Treatment File- Animation Short

Characters:

There are three main characters in my story.

The main character in the story is the seventeen year old Zion. He easily loses his temper and always looks either angry or annoyed. Zion is a troublemaker that is always looking for fight. Despite his slim figure and average height, he is quite strong. His special features are his lazy green Mohawk, which slightly covers his face, his stretchers and the bar in his left ear. Zion likes to wear t-shirts with a shirt and ordinary straight cut pants and boots.

The second most important character is the twenty-one year old Levi. He's first meets Zion when he accidentally bumps into him on the street, this annoys Zion who then beats him to near death. Even though he is tall and broad, he isn’t physically strong, but he has a kind and forgiving heart. His special features are his blue cap, which he always wears sideways and his baggy clothes, which match his lazy personality.

The third character in my story is the short, nineteen year old Ashi. She is saved by Zion at the end of the animation, when she is about to be mugged. Her bright pink hair matches her happy, outgoing personality. She likes to wear loose tops with shorts and converse.

The other characters, such as the people who start a fight with Zion and the ones that mug Ashi are never properly shown in the animation. Only the back of their heads, hands, feet and shadows are shown. Their faces are never revealed.

1. Concept/ Narrative

The title for my animation is Short Sighted.

Due to the interest of martial arts which I have, I wanted to try incorporate it into the story for my animation. Thus, I came up with the emotionally unstable character Zion who easily loses his temper and starts fights.

The story starts off with Zion being insulted by three people. He fights them until they can no longer move, and carelessly walks away as if nothing had happened. The same day a stranger, named Levi accidentally bumps into him in the street and Zion loses his temper once more and starts a fight. Zion kicks and punches Levi to near death, when suddenly a pair of binoculars fall from the sky and hit Zion on the head. Confused he picks them up and looks through them. Not believing what he sees he looks through once more. What he sees are the spirits leaving Levi’s body. Panicking he runs over to Levi and tries to push the spirits back in using CPR. Luckily Zion manages to save Levi.

After the fright of having nearly killed someone and watching the spirits leave Levi's body, Zion begins to think about his past and realises all the spirits he has broken and people he has hurt. He has a change of heart and he then begins to think before he act. He starts to use his fighting abilities not to hurt others, but to help them. Just like when he saves Ashi from being mugged.

The message which I am trying to convey in the story is that fighting should not be used to hurt people, but to defend them. I also want to express that sometimes people are hurt mentally or physically by others, without the other person considering the damage done to the people they hurt. The title 'Short Sighted' can refer to how people can be narrow-minded and judgemental at first impressions. The title also has a similar meaning to the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. For example, Zion comes across as a bad heartless character, but in reality he is just lost and needs someone or something to make him realise his wrong doings. The fact that he tries to save Levi after having hurt him suggests that he does have a good side to him.

I didn’t really have any influences for my animation but I came across an old Bruce Lee book belonging to my mother, which was written by his wife Linda. In it, it describes Bruce Lee’s life. After reading some of it I found a resemblance between my main character Zion and Bruce Lee. They were both troublemakers which were always itching for a fight. They both seemed a little lost with no proper destination, but then something happens which makes them see the world differently and they begin to find their own path in life.

2. Technique and Approach

For the characters I was thinking of using traditional animation techniques and then fixing them up and Photoshop and putting everything together in After Effects. For the background, I was thinking of creating a 3D Set or using photograph which I took myself. The set will be an urban-looking street scene of old houses and alleyways covered in graffiti. I might use still images of the set and animate them in Photoshop, move them in After Effects or just record the sets and add the animation to it.

Here is a peek of what some of the unfinished parts of the set look like. It still need graffiti everywhere and other little things added to it. 

3. Aesthetic / Mood Board

Reference of an urban-alleyway 

Reference of graffiti wall

I want to use this unusual camera shot in my animation when the characters are walking.

Interesting camera shot.

Reference of a creepy alleyway at night.

I plan to use this camera view in my animation.

My friend in the images is what inspired the character Ashi.

I always loved the unique style of the characters in the Gorillaz. They just look so cool. (I also like their music).

This is an image from the Animatrix - A Kid's Story. I like the urban backgrounds and the techniques that the characters were made with.

These two images are from a Japanese action film that was based on a manga. It's called Crow Zero. There are a lot of fighting scenes in this film as it's about school gangs and yakuza so it's good reference. It also has very interesting camera shots which I think are viewed through a crows eye. The  whole school building is covered in graffiti and the main character has similarities with my character Zion. 

Fight Club is also a good reference as it contains a lot of fighting. 

4. Audio

Since this will be silent movie it will have no dialogue, but it will have various sound effects and music playing.

The music will be playing throughout the whole animation and it will have no vocals. It will just be an instrumental piece. The instruments used will be a bass, a guitar and drums, which will be done digitally, due to the lack of proper recording equipment. I will play the bass myself and my boyfriend will be responsible for the guitar parts.

The bass line is done and so is the guitar, I just need a way to link it together in some parts. I also need to consider that the final animation will be played differently depending on the atmosphere in the scene. For example at the start the music will start off slow and creepy, gradually getting rougher and louder when there are action scenes.The style of music I thought of sounds kind of creepy which is exactly what I want, although I am unsure of what genre it would fit in. I think it's garage rock, as it remind me of The White Stripes style.

Another example I can give is the band Tool, although they aren't garage rock but they have that creepy sound that I am trying to achieve for my animation.

Tool- Schism

Tool always have a very strong lead bass line in their songs and for the music track I want the bass like that too. 

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Otherside 

The simple melody and slow speed of the intro of this song is what I hope to achieve in my finished soundtrack. 

5. Sequence of Events /  Shots List:

The animation starts of with the Title “Short Sighted” as graffiti on a wall. A slow creepy bass line starts playing. The camera then zooms out and moves to the left to show the character Zion leaning against a wall in an alleyway. Three shadows on the ground are approaching Zion. The back of the heads from those characters are revealed. They insult Zion with words (I am not sure of what they say yet) A close up of Zion’s face smirking is shown. The heavy music of the chorus starts. Then a silhouette or the shadows of the characters fighting each other are shown as a Dutch Tilt. For a split second during the last seconds of the fight the camera focuses on the ground and we see blood splashing while we hear sounds of the person being beat up by Zion. The camera then zooms out and slowly moves up into a bit of a low angle to reveal Zion standing up straight his hair blowing in the wind and in the background are three unconscious people lying on the floor.

The bass music becomes quiet and creepy again. The camera changes into something like a Point of View shot of Zion looking down his legs while walking down a street. Then the camera angle changes to show Zion from his stomach up walking towards the camera with an urban street scene of houses covered in graffiti in the background. Levi with his back turned to the camera accidentally bumps into Zion’s shoulder while to walking past him. Levi apologises and moves on. An extreme close up of Zion’s angry face is shown after having been bumped into by a stranger. Then the camera angle changes to a side profile of Levi walking, then as the music becomes heavy again as we see Zion’s fist on screen punching Levi at the back of his head. Zion continues to hit and kick Levi in a Dutch Tilt camera angle. The camera zooms in on Zion chest up and shows a pair of binoculars falling onto his head. He stops beating up Levi due to the confusion from the binoculars. The music becomes slow and creepy again as a close up of Zion’s hand picking up the binoculars is shown. The camera changes to a medium close up of Zion holding the binoculars to his eyes. We then see an extreme close up of Zion’s face, for the first time looking scared and confused after having looked through the binoculars. It goes back to a medium shot of Zion looking through again. From the view of looking through the binoculars we see Levi lying on the ground while his spirits are leaving him. This time the camera follows the binoculars falling down onto ground while hearing Zion running. Then the camera goes to a point of view shot of what the binoculars would see from the ground. The music becomes heavy again as we see Zion trying to push the spirits back into Levi’s body. For a second complete darkness is shown and the heavy music becomes the heaviest at this part. Then through the eyes of Levi we see Zion’s completely desperate and frustrated expression of fear while trying to save him. At this point the music becomes softer again.

The next day Zion and Levi walk beside each other on an urban street. Only the view of their feet is shown while they walk. Then a one point perspective of an alleyway is shown At the front of the camera is a girl named Ashi who is about to be mugged. In the back at the top of the alleyway we see the silhouette of Zion and Levi passing. The view of the legs is shown again. Levi stops while Zion walks a few more steps. A front view of the main characters is shown from chest up. Zion is looking back at Levi looking at the alleyway. An extreme close up of Zion’s face is shown as he is smiling confidently. The camera goes back to Ashi, who’s face is covered in tears of fear and we see an over the shoulder view of the man about to punch Ashi in the face. Just as he is about to hit her Zion’s hand stops him at that point the camera angle changes to a point of view shot through the muggers eyes. The music becomes heavy again and when Zion kicks the mugger in the face and then the camera breaks like glass. After that `The End´ is revealed in graffiti writing. Then the end fades out and the credits are shown moving upwards with maybe some images of the characters. After the credits will be special thanks to whomever I want to give them to and the last image will be of the main characters as friends. Then when my animation is fully finished the music fades out.