Cucalorous

This year was my first year ever attending Cucalorous and I have to say, I really regret not going when I first heard about it last year. I volunteered this year as a ticket box assistant and it was a great experience. Unfortunately, because of the shifts I was given to volunteer, I was unable to go to the animation block or many of the other blocks I was interested in seeing. I did get to go to the repeat of the Minorca Shorts, however, on Saturday night. One of the main reasons I wanted to attend the “trigger-happy” shorts block was so that I could see Glenn Pack’s film “One Left Turn”.  I really enjoyed it; it was a suspenseful story and the editing and way the film was shot only added to the tension. The other reason I wanted to attend this block was for the short starring Tony Hale, “Trouble and the Shadowy Deathblow”. I entered as a fan of Hale’s, but left TheaterNow with an even greater appreciation for him as an actor. The way this film mixed subtle humor with a dark storyline was right up my alley. I enjoyed the reveal of Hale’s character as a possible psychopath at the end through a montage of flashbacks with his narration layered over.

One film that I didn’t enjoy as much as the rest was “Bloodhounds”. I felt the story was lacking and the quality of acting and dialogue really took me out of the entire film. I know that in the Q&A afterwards, it was mentioned that this film was based off true events, but I felt the story could have used more embellishing to make it a more cohesive and interesting narrative. Short films can only cover so much, but this film seemed to leave a lot of questions at the end (like why the boyfriend approached the niece or why she started crying). The character development was also lacking, as I felt no sympathy or connection to any of the characters by the end of the story.

Because I was unable to attend the animation block (even though it was screened just a few feet from where I was volunteering), I looked up a few of the shorts on Vimeo and Youtube. I loved the shot of just the mother & daughter’s feet in “Where Do Cars Come From?” The mixture of live action and animation was so good, I could hardly tell one from the other. I also loved the creativity of “Crime: The Animated Series”; even though the drawings were so basic and simple, the narration, because it was real people telling their real stories, impacted me in a good way. This short in particular showed me that the visual isn’t always the most important part of a short; sound and creativity go a long way.

Marketing & Distribution Plan

1. Sunscreen Film Festival: This festival is right for my film because it has a specific category for animation. There are awards given out for each category as well, including Best Animation and Best Short. There is also a discounted fee for students which helps my budget.

2. Visions Film Festival: Visions is perfect for my film since it will be a product of a UNCW student and they accept short animations; I plan to have my animation completed right in time for the Earlybird deadline as well.

3. Cucalorous Film Festival: I feel my animation would be a great fit for either the youth or animated shorts block during Cucalorous.

4. Fifteen Minutes of Fame Film Festival: This festival has an animation category and also an award for Best Animation, so I feel my film would be right for it. The festival only gets about 150 submissions and shows about 40-50, according to the website, so my animation could have a better chance at being chosen.

5. Independent Filmmakers Showcase Film Festival: I am obviously an independent filmmaker so this festival would seem right for myself and my film, but there are also categories for student film and short animated film.

6. Reel to Reel International Film Festival: This festival is a regional one that features an animation category. I feel my animation would do well at an international festival; assuming there are non-English speakers there, it could be easily understood by everyone since it relies on facial expressions and sounds rather than dialogue.

7. Riverrun International Film Festival: This free-to-NC-students festival would be right for my film due to it's animation category. As this is also an international film festival, open to everyone around the world, I feel my animation would do well, (as I said in the last festival description) due to the lack of dialogue.



Festival Roll Out Schedule

Festival Budget

Postcard Printing Budget

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Quiescence/616561981822588?sk=timeline


http://vixpanfilms.weebly.com/quiescence.html

                                                                                 

A little bit about the title I am (almost certainly) choosing:

Quiescence: the quality or state of being quiescent.......

Quiescent: being at rest; quiet; still; inactive or motionless

           -- In a state or period of inactivity or dormancy

Story Outline/3-Act/Script

Please bear with me here as I'm still trying to figure out how to change my story for the better!.....

Story Outline: 

The story begins when a huge crash is heard and an unnamed young boy is seen floating in space. The problem is that the boy is searching for something (unknown to the audience) and is getting upset that he can't find it. Suddenly, the next thing that happens is, the boy notices something in the distance headed towards him at lightning speed. He hurries to get out of the way, but his ship is too far off in the distance. He tries floating as fast as he can as the oncoming asteroid shower approaches. He's too late, the asteroids have caught up with the boy and he curls up into a ball to avoid damage as much as possible. It's no use, the speeding comets zip by the boy and cause him to lose grip. Suddenly, a comet collides into the boy and without thinking, he grabs onto it. As the comet flies him past his spaceship, it breaks the cord that was attached to the boy, and he continues to hold on for the ride of his lifetime. As the comet zooms through space, it begins to burn down and lose pieces of itself. Suddenly, the boy no longer has anything to hold onto and is flung from the comet. Then, as he flips and tumbles, trying to regain what little balance he has in space, he notices something sparkle in the distance. He looks around, trying to figure out to get to the area with the sparkle that has now faded. He turns to find the sparkle fading behind him now. He pushes his way towards it and continues to follow its blinking as best as he can. The sparkle begins to stay lit longer and is brighter with each bit closer the boy gets. As the boy gets within arm's reach of the anomaly, it silently explodes, lighting up the entire area. After that, the light disappears and the boy remains, blinking to regain his sight. A shadowed figure appears in front of him and he picks it up, cradling it in his arms. The problem is solved when, the boy hugs the shadowed figure tightly, having found what he was looking for...

*OPTIONAL ENDING: The boy's face is seen, eyes closed, in a bright environment. His eyes pop open and the film ends.

(I feel like I'm getting a little on the experimental side as it's unclear what the boy is doing in space or what he's searching for...but I'm trying to not be forward with it. As we discussed in class, I'm going towards the idea of the boy being in a coma. While he's in the coma, he imagines he is in space,...looking for his body. The sparkle of light represents him getting closer to finding his body so that his mind can rejoin it and he can awake from the coma, hence why I think it might be interesting if he opens his eyes at the end...but then again, that may be a little too cliche, so I'm leaving it as a possibility for now.)

3-Act: 

Act One/Setup:
A young boy is floating through space, looking for something.
Inciting Incident: Asteroid shower sends him running back towards his ship.
Plot Point 1: He gets hit by an asteroid and is ripped from the cord attaching him to the ship.

Act Two/Confrontation:
The boy flies through space, riding on an asteroid as it burns away.
Midpoint: The asteroid deteriorates to near nothing and the boy is flung into nothingness, far from his spaceship or any signs of safety.
Plot Point 2: He flips and tumbles out of control, as he tries to regain his balance, he sees something sparkle in the distance, the thing he was looking for to begin with.

Act Three/Resolution:
The boy tries to make his way towards the sparkle as it circles, eluding him.
Climax: The boy reaches out towards the sparkle and it bursts into a huge light, before fading away, leaving only a shadowed figure behind.
The boy grabs the figure and holds it tightly.
*In a bright environment, the boy lies, eyes closed. Suddenly, his eyes snap open.

Script:

FADE IN

EXT. SPACE

A YOUNG BOY, aged around 7 and wearing a full astronaut's suit, floats while searching for something. He is attached by a cord to a medium-sized spaceship.

As he continues to search, he presses a button on his suit that propels him forward and away from his ship.

Suddenly, the boy sees something sparkle off in the far distance. His eyes light up as if he has found what he was looking for.

The boy stares ahead intently as the smile on his faces begins to slump into a frown. The sparkle in the distance has become a fury of asteroids, all speeding towards the boy and his ship.

The boy turns in a panic and tries to race back to his ship, but his efforts get him nowhere.

He suddenly remembers the button on his suit and presses it with a trembling finger. The suit propels him towards the ship, but it isn't fast enough. An asteroid flashes past the boy, sending him backwards as the comet collides with his ship.

The boy regains control of his self and mashes down on the button of his suit to stop it from propelling him into the storm of asteroids.

The asteroids zoom by the boy as he ducks and grabs a hold of his knees to form into a ball.

He attempts to propel towards the ship again and presses the button, but it only allows the boy to move forward an inch, before dying out completely.

As he mashes down on all the buttons on his suit unsuccessfully, an asteroid collides into him and rips apart his cord that was attached to his ship. With the boy now gripping on for dear life, the asteroid flies him past the spaceship and into the abyss.

As the asteroid and the boy continues to zoom through space, the comet burns, losing pieces of its self.

The boy looks back at the deteriorating comet and attempts to climb it in order to get a better grip on it.

The pieces the boy grabs onto crumble at his touch and the boy loses grip completely.

He is flung away from the comet and sent into a whirlwind of flips and tumbles.

The boy tries to regain balance, despite being weightless, when something in the distances sparkles, catching his eye.

The boy tumbles again as the sparkle fades away, but his eyes are hooked on the spot where the anomaly occurred.

He turns around, searching again.

The sparkle fades in the distance again.

He lunges forward as hard as he can, his eyes still intently looking for the sparkle.

10 feet away, on the left of the boy, the sparkle lights again and fades, this time staying lit longer than before.

The boy pushes his way forward as the sparkle appears again, this time to his right.

The boy is within arm's reach of the sparkle as it lights once more.

He reaches out into the area where the sparkle was, with eyes wide.

The sparkle bursts into a huge, white light that encompasses the entire area.

As the bright light fades out, the boy squints towards it, holding his hand up to the light.

A shadowy figure floats out from the light, lifelessly.

The boy blinks rapidly, trying to regain his vision, and make out what lies in front of him.

His eyes open slowly and then widen as he sees the shadowy figure.

He quickly grabs the figure and holds it up to his self, tightly.

*INT. HOSPITAL ROOM

Bright, white light surrounds the boy as his head lies on a pillow, eyes shut.

His eyes snap open widely.

FADE OUT

**Also, I would like to incorporate the sounds of muffled voices and beeping, etc (coming from the hospital), but I didn't incorporate those sounds into the script. They would just be ongoing sounds throughout the film, with some of the beeping becoming more intense during the more intense scenes. I thought putting that into the script, though, would be confusing to read.**

Treatment & Character Bio

 
Treatment:
     A flash of lighting lights the sky, quickly followed by a menacing crack of thunder as a young boy, wearing torn clothes and a captain's hat, scurries to reach the wheel of his medium-sized ship. The boy grabs hold of the wheel as the high winds of the sea begin to pick up and cause the ship to sway. Rain starts to pour down on the boy while he maneuvers the ship's wheel, attempting to make it to safety. Angry waves begin to crash against the ship and the boy looks straight-ahead with wide eyes. A huge wave appears in the distance and the boy turns the ship's wheel, trying to avoid it. While doing so, the ship gets struck by a wave in the opposite direction. The ship nearly topples over before the boy grabs control of it again. A strike of lightning fills the sky as a wave forms, towering over the boy and his ship. As the boy stares up at it with wide eyes, the wave falls on top of him and the ship, filling the world with blue water.
   
     The boy washes up onto a sandy island, his ship in pieces behind him. As he stands, he struggles to keep his balance as he is now wearing a heavy suit of iron. A low growl is heard and the boy stops struggling, eyes wide with fear. The boy shuffles forward slowly and pulls a sword out from the sand beside him. The ground shakes as something approaches the boy and suddenly a huge three-headed hydra appears. The hydra roars and snaps three sets of teeth at the boy as he grabs a shield from off the ground and approaches the monster. The hydra lunges toward the boy as he holds his shield over his head, ducking as the sound of yelling fills his ears. Green smoke pours from the hydra's mouth and the boy quickly grabs at a iron helmet to cover his face from the poison. As the hydra circles the boy, he musters up the courage to lunge at the monster and grazes it with his sword. The hydra snickers and continues to circle the boy in order to confuse him. The boy stops following the hydra as it circles and, instead, runs up the monster's tail, stabbing it along the way. The hydra shrieks and the boy runs up the back of the monster. The heads of the hydra try to bite at the boy behind them, but fail. The boy takes his sword and slices through each head. As the three necks fall to the ground, so does the boy. He relaxes on the lifeless hydra, trying to catch his breath. The ground begins to shake again and the boy looks around in confusion. Suddenly, six heads pop out from the body of the hydra; the last one sends the little boy flying into the sky.

     The little boy wears a fluffy astronaut's suit as he floats through the darkness of space. He tumbles and somersaults, enjoying the feeling of being free, despite being attached to a cord that connected him back to his spaceship. As he attempts to backflip, a laser zips past his head. The boy turns quickly in the direction of where the laser originated. A flat ship approaches and sends another laser towards the boy's direction. The boy tugs on the cord attached to his back and it flies him back to the sanctuary of his ship. Once inside, the boy begins to peel off his helmet and gloves, speed walking to the control center. He sits at the captain's chair in front of the control center and begins to mash buttons. Enemy lasers still zoom by the ship. A low, muffled voice sounds, but does not phase the boy.  The boy finally fires a laser back at the enemy ship, but it misses. He prepares to fire another laser when he hears a female voice say,"dinner's ready!" He ignores the voice and fires a laser; he grabs onto the ship's wheel and begins to turn it away to avoid another laser when he hears the same female voice, "I made your favorite, Mac & Cheese!"

    The boy sits staring straight ahead, holding onto a wheel that's been attached to a cardboard box in which he sits inside. He is wearing a pair of patterned pajamas and toys scatter the floor, including a plastic sword and a paper pirate hat. The boy stands up and jolts towards the door, causing the cardboard box formation he created to topple over onto the ground.



Character Bios:

Unnamed Young Boy: The only human character in this animation is about 7 years old and has dark brown, unkempt hair. He is an only child and his father left him and his mother a few months before the story takes place. His mother is usually busy working in her office as she works from home and because he doesn't have any siblings, nor any friends at school, he is often left to his own devices and forced to have fun on his own. He loves to create worlds in his mind in which he can escape to and go on adventures. His imagination can often take over, even when he's around other children, so he often gets picked on during recess when the kids see him talking to his self. His favorite food is macaroni and cheese because it reminds him of when his parents used to get along and sing while making it for dinner.
   

Prorendra: A three-headed Lernean hydra who occupies a deserted island. She is towering, green, and easily angered, but she also has a snarky side. She often laughs at her prey as they struggle to outwit her. As the island she lives on is deserted, she often has to resort to eating fish so when a ship wrecks and washes up on her island, she makes sure she is there to greet any survivors. She breathes poisonous gas on command when hunting her prey and she is extremely difficult to kill. Cutting off her necks only leads to more heads producing from her body; they usually double in number each time. She was born with one head many, many years ago.