Narrative: Idea Development

HORROR: I WANT TO BE A PUPPET

Act 1 – Small cute character sees puppet/music box show, admiring the performers. The character

too wants this admiration and sets off to find out how

Act 2 – Goes into ‘dressing room’ type of environment discovering lots of models/puppets heads on

poles (like a friendly version of gruesome heads on spikes?). Gets caught up in a web pulling its limbs

back and hurts itself (like a puppet not having control over its limbs)

Act 3 – The joyous colours and smiles of the performers can now be seen to be menacing (like the

way people interpret clowns, they’re funny until the lights are out). Character looks down at broken

limb now thinking how much they don’t want to be a performer/puppet as they too have lost

control of their limbs

ADVENTURE: CHARACTER SEES PLANE CRASH (DESTINY INSPIRED)

Act 1 – Character gets ready for ‘work’ and decides to fly his plane even though it’s a little damaged/

empty fuel; plane crashes

Act 2 – Character wakes up and sees themselves getting ready for work, character is confused, tests

out why he’s there (hand through himself etc)

Act 3 – Character knows how to save himself and acts upon it

COMEDY: A DOGS CHEW TOY

Act 1 – Hear puppy moaning and searching amongst toys to find desired object. Character reveals

himself out of pity however the character resembles something else (i.e. a plump belly round like a

ball, a long body like a bone?)

Act 2 – Puppy plays rough with Character we hear contrasting happy/tearing sounds

Act 3 – Character will no longer reveal himself as he is missing parts of him (limb/stuffing/mangles

face etc)

OR character continues to play with puppy using its limb to play fetch?

Narrative: Art Directions

Narrative: Idea Inspirations

After looking into the different genres and it's aspects, we went into looking at animated shorts to find inspirations. Here are some of the animated shorts we've looked at that sparked some idea for further development.

Narrative: Exploring The Different Genres

Action/Adventure (A goal to achieve)

Essentially one long quest with a succession of issues to overcome. It has rising tension and anticipation leading to the final 'sequence.'

          Examples:

          ~ Flying a toy plane

          ~ Using toys to escape (toy plane, bouncing on a ball, skateboard)

          ~ Trying to be the toy on the top shelf/on pillow

Comedy 

There are many different ways to explore a comedy genre. The conventions that allow this are; Types of Comedy, Setting, Iconography, Character, Theme, Bright Colours.

          Subgenres within comedy:

          American ~ Cheesy

          Slapstick  ~ Banana skin (silly usually involves pain, timeless)

          Horror      ~ Seeing something unscary, VERY scary

          Adult        ~ Cheeky, unaware of its nature

Crime

Commonly the narrative offers room for debate

          Examples:

          Race, Policing, Gender, Social Events

Romance

There is a common plot within Romance: Boy meets Girl - They become good friends - There are frequent hints made that they would make a great couple - Unfortunately an argument makes the characters hate each other - Until a huge over the top gesture is made and the characters leave happily ever after.

Sci-fi

Generally following a disaster in the past, mankind turns to robotics and scientists to build a new world. Following Todorov's Narrative Theory.

Thriller

There is usually a crime at the core of the narrative, often a murder. The film is sculpted around this, with complex structures and false paths, clues and resolutions.

Horror (A fear of something)

Horror's tend to follow Todorov's Narrative Theory in a linear fashion. With tension climbing for the duration of the film until the resolution that answers all the questions rose within the film. 

          Examples:

          ~ Loosing limbs

          ~ Scissors

          ~ Loose threads

          ~ Dogs chew toy

Narrative: Plot Ideas

After being given the theme of 'In a Toy Cupboard' and the phrase of 'Once Bitten, Twice Shy' we immediately started brainstorming and came up with several ideas. After thinking about style and content we have come up with three plots that we feel could be portrayed effectively. 

Plot 1 - Puppet 

• Puppet looks up at his strings whilst dancing slowly
• Flash back - puppet is dancing erratically, gets tangled and ends up having some of his strings cut
• Cut back to the puppet dancing cautiously and slowly

Plot 2 - Bubblegum 

• Character sees gum on the floor
• Flash back - same character seeing gum, rushing over to it and playing with it, becoming tangled
• Cut back to the character avoiding gum

Plot 3 - The Thread 

• Character walks along and notices a loose thread on his leg
• Flash back - the same character pulling on a loose thread on his arm, resulting in a loss of limb
• Cut back to present day, Character carefully fixes thread on leg