A Week... Not Wasted *UPDATE*

It seems like a waste to delete any post I actually thought about a decent amount, hence this UPDATE. I found out today that the deadline for this project is 28/10/10, not the 25th - which is good enough to convince me to revert back to my other idea, with some possible cuts from the action. Why? Although the new 'President of the World' idea was ok, on the storyboard there was nowhere near the amount of freedom in animation that there is with the original idea.

Bender on Anti Piracy

Just happened to stumble across this, and it seems relevant to the current project. I would use this to brainstorm an awesome idea from, however I already have one :(

A Week... Not Wasted

So after a week of developing idea's for the Piracy Project, picking one and storyboarding it as well as recording sound, the weekend gave me a chance to take a step back and look at exactly how much I planned to achieve with the idea, and the time I would need to allocate. When I drew up the storyboard I knew it would have to be refined straight away, however for me to have the time to complete it to a level I think is acceptable, it would need to be trimmed down a fair amount which might make the narrative unclear, and that's never good.

Luckily I do have another idea with a similar message that I would like to take to the storyboard:

President of the World

The President is standing at a podium, the scene fades in from black (a muffled crowd noise also dying down), like at a press conference. The president then steps down from the podium and walks across through a door and sits at a desk with a computer. The camera pans with him. The screen switches to the view of the character, he downloads a song and clicks play. The camera then goes back to the default profile shot, the President turns to it and exclaims "Whaaaaaat?? Everybody's doing it."

The message portrayed is that 'Everybody IS doing it", even people that, in their profession, speak against it. I could exagerrate how hypocritical these figures are by instead of having a fictional 'President of the World' the character could be a spokesperson for the RIAA.

I could go even further with this and at the start of the scene have the character (if sticking with the RIAA spokesperson) finishing off a speech on just how bad Digital Piracy is, but really going over the top - after all it is them that tagged the act as piracy.

Simulated Client Project: Storyboard (Animatic)

This is a very rough draft of how I want the action and sound to fit together. I have noticed a few things I would like to change already. This is literally a quick mock up, the sound will be much tidier with the animated content.

Simulated Client Project: Proposal (II)

So here's my plan of action for my proposal:

Dialogue

(Narrator):

“(1)This is Moom, is one of the most terrifying pirates ever to have walked the earth. (2)He is infamous for looting. (3)Kidnapping. (4)And of course, murder. (5)But what happens when we take him out of his natural environment and put him into the modern age? (6)It seems Moom doesn't agree that digital piracy is worthy of it's title. (8A)And if anyone should know, it's him.”

(Moom):

“(7)That ain't piracy! (8B)That. Ain't. Piracy!”

Action

(1): Moom is sitting on a crate, he slowly gets up and stretches out into a 't' shape then snaps back into an idle position, he looks tired and slowly comes out of a yawn. Jack appears on the right of the screen beginning his walk across; Mooms eyes dart to his position immediately and he is suddenly very awake and aware.

(2): As Jack walks past, Moom snatches the money sack off of his belt. He turns it upside down to empty it, only to reveal it has nothing inside and is initially wide jawed with excitement at what he will find. In a delayed reaction, he pouts in frustration and his shoulders raise (like in a sulk). Jack notices that his bag has been taken and pivots (from the waist) to face Moom, he flings out his hands as if to question what he is doing. As he turns, Mooms eyes dart back at him.

(3): Moom, still holding onto the bag, flings it over Jacks head but must step forward with his left foot to do so. As it goes over his head jack begins to flail his limbs and Moom steps back (left foot) and takes Jack into a headlock position trying to steady him. He withdraws his dagger from his belt and plants it into Jacks head.

(4): Moom releases Jack but pushes him forward as he does so. Jack melodramatically throws his arms and legs about, seems to regain balance just in front of the camera and then 'full on stacks it', shaking the camera when he hits the ground. Meanwhile Moom brushes off his hands and stands in a triumphant stance.

(5): A desk with a computer on it literally throws itself into shot to the left of Moom. He half cowers and half withdraws his sword, then hesitantly puts it back, looks around then leans over to the computer to start interacting with it.

[Computer Screen] The mouse moves over to a download link, it is clicked and a

save box comes up. Save is clicked, there is a slight delay and then the file opens.

Play is clicked.

(6): Moom leans back away from the computer and shakes his head in disbelief, frowning. Then suddenly with explosive energy he kicks the computer off of the desk, spins to face the camera and withdraws his sword.

(7): Holding his arms out and looking upright he exclaims “That ain't piracy!”.

(8): Moom pivots (at the waist) and swings back round having pulled out a bottle of rum. He begins to drink in a downing fashion, stops to exclaim again, then continues to drink.