Entry #1

(The) Pearl of wisdom.

The pearl of wisdom...

Where did this idea come from?

The idea for the pearl of wisdom started off with a conversation; one day I was having dinner with a friend and I was talking about the industry, they commented on how I had wise words to say.

I then thought and said "what!? Am I some sort of pearl that walks around whispering wise words, 'pearls of wisdom'."

Ever since that I have been drawing comics of this pearl character and I cannot stop I am deeply fascinated with drawing them.

I therefore decided that for my major this year I am going to go with the 'Pearl of wisdom' and create a story...

I did think about this story over the holidays but needs more climax and beats.

It is somewhat a rites of passage tale.

Definition of a rites of passage tale;

All movies are about change, so they say that rites of passage stories document a change is missing the point.

These are tales of pain and torment, but usually from a outside force; Life.

Sure it's about the choices we've made, but the 'monster' attacking us is often unseen, vague, or one which can't get a handle on simply because we can not name it.

Stories consisting of puberty, mid-life crisis, old age, romantic break-up, and grieving stories, like those getting over the death of a loved one.

They all have the same thing in common: In a good Rites of passage tale, everybody's in on "the joke" except the person who's going through it - the story's hero. And only the experience can offer a solution.

Whether the take is comedic or dramatic, the monster sneaks up on the beleaguered hero and the story is that hero's slow realization of who and what the monster is. In the end, these tales are about surrendering, the victory won by giving up forces stronger than ourselves. The end point is acceptance of our humanity and the moral of the story is always the same; That's Life!

 

Although over the holidays I did come up with another story I named it 'Show me that you love me' this story consisted of a young girl who misses her friend who went over seas, the reason why I didn't end up going with this is because when it came to writing the script the story was flat it had no beats, no exciting incident it was just a little girl who misses her friend I couldn't think of what she could do and basically I couldn't come up with anything that had a meaning to it and that would grip people (the audience) to emotionally feel for this lonely sad little girl who misses her friend.

I guess I was aiming for a short that at the end of it you felt warm and happy for this girl, a nice heart warming short.
With me not knowing how to portray such a story with the time limit I have this story will remain in my creative journal until one day (or night) I have a epiphany about it jumping with joy saying ‘That’s it! I’ve got it!’ until then pearl of wisdom it is…. Although I feel the need to share some other reasons why I wanted to create ‘show me that you love me’;

First off some inspiration of this story came from experience, I had a friend when I was younger that moved to Italy for two years.

Secondly I had seen the animation short 'The Grufalo' and was amazed and I got thinking... Last year I did a stop motion animation... I quite enjoy making sets, props literally making things with my hands and thought I would love to still do that.

Thirdly; In the Grufalo the characters are 3D... yet look remarkable like plasticine.. This got me thinking... I haven't done much 3D... or composting this lead me to wanting to do this so I can improve my skills it would be a challenge and also learn a bit more about lighting a stop motion set correctly and composting the characters in that make them look like they are in the environment created, would be fantastic to tackle and learn and at the end of the day come out with knowing how to do things I have not done before.

Fourthly; it would be a stylized piece I think it would get attention visually because it's not all that common to see a stop motion set with 3D characters.
Fifthly; I had a concept for the set; a house a tree, mail box and visually thought showing off that I made these things would be good, because I wanted to show what I am capable of making... as embarrassing it is to mention this... but I do often dream of how it would be lovely to work for Aardman making props, sets etc.
Although I did get my hands of a Doll house my brother and partner where going to give this doll house away but didn’t end up doing so and they remember how I was going to make a house for my story so they were kind enough to give me this doll house which I did begin to do up (used balsa wood to make the weather board look);

But at the end of the day I am going to go with the stronger story, what I’m driven to do and skills I would like to gain can still be achieved.
Plus it’s a win win situation I can still do 3D, the character for 'show me that you love me' (the little girl) can be done in the production class.
As for the sets and props things I like making can be a hobby.

Pearl of wisdom is the chosen one.