Category: Three by Three

Storyboards

Animatic

Concept art

Worksheet

Images

Working title

• Reflection
• Grief
• Shattered
• Haunted
• Memories
• Memories of you

Audio pillars

Sound palette

• Non-diegetic
  • Piano
  • Violin
  • Harmonising
• Diegetic
  • Broken glass
  • Running tap
  • kettle boiling
  • Cars driving / honking

Style references

• Psychological
• Thriller
• John Carpenter’s Halloween
• Wes Craven’s Scream
• Christopher Nolan’s Inception
• Satoshi Kon’s Paprika
• Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue
• Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange

Challenges

• Foley
• Instruments

Plan and needs

• Collab with sound students
• Practice in garageband

Characters

• Paranoid son
• Deceased mother (son’s projection)

Goal

Leave his room.

Overcome his fear of the outside world.

Obstacle

Idea 1 – Self-doubt stemming from his overbearing mother. She doesn’t want him to take risks, so she puts negative thoughts into his head. As a result, he is afraid to leave his room.

Idea 2 – The son his paranoid of leaving his room after his mother’s unsuspecting death. He’s haunted by her ghost.

Setting

Physically takes place in his room, but we will view his fears the mother has projected onto him. To visually show the fears as projections the environment will be distorted.

Projections

The projections will be found all around his room, for example, in his television screen and on all his walls.

• The Mother
• Fake scenarios

Overcoming obstacle

The son reflects on happy memories of his mother, realising life is worth living.

Questions

Q. What is he in denial of?

A. Death is lurking around the corner. Isolating himself keeps him safe.

Q. How is it a problem?

A. He can’t survive all his life in his room, for example, he will need a job to pay for bills.

Q. What is his age?

A. Young adult, so late teens or early twenties.

Story

Summary

Protagonist overcomes his fear of leaving his room after the traumatic death of his mother, who haunts him through projections.

Act 1

Start with a close up of a picture dating the mothers death. Son is making two cups of tea. When he opens the fridge, he realises he is out of milk. Calls out for his mum to tell her they need milk before realising he’s alone. The son prepares to go to the shop. As he is about to leave, he hears his mother whisper to him. The son looks around to see he’s still alone. When he opens the door to leave, we are greeted by his mother peering in through the crack. The son jumps back, tripping as he falls, transitioning to act 2.

Act 2

The son falls on to the sofa. He turns to the kitchen counter to see his mother making tea. The son, confused, looks around before standing up and confronting the mum. When she turns to pour the milk, blood spills out and she starts distorting. The walls start to crumble, revealing a cityscape. Now in the city, the son sees a projection of his mother’s death. She shatters in front of him like glass. The son looks down to see his mother’s shattered shards on the road, only now there are multiple versions of her broken in the road. The environment also shatters, leaving the son to fall, landing in the corridor where he first met the ghost in act 1.

Act 3

After picking himself up off of the floor, the son looks back at the kitchen counter. Noticing the photo of his mother, he pauses, before looking back at the still opened door with the distorted projection of his mother staring back at him. We get one final shot of the son contemplating his decision to leave before cutting to black. The film ends on two readymade cups of tea.

Mother

Traits

• Overbearing
• Possessive
• Cares too much
• Doesn’t physically appear but has a mental presence over her son

Motive

Wants to remain possessive over the son.

Development

Sets off son’s rage. stalks son through city, finally corners him into submission.

Son

Traits

• Bottles up emotions
• Warped mentality

Motive

Wants to be free of his mother.

Development

Isolates himself, reacts negatively to his mother’s presence in his mind, attempts to escape her, he reflects on his memories of the two, accepts the fact he can’t outrun her, comes to term with her existence, unknown if he accepts or rejects her.

Act 1 – Show his problems

Scene 1 – Denial

The protagonist will be curled up in the center of a dark and empty room. As we slowly pan on him, we catch glimpses of his happy, but distorted, memories through projection.

Subtext – The protagonist is shutting himself off from the memories.

Scene 2 – Outburst

The mother will be stood by his side watching over. She’ll try to embrace him but the protagonist, in a fit of rage, pushes her away. Shattering the mother and the room, transitioning into the city for the second act.

Subtext – The protagonist rejects his memories. We will witness the first break in reality with the shattering.

Act 2 – Running away from reality

Scene 3 – Escape

Establishing shot. Montage of the protagonist running through the city. As we watch the protagonist run away the environment disintegrates behind him. Meanwhile, the mother/memories will be following him through nearby screens. POV shot of the protagonist running up the street, slowing down when hitting the junction. Ending on a reflection shot of him looking into a shop window.

Subtext – The protagonist attempts to escape his memories but comes to a sudden halt when confronted at the junction for an unknown reason.

Scene 4 – Loss

The protagonist realises he’s being followed and can’t outrun the memories. Still in first person, we will continue to watch the memories on the TV. Camera focus will shift back onto his reflection with his distorted mother now behind him. A wide shot pulling away from the protagonist and viewing the city behind him repair itself.

Subtext – The protagonist, now realising he cannot outrun his memories, decides to reflect as he is now at a loss for what to do. Allowing him to snap back to reality.

Act 3 – Accepting reality

Scene 5 – Acceptance

Final scene

We focus back onto the characters still staring at the TV in the window. The mother hugs the protagonist from behind, he reaches his arm towards her embrace before the screen (and audio) cuts to black. Leaving the ending ambiguous as we are unsure whether he accepts or rejects his mother’s embrace.

Subtext – The protagonist will have come to terms with his overbearing mother, coming full circle as he inevitably moves on.

Mickey changes

• Mum isn’t a serial killer (?)
• 3D environment
• Footage with 3D implemented
• Mundane, slow-paced film
• Ambiguous scenario
• Parallel story (Joker)
• Separate colour palettes
• Fire moon
• Juxtaposition
• City = overwhelming and dark
• Field = free with family

Mickey references

Blade Runner 2049: Ambushed in the scrapyard – YouTube

Concept 1: Egg of the Black Goat

Idea & story reference

For my final major project I intend to create a short film, perhaps providing the impression it’s a trailer or opening cinematic for a full feature length movie. Sui Ishida’s ‘Tokyo Ghoul’ was a long running series, spanning over the years of 2011 – 2018, was inspired by Franz Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’. Both stories follow a male protagonist who under goes an unnatural transformation and are forced to overcome dramatic changes in their everyday lives, Tokyo Ghoul however parallels it’s own story with a rather meta approach. ‘Egg of the Black Goat’ is an in universe novel written by an established character in the franchise of Tokyo Ghoul to parallel and foreshadow the events of his own story.

We only get a glimpse of the fictional novels main cast, and an equally as short summary of it’s plot. Using what information I have, the short film/trailer will capture the same overwhelming theme of tragedy the source material exuded. Evoking strong, negative, emotions will be my main goal as I hope to replicate the misery Ishida is famous for.

Approach

• Camera
• Tripod
• SD card
• Green screen
• Studio
• Bloody outfits
• Fake blood
• Prop knife
• 3D models (collab)
• Simulations (collab)
• Male actor (Son)
• Female actor (Mother)

Optional

• Matte painting (?)
• Victim(s)(?)
• Score (collab or download)

Storyboards & narrative

(Insert)

Keywords

• Unsettling
• Uncanny
• Sinister
• Victim
• Murderer
• Killer
• Monster
• Anxiety
• Tense
• Buildup
• Violin
• Whispers
• Overwhelming

References

Media

• Tokyo Ghoul
• Blood on the Tracks

Mood

Proposal 1

My first proposal is to create either a short interaction or teaser for a western styled film. The inspiration for this idea comes from a manga I had read over the summer about a horse race with a very flamboyant and colourful aesthetic, something I’d like to replicate with visual effects.

Proposal 2

My second concept was to create an advertisement for the fashion artbook I purchased over the summer. I plan to match each of the featured creators art style, replicating and bringing to life similar outfits through a shoot with models and post production effects. Here are some of the examples I was able to download.

Proposal 3

The final project I have considered was proposed to me by other students on the 3D and Game Arts pathways. This project will either be a trailer or cutscene for a video game, merging the gothic and cyber aesthetics in a similar way steampunk merged two genres.

“https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPT9REeI=/”