Pros – Good theme, touching, brevity while still getting concept across, good character possibilities
Could be beautiful artistically, style
Emotion to convey through not only human characters, but wolves as well
Chance to show respect for Native American culture, gives us opportunity to “break away” from traditional story
Cons – Seminary video, preachy?
Doesn’t have a story right now
Technically challenging
Lots of research since we’re covering Native American culture
12 comments:
Pros: Very different, Very open, very moral, Cool characters, Fighting, dramatic
Cons: Completely serious? (is that a con?) could be messed up by "groupthink" storytelling (which is a possibility for all the shorts, but this has less initial structure so is more vulnerable)
I think that one of the greatest strengths of this one is actually its lack of a set story. That way, when we do our own treatments of it as we begin development (as we all will do anyway), we'll have a wider variety of takes to look at instead of getting stuck within the framework already set out. And we're creative kids; I'm sure we can come up with a great take on it.
Plus it could be so very cool. The tone doesn't have to be perfectly serious, and it certainly doesn't have to be anywhere near preachy. There's a lot of cool camera work/cinematography that could be done here as well.
The only thing that makes me wary about it is it's rather ambitious in that quadrupedal animals are hard to animate and probably hard to rig as well. The type of environment that comes to my head might be hard to set up too. But... Brent always goes on about people loving problem-solvers, and I see no reason to shy away from things just because they'd be hard. But of course that's all y'all's call. :)
I kind of wish I had the text for this one.
Also, I think we should open our minds from Morgan's designs--this short does NOT have to be realistic at all. In fact, I think it would have great potential if it was taken kind of like a children's storybook. In which case the designs could be very cartoony or not. Also, it could be a woman narrator--a mother and her daughter perhaps. They don't even have to be Native American. Let's say they were white people--but the woman still TEACHES that it came from the Native Americans--maybe she states that it is one of the great legacies of that culture to ours. I like the idea of building up Native American's because we totally owe everything to them--our country, our religion--a ton. And they have suffered a lot as a people and quite frankly have gotten way screwed over.
So going with the children's story take on Morgan's idea, I think that we could go as cute/mean/real as we would like to. In my mind I'm actually really liking the idea of the entire short just a mother reading a book to her daughter and the pages are animated in 2D as she turns them--kind of like the moving picures from Harry Potter, maybe, but with more style of course. I think it is simple, beautiful, and not exciting at all, but I see a lot of potential for character reactions/interactions here.
The only problem with that idea is that here again is the quesiton: why do an animation and not a live action flick? Not sure. Anyone have any other ideas on potential takes of Wolves?
ok, so about this:
I know there are one or two people among us who expressed that they REALLY didnt want to work on this one- i would feel bad if it got picked and we had a mutiny like has happened/may be happening on other projects. That would make me very depressed.
however, besides the fact that this is a bit more actiony and less comedic than the other 3 options, i feel confident this story idea is flexible enough to meet the concerns of the whole group.
Jeremy and Rachel and i were discussing stuff after the meeting, and i decided to go ahead and actually write out a few versions of this story so its not so ambiguous. It's unrealistic to expect busy people as we are with much more pressing issues in our lives, like finals, marriages, etc, to take the time to imagine up plausibilies and find the same vision as mine in this material, so my bad.
The theme or message is self-reflection, and that we determine who we are. Its not heavy-handed.
So, one angle (1.1), the simplest one, is to have the storyteller (old man, old woman, old whatever) speak to the AUDIENCE, to us. Speak in 2nd person to us. The only characters are the old person and the two wolves.
That's a weird approach, and it's not the conventional story format that domestic joe will be used to. But it CAN be done well, and it will work- because that's how stories are told orally. When you think about it, human physiology is actually more at home with "let me tell you a story..." format than the stage production-style which emerged in classical civilizations twenty-five hundred years ago that so dominate our media today.
The former is the older and more poigniant. Dont believe me? ask your kids, would they rather watch a movie on TV before bed or have a story told/read to them?
Basically, the dialogue is kinda like the text i read in my original pitch, albeit heavily tailored to meet our goals/needs, etc. I feel like this could be great and fine and all, but maybe too direct for some. I personally, however, would like to see the symbols more subtle.
Ok, version 2.1,and 2.3:
A mouthy, and somewhat arrogant young man in an American Indian village has reached his 14th (or whatever) birthday and its time for his rite of passage, his trial to determine if he will be inducted into the tribe. (He can be a funny or hopeless kid who just doesn't get it if we want, to lighten things up. This would help establish the story as a light-hearted one despite the serious content.)
He goes up the hill to the old person's hut, where over warm embers ember and swirly smoke swirls and all that, he is told about the conflict in the human heart between two forces, good and evil, which struggle inside him like wolves, and how our actions determine which prevails, etc. The cocky kid leaves, glad to get that pointless ritual over and finally get his position as an adult recognized . The old person sighs and shakes their head (as everyone in the village knows the kid is a punk) after he leaves.
As the kid is walking back in the night, he is blocked by the evil wolf, the symbol of that badnessness incarnate, which growls and is about to devour him. The evil wolf is pretty cool-evil looking. Think the bad black wolf in neverending story who says in his growly, scary voice, "THE NOTHING" and made countless little kids cry.
Just in time, a howl goes out, and he looks up the snowy bank above to see the good wolf, all cool and noble and stuff, jump down in the way to protect him. He runs from both and we see the wolves snarling and rolling and biting and doing wolfy things, the evil wolf gets away and charges after the kid again, etc. intermittently (is that a word?) he closes his eyes and sees things he did earlier, selfish, mean or other bad-kid acts as the evil wolf is about to get him (or bites his leg, etc, though to be honest, if a wolf bites you, unlike with a dog, they dont clamp down, they slash with their teeth, theyre much more dangerous than dogs), and flashes of his good deeds right before the white wolf jumps in and kicks serious butt good-guy-wolf style.
Now, we could have the good wolf lose(2.1), the kid wishing he hadnt been so lame with the fade to black with the bad wolf pinning him to the snow, with some evil-bloody harvest moon in the sky above or something. Frowns.
Or (2.2) good wolf triumphs, while the kid has done some punk things, overall he has a good heart. The kid looks up at the good wolf standing up the hill in gratitude before he goes back to his cozy wigwam, now a true member of the tribe, etc. This would be very typical of a Native American fable, with supernatural and real happening together.
other variations include him going home, having a dream, and seeing this stuff happening inside himself or something. This is more lame.
Let's show it outside, in the cold night, and let the world reflect what's happening. The gritty details of nature, rotting logs, ugly moss, dirt and pine needles under the trees, brambles and broken twigs when we see the evil wolf. When we see good wolf, the beautiful parts of the natural world are emphasized. mountain peaks, clear moonlight, shiny trees and the night sky, with the milky way, falling stars, northern lights, etc.
As far as live-action possibilities go, good luck. Though it sucks, wolves can't be tamed or trained ( ive been researching on keeping them as pets and the best you can hope for that wont eat your kids and run off is a half-wolf, half husky or something). We also couldn't depict the internal battle in the environment around with any degree of awesome stylization, color, design, etc without the power of animation.
I also know that people will really enjoy seeing this story. people love animals, especialy when justly and accurately portrayed. theres something about animalness and the distanced-yet-connected nature they have with us that runs very deep. This idea is felt throughout human history and across the world. The wolves would be awesome, people will be thrilled to see posters ahd magazine spots of this as our next project. No one is going to be upset or concerned if we do two "serious" shorts in a row- we have done consecutive comedies and heard no outcries. The other end of the spectrum will be likewise.
As far as research goes- cmon people, this is college! lol. We'll be fine. Animators have always researched heavily for their work, it's one of the most rewarding parts of the process. It's our BFA final project, its expected.
Finally, think not about the portion of the audience who wont fully appreciate the symbolism, the stylistic approaches, etc. think about the artistically minded, intelligent possible-employers who have a mind and taste for the beautiful, the artistic and the meaningful. Who do we want to work for? who do we want to impress? People see this stuff we do, people take note!
I realize its different for different people, but i personally am an artist and storyteller at heart, and i want to do meaningful things with my career. I realize that a lot of this kind of work will be personal projects of ours, but this is the ONLY time we can for sure do something like this, if we want it. In our future jobs there's no guarantee we'll do anything but happy feet II's and land before time XVII's. It's a rare chance to have this much people-power and this kind of resource, processors and software tools to do what we ourselves want.
I realize we're a sarcastic, laid back and funny group of people. It would be easy for us to just do a comedy, and i know we can do it well. But there's a purpose behind us too, that is more than just that, and it is certainly not hard for us to articulate. It won't take more time than a comedy (comedy is hard, as we know), we're going to hammer out the story quickly and strongly and get going on this.
I would have retired this idea a while ago if it wasn't worth seeing through. Give it another thought, folks. It could be something fresh and new and so, so worth it.
holy CRAP that was too long.
i never thought it bad that it was open, but those were some great options. I really like this idea.
ok, where to start. As Morgan said, he, Rachel, and I had a discussion about this story idea, immediately following our Big group discussion. The biggest concern that most people seemed to have about this story (in my estimation) was that it could easily come across as preachy or heavy-handed; and the fact of the matter is that I agree. That is definately a danger/possibility with this story. However I think that it can be done in a way that is not heavy handed at all. I think it could even be taken to the opposite extreme and be done very subtly. Let me elucidate. I don't think that the story needs to be narrated AT ALL; in fact, I think I would prefer it that way. It could be the story of a young native-american boy's trial of manhood/rite of passage, similar to what morgan described, but without anyone telling him or the audience the story and symbolism of the two wolves. The young boy goes up into the mountain and witnesses the fight of the two wolves; and we trust that the audience is perceptive enough to interperet the symbols (i personally HATE it when a filmmaker spells everything out for the audience; it mocks the audiences intelligence). By doing the story this way, or in another subtle way, it could retain the beautiful design and symbolic imagery, without be heavy handed at all (when was the last time you saw a seminary video in which the principle isn't explicitly spelled out verbally by a character or narrator, followed by a three minute song in which the chorus line is that very same priniciple repeated twelve times?eh?). I think a great example of a film with beautiful symbolism and a serious message is "The Fountain." The message actually is clearly stated in the film, but there is still so much symbolism that is left to the interpretation of the audience. I love films that you can watch several times and still learn or discover something new. I think this story has the potential to be like that.
I very much agree with Jeremy. I think this could be a beautiful story - visually, emotionally and spiritually. I really like dropping the wise leader completely.
we could do it with zero dialougue, the young brave leaves the communiy and goes into the woods, he looks annoyed at what he is being forced to do and sits down angrily, we hear bushes russle, the evil wolves jumps out and begins to chase him, fight him, he runs and as he becomes more confidnet, the white wolf is introduced, the wolves fight as the boy looks on....
basically when he acts angry or lazy the dark wolf gets stronger as he is more noble, the white wolf prevails, perhaps the dark wolf gets close to the camp, and he does a self sacrificing move to protect the community, and the white wolf saves him just in time. all symbolic, no need for narraction, perhaps a quick quote at the end, "in every man's heart..." maybe not
I get this mental image of a kid picking on his little sister, and the evil wolf is just inside the forest, watching with a big smug grin on his face.
Seriously though, I still really do think this thing has great potential. These directions Morgan posted has my brain running around in circles with possibilities.
Agreed. I also like the idea of dropping the older person out of the story, I don't think the concept is that hard to narrate, and if we do it well, we don't need that extra person. Personally, I wouldn't want someone like the grandpa from Kites talking directly at me, his big noggin taking up the whole screen . . .
And I know some people are worried that this piece is too "serious" but I wouldn't see just a little bit of humor completely ruining it, either.
I like this one better now that the narrator has been dropped. I didn't even think of it... I think that's what made it sound seminary video-ish.
Post a Comment