@Alan @Phil Premise concepts
The day I met Captain Pugwash
Many people have an inspiring story that lead them to animation. I think mine is one of the more topsy turvy paths. Thinking back, my first experience of animation , outside of watching movies or TV, was a chance meeting with a truly incredible man, who created amazing adventures and wonderful worlds from his own garden shed.
The gentleman I met was John Ryan, the creator of Captain Pugwash.
I was about 5 years old. I was at a business meeting/party with my mum in a big fancy hotel. I remember feeling incredibly small and unimportant compared to all the tall, well dressed men. They were all drinking posh alcohol (I think it was port), and smoking large cigars. To me, from my tiny young point of view, they looked like giant mythical creatures of great knowledge. All of these creatures were bustling around, shaking hands and making booming, raucous chuckles. I felt very out of place but was also delighted by how busy and fine everything was.
Clinging to my mum’s hand, I was introduced to a blur of faces, all with posh names and large stomachs. I was getting tired and a bit overwhelmed so I was found a table with a large chair and a colouring book to keep me occupied quite happily for a while, completely oblivious of the world around me. I remember finding the chair quite amusing as it was a lot bigger than I was, and I couldn’t get in or off on my own. The ground felt like it was a million miles away.
I don’t know why, but for some reason I looked up, to see a gentleman with a friendly face looking at me. He smiled and went back to scribbling on the piece of paper in his hand. I guessed that he was writing some important notes from the meeting. I went back to my colouring book for a good while. As the evening went on, I told my mum about the man and she told me who he was.
He was a famous animator of a much loved cartoon.
I was taken over to meet the man. I learnt that his name was John and he asked me what I had so carefully been doing at the table, and I showed him my colouring. He said he was very impressed. I asked if I could see what he had been drawing, after taking a quick glance at his bit of paper. He made me close my eyes and when I opened them, in front of me was a charming characature of me, ringlets, freckles and all. I was blown away. He said he wanted to give it to me as a present. He got a fresh piece of paper and drew me a very cheerful Captain Pugwash, addressed it to me and signed it, then handed it to me along with my portrait.
He said he was going to have to leave soon as “he was getting old you know” but that he was so happy to have met me, and that I made his night.
I think I could say he made my life that night.
Amygdala
Explaining the internal workings of anxiety in a way that can easily understood.
“Journey within the mind to discover the characters within the brain”
Spotlight down with little brainy amygdala. He is weedy and very nervous. Screen shakes and colour flashes to show fears, he reacts by trying to defend himself. When he calms back down a muscle pops up.
A training regime style sequence is shown, with the Amygdala getting more and more muscly.
The Amygdala turns into a bully and starts pounding the ground causing the shakes (=anxiety). Other brain characters come to try and calm him down but nothing works. He is shut in a small box with plants which he loves and cares for and they bloom. His energy from the muscles goes into the flowers and they flourish.
When kindled, anxiety can create something beautiful.
Native American Fire Stories
Native chanting in a circle around a fire. Fire spirits tell stories of the ancestors, using Touch the Earth’s music
A fox shaman priestess (see doodle below) strolls through a Forrest talking about the turn of the year.
She moves towards a bright, moonlit clearing. There are a group of animals, all with natural drums and wearing native clothing, sat around the fire chanting. The fox sits down and the fire begins to dance and show stories of the ancestors. The fire builds and grows into a crescendo and we end up seeing their silhouettes against the fire.
Fading away
Shows the impact of small words and mean actions on a small child. Each encounter takes away a part of the child.
The child starts off as “whole” in a bright and cheerful colour. Toxic people come and begin stealing parts of the child’s “light”. The child becomes more and more “broken” with each toxic encounter. We then see the child grown up with a partner and see how the partner starts to reintroduce light to the character with tiny words and actions.
Tabasco monster
A large, boil covered, fat monster chases a young boy down a carridore. It wants to eat him but is quite slow moving. However the child is getting tired. The only way that the boy can stop the monster for a few seconds is by throwing Tabasco sauce at the monster. This is its favourite food, so it stops, licks the sauce of its body with a tongue that goes around him twice, then starts chasing again. The boy escapes by throwing a whole bottle of Tabasco at the monster, then running through a door and jamming it.
Gaslighting and ghosting
Shows how damaging and upsetting being gaslit and then ghosted can be.
The character starts off looking normal. Speech bubbles around with gaslighting phrases around her damage her, and she begins loosing all colour. The environment becomes darker and darker until there’s nothing left.
A text appears. “We’re done”
Character falls through a hole that opens up in the floor, into deep water and is drowning. A hand appears and pulls them out. They are pulled up onto a raft, given a blanket and a heart shaped hot water bottle. The two sit and cry together and then sail away off to the horizon.
Brain Fog
Fleisher style animation based around experience of brain fog.
Doodling myself on a piece of paper and then leave the shot (live Action)
The drawn me comes alive and jumps into my journal. The journal becomes a world like a pop-up book. The fog follows through the book journey, flattening pop-ups and closing pages. The fog is getting closer so the character writes madly on a piece of paper and tried to hide from it. It rushes over her and she forgets everything. She opens her hand and there’s a note. She opens it.
“Keep going, you’re doing great.”
Shot changes to me staring straight at the camera.
“Sorry, what were you saying? Got a little foggy there.”
Many people have an inspiring story that lead them to animation. I think mine is one of the more topsy turvy paths. Thinking back, my first experience of animation , outside of watching movies or TV, was a chance meeting with a truly incredible man, who created amazing adventures and wonderful worlds from his own garden shed.
The gentleman I met was John Ryan, the creator of Captain Pugwash.
I was about 5 years old. I was at a business meeting/party with my mum in a big fancy hotel. I remember feeling incredibly small and unimportant compared to all the tall, well dressed men. They were all drinking posh alcohol (I think it was port), and smoking large cigars. To me, from my tiny young point of view, they looked like giant mythical creatures of great knowledge. All of these creatures were bustling around, shaking hands and making booming, raucous chuckles. I felt very out of place but was also delighted by how busy and fine everything was.
Clinging to my mum’s hand, I was introduced to a blur of faces, all with posh names and large stomachs. I was getting tired and a bit overwhelmed so I was found a table with a large chair and a colouring book to keep me occupied quite happily for a while, completely oblivious of the world around me. I remember finding the chair quite amusing as it was a lot bigger than I was, and I couldn’t get in or off on my own. The ground felt like it was a million miles away.
I don’t know why, but for some reason I looked up, to see a gentleman with a friendly face looking at me. He smiled and went back to scribbling on the piece of paper in his hand. I guessed that he was writing some important notes from the meeting. I went back to my colouring book for a good while. As the evening went on, I told my mum about the man and she told me who he was.
He was a famous animator of a much loved cartoon.
I was taken over to meet the man. I learnt that his name was John and he asked me what I had so carefully been doing at the table, and I showed him my colouring. He said he was very impressed. I asked if I could see what he had been drawing, after taking a quick glance at his bit of paper. He made me close my eyes and when I opened them, in front of me was a charming characature of me, ringlets, freckles and all. I was blown away. He said he wanted to give it to me as a present. He got a fresh piece of paper and drew me a very cheerful Captain Pugwash, addressed it to me and signed it, then handed it to me along with my portrait.
He said he was going to have to leave soon as “he was getting old you know” but that he was so happy to have met me, and that I made his night.
I think I could say he made my life that night.
Amygdala
Explaining the internal workings of anxiety in a way that can easily understood.
“Journey within the mind to discover the characters within the brain”
Spotlight down with little brainy amygdala. He is weedy and very nervous. Screen shakes and colour flashes to show fears, he reacts by trying to defend himself. When he calms back down a muscle pops up.
A training regime style sequence is shown, with the Amygdala getting more and more muscly.
The Amygdala turns into a bully and starts pounding the ground causing the shakes (=anxiety). Other brain characters come to try and calm him down but nothing works. He is shut in a small box with plants which he loves and cares for and they bloom. His energy from the muscles goes into the flowers and they flourish.
When kindled, anxiety can create something beautiful.
Native American Fire Stories
Native chanting in a circle around a fire. Fire spirits tell stories of the ancestors, using Touch the Earth’s music
A fox shaman priestess (see doodle below) strolls through a Forrest talking about the turn of the year.
She moves towards a bright, moonlit clearing. There are a group of animals, all with natural drums and wearing native clothing, sat around the fire chanting. The fox sits down and the fire begins to dance and show stories of the ancestors. The fire builds and grows into a crescendo and we end up seeing their silhouettes against the fire.
Fading away
Shows the impact of small words and mean actions on a small child. Each encounter takes away a part of the child.
The child starts off as “whole” in a bright and cheerful colour. Toxic people come and begin stealing parts of the child’s “light”. The child becomes more and more “broken” with each toxic encounter. We then see the child grown up with a partner and see how the partner starts to reintroduce light to the character with tiny words and actions.
Tabasco monster
A large, boil covered, fat monster chases a young boy down a carridore. It wants to eat him but is quite slow moving. However the child is getting tired. The only way that the boy can stop the monster for a few seconds is by throwing Tabasco sauce at the monster. This is its favourite food, so it stops, licks the sauce of its body with a tongue that goes around him twice, then starts chasing again. The boy escapes by throwing a whole bottle of Tabasco at the monster, then running through a door and jamming it.
Gaslighting and ghosting
Shows how damaging and upsetting being gaslit and then ghosted can be.
The character starts off looking normal. Speech bubbles around with gaslighting phrases around her damage her, and she begins loosing all colour. The environment becomes darker and darker until there’s nothing left.
A text appears. “We’re done”
Character falls through a hole that opens up in the floor, into deep water and is drowning. A hand appears and pulls them out. They are pulled up onto a raft, given a blanket and a heart shaped hot water bottle. The two sit and cry together and then sail away off to the horizon.
Brain Fog
Fleisher style animation based around experience of brain fog.
Doodling myself on a piece of paper and then leave the shot (live Action)
The drawn me comes alive and jumps into my journal. The journal becomes a world like a pop-up book. The fog follows through the book journey, flattening pop-ups and closing pages. The fog is getting closer so the character writes madly on a piece of paper and tried to hide from it. It rushes over her and she forgets everything. She opens her hand and there’s a note. She opens it.
“Keep going, you’re doing great.”
Shot changes to me staring straight at the camera.
“Sorry, what were you saying? Got a little foggy there.”
One of the strengths of all your ideas on here are how visual they are; there's a sense of you describing imagery that is playing out very vividly in your brain :)
ReplyDeleteI think you need to swerve Captain Pugwash, simply because there's a glowering copyright issue at the centre of what is obviously a cherished memory. There's lots about that descriptive passage that's nice - the description of the men, your size in comparison and so on - it's just I wonder what the permissions would be around it... and also, just in terms of audience, you might have to spend quite a long time telling people who Captain Pugwash was/is... I barely remember himself really...
There's a theme running through most of your ideas regarding a sense of being 'done unto' by other people - so gas lighting, 'fading away', and the anxiety idea. To me it feels as if you're speaking from a place of experience, but moving that experience into these slightly more formulaic ideas. What's nice about the Pugwash story is that it is very clearly written from life and feels that way too. You don't have to do it on here in full view, but I'd like you to try focusing on some strong formative memory - something true and vivid. It doesn't have to be dramatic or miserable or sad or any of those things - just in the first instance, a list of vivid childhood memories that live on in your mind's eye - tastes, places, a holiday, a moment, a Christmas, a birthday, a visit, a scare, a thrill... They don't have to be story ideas - perhaps it is better that they're not in this first instance, because I don't want you thinking you have to shape them or even understand their wider significance. Just get them down - quick and dirty - and we'll have a good old rummage through them after that!