Script Update

First page of the script! Not all actions or visuals are layed out here but the voice is being developed.

As a first draft, I have just let words flow and even with that said, my initial ideal for him to have a gloomy dipostion has developed further into being bitter, cold and alone. 

INT. Mazikki’s bungalow, Dark and melancholy setting of his bedroom

Mazikki is lying lazily in bed.

MAZIKKI (V.O)

It was a dull, stony winter.

It was clear both within my inner most turmoil and around my pointless existence that my life resembled that very cold, prickly nature of both winters past and present.

That is why I put myself away like an exiled criminal shut out from the light.

Strangely yet purposefully, that is what I wished for.

Chapter one: Isolation

INT. Bathroom. Day time

The bathroom was suffused by an artificial indistinct light.

MAZIKKI (V.O)

It was within this exile that life did me no favours. My mindless brothers surpassed me in every way without caring for my existence.

My life separated from others when my heart separated 5 years ago- a sweet, delicate woman that slipped out of my grasp before being confronted by icy blackening manner of death.

It is only natural that I too surrounded my life in darkness.

ANNETTE (TEXT)

Why?

MAZIKKI (V.O)

Something had become of me within the many nights. A dream of some kind- a women somehow.  

Action Plan update 8th March 2013

This week has been big in terms of the development of my story, however it still has a long way to go. Unfortunately, I only have a short time to do this in but it is still achievable.

My next steps involve the scripts development. To start me off I have written the piece as a monologue, separating all of the sections (of grief)  but leaving out the visual elements until the voice element is finished. I plan to finish this by next Friday (15th) with most visuals set in stone also.

Along side this, I need to start collecting ideas and designing some of the backgrounds in which scenes take place. To start of, I will create the home of Mazikki. To keep the design simple and to avoid the threat of complicating the animation, I am going to use a collection of photographs similar to how 'She and her Cat' was produced, to create interesting detailed backgrounds. But for now, I am in the designing stages.

First Proposal

FDA Specialist Project Proposal by

Scheduling

 Progression update

I have been reviewing my progress so far, and it seems that my work is developing after each bit of research or video that I see. I think it is great to get inspiration from others but it is also a concern of mine because as good as research is, I don't want to fall into the trap of copying other work. I have been thinking about how to avoid such a disaster from happening and in truth I need to write down and get clear in my head what bits I want to apply and modify for my film. Only then can I feel that I am not simply recreating the same idea.

So this is what I have done. Combine sources of imagery by 'The Road', the isolated atmosphere and monochrome tone of 'She and her Cat' I want to create a slow placed edit that builds up tension to the critical phases of Mazikki's grieving. Colour itself would be added towards the end as the final stages of acceptance come into play. The animation style however would remain similar to Studio Ghibli, but the movement would be limited similar to 'She and her Cat' for production deadlines and to give the piece a dream-like quality. Even though I have taken ideas as inspiration, I want to combine them to influence my own work, writing it down makes the whole process a lot clearer.

However, this isn't set in stone. I am still continually doing research to get enough information for my script and until that is written out, my visual ideas my change. Not too drastically, however.

 Schedule

The progression of the production in more detail:

Specialist Project Schedule by

She and her Cat

She and her Cat by  Makoto Shinka

When looking at Studio Ghibli shorts, I came across 'She and her Cat' created by Makoto Shinka. He isn't a part of the Studio Ghibli universe but sits close next to it. This work in particular is interesting to me because of it's simplicity, yet it is conveying a message of loneliness in a heart felt way. It does away with the complex character types and focuses on a single bond that two characters share.

First Chapter extract from 'The Road' by Cormac Mccarthy

An extract from 'The Road' describing a dream of seeing a creature inside a cave:

''When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world. His hand rose and fell softly with each precious breath. He pushed away the plastic tarpaulin and raised himself in the stinking robes and blankets and looked toward the east for any light but there was none. In the dream from which he'd wakened he had wandered in a cave where the child led him by the hand. Their light playing over the wet flowstone walls. Like pilgrims in a fable swallowed up and lost among the inward parts of some granitic beast. Deep stone flues where the water dripped and sang. Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth and the hours and the days of it and the years without cease. Until they stood in a great stone room where lay a black and ancient lake. And on the far shore a creature that raised its dripping mouth from the rimstone pool and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders. It swung its head low over the water as if to take the scent of what it could not see. Crouching there pale and naked and translucent, its alabaster bones cast up in shadow on the rocks behind it. Its bowels, its beating heart. The brain that pulsed in a dull glass bell. It swung its head from side to side and then gave out a low moan and turned and lurched away and loped soundlessly into the dark.

Pitch of Idea

The Cave of Nuppeppo by tarapeak

For a swot Analysis and notes read more: