Sections In Detail

Everyone has a point B.. point B tells you where you're going, where you're headed, and if you're headed in the right direction. Where you stand now is your point A; your origin.. your starting point. But eventually you will look to your point B, with every step headed towards it. This is a story about a person stuck in between point A and B.. while exploring questions of space, time, life, death, history and perspective.

I'm using the bridge to connect the audience with the world in which I'm going to explore. I'm going to try and take these people on an adventure into the city, into the vast countryside, through mountains, above clouds, through deep conversations and perhaps they'll come away with something else on their mind besides the troubles of everyday life.

What I've been doing with the project lately: I've been researching some bridges, and I've found many different angles of bridges and many different kinds of bridges. I think the way I'll draw this is.. Close ups of detailed construction of the bridge, and cut to larger views to show progression.. draw from the viewpoint of on the bridge as it's being built. As the bridge is near to completion, a slow hum of traffic sounds comes up in the audio. Right as the last piece is connected to the mainland, the traffic noise keeps to a strong medium level.

The same process will appy for the city shots. Many different vantage points of buildings being drawn from the ground up... perhaps drawing the metal frame in, and the real building draws in from the bottom. This will look like the construction is chasing itself up to the top. (the same as a sped up video of a skyscraper being built). I'll need to do some practice on this one... perhaps use Flash, we never know. But as the city gets bigger the sounds of people walking and cars honking and loud traffic noise becomes louder and louder.. A large shot of the city continuing to grow as the noise tops to a really friggin loud level... drowning out the musical score. Zoom out to a view of the world.. the city noise will shutter to a slow whisper... enter dialogue. p.s. show views of other bridges, freeways.. from eye level, above, and below views.. wrapping around the city.. buildings rise above it. Night views, window views of many buildings (ie. 50th floor), roof top perspectives, famous skyscrapers from around the world. Resemble the city as the entire world.

The idea of the balloon leaving the city is the escape from the world entirely, to go out and find what the person is looking for. He's looking for something other than this physical world, he's looking for answers for questions he has yet to ask... Mentally he thinks that god must be the only one who has the answers, so he sets out to look for god. Passing every piece of awesome scenery this world has to offer, he still doesn't find what he's looking for. He becomes frustrated, just then a low hum of telephone pole electricity appears in the audio track. He looks outside his balloon to find he's floating close to HUGE power lines. The balloon floats slowly to the hand holding the powerline. (audio track example.. working on living the living would be a good mood for this transition from city to telephone pole.. approx. length as well.) From here the person attaches his balloon to the hand and walks out of the balloon to inspect the humming... as it gets louder the closer he gets to it. Close up of electricity flowing through the powerline... sort of like how a vein pumps blood. (this section starts the scene by scene animation of certain elements) Looks up to see the sideview of a face.. Starts the conversation with a hello... keeps saying hello, starts to question hello. (?) Face finally turns and apologizes.. I'm sorry, I was in the middle of something. How are you doing? - I'm doing alright, I'v been cramped inside this little bubble for a long time now. - What little bubble? - The balloon.. right over th-- (turns to look and the balloon is gone, it has drifted off into the distance..) Oh Shoot! - transition - So what brings you out here? .. enter discusion.

Discussion Thought: Are you God? - (the figure chuckles a bit).. What makes you say that? - I don't know.. just seems like the right setting for an encounter with god scene. - No, I'm not god, my name is mike. - That's so weird, I have 5 close friends named mike. - I'm just kidding.. yes I'm god, but please call me Mike, it sounds better. But i'm not thee god, i'm just the god you made up.

The discussion will keep going and the godlike figure will explain to kevin through visuals that the big picture is what matters. And little things like loosing a balloon, losing anything, losing something that has helped you for so long.. really seems so small compared to the big picture. Confusing.. but discussion in death, parting, solitude.. that sort of thing. But not so cheesy, and with fewer words. Talk about the right way to go back into the world to make a difference.. through actions and with fewer words. man this is sounding like the end of a thundercats episode.

This is the turning point of the movie, in which the person sees the big picture for what it is, and realizes what he needs to do in order to get to his point B... so that he can find point C. Afterall life isn't just about getting to Point B, there's every other letter to find. Takes the powerline (elevator) down through the clouds and the powerline turns into the bridge wire.. character goes back into the city.

Finally this storyline is coming together.

the end

storyboard4
Posted by thebigpicturefilm.

The end of the movie will show the character walking down from the arm of god down the telephone wire... The wire turns into a pathway leading away from the sun, to a bridge. The simple foot bridge turns into the bridge at the beginning, with traffic loading the streets... city sounds come back again, but not as loud. The ending represents leaving his little "fantasy land" and coming back to real life.

the not-official storyline

So the story goes like this. A real life character (myself) sits down to draw an animated movie. The two worlds of real and sketch are mingled in and out, throughout the movie. The drawing portion will go like this. A bridge is drawn connecting life to the untouched landscape. Soon after, a city is built and loud sounds of traffic overcome our main character. After it is too much to bare, the character will be flown away in an air balloon. The next stretch of movie will explore the heights he soars, and the countryside that he sees, crossing mountains, plains, dessert, and water. He comes across a powerline and starts talking to it as if it were god. I should just stop there.. it's confusing. But the main point is that he's going out in search of god, but what he's really searching for is himself... something that he can connect with and learn from, that knows the right things to say. He's been told that god can do that, so he believes the telephone pole to be god. I'll continue more later.

storyboard telling

Posted by thebigpicturefilm.

Out of nowhere I started drawing storyboards for the movie... instead of traditional storyboard boxes, I'm trying to go beyond the bounds of lines and trying to bleed the images all together, yet have their own spaces. Eh.. I'm just making storyboards. This is the overall feel for my movie.. view the other storyboards for further details.

Pre-Production

Gathering this movie together is like finding the perfect pieces of a puzzle to fit together. I'm establishing the marketing side of this project.. with ideas on posters, teasers, trailers, website, and a dvd with cool stuff. We're looking for this project to be big.. so with it comes big ambitions.

As of late, I've been trying to solidify the storyline, so that when we get to shooting the video, it'll be a quick process.. very planned out. So far there are four major parts/scenes.. which just wreaks of a great plot.

Andy measured my closet so that he can set up a camera mount for the animation footage. We're designating my closet as the main work area for the animation footage.. so I have to move all my stuff into my room.... pleasant. So all that is left for now at this stage in the game.. is wait for the rig to be setup, finalize a basic storyline, and get shooting.

The Conversation

So I'm working on the conversation between the character and god.. I think I've come to a grand conclusion. God explains that he's not the only god, and asks the main character to look around. Scene changes to a large view behind character, of the entire landscape.. with a bunch of telephone poles/god figures. Further explains that each god has it's own purpose.. to connect each one of us, and to provide energy and communication. Perhaps a drawing of the sun behind it. The character gets it without a question, and the rest of the story flows from there.

The Big Bridge

bridge_18x24
Posted by thebigpicturefilm.

This is how the idea for the movie started. A bridge which connects an unknown land to a land that is raw and untouched. The land becomes overpopulated, and our main character eventually leaves in a hot air balloon. This will get drawn again when we shoot for the video, but here is the preliminary sketch.

Ze Birthday Boy

Hello, it is currently 1:45am on January 4th.. yes.. it's my birthday, and with it comes some interesting finds.

Ideas: Movie needs commentary, subtle and light.. behind the animation. With each movement in the animation, the commentary explains why shapes are being placed where they are, and what the interaction between the animations will be. Very hard to explain in words.. but it'll be like I'm explaining the animations, and how and what they all mean. It'll be put in lay man's terms, I promise. That means mom and dad will be able to understand it, and perhaps even end up liking it. I'm secretly making this movie for my parents.. or at least with them in mind. They are my targeted audience if you will. The rest of the audience is just a lucky bystander..

Ideas: Create long shot of entire animation.. must be drawn from left-bottom-corner to the right.. and left-top-corner to the right. So that animations can be added behind, and after, the hands. This will be useful when putting more than one hand in the frame.. We can start the bottom corner to the right.... and then the second hand can be used at the same pace.... but it'll be behind the first hand animation.. man that is confusing.. but i think it makes total sense.

Ideas: Instead of the city angle I'm using right now.. Go for more of a flat shot looking straight on, but the buildings warp outside and bend and expand from a focal point. And the subway will come straight through the bottom of the city... easier to animate.. As blossom's brother Joey always used to say.. Whoa.... The skyline behind the city will be a scene by scene animation. Of clouds moving and the sun setting.. but not really vibrant.. just a simple sphere passing between lines.. creating a broad shadow. And then the night time comes from one single dot that continues to grow.. (use scene by scene animation for this as well)

Next to do: I need to create a timeline with all the points of production that I need to exist. Create tight deadlines and go for an early film release. But keep it simple or you're going to hell.

Anyway, so you're probably wondering what the hell just happened.. so am i.

p.s. don't kill anybody

The End

Here's how the movie is going to be setup. A person comes home from work.. gets creative and starts to draw.. the view is then cut to video animation. The bridge scene will happen.. and then take a break. person goes to bathroom or something.. comes back to balloon scene leaving city.. Finds the god figure.. has intense conversation with g. o. double d. Talks about needing to cover a lot of ground... discussion of the big picture.. then flies down the powerline chords into a baptism of colored water. Walks up to beach.. waiting there are a large set up stairs.... Person looks back to god and fares thee well... The person walking is the same size as the stairs at first.. and then.. enlarge view of walking up stairs normal.. with background fading away.. Scenes are being colored in as he's leaving... .. .. ... .. awesome.

Air Balloon

I've been drawing some pre-sketches for the project.. and today I've drawn out two very significant pieces to the storyline. I've developed a nifty air balloon used for travel out of the city... and i've also drawn the 'god' figure, powerline.. sort of thing. Starting to realize that my thoughts for this project might be larger than what I can physically get done in the time allowed. Anyway, the pre-sketches are looking great so far.. Next up is testing a camera rig for use in the animations.