Minor Project: Early Project Ideas

Early Project Ideas

With the summer holidays out of the way, it's about time I got the ball rolling on some ideas for my minor project. Whilst I didn't get a huge amount done from a practical perspective over the last god knows how many months, I did get into the habit of scribbling down obscure ideas whenever they struck, with the possibility of using them to develop something interesting and fun during my final year on the course.

The following are some of the more compelling ideas, with varying levels of development and complexity. 

Idea One

"When a curious robot loses his ability to speak, he must find alternative methods of making new friends."

Made naturally redundant by the evolution and advancement of technology, a household general purpose robot sits in the dust-riddled, sunbleached window of an electronics shop. Up until ten years prior, the robot was top of the line, sporting various impressive features for the time, but nothing more impressive than its ability to communicate. The robot was the first of its kind to be able to speak, through way of a series of prerecorded cassette tapes. These cassette tapes were filled with various snippets of dialogue and they were used as a primitive means of communication between the robot and any human they may be interacting with. Although, this method of communication was soon phased out when the cassette tapes were found to be unreliable, spontaneously unspooling and leaving the robot unable to communicate in any way, as well as consumers recording customised cassette tapes, making the licensed prerecorded tapes unnecessary and ultimately costing the company a considerable amount of money. This method was replaced with a more simplified and reliable digital expression system, as seen in newer models, resulting in the robot being only seen and not heard.

Out of nowhere, a new electronics store appears across the street, directly opposite. A banner with "Coming Soon!" is strewn across the window, as rolling advertisement plays on a television screen beside it. The next day, the robot is awaken by the bright, fluorescent light of the new store to see one of these newer models stood, motionless, in the window. Out of both curiousity and lonliness, the robot leaves the confines of his small shopfront and crosses the street, under cover of darkness. He gradually approaches the window, staring intently at the monitor playing the looping advertisement. The robot discovers this new model communicates through an alternate method to him, through means of visual, digital expressions, although being that he is an older model, this is all gibberish to him.

He moves in closer to the monitor, but is startled when a head moves into view. The newer model has awoken and is equally as curious. The newer model makes an attempt to communicate using their alternate method of communication, but the older model is unable to decipher what is being said. In response, the older model begins to play his 'Greetings' cassette tape, and as luck would have it, the newer model begins to understand! Unfortunately, this only goes so far, as the cassette tape characteristically unspools into a mass of wirey tape and ejects onto the floor. The robots stare at one another blankly, until the older robot has an epiphany. He sprints back into his shop, leaving the newer model looking perplexed and unsure of what is happening. The older model returns with a satchel filled to the brim with various cassette tapes. The older robot begins to rifle through them, pulling out tape after tape. The tapes are revealed to be compilations of various music from various time periods and eras. The older model attempts to assemble snippets of dialogue from various lyrics found in the different songs, as a means of communication.

This project, depending on the scale of the story, would likely transition across both my minor and major projects. I would like the time to design, model and animate everything with an equal amount of attention, as opposed to my previous projects where various aspects have been neglected in favour of others. I would aim to develop a two-five minute animation, although this is entirely dependent on the story and what it will require in terms of design and construction. Constructing a conherent and original screenplay is also compelling to me, as I've not really had the chance to spend a fair amount of time on a slightly more elaborate screenplay with a more cinematic three-act structure until now.

Idea Two

An animated adaptation of Baz Luhrmann's Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen).

This song was produced by Baz Luhrmann for his adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The dialogue is taken directly from an article titled Advice, Like Youth, Probably Wasted on the Young written by Mary Schmich for the Chicago Tribune in 1997. It is written from the perspective of the author if she was to give a commencement speech to a class of students soon to graduate. Because of this, whenever I listen to the song, I hear it as if it were being presented by the principal of an 1980's high school, which is the direction I would likely take it if I were to adapt it. He would be inspired by such iconic principal characters as Principal Vernon from The Breakfast Club and Principal Rooney from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I would open the animation with the principal stepping on stage, with a stereo in hand. He would begin the speech, presenting normally until the music starts to play, where he would press play on the stereo and continue to dictate. As the speech continues, the principal would gradually transition from a stiff, generic lecture to a more dynamic and upbeat display of enthusiasm. His gestures would reflect the lyrics, as they would naturally when you attempt to visualise a spoken concept to an audience.  

The entire project would be primarily a study of animation, with a single character in front of a simple backdrop, supported by interaction with simple props. The purpose of the project would be to focus almost strictly on the animation of one character, cutting back the time spent on modelling characters and environments that I have usually focused on in the past.

Idea Three

What would happen if when staring into bright light, the flecks in vitreous humour aren't that at all, but a minor tear into an alternate reality, sat neatly behind our own? Same with the scratches on camera film, they are remnants of the alternate reality being projected onto a captured still image. This is the conspiracy that has been uncovered by a child who neglected all advice around sun exposure.

After viewing an eclipse at school without the proper glasses, Max stumbled upon a secret kept hidden by the constant advice from teachers and parents alike that he must definitely never, ever look directly at the sun.

This project, depending on the scale of the story, would likely transition across both my minor and major projects. I would like the time to design, model and animate everything with an equal amount of attention, as opposed to my previous projects where various aspects have been neglected in favour of others. I would aim to develop a two-five minute animation, although this is entirely dependent on the story and what it will require in terms of design and construction. Constructing a conherent and original screenplay is also compelling to me, as I've not really had the chance to spend a fair amount of time on a slightly more elaborate screenplay with a more cinematic three-act structure until now.

Idea Four

An animated adaptation of Edward Gorey's The Gashlycrumb Tinies.

The Gashlycrumb Tinies is an illustrated storybook that tells the tale of 26 children and their untimely deaths through a series of rhyming couplets. The book gets its humour from the ridiculous nature of the various deaths, taking what should typically be a taboo and unsettling topic and turning it on its head. If I were to adapt this, I would likely have the poem read out and recorded by a voice actor, with each page being another vignette. The number of characters would be a challenge, but as with the book, I would likely make a generic 'Boy' and 'Girl' model, and modify them with alternate textures and accessories. A similar method of subtle duplication would be applied to the environments also.

Idea Five

A commuter gets on a bus. The noise of the surrounding area is as normal. They take a seat, a larger passenger sits beside them, squashing them into a corner. The commuter struggles to reach into his pocket, pulls out a Walkman and puts the headphones on. Listening to music, the passengers movements and interactions begin to synchronise with the music, loosely at first, but then gradually perfectly in sync, before surpassing it, and eventually their movements lead the music. The animation is carried by the commuter changing tapes, making both slight and drastic alterations to the actions and appearances of the passengers, whilst the commuted constantly remains the same.