, which included a small hand wearing gloves, pulling a lever, pushing the ‘engine start’ button, closing down the helmet visor. A rocket gets into position and blasts off. We see a kid in a spacesuit, exploring the galaxy. He gets a message from the command central that his rocket is ready to test hyperspeed. He straps in and blasts off. A montage of him passing by the planets in warp speed. As he picks up for more speed, his rocket goes haywire and suddenly he starts to run out of fuel and is about to crash. The automated driver shouts warning! warninng! . A POV shot of him flying towards the screen and we cut to him and reveal that it was a childrens joy ride and had run out of coin.
Rocket joy ride
All of sudden you get this sense that it will start to take off.
Lets get the cat out of the bag first. There is no secret that whenever we hear the word ‘Places of Mind’ we instantly think about the mind place that Sherlock introduced to the modern age. He has this whole mental palace where he stores his trail of thoughts, memories and calculates every move.
One small step – short
Instead of appropriating this thing, I believe are more old school and personal approach would be the way. You know how you are a kid and start to fantasize vivid imagery by just looking at an object. For example say you are sitting in one of rides where you put in a coin and the ride (be it a car, train or a rock) moves back and forth.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – Short Story
People who are daydreaming and not paying attention to the outside world are referred to as Walter Mittys. Walter Mitty rose to prominence as a symbol of America.
This short tale seems to fit the description of a garden path story because it is written in “Thurber’s own narrative style – economical, mildly sardonic, and brilliantly evocative” (Holmes 218). To intentionally deceive someone is meant by the idiom “to lead someone along the garden path.”
The narrative begins in the middle of one of Mitty’s delusions, in which he is a naval commander in charge of a hydroplane during a violent storm. Mitty is the ideal officer, revered by his team for his valour and skill. The reader and Walter Mitty both recognise that the situation is entirely in Mitty’s head: He is truly behind the wheel of an automobile, and his wife is yelling at him to slow down. Similar real-world incidents serve as the catalyst for the other delusions in the narrative. Mitty imagines donning medical gloves as, in the character of an internationally renowned surgeon, he prepares to operate on a billionaire banker after Mrs. Mitty tells him to wear his gloves.
Thurber skillfully contrasts Mitty’s everyday life—he is running errands for Mrs. Mitty while she attends her hair appointment—with more serious problems of life and death. Mitty starts to see himself in court as the ideal defendant as a newsboy shouts out the headlines of a murder trial, but then he connects the word “cur” with the puppy cookie his wife has asked him to buy. Then, in one of the story’s funniest passages, Mitty imagines himself as a gallant World War II pilot attacking a German ammunitions plant while reading a copy of Liberty magazine. Mrs. Mitty interrupts him for the last time because he has forgotten the dog biscuit. Mitty then visualises a firing squad and resolutely rejects the blindfold.
References
One Small Step. 2018. [Film] Directed by Bobby Pontillas Andrew Chesworth. s.l.: s.n.
Thurber, J., 1939. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. s.l.:The New Yorker.
Arsalan Awais 