Presentation Notes: Final Project Idea

Genre: Action Comedy

Logline: With a gust of wind, the future of one businessman's career depends entirely on assembling his missing documents.

Synopsis: Each weekday morning sees a rush of businessmen and women on the city streets. All of them have important calls to make, important deals to close, and important documents to turn in. These actions insure the longevity of their careers. Straying from this work ethic, even accidently, could mean being fired.

Unfortunately, accidents happen. On one such day, one worker's briefcase opens up and all of his papers are blown throughout the city as he eats breakfast on-the-go. Having only an hour before work, he scrambles to acquire all of his papers, and make it to work on time, or he will be fired.

In the animation, the worker searches high and low for his gear. There is a heightened sense of urgency in his actions, and he moves with a lot more life after his papers are blown away. The current list of locations for him to search include:

• bridge
• city park
• busy street (poplar ave. busy)
• tree
• powerline
• rooftop
• nearly endless corporate parking lot
• outdoor cafe

He moves in between each space as he notices his papers (indicated by their light pink color) fly about, getting caught on lines, picked up by people, etc.

I currently have two endings planned for this animation, although I'm not sure which one would be the better ending yet.

In one, he acquires all of his papers, yet in his quest realizes how much of his environment he's missed out on working so hard each day. he faxes his papers and takes a sick day to enjoy the sun.

In the other, he makes a mad dash for his cubicle, trying really hard to reach his desk before he is late, only to turn in his papers with one missing. He notices it at the last second, and pads his work with a blank form from his desk. His breathes a sigh of relief as his boss leaves his cubicle.
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All semester, i've been basing my thematic concern strictly on the lessons taught by shadow puppet plays around the world. There is a whole sub genre of shadow plays that are geared strictly towards action and entertainment. I wanted to use this larger format project to work with a story that does not have a moral with a higher focus on action elements to tell the story.

The aesthetic I want to use will be the same as it always has been, however, i really want to push the detail in these environments and create a fully realized world. The pictures below, while not mine, show the level of detail and clarity i want to achieve in my final project.









Here is my current idea for the main character. Any other workers will not be too far off from him. I may give the others different tie patterns and head shapes to convey different personalities.

front and side view

color keys for animation.

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As a final note, I want to employ more 2d flash animation into my final, and use after effects to composite different character interactions.