Tutorial

 

I put together another, more thorough presentation with my new ideas to show to Mary.

I still haven't fully mapped out the whole of my narrative, however the main plot will be about a girl who is living in a post-apocalypse Paris. During the story she has flashbacks to the event in which she lost her family. 

I was originally inspired by a technical experimentation I did of a setting in Paris (see post: Aesthetic experimentation 2). In general I think Paris is a visually pleasing location due to its architecture and has so much interesting culture and history. It has also been the backdrop for many animated movies such as Ratatouille (2007), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and Rugrats in Paris (2000).

I did some research into the state of Paris at the moment, following the various terror attacks that have happened. Especially since the terror attacks in 2015, Paris has a high increase in security.

A friend of mine who is doing a year abroad in Paris said that the security is now much higher than when we visited last year. This in effect makes you feel quite uncomfortable and fearful, in a way that reduces the charm that Paris usually has.

I also read an article about how "the streets are emptier than usual" creating an eerie atmosphere "like you're in an episode of The Walking Dead".

"The now permanent presence of thousands of soldiers in khaki across the capital and major cities has transformed the image and mood of France." 

It seems as though Paris is already in a semi-militant state and for my project I would consider portraying a hyperbolic representation of this.

References:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/15/paris-attacks-operation-sentinelle-soldiers-patrolling-streets-france-safer

http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-08-22/year-attacks-leave-paris-streets-emptier-usual

I conducted further research into the genre as I wasn't sure whether my idea counted as post-apocalypse or dystopia. It is possible for the genres to be used together, for example in The Hunger Games. However the genres do have distinct features. At present I believe my narrative will lean more towards post-apocalypse, as it will be to do with survival in a barren city, whereas dystopias tend to focus on corruption and fighting against the state.

At the moment I have come up with two main characters for my story. The first will be a female in her early twenties and the second character will be her younger sister. I will develop their characters more once I have considered the outline of my narrative.

In terms of sound, I would like to use little dialogue. This seems to be a trope used in many short film animations such as Somewhere Down the Line where there are only a few lines of dialogue, or The Sandman where there is no dialogue at all. The downside to using minimal dialogue is that it will require a more effective use of soundscape and score, which I am not talented at creating myself. I may need to enlist some help in creating sound for my project. I do still think it will be exciting to look into sound design in films such as Fantasia since they also don't use much dialogue.

Finally I outlined the questions I asked myself about the project about the doubts I had. I asked Mary her opinion to see how well my ideas would work. In terms of using the post-apocalypse genre, I thought it might be too big and too complex for a short film. However there are short films that already exist in the genre such as 9 (2005). Mary said that it is fine to use this genre as long as I'm specific and think about the structure clearly. I'm also quite happy to explore the genre as I think it would give me more creative freedom than doing something factual based.

I worried that basing my idea on the 2015 Paris attacks might be too current and too sensitive for audiences, however Mary argued that this is fine.

I thought that the narrative structure I'd like to use may be confusing for the audience or hard to explain. Yet, it has been done before, for example in the film Love (2015); even I Am Legend (2007) includes flashbacks. Mary reassured my that any narrative structure is okay to use as long as it is planned out carefully.

Further feedback

Suggested viewing:

• 28 Days Later
• Le Jete
• Children of Men
• Blade

Look into:

• Apocalypse narratives
• Religion
• Redemption
• Zombies and superheros
• Vampires and race

Experiment with:

•  Backgrounds and texture