Possible script for my project, with the aim of making a full animation of the minor and major project. Set in 50/60 years time, following a story of an old man depicting his childhood and how society fell apart due peoples addiction to mobile phones.
Using simplified characters, with a focus on the narrative and animation rather than complex character designs.
After fully writing out my idea in full I realized it will most likely be too complex to make and will need simplifying down, but this is the script of how I originally imagined it.
INT.BOY's
bedroom
A MAN in his
70's is sitting in an Arm Chair with an open kid’s book in his hand. Sat next
to a bed where his Grandson aged 6 is laying.
The
VOICEOVER of the man can be heard finishing up reading the book to the BOY
Man
'Mumbling
finishing up story'. The End.
The MAN
closes the book and puts it on the unit next to the bed on top of an old smart
phone, not noticing it. Leaning over and tucking the boy in.
Man
Good
night.
The MAN
turns around and goes to leave, picking up the book as he goes. Now noticing
his old smart phone underneath it. Stopping in his tracks and looking
intrigued. Picking it up and look at it closely while squinting and backing
slowly into the same chair and sitting back down.
MAN
Well,
this is something I haven't seen in a long time, where did you find this? I
thought they'd all gone?
The BOY
shrugs, innocently looking up at the Man.
The MAN
still looking at the phone in his hands.
MAN
This
probably seems really primitive to you now, I bet you don't even know how to
use one.
The MAN now
looking at the BOY and gesturing towards him with one hand, the other holding
the smart phone in his lap.
MAN
Ah these
were all the rage when I was your age!
The MAN
leans back in the chair and looks up beginning to reminisce about when he was
young.
EXT. STREET
FADE IN
showing a rose-tinted memory of a boy aged 8, the MAN (YOUNG), playing in the
empty street outside of his house.
VOICE OVER
of the MAN talking happily about when he was young.
MAN
Ah, they
was simpler times. Oh, I remember when one of my friends first got one.
The MAN
(YOUNG) looks up as a GIRL of the same age enters the scene coming down the
road towards him waving.
GIRL
HEY!
The MAN
(YOUNG) stands up and starts slowly walking towards her.
GIRL
HEY! Look
what I've just got! Look at all this cool stuff it can do!
GIRL pulls
out her new smart phone and pulls the MAN (YOUNG) closer and takes a photo of
the two of them.
The MAN (YOUNG)
appears startled, but smiling.
Girl
Look at
this App! And this App! This is such a cool Game! Ha. Look at this Cat!
FADE OUT
DURING DIALOGUE
EXT. STREET
- NIGHT
The MAN
(YOUNG) is walking down the same street and the GIRL is walking towards him
looking down at her phone, her face is lit up by the glow.
MAN
(YOUNG)
HEY!
GIRL
Urh.
MAN
(YOUNG)
Hey?
GIRL walks
past him not looking up, pulls him in and takes a selfie together and carried
on walking.
MAN (YOUNG)
turns around looking at her confused. Looking around he notices other people
acting the same.
INT.BOY'S
BEDROOM
MAN still
mumbling, looking lost in his thoughts. Starting to look confused as he realizes his memories are different to how he first thought.
BOY looks at
him intently waiting to see what he says next.
MAN
People,
seemed to lose touch with the real world and who they was. I guess that's when
everyone started to act strange.
EXT. TOWN -
NIGHT
Showing busy
town center, the MAN (YOUNG) is caught up in a crowd of people busy looking at
their phone screens, shoving and pushing him as he tries to get away from them.
MAN (YOUNG)
looks up and sees a big advertisement poster for a new phone. Looks back down
seeing a queue of people including the GIRL waiting for a new phone outside of
an elevated temple-like-building.
MAN (YOUNG)
empties his pockets and looks at his old damaged phone, looks back up and
advertisement poster has changed to a newer model phone.
Sequence of
repetitive images indicating constant stream of new phones as soon as a new one
is released. Tempo speeding up during sequence, while music volume increases.
INT. KID's
Bedroom
MAN leans
forward towards BOY who is now starting to seem scared by the story being told
but leans further in.
MAN
(Whispers)
An entire
generation. They lost touch with reality and didn't notice what they was doing.
Their vanity took over, all they cared about what getting the newest one and
being able to take better pictures of themselves.
EXT. Town -
NIGHT
Burnt out
town, people stumbling around in a zombie like state. Taking photos of
themselves in weird places.
MAN (YOUNG)
looking lost as a camera swirls around him showing the destruction.
VOICEOVER of
the MAN can be heard.
MAN
Those
phones brought nothing but misery in the end. I can still remember it just as
clearly now.
A figure
appears entering the scene through distant haze.
The MAN
(YOUNG) squints to see who it is.
The figure
picks up pace coming out of the haze and is revealed as the GIRL.
The MAN
(YOUNG) looks happy to see her but his expression changes to fear when he sees
the look on her face as she runs towards him with her phone reached out in
front of her.
GIRL
Like this
picture of my cat! HA! HA! HA! HE'S SO FUNNY! SO! FUNNY!
The MAN
(YOUNG) turns around and runs away from her, while looking behind him.
INT. KID's
BEDROOM
MAN
They all
became slaves to consumerism. No regards at all to the damage this constant
technological churning was doing.
FADE IN
SEQUENCE
Sequence
depicting destruction and damage to cities and the earth, showing the factories
churning out phones and emission and the earth slowing being destroyed.
VOICEOVER of
the man continues during this sequence.
MAN
There was
just no end to production. All they saw was money. Everyone turned away from
the damage all this was doing. Trapped in an eternal cycle of new technology,
more waste, more technology, new dumping grounds, more environmental damage,
new technology, more waste, endless cycles of polluting the earth. Everyone
thought it would solve itself and it would never get as bad as it did. We never
stood a chance.
INT. KID'S
BEDROOM
Man puts
phone back on the table and gets up.
MAN
(Looking
at BOY)
Well I
think its way past your bedtime now.
MAN looks
back down at the phone
MAN
Does this
still have Angry Birds?
MAN leaves
scene, turning off light.
Notification
goes off and boy hides under the covers.
Hey Tom,
ReplyDeleteGreat to see this up and started, and it certainly has a chilling effect - and the last 'Angry Birds' line is nicely done. My first impression is that you don't need the old man to 'explain' everything so explicitly, as the visual currency of your film could and should be accomplishing a lot of this blank-filling/exposition for you. We'll talk in more detail on Monday, but before then, could you push out some digital paintings/character stuff/influence maps etc. so as to put some flesh around the bones - i.e. simplicity of character design. I'm keen too to understand what the world of your present looks like - so the action takes place in a world that has been altered by the events that unfold in the film - does this mean we're in a 'new old' world of no-tech? I'd like to get a better sense of the consequence of the story you're telling and how that might be communicated through the muse-en-scene.
Also - if phones etc. had brought down the world, I think it unlikely that there'd just be one of these offending objects just in the boy's room. Perhaps it's more likely that the old man finds the boy playing with it in the attic - and is shocked to see that - in the same way perhaps that an old war veteran might be horrified to find his grandson playing with an old gun/bullet/grenade. Logically, phones would be considered dangerous objects of a less civilised time, so they wouldn't just be hanging around... anyway, something to think about.